Chapter 17 #2
“It doesn’t. Talia, destiny brought you back into my life to reconnect me with my love but now, you’re no longer needed. Me and Jace will be better this time around. And no one will get in our way… not even you.”
Talia’s composure shattered. “Wait! Please don’t do this! Please, Haelyn! I’m begging you!”
Another voice hollered at once.
Do it now!
My hand trembled violently around the gun.
The barrel swayed between us as my heart slammed against my ribs, each beat harder than the last. Sweat gathered beneath my fingers, making the grip feel slick in my palm.
“Stop calling me fuckin’ Haelyn!” I screamed.
Talia flinched.
“That crazy bitch no longer exists! She died in Willowgate, and I left her there where she belonged! So, every time you call me Haelyn, you’re calling me by the name of a dead woman…
and dead people don’t answer! I’m you now!
” I jabbed a trembling finger against my chest. “I’m Talia Pippin!
Yeah… that name belongs to me now! I have your identity and soon everything you’ve ever dreamed of! ”
Fear slowly spread across Talia’s features, starting in her eyes and settling into every trembling inch of her face. She looked at me like I was no longer human.
My chest rose and fell rapidly as I pointed at her.
“You already had your turn to be her! You got to wake up every day with a brain that behaved! You got regular conversations, freedom, privacy, and people looked at you and saw a person! When they looked at me, they saw a problem, a file, a dosage, and something to watch!”
My voice cracked, but the rage kept pouring out.
“They whispered around me like I couldn’t hear them, drugged me until I couldn’t feel my own thoughts, and watched every expression on my face like madness might crawl out through my eyes!”
A laugh slipped from me, thin and broken.
“But look at me now… I fixed it.”
Talia shook her head slowly.
“No! Don’t do that! Don’t look at me like I’m crazy! You left your life unattended, and I picked it up! That’s not stealing; that’s destiny. You don’t get to suddenly reclaim a life that already fits me better! And I’ll be damned if I let you ruin this for me!”
I nodded rapidly, convincing myself more with every word.
“You were Talia before… fine! But get over it! You weren’t doing anything special with her anyway.
No worries… I fully intend to keep her happy!
I’ve already given her a baby, a future, and a purpose!
That name lives in me now! Me and Jace are going to get married, this baby is going to be mine, and I’m going to have the life you were supposed to have! ”
Tears blurred my vision, but I refused to lower the gun.
“Haelyn...” Talia sobbed, then quickly shook her head. “I mean, Talia. I don’t wanna take anything from you. I just… I just wanna live.”
“There,” I chuckled darkly. “You said it. You called me Talia. You finally understand you’re not her anymore…
you’re just the woman standing in the way.
And I wanna live too. But that’s the problem.
You can’t keep living without taking everything from me.
The second you walk out of here my life ends and yours starts again.
And I already told you… you had your turn. ”
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Suddenly, the anger drained out of me so quickly it left me feeling hollow.
“Look,” I whispered, my voice collapsing into something dangerously close to tears. “I really did like you. You were kind to me when nobody else was, and that almost made this harder.”
A broken smile pulled at my lips.
“Then don’t do it!” she urged. “You can still stop!”
The gun lowered slightly before I hastily forced it back up, shaking my head repeatedly.
“No, I can’t! Because if I let you leave, you’ll tell them everything! And then I’ll go back to being Haelyn! I can’t be her again!”
Talia’s cries grew louder.
“I’m sorry… but I can’t let you walk away from this.”
My finger tightened against the trigger.
“Goodbye. I’d say I’ll see you in Heaven, but after the life I’ve lived and the choices I’ve made, I’m pretty sure my reservation is somewhere much hotter.”
Talia squeezed her eyes shut and slowly lowered her head, as if she’d finally accepted that no amount of begging was going to change what came next.
For one horrible second everything went still then… I pulled the trigger.
The sound was deafening in the room. One second Talia was breathing and the next… nothing.
For a long moment, I just stood there, the gun hanging loosely at my side. The basement felt too quiet now.
My tears came slowly at first, then heavily.
I dropped to my knees beside Talia and brushed the hair away from her face with trembling fingers.
Blood slipped from the wound in her forehead, running along her temple and gathering beneath her head in dark streaks that continued spreading across the concrete no matter how hard I stared at them.
My body folded forward as a sob ripped out of me.
“I’m sorry,” I whimpered. “They made me do it.”
The relentless buzzing in my head began to fade.
In its place came a soft, almost sultry chuckle that slithered through my thoughts like a serpent.
Good girl, Haelyn. I’m proud of you.
The voice practically purred with satisfaction.
Another one joined in, lighter and almost playful.
See? That wasn’t so hard. You always make things bigger than they need to be.
Then came a colder one, sharp and impatient.
Stop crying. She would’ve ruined everything. You fixed the problem.
A fourth voice followed, warm and soothing, almost motherly.
Shh. Don’t look at her. Look at your stomach. Think about the baby. Everything you did was for the baby.
I pressed both hands over my ears trying to tune the voices out, but they only grew louder.
She was going to take her life back!
She never cared about you!
She forced your hand!
“Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone!” I yelled, my voice breaking as I rocketed back and forth, my hands pressed tightly against my ears as if I could block out the weight of my thoughts. “I didn’t want to kill her, and y’all know that!”
Haelyn, calm down, a voice responded, lapping at my anxiety like a soothing balm.
You did what you had to do.
“I know,” I said, the words spilling out in a soft, trembling confession. “But she was my… she was my sister.” The final word cracked painfully on my lips, the bitter taste of loss threatening to overwhelm me.
See, this is why we don’t get emotionally involved, another voice replied matter-of-factly.
Feelings make people hesitate, and hesitation gets people caught.
She would’ve ruined it. You had no choice.
“Right. I had no choice,” I murmured, nodding to the empty air as if someone could see my silent agreement.
I wiped my face with the back of my hand. The tears disappeared, and somehow, so did the guilt.
“Well...” I exhaled shakily before forcing a bright smile onto my face. “No use in sitting around being sad. I still have work to do.”
The switch in my tone was instant. Grief was gone and replaced with renewed energy.
“Guess it’s time to redecorate.” I clapped my hands together once. “Jace hates mess, and that girl really left this place a mess.”
I pulled a heavy black bag from the corner and looked around the basement, almost casually, like I was deciding where a piece of furniture belonged.
My eyes dropped to the gorgeous diamond bracelet circling Talia’s wrist. It that looked painfully out of place given her current circumstances.
I crouched beside her and lifted her hand.
“Don’t mind if I do,” I murmured, carefully unclasping it.
“And before you start judging me, this is not stealing; it’s recycling.
Besides, where you’re going, the dress code is probably flames and regrets.
Diamonds would be a little overdressed.” I paused.
“Take that back… you were a good girl, so nine times out of ten, you’ll end up in heavenly paradise.
And up there, you’ll have streets of gold, pearly gates, and a complimentary halo. You won’t even miss this.”
I slipped the bracelet onto my wrist and admired the way it sparkled.
“It looks better on me anyway.”
Afterward, I folded her arms across her chest with a tenderness that felt strange considering what I’d just done.
The voices had finally gone quiet. All that remained was the sound of my breathing and the harsh rip of tape cutting through the silence.
For one brief second, an ounce of remorse returned.
I stared down at Talia’s lifeless face, waiting for my hands to stop moving.
They didn’t.
I continued to work with an unsettling calm, wrapping the body until she slowly disappeared beneath layers of black plastic. Every strip of tape made the truth feel farther away, as though covering her body could somehow bury the part of me responsible for what happened.
When I finished, Talia’s blood was still warm on the floor, a twisted reminder of what I’d done.
Clean it all and make it like she never existed.
With determination, I gathered bleach, gloves, a mop bucket that I had on standby for “emergencies.”
As I tied a disposable mask around my face, a bitter laugh escaped my lips.
“Guess I’m housekeeping now,” I mumbled under my breath, stuffing a cleaning rag into a large black trash bag.
A voice returned, softer that time, a whisper in my mind.
She’s at peace. You just need to finish. No loose ends.
“Yeah. No loose ends,” I replied to the silence, feeling a strange comfort in the words.
I scrubbed and wiped until the area almost resembled what it had been before.
Anything too stained or suspicious had been removed or packed away with the rest of the evidence. The old towels, ruined comforter, and discarded cleaning supplies sat stuffed inside heavy garbage bags near the wall, waiting to disappear alongside Talia.