Tommy
My mind is in overdrive as I glance around the party and don’t see Didi.
My palms sweat as I politely excuse myself from the chick I’m talking to and frantically glance around for Didi.
I’ve kept my distance, though I’ve been trying to keep tabs on her all night.
I glance at Remy, who is talking to a few people.
Our plan is to stay visible, just part of the crowd. Nothing suspicious about us.
Remy and I make eye contact, and he turns his head to find Didi missing, too.
I walk over to him and pull him away from the people he’s talking to and over toward the dark trees where we can have some privacy. As soon as we are out of earshot, I ask him, “Where the hell is she?”
I glance around the party, through the clusters of people standing around the fire. “Where is Talia, anyway?”
Remy darts his gaze to the trees, just where the firelight captures the darkness. I can tell from the preppy shirt that she’s with Stephen, or should I say, her lips are locked with Stephen’s. I hardly care. If she wants to waste her time with that piece of shit, then she can go ahead.
“What the hell is she doing with him?” I ask.
Remy crosses his arms and arches his brow. He clearly knows something. He always knows what’s going on before I do.
“What is it?”
“Tommy, this isn’t black and white. You might not care about money, but that was our legacy. Talia is doing what she must to get it back. I need to stay out of her way, even if I want to punch his face out, too. You think I haven’t seen the state she’s in when she comes from being with him?”
I’m done with her. I’m done with everything. If we survive tonight, I’m going to find a way out of this town. I swallow the glass in my throat. “Something’s not right, Remy.”
“Nothing has been right since the day I was born, but here we are.”
I sneer at him. “It’s not a joke. Talia’s lost her goddamn mind. We should just go to the police. Someone can help us get out of this. We haven’t done anything too terrible yet, but if we allow Didi to do this, then we are as good as guilty.”
He grabs both my shoulders, and his words come out cutting.
“Don’t you dare. They will kill you if you do that.
I will kill you myself if you betray us.
I don’t like this any more than you do, but this is our life.
This is what we were born into, and we took that oath.
Didi just took that blood oath. Talia hasn’t lost her mind; they stole it from her when they buried her alive.
They started this war years ago, and now we are finishing it. ”
I push his arm away and pull the mask I have hidden beneath my clothes, placing it on.
Remy lets out a deep sigh. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Going for a walk in the woods to check on our girl. Wanna come?”
He hesitates, then snatches his mask and puts it on.
“You’re such a bastard,” he mutters. Suddenly, ear-splitting screams erupt through the forest. They’re so agonizing, the devil himself can probably hear it in hell.
I turn my head, but no one else seems to have heard from the roar of the fire masking them.
Remy and I make eye contact, and we bolt through the trees toward the sound of the screaming. As we get closer, we hear more screams…more agony.
He pushes ahead of me and we race, tripping over each other until he comes to a screeching halt.
The silence that follows is harrowing. The kind of silence that feels like death itself. By the time we make it to a small clearing, what’s left is a sight that brightens my heart.
Didi is still alive, on her knees, with her head drawn down. Blood is everywhere, and she is holding her right eye.
There are three figures lying on the ground in the clearing. Two masked figures stand over her—one carrying a torch. My stomach knots when I see the bloody knife he’s holding.
They turn and face us as we approach, but they don’t flinch as we step toward them. Hidden as we are, they don’t realize we aren’t one of them.
I’m not angry. The scene before me ignites a far more intense emotion.
“What’s going on?” I ask as casually as I can.
“She…she killed them. She killed Cindy, Henry, and Benjamin.”
“How?” I ask carefully.
Didi’s porcelain face is covered in blood, and she’s in shock, but she lifts her head, and that’s when I see the blisters on her right eye. She’s not moving, and I realize it’s not her blood splattered all over her face, but everyone else’s.
She slaughtered them.
“We have to kill her.” I recognize the voice as someone who goes to our school.
He’s two years ahead of me, the same age as Talia.
Moving with deadly stealth, I approach them and crack my knuckles.
Reaching into my shirt, I grab my knife.
There’s no way I was coming here tonight unarmed.
When you dance with death, you never know when death wants to play, so you must always be ready for it.
I pull off my mask, and Remy does the same. Four of them, two of us…three are already dead. And our instructions were clear…anyone Didi was able to draw out needs to die.
The one holding the knife waves his hand, and he pulls off his mask. He stumbles back when he recognizes me. “Look, Tommy…we have to kill her. She’s messing up this town. She just killed three people.”
“This town is already messed up,” I growl.
“Please…” he begs. “We don’t care about all of this.”
“Funny, because if I hadn’t shown up, you would have killed my girl.”
It’s them or us.
Running on pure adrenaline, I slide my blade through his neck. He’s dead before his body hits the ground. Remy jolts forward and grabs a second one around his neck and does the same, blood spewing out of his mouth.
The other two try to run, but Remy chases them and grabs them before they can get away.
I can hear them struggling. Remy guts them before they can scream for help, tossing the torches to the ground right before they die.
I don’t know what happens next; I can’t focus.
Panic bubbles up into my throat at the realization that I just killed someone, and Remy just killed three people in a matter of seconds.
My entire existence turns fuzzy, then razor-sharp when I realize Didi still hasn’t moved.
Remy walks back from the darkness, blood all over his face and hands, barely recognizable. He grabs Didi and pulls her into his arms. I’m still standing frozen in place, blood dripping from my knife and hands.
“Tommy, man. Pull yourself together. We have to move.”
Suddenly a twig snaps in the bushes, followed by a gasp, and we twist our heads to see Didi’s friend Tina hiding in the bushes. We both freeze.
No witnesses.
“Please don’t kill me,” she whispers, covering her face. “I…I have no idea what’s going on.”
Remy places a trembling Didi in my arms, then circles Tina like a hawk. “What did you see here tonight?”
She stares up at him in confusion. “What?”
“What happened here, Tina?”
She chokes on her words, and it dawns on her what Remy is saying. “Nothing…I saw and heard nothing.”
Remy reaches down and helps her to her feet, a juxtaposition from the vicious murder he just committed.
“You saw nothing, because you weren’t here.
Do you understand?” She nods carefully and wraps her arms around herself.
“Now get out of here before anyone sees this. If you tell anyone it was us, I will hunt you down and kill you.”
She scrambles into the forest, leaving Remy and me alone with the bodies and Didi, who still hasn’t moved.
He picks up one of the burning torches, stomping on the fire that’s taken hold on some dead leaves.
“You left a witness…” I remind him. “Talia said no witnesses.”
His eyes flicker up at me. “Someone will eventually need to tell the story. That’s what Talia ultimately wants.”
Didi stirs in my arms, and she finally makes eye contact with me, a flash of recognition over her lifeless face. I barely recognize her…blood splattered everywhere. Like the first slaps of paint on a white canvas.
“Tommy,” she whispers with tears in her white eyes. “They were going to kill me.”
I wrap my arms around her. “I know, firefly…I know. I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”
Fucking hell. She’s shaking.
I wipe the blood from her and realize I am soaked in it from the seven people we just slaughtered. An entire generation, a false bloodline.
“We need to get away from here, firefly, before anyone sees us. Okay?”
“And where do you think you’re going?” Talia’s voice cuts through the night, and I turn to face her.
“Holy hell, man,” Bax drawls, and a third figure, Stephen Garcia, steps up beside them. “Bax, I need you to stand back and keep watch,” Talia says, and he retreats into the shadows, listening to her order like a good soldier.
Remy takes Didi from my arms because all I see is red. “Motherfucker.” I lunge at him, but Talia jumps in my way.
“Tommy, enough,” Talia snaps. “He’s on our side.”
I’m so mad, I’m shaking. “Bullshit… That’s bullshit, Talia, and you know it. He’s not on our goddamn side.”
Stephen stands there with a cocky ass smirk on his face.
I crack my neck as adrenaline rushes through me. “You keep looking at me like that, and I’ll break your fucking nose.”
He places his arm over Talia’s shoulders. “I don’t like being threatened, Tommy. Plus, we’re family. We have the same bloodline, and you shouldn’t talk to family like that.”
Talia stares at me, looking guilty as sin. I might be the one with blood on my hands, but this was her. This was all her.
She finally makes eye contact with me, but I can’t even look at her. “Tommy, we made a deal with him. He’s not going to say anything, and he’s going to give me back control of the trust.”
Talia doesn’t show a hint of emotion—not one hint of anything toward the people we just killed for her.
And now I’m going to have to live with that for the rest of my life.
She blinks at me, then drags her gaze over to Didi, but I stand in front of Didi and Remy.
I don’t want her looking at Didi ever again.
“Can we carry on this conversation elsewhere?” Remy says with Didi clutched tighter in his arms. Seven bodies lay lifeless and gutted. “I think people are coming.”
The six of us abandon the bodies and run.