Chapter 14 #2
“I want to laugh awkwardly and pretend that’s a joke, but you’re being serious?” I can’t tell whether I’m horrified or intrigued. Only one of those is the correct response.
“Deadly.” The smirk permanently tattooed across his face doesn’t move and he pats the dash. “Get her moving, we’re almost there.”
The completely unwarranted trust I have in Tanner makes me obey, albeit with a side-eye in his direction and a pout on my lips. Intrigue is winning over horror, for now.
The building in front of me when we reach our destination is a woodland home dream. A single-story log cabin surrounded by beautiful decking to match, trees all around, and there’s even a covered area where Tanner directs me to park.
Nothing about my outfit and the location would automatically go together, and his vague explanation hasn’t given anything away, either, but this is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done for my birthday and I’m here for it.
I don’t know why, but when Tanner gets out of the car, I wait for him to open my door for me and help me out like a gentleman.
A few minutes pass and instead of feeling all special, I feel like a dickhead.
He’s there, at the bottom of the steps leading up to the front door, watching, waiting for me to follow him.
Flipping down my visor, I pretend I stayed in the car for a reason by applying some lip balm from my center console before getting out.
The trademark smirk is in place and Tanner raises his brows as I approach. I’m thankful for my new ankle boots because the rough terrain would be hazardous on my usual footwear. They’re probably the only thing I’m wearing that have any relevance to where we are.
“Are you going to just stand there and look pretty or are we doing something here?” I fold my arms across my chest when I reach him and lean against the barrier opposite him.
“I’m not pretty, I’m rugged and mean.” He scowls as if to prove his point before turning and unlocking the door. “Come on, birthday girl. You have a gift waiting.”
I’d call him an asshole, but it doesn’t mean what it used to. Now, there is a kind of sentimentality to the word. He’s an asshole, but he’s my asshole.
Okay, so he isn’t mine, and this whole whirlwind of whatever the fuck is happening will, no doubt, come to an end soon enough.
A part of me wishes it wouldn’t, but the educated side of me knows this strange trust I have with Tanner won’t last. It’s tentative, at best, because I can’t forget the hell he contributed to when we were kids.
Metaphorically pulling up my big girl pants, I follow him inside, barely taking anything in as he charges forward and down into a basement.
Maybe that trust is running out sooner than I thought because this is clearly where I die.
That silly girl who followed one of her bullies into a basement in a secluded cabin in the woods…
she happily drove herself there, to her death.
I huff a laugh at where my mind is taking me, a laugh that catches in my throat the moment I see something that both terrifies and excites me. I’m not entirely sure I’m processing anything like a decent human being because the excited side is winning, and it most definitely shouldn’t be.
“What the…?” Words have jumbled in my brain so I let the sentence trail off. Tanner knows what I’m asking.
“Happy birthday, Sweet Bee, you can make it as fast or as slow as you like, but we aren’t leaving here until she’s dead.” Standing in front of me, Tanner blocks my view of Taylor Frey. Head bitch. The bully of bullies from school and college. She was even worse than Tanner, by a whole fuckload.
Tanner’s bullying was hard to take, but compared to the things Taylor did, he was a pussycat.
Thirteen years ago
“Berkleigh, your friends are here, sweetheart,” Mom calls from the open door.
I frown because, for one, I don’t have any friends. Tanner has seen to that. And two, why would anyone be here to see me?
Before I can question it more, my bedroom door bursts open and in barges Taylor Frey and her two main stooges. Mom is behind them, grinning like the cat that got the cream and holding her thumbs up as if this is a good thing.
“Would you like some snacks, girls? I can make some lemonade.”
“No, thank you, Mrs. Brigham, we won’t be here long. We have plans to go to Lucy’s house as soon as Berkleigh is ready.” Taylor smiles sweetly, batting her demonic lashes for good measure, and I want to throw up in my mouth a little.
These girls hate me. They actively seek me out in the cafeteria to accidentally-on-purpose trip and spill their leftovers down my back or in my hair.
“Oh, Berkleigh didn’t mention that she was going out today.” Mom shrugs. “Will you be home for dinner or is it a late one?” She’s trying to be the cool mom, and I love her for it, but I can sense the girls all holding back their snickers.
“Her parents are having a game night with us, so could we have her home in the morning?” That sickly-sweet smile never leaves Taylor’s face. She’s beautiful, but her insides are rotten to the core.
“Ooh, how lovely. Of course. I’ll leave you all to it.” Mom practically skips away, giddy that I have actual friends here…or so she assumes.
“Your mom is just as freaky as you, Berk.” Taylor turns her snide eyes to me, her hands fisted on her hips. “Pack a bag.”
“No.” I’m not afraid of standing up for myself, I just prefer not to because I’m not particularly good at it.
Taylor laughs and the clones beside her join in. “Grab the rabbit.”
It takes too long to process what she just said because clone one, Lucy, has opened the cage for my rabbit and now has him in her perfectly manicured hands.
“Put him back.” The little confidence I have is waning, fast. Bugsy has only just turned one.
“Pack a bag then, Berk.”
Present day
The memories come flooding back, vivid as the sight before me. I tried to push all the bad to the back of my mind, not dwelling on it because it was in the past, but I have never truly gotten over the things she did to me.
I nearly froze to death that night. The girls beat me, knocked me out, stripped me, and tied me to a lamppost like frat boys.
I don’t know who saved me, but in the early hours of the morning, when I thought I was ready to take my last breath, an ambulance showed up.
The dead rabbit at my feet had them questioning my sanity for a while, but it only took a few weeks to get back to good health and go back to school.
It was something my parents put down to teenagers being teenagers and I didn’t tell them otherwise.
That would have ruined their perfect image of their little girl.
Pictures of my ‘blood sacrifice’ circulated the school for months, though, along with fabricated rumors told to make me look crazy.
Nobody seemed to believe that Taylor and her friends could have been responsible.
I mean, how could they have been? They were the most popular girls in school and had the majority of teachers wrapped around their vaginas.
My breaths quicken when Taylor begins to stir, then she seems to remember where she is and the struggle with her chains and gag begins.
“Welcome to part two of your training, Sweet Bee.”