Chapter 29 #3
Elena’s hands are pressed against her stomach, but there’s blood leaking from between her fingers. Too much blood. She’s visibly shaking, and then, suddenly, she drops to her knees, hunching over her front.
“She needs help?” Piper stammers, but she’s directing her comment to Viv, and she’s saying it as if it’s a question.
The shock is wearing off Viv’s face. She looks down at the bloody knife, disgusted, then over at Elena. “How would we explain this?”
“It was an accident,” Piper insists, her face red and streaked with tears. “They’ll understand.”
“No,” Viv says slowly, turning the knife in her hands, staring at it.
Her eyes well up. “They won’t. And Elena won’t cooperate.
You all know that.” She looks at the others, who are frozen around the fallen influencer, some still with knives in their hands.
“We’ll all go to jail, do you understand?
We’ll lose our jobs. We’ll lose our followers.
We’ll lose everything we’ve built from Royal Yachts. ”
“You can’t be serious,” Fiona says. She throws her little knife to the floor, where it clatters angrily. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Do you want to go back to being a coat-check girl? Giving dudes hand jobs so they’ll take you out to dinner and being seconds away from eviction?
” Viv yells at her through tears. “And you two!” She turns to the twins.
“Look at all the partnerships, all the money, you’ve gotten since joining us!
Your mother depends on that. How is she going to pay her medical bills if you two lose your jobs and end up arrested? ”
“Viv, stop it!” Piper cries.
“You pushed her,” Viv turns on Piper. “We all saw it. It was your fault she got hurt! You’ll go down hard.
And not even Daddy will be able to help you.
You’ll finally get his attention, Piper, but not in a good way.
” Her voice softens. “Piper, you know what will happen. You’re going to go to jail, babe. Your life will be over.”
Piper stares at Viv, chest heaving, breath ragged and uneven. “I…I can’t do this.”
“You already did,” Viv says sadly, nodding to Elena, who is starting to make a choking noise.
A bubble of blood pops at the corner of her lips.
“Look at her. We are a family.” Viv sniffs away her tears, straightens.
“We take care of each other. This…this was horrible. None of us planned this. But it happened, and now we have to protect our family. One falls so that the rest of us might live.”
“She. Needs. Help,” Ashley says through gritted teeth.
Viv points at Elena, talking about her like she’s a dumb animal who can’t understand them.
“She’s in pain. See that blood on her mouth?
That means she’s already dying; don’t you get that?
And even if you call for help now, it’ll never arrive in time.
We’re too far out. Elena may have done some bad things, but she’s our sister.
We can’t let her suffer. You have to free her. And free yourself too.”
Fiona, eyes wide, steps back so that she’s standing next to the twins. They’re all giving Elena a wide berth now, watching in horror as she coughs up a handful of blood.
“Piper.” Viv’s voice is as soft as crushed velvet. She beckons the blond girl to her. As if in a trance, Piper navigates around Elena and approaches Viv. “Here,” Viv whispers, pressing the already-stained knife into Piper’s hands. “It’s okay.”
I want to leap through the phone screen and jump in front of Elena.
I don’t know if she comprehends what’s happening around her, but she senses danger; she begins to climb back to her feet, curls sticking to her sweaty forehead, blood splattering the floor beneath her.
Her jagged breathing is audible even through the phone speaker.
Elena shuffles to the side, moving to the kitchen island, her lower half cut off and not visible from this angle.
She’s clutching her stomach, trying to get away but moving slow. Far too slow.
Viv grabs at Piper, voice urgent. “You have to do this, Piper! This is your fault; you have to put her out of her misery. Think of your father. What would he say if he saw you arrested? Go on, tell me.”
Piper is visibly shaking. “He’d say, ‘This is what you quit surfing for?’” Her voice cracks. “He’d hate me more than he already does.”
“Then end this, now,” Viv says, grabbing Piper’s shoulders and spinning her around. “Put Elena out of her misery, protect yourself, protect us. Your real family.”
Piper glances over her shoulder, once, at the phone again. Her face is a mask of emotion. She steps forward toward Elena.
Ashley is shaking her head, lips twisting. “Stop it, Piper! Viv, what is wrong with you? No one is killing anyone!”
Rachel and Fiona stand there, silent, in shock, watching Elena bleed. Letting it happen.
“Piper,” Ashley begs, stepping forward but carefully, warily, eyeing the knife.
Piper looks at her. Turns to stare at Elena, who is clutching the island now, crimson staining her mouth. Then shakes her head. “I can’t, Viv. I…can’t.”
“Then I will!” Viv yells, rushing forward. “We are a family! We can’t lose each other!”
Viv moves so quickly. She grabs Piper’s hand, the one holding the knife, but instead of wrenching the weapon away, she wraps her fist around Piper’s, using her momentum to drive them both forward. Plunging the knife right into Elena’s side.
“No!” Ashley screams, rushing forward.
But Rachel lunges at her, grabbing her twin, pulling her back, keeping her from the melee. “You’ll get hurt!” she cries. “Fiona, help me!”
Fiona doesn’t move; she’s frozen to the ground, gawking at the carnage, a glassy look in her eyes.
Elena doesn’t even make a sound. She collapses to the floor. I can’t see her anymore—she’s hidden on the other side of the kitchen island. Piper screams, but Viv won’t let go of her hand.
“Finish it! Finish her; look at what you’ve done!” Viv’s voice is unhinged, hysterical, even though she was the one who drove the knife. “Do it, Piper!”
Viv finally lets go of Piper’s hand. Stands off to the side. Watches as Piper, panicked, sobbing, disappears from the frame, the knife flashing once above her head as she brings it down to meet Elena on the ground.