Chapter 29 OLIVIA
OLIVIA
The blindfold digs into my skin, the burn of my tears sinks into the edges of the rough fabric as it chaffs against my cheeks. The same goes for the strip of tape keeping my mouth shut and the ropes tied at my wrists, bound behind my back.
My shoulders are in so much pain from being dragged by my arms, the feeling of mud and dirt and rocks and sticks scraping against my legs the further they’d taken me still lingers.
I was thankful that Trace forced me to undress Natasha for her pants, but who would have known I would have needed them for this.
I try to fight, to thrash in the hold of whoever has me wrapped up.
It all happened so fast. One second Trace was descending into the darkness, the next a hand was wrapped around my mouth with a knife pointed at my neck.
Between the time they let go of my mouth and the time they masked the tape over me, I screamed and something knocked me in my head, causing me to pass out.
But now I’m awake, groggy but aware. Though I can’t see and I have no idea where I am as they push against me, using my bound hands to guide me up a set of stairs.
I want to scream, my lungs tight as I try and slow my breaths in and out of my nose but my body pinches with anxiety, with fear and the undeniable reminder of my nightmares falls into my head.
I’m trapped. I’m going to die.
Though I hardly think that after all these years, those haunting dreams were meant to be a foreshadowing to this moment.
I know they probably mean something more but right now, the feeling is so viscerally frightening that I feel as if this is one of my nightmares and now more than ever, I need Trace to pull me back.
I’m pushed through the door and the cold air turns to a little bit of warmth, concluding that I must be inside a cabin. I hear the door slam behind me before I’m pushed down onto the ground.
I can’t help but cry. I wish I could stay strong but without my sense, I’m pathetic in this situation.
I try to calm myself as I listen for anything that might help me decipher where I’m at and who I’m with but all I can hear is the thud of boots across the wood floor followed by what I believe to be the scrape of a chair.
And then boots stalk closer to me and I feel panic consume me. Suddenly, I’m yanked up by my hair and thrown to sit in the chair. I feel a blade press against my skin, and I moan in agony, fearful for the tear of my skin I’m about to feel, but the knife cuts away from me, breaking the ropes free.
I immediately flail my arms, attempting to swing at whoever is doing this but I miss, hitting nothing but air.
I cry and I attempt to scream behind my taped up mouth but it just comes out breathless and empty, burning my lungs.
And before I know it, my hands are pulled tight behind my back again, this time behind the chair, and the sound of duct tape cuts through the air, greeting me like little pricks of needles as it’s wrapped around and around my wrists.
I hear the boots thud away, the door opening and then closing and now the only thing I can hear is the deafening silence that shrouds me. Consuming me as I sit helpless in this chair.
The sound of my heart thuds against my chest, causing my ears to ring and my head to go slightly dizzy. I’m not breathing normally, racked with anxiety and unintentionally hyperventilating.
I squeeze my eyes shut behind the blindfold, feeling my tears try to escape but having nowhere to go. I’m hot and cold and my mind races a thousand miles a second and when I open my eyes back up, everything changes…
The cold breeze brushes against my skin. But my body is warm still, feeling the traces of kisses all over my body, of sensual touches caressing me with care, and the passion that bore down from amber-honey eyes into mine.
My heart beats with rapture, with so much love.
His tender touches still linger on my skin, my body sore but in the best fucking way.
I gave him one more piece of me and now all that’s left is my heart.
All of it. Without restriction, and to do that, I have to be honest with the one person I’ve been keeping this a secret from.
Seren.
After making love to Trace, I told him I wanted to tell everyone. I wanted to stop hiding and finally give him what he deserves out of me. He said he was going to go back to the cabins and pack our things while I agreed to go find his sister.
I can’t stop smiling as I walk through the tree, snow falling from the sky like a heavenly blanket. I wrap his hoodie around me, savoring his scent and the way it feels against my flush skin. And as I walk out onto the path, something catches my eyes.
I squint, and in a matter of seconds, elation evades me and dread takes over. I pick up my pace, rushing through the trees as I approach the clearing near the cliffs.
“Seren,” I gasp frantically. “What are you doing up there?”
I stop at the end of the path, keeping a few feet between me and the girl who is teetering on the edge of the steep cliff, her arms spread out on either side of her.
She twists her head to the side, her back toward me and in the darkness, I can only make out the shadowed outline of her body, but the silver glow of the moon illuminates her enough for me to see a smirk curl on her face.
“Oh, ya know,” she chuckles darkly. “Just feeling the wind beneath my wings.”
My heart lurches when I hear mania layering her tone. Something’s not right.
“Seren, that’s not safe. Can you get down from there please?” I take a step forward and a wicked laugh rips through the air.
“Why? Do you think I’m going to jump?” She turns her whole body around and she slips, arms flailing in the air. I jump, reaching out for her before she steadies herself and giggles.
“Ha! Gotcha,” she shouts insensitively as she rights herself, standing firmly on two feet.
“That’s not fucking funny, Ser,” I let my anger drip from my tone and a sourness twists in my gut.
The wind kicks up, causing her hair to fly around her head and she tilts her head back.
“What are you doing out here?” I ask, eager to get her to come toward me, but I'm scared that if I take another step, she’ll feign another slip.
“Just gaining some clarity I guess.” She shrugs her shoulders “I’m not really sure.” She seems manic and calm all at the same time and that combination causes me to raise serious concern for her well being.
“Listen, there’s something I need to talk to you about,” I say to her, hoping that maybe she’ll snap out of whatever spell she seems to be in and listen to me. Maybe she’ll step away from the ledge and we can talk.
But she laughs instead.
“What’s funny?”
“Oh, spare me. I already fucking know, Olivia. You thought you were so good at hiding that secret from me. Turns out you’re just a backstabbing whore.”
She turns to the side and mimics walking a tight rope, one foot in front of the other with her arms out. My heart races, hearing her words and watching her movements, not sure which should concern me more.
“You don’t mean that,” I start. Realizing that she knows about Trace and I. Realizing that she might have known for a while and all my efforts to not betray her could have been for nothing, hiding away my love for her brother while she silently knew the whole time.
She stops her footsteps and drops her hands dramatically at her side.
“Do you know how hard it is to pretend to be perfect? How hard it is to act as if the whole town actually fucking likes me?” She chuckles. Dark and broken. “They like me because I refuse to allow them not to. But on the inside, I know they find me just as fucking annoying as you do.”
I gasp, her words gaslighting me. I know she doesn’t seem to be in her right mind right now but where she came up with the idea that I thought she was annoying, I truly have no clue.
“I never said that, Seren. You’re my best friend,” I say to her, letting my tone drop to something more sincere instead of concerned but she just laughs as she turns to face me.
“Oh, right. You might have never said that, but your actions say it all, Olivia.”
My heart sinks. I know I’ve been distant, but that’s only because I was trying to find a way to tell her about Trace. I was tired of lying to her. But now I feel stupid for it because as it turns out, she’s known all along.
“I didn’t mean to make you feel that way,” I say, unsure if anything I say will be the right thing in this moment.
“They never do,” she responds and my brows nosedive, confusion plaguing me.
“Who?” I ask.
“Oh, just the voices in my head. They actually talk to me, unlike the rest of the fucking world.”
My body experiences a scattering of chills, spreading like wildfire.
She’s suffering from something and I want to understand what.
She seemed fine earlier? She came to the bonfire and ate breakfast. She was laughing with the other girls and even after the incident at truth or dare yesterday, she seemed okay.
I chance another step forward, hoping to get close enough to reach out for her.
“Seren, you’re scaring me. Whatever is going on, we can figure this out.”
“I think I’m good for a while, ya know? I think I’d rather not.”
“Is this about the boys from truth or dare yesterday? About Tyre and Jett and Broden? Did something happen?”
That gets her attention, her head snapping my direction and I flinch, nervous her rash movements will cause her to fall.