Page 201 of Creep

“Loves me. He would never hurt me.”

I shook my head. “You’re wrong. He’s not capable of loving anyone.”

Her eyes flashed, and she walked over and slapped my face, the same side the man had slapped earlier. Perhaps that's why this one felt harder on my skin than it did when the man had done so. Tears blurred my vision. I looked up to see her standing there.

“You’re a fucking lying whore.”

I let out a small laugh. “A lying whore? But you’re the one willing to do anything for Leo, even sell your soul to the devil.”

Luckily, I saw this attack coming. I turned to the side as I felt her palms rain down on me. She mostly got my arms and the side of my head.

I looked back at her when the hits stopped. “Tell me, do you know about him?” The look on her face said she knew exactly what I was talking about. And I had been trying to warn her about Leo when she had been complicit. “What he’s done to all those poor women and children? And you’re just okay with that?”

She straightened and flipped her long red hair over her shoulder. I had always thought she was beautiful. And there was no doubt that it was still true. But looking at her now, I thought she had never looked more ugly.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Then enlighten me. Tell me whatyouthink is really going on,” I said. Mael wasn’t wrong about my dad and Leo. But I wanted Victoria to tell me she didn’t know. That what she thought was going on wasn’t actually the case. That she could at least resemble the girl I had met in college.

She turned from me, giving me her back. I closed my eyes. It was exactly as I thought. She knew about everything, but her love for Leo had blinded her to it all. She was willing to let all those women and children suffer as long as Leo was happy.

“Victoria,” I pleaded. “You have to help me.”

She turned around and faced me. “Why would I help you?”

“Because I don’t deserve to be here, and you know it. I don’t know why Leo wants me here so badly, but this isn’t right. Help me make it right. Come with me. I’ll protect you. You can still make it right?—”

She let out a loud laugh. “I don’t need you to protect me. And you do deserve to be here, especially after all the shit you put your dad and Leo through.”

I blinked. She was beyond reasoning with. I should have known that.

“Did you ever care about me?” I asked, hating the way my voice cracked at the end.

She sneered, her eyes hardening over, giving me my answer before she spoke.

“Care? Do you have any idea how unbelievably hard it was to be your friend?”

Had I been so difficult? I hadn’t thought so. At least my feelings for her had been genuine.

“And if I have to hear him talk about you anymore, I might just rip my hair out.”

I frowned. “Leo?”

“Who else?” she spat out, taking a step toward me. I took in her face. Why did she look so deranged? Did loving Leo make her like that?

“I don’t know why he talks about me,” I answered her slowly, calmly.

She shook her head. “Yes, you do, you fucking tease. You knew about his obsession with you. You like the attention, but you don’t love him. Only I love him. Me!”

I flinched back against the hard metal railing as she got closer to me, her voice getting louder.

“I don’t want his attention.”

“Bullshit!” she screamed. I closed my eyes, feeling my heart beating wildly in panic. “Bullshit. All you ever do is hurt him. And all I ever do is love him. Me, only me! No one can love him like me, and I fucking hate how much you're hurting him.”

She screeched and pulled out something from her waistband. It all happened so quickly. One moment, she was screaming at me. The next, a flash of silver caught my eyes when Victoria pulled out a small knife. She raised her arm and aimed at me. I closed my eyes, bracing for the pain.

It never came.

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