Page 80 of Wicked Deceit
"So what's it going to be, little beauty? Your life for theirs?" Principal Shaw finally takes off his creepy-looking mask, smiling down at my broken face.
The answer to me is easy. Could the boys live without me? Yes. They did fine before. Would they be devastated? Absolutely. I’ve always known that if push came to shove, I would give my life for them for their safety. I’d do anything to ensure they lived blissfully for the rest of their lives. Even if I was dead and buried. As long as dirt rested above my casket and they were safely living the lives they were supposed to live, I’d do anything to rectify my mistake of pulling them into this bullshit. I brought them into this mess when I told them about my investigation, and I’ll get them out of this mess by laying down my life.
My throat clogs and tightens around my voice box. Tears swim in my only working eye. If I do this, I need answers first. I came all this way, after all. So, why not go out knowing everything I need to know?
"What is all this? Where am I?" I ask, twirling a finger. "What's the point of this?"
Crowe nods his head. "Of course, you have some questions. Naturally," he says, waving a hand. "Welcome to Grandma's house, where it all began. Nestled in the woods, hidden from view."
"Grandma's house?" I mutter, looking over the decrepit wallpaper and moldy carpet. An address bounces inside my head, one we've heard a million times before but never found. "Forty-Four Rosebud drive. But this doesn't exist."
"Ah, again—it pays to have people in high places, Sugar. So, yes. This is where dear old Grandma lived and died. Come to think of it, in this very space." His eyes travel the room's length, getting lost in a deep memory—I’m sure their first kill. “Right over there,” he says in a dreamy voice, pointing toward the corner of the room. “Right in front of the window is where we took her, stabbing her over and over again for her cruelty.” He doesn’t elaborate any more on the subject of her death or her treatment of them. But I can only guess with the bitterness tinging his tone how upset he was that she got rid of the three of them and dumped them like they were nothing but trash.
"This is the future," Shaw says, taking the reins of the conversation, beaming with pride. Spreading his arms out wide, he smiles again, eyeing the kingdom he built with a sparkle in his eye. "This is where our viewers can look through the lens of crimes they want to commit but without getting their hands dirty. With each subject we bring here, they seal the fate of our subjects by voting on their activities and choosing from three or four forms of fun.” He grins wider, rubbing his hands together like he’s planning something more nefarious for the next event, and loses himself in thought.
"It was between you and that Benoit chick at first. But your look." Cushing bites his bottom lip, checking me from head to toe again with a disgusting smirk eating away at his lips. "You really captured them with your smile. And her? She was too blah. I mean, we could have put her out of her misery." He throws his head back and barks out a cruel laugh, mocking Ainsley’s misery at the death of the one she loved—the death they caused.
My heart squeezes as the memories of Ainsley’s anguish roll through my mind, vividly reminding me of how the loss of Magnolia made her weep and wither away. Maybe the boys won’t survive without me. That would be them, after all. They’ll mourn my loss every second of every day, blaming themselves that I’m here and that they weren’t here to save me.
"From the moment you walked onto campus, the cameras saw. We were in our selection phases, and our viewers picked you out right away, bidding and bidding until we couldn't deny them you any longer. From there, they bid on your torment. What the student body did to you, or what the teachers said and did. Classic, really," Shaw says, stepping closer to my chair and hovering above me.
"And then some lined up to meet me at the charity event," I say through a heavy sigh, heaving my chest. Because I’m the snoop I am, and I promised Magnolia so deeply that I’d find out who did this to her. I put myself on their radar with a big, fat X marked on my back. Granted, they would have watched and found someone else to nominate if it wasn’t me they had chosen.
"Ah, clever girl," Crowe says with a compliment, patting my head like a dog.
If I had more energy, I'd bite him like a dog, too. Or kick him in the nuts. Or anything but sit here and listen to them spout about all their dirty deeds. All I’ve done is managed to prolong the inevitable, which is saving my life for now.
The feeling of my body circling the drain and taking all my energy slams into me, and I’m fading quickly. A fuzzy static clings to my fading brain. A heaviness takes over my drooping eyelids, begging me to rest and sleep for my remaining time on earth. I ache to disappear from the hellish nightmare and wake up from this awful dream in a faraway land with my boys at my side. Maybe somewhere sunny and bright, with the sand beneath my toes and my boys surrounding me, feeding me grapes and sparkling grape juice. A desperate girl can dream, can’t she?
"Now is your final bow, Sugar. Say bye-bye to the audience." Crowe's high-pitched, over-excited bullshit voice brings me back from my private island of naked boyfriends. Let me go back to the sunshine and warm weather.
"A bye-bye? What are you going to do now?" I manage to mutter through my thickening and heavy tongue.
Cushing grins, stepping forward with a small knife in his hands. "Now you meet your doom." He giggles, fucking giggles, sounding more like his deceased niece than himself.
Piper’s death rings through my mind again, and I squeeze my eye shut. Oh, Piper. She may have been a looney toon, but she didn't deserve the manipulation from her own flesh and blood. He broke her because her mother ran and hid from him. He slept with her and used her to murder Magnolia. Well, I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. She was obsessive, and so was he. But she could have gotten the help she needed through medication and a therapist.
Shit—I think, shaking my head as much as they’ll allow. I'm losing myself at the worst possible time. Then again…My mind brings me back to the picture I found in his office of him and Addison at college graduation. He must have lost her after that when she went off to medical school and left him. So, Francesca was Addison's half-sister? I never encountered anything to point me in that direction in my research.
"How did you know they were sisters?" I croak, peeking my working eye at him.
They continue to stare at me, moving the camera around to face me and whispering to each other.
"You're thinking about it, huh?" He smiles, tilting his crazy big head to the side.
"Mmhmm. Just curious if you're right or just so obsessive, you're insane." I earn a snort from someone in the room.
"Insane? Yeah, maybe. But my obsession brought me to sealed court records, and thanks to my connections and my brother here, I found a settlement to Francesca's whore of a mother from a Mr. Winston Ford, Addison's father. He paid her off and got away with having a secret love child. Not to mention the various bank accounts he secured for her, just like Addison, throughout the country. Her beneficiary? Piper. Which makes her precious Daddy a very happy multi-millionaire. Again." He straightens his robe with a grin. So happy for himself. He's murdered tons of people to earn that blood money to pay for whatever he’s paying for. It’s certainly not for a healthy torture house, that’s for sure.
"So, her grandparents?" I ask as they settle in front of me.
"Nothing a slow-acting poison couldn't do."
"And Addison?" That one stung to ask, ripping my heart in two thinking about my mother’s hurt after learning of Addison’s death. Sure, they weren’t close anymore. But at one point in their lives, they were best friends.
I see it so clearly now from the other side. Crowe expertly manipulated Addison, playing her like a fiddle. Much like a controlling husband would, he separated her from her friends. He forced her out of work so she’d solely depend on him, and then he slowly made her rely on him and left her bedridden.
"Again, poison. She went quickly, and it was excruciating. Like she deserved. She left me, too." His hand rubs down his face, groaning at his painful memories. Painful, though. Pfft. He's certifiable. "I ordered the hit on Magnolia and gathered bidders to decide her fate as an experiment. I convinced my beautiful fuck buddy to carry out her death in the form of initiation to our ranks. It turns out she was more than willing to help her daddy. Our business really took off and developed into what it is today. Who knew killing people on camera could be so much fun!" Clapping his hands together, he steps forward again. "But now, enough about me. Let's get back to you. You came to this school to what? Find out who killed your precious best friend?" He grins again, leaning down to look me in the eyes.
