Page 10 of The Threads Of Fate
“Whatever you are thinking, it’s not that.” There’s a slight hurt in his tone, but I try to ignore it.
“How would you know what it is I am thinking?” He moves his hand over his curly hair, trying to move it away from his face, but it just bounces back in place the moment his hand is away.
“I didn’t hurt her. You did.” I scoff at him.
“I could never.” My blood is boiling at the accusation, but there is also something that feels along the way of worry. What if I truly did this?
“You called me love, she deserved it. She pushed you in the water and tried to drown you as a joke. She deserved it.” He moves his head to the broken and bloody telescopic pole that’s lying on the floor. The stick seems to have been broken, and the sharp end is covered in blood.
“I’ll help you clean this up, but if anyone finds out, you tell them you had no choice, that it was self-defense.” I wait untilhe’s finished, the words sinking deep. I don’t remember any of it, and when I try to, my head starts to hurt.
“The last thing I remember was being with you in the forest.” He sighs and slowly moves towards me again, and this time, I let him. Small blurry images of me being scared for my life in the pool are flashing, but that’s all I can recall happening now. Maybe the rest will come to me sooner or later. His hands reach for my face, softly holding it and guiding my eyes to his. He gives me a gentle kiss, one that lingers for a couple of seconds, one I can still feel after it’s over. He gets up and goes to the door, where bags and other stuff are lying on the floor. Why did he come to help me clean up the crime I have committed?
“Aren’t you mad at me?” He walks over again, a clear frown on his face.
“Why would I be mad? You protected yourself. I’m proud of you,” he says with a voice that sounds like he’s in awe rather than shocked about the fact that I had just brutally murdered someone. His praise brings butterflies to my stomach, and somehow, his presence soothes me from all of this. He’s right, in a way. I mean, it’s okay because it was self-defense, because she deserved it.Right?
“Does this make me a bad person? A murderer?” I quietly ask him. He doesn’t answer immediately; he’s busy bagging Liana’s body and insides, and starts pouring DNAOUT over the floors.
“My love, you protected yourself, and I’d rather have her gone than you. Taking care of yourself doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you a survivor.” His praise does things to me, things that should be inappropriate right now. He gets up to help me stand up, his hands raised. Without thinking, I grab his hands and stand up. He brushes the wet hairs behind my ears and moves his hands down to my hips, as fast as his lips came to mine, they move away again. Quickly, he takes out his car keys and places them into my hands.
“Here, go rest in the car parked outside. Put on some music, whatever you need. I’ll get this cleaned up.” I pocket the keys he just gave me, but don’t move away. This is my mess after all, and even though I appreciate him wanting to do this, it doesn’t feel fair. So instead of walking to the car, I walk over to his glovebox and take out some gloves. He’s standing before me, gratitude in his eyes, while he takes off his hoodie and presents it to me with his arm raised.
“Here, you are wet and it’s cold. I don’t want you to get sick.” My heart is beating like the drums of a deathcore-metal concert, and I can feel a slight blush creep into my face. This might have been the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.
I put on the hoodie, placing my hair in the cap, and start to scrub the place clean, hoping no one would find out what just transpired here.
???
It’s 2 AM before I’m finally home. Once the place was clean, we had to get rid of the body, so we drove over two hours to a pig farmer’s ranch and ditched the body there. I wanted to wait until the pigs ate it all up, but Corvin thought it might be too risky, so we went back into the car and drove to a diner instead. I wasn’t very hungry, but Corvin said I needed to get something in my system. I love how much he cares for me. I never knew it would happen to me, but I think he might be the best thing that came into my life.
I sneak into my room through the window the same way Corvin did, and from there I tiptoe to the bathroom. One of the positive sides of my parents sleeping downstairs is that they don’t hear me walking around. But that doesn’t mean I won't be careful. So instead of taking a shower, I quickly wash myself atthe sink. It’s uncomfortable, and doing my hair like this is always a challenge because of how long it is, but I manage, and no one seems to wake up from it.
Once I’m done, I hide the clothes I was wearing under my bed, I’ll just throw them into the fireplace after my father leaves for work.
I’m still not fully able to remember exactly what happened, but there are more blurry parts that are coming back to me; some are a bit clearer than others. Corvin told me it’s because of the trauma from the event, and that my mind is trying to protect me from it. So I decided maybe it’s best to stop trying; besides, remembering what happened won't change the outcome. Liana is still dead, and I don’t feel the slightest regret about it.
The school bell rings out, making me grab my stuff as fast as I can before Tess and Stephanie get up. Out of all my bullies, those two are the most annoying ones; they like to follow me around so they can shout insults at me or grab my stuff to throw it on the floor. Usually, they are a group of three, but now that Liana has been reported missing, it’s just those two. Sometimes I feel like getting rid of them, too, but I shouldn’t think like that. Killing one person and getting away with it is already one thing, but three? I’m scared people will find out, and I am not made for prison. I’d rather end my own life than get locked up in some horrible place. All I want –no need, is to just be free, to have my happy ending, like they do in the movies. I deserve that. I never did anything wrong that made me not deserve it. And I’ll be damned if anyone tries to take that away from me.
“Ooh, look who it is. Maddie baby, you look like that creepy bitch from the ring, you know, the one that gets thrown into the well, well after she gets thrown in it. Maybe your parents should have done the same to you,freak.” People start to laugh, but Idon’t even want to acknowledge it as an insult; at least Samara gets her revenge.
I try to walk away, but someone grabs my sweater, keeping me in place.
“It’s rude to ignore people when they are talking to you,bitch.” Stephanie pokes my chest with her pointy fake nails. The rest are starting to circle us while laughing. I try to simmer down the anger that is trying to surface, but it’s hard. When she starts shoving that stupid fucking finger in my chest, all I can see is red. I drop the books on the floor and slap her hand away. Shock fills her face, but I’m too fast for her to register my next move until it’s too late. My fist gets in contact with her cheek, making her head move to the side from the impact. She bends down with her hand over her face, tears are starting to leak, and she’s turning full on red.
“WHAT THE FUCK YOU FREAK!” She screams out in a high-pitched tone. Tess grabs my hair, and I bend down, punching her in the uterus as hard as I can. She yelps and lets go while I throw her on the floor and start punching her face. There’s blood and spit coming from her mouth, and I can feel some of the blood spray on my face. Someone is dragging me off of her, and I start to kick at whoever is doing it, but it’s almost impossible. Rage like I’ve never known before is fueling my body, and all I can think of is having their blood staining my hands.
“Okay! Enough!” One of the teachers comes in and starts to make everyone leave, everyone but us three.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Reese –our biology teacher– asks.
“This bitch attacked us out of nowhere!” Stephanie screeches out.
“I did not! They started it!” I quickly say, with a raised voice. Adrenaline is still flowing through me, but it is slowly subsiding now.
“I don’t care who started it! We do not condone violence here. You can explain it to the principal. And someone take Tess to the school nurse!” I groan and grab my stuff, walking past Reese. I am so fucking tired of these people attacking me, and no one ever does anything about it. But the moment I try defending myself, it’s a problem. This is absolute bullshit.
The moment I leave the classroom, I can feel all eyes on me, people are whispering about how crazy I am, and that I’m a freak. All I want to do is just crawl into a corner and cry, but I can’t do that, can I? No matter how horrible people treat me, it’s always going to be my fault.
