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“That’s my girl,” Eli smiles into his flashlight. “I just hope she’s in here.”
I spin back to the door and take a deep breath before I turn it, but it doesn’t budge. Letting out a sigh I turn back to the group. “I can't open it. Because that would be too easy. How are we going to get in?”
“If you move over, I’ve got this. Hold this flashlight for me,” Eli says as he hands over the little torch.
I watch as he takes a card from his wallet and wedges it between the strike plate and door. Eli wiggles it back towards the doorknob until there’s a click and the door springs open.
“You made that look too easy,” Raven comments from behind us.
“We all have special skills,” he says as he straightens up and takes back the flashlight.
“Let’s incinerate this bitch and get home. I’m ready to get out of this musty hellhole and shower,” Jayce says.
Eli and I enter the room and he illuminates every inch as we search for where she stashed her bones.
“Jayce, you look in that closet,” Eli orders.
“I swear if her skeleton jumps out at me, I’m gonna kick your ass,” he replies as he kicks some debris out from in front of the door.
I make my way over to where he is. I need to see if it’s really Stella. She has plagued me for almost ninety years, I can’t wait to truly be free of her.
Jayce throws open the door and lying on the floor…there she is. There isn’t much left but a little bit of her long, burnt hair.
“Eli, bring the salt and gasoline. The bitch is here.”
“Should we take her outside? Or just let her burn this place down one last time?” I ask as Eli and Raven come to stand near us.
“Let’s just burn this motherfucker down. I, for one, don’t want to touch her,” Raven says with a touch of disgust in her words.
“Same here, let’s get this show on the road,” Eli says as he showers Stella’s body with salt as Jayce douses her in gasoline.
They step back as Raven strikes the match and throws it in the closet. We all watch as she begins to blaze.
Something draws my attention to where her feet would be and I notice that she’s missing a toe.
“Um, not to be a downer but does this work if she’s missing a body part?”
“What do you mean?” Raven asks, worry crossing her face.
“Well, Stella seems to be missing a pinkie toe,” I reply as I point towards her foot.
“Shit, we have to have every piece of her or this was all for naught,” Jayce stresses.
“If you were a toe, where would you be?” Eli asks.
I rack my brain. Where would Stella hide her toe? Then it dawns on me. My desk. She would always leave me little surprises in the top drawer. And if Stella was anything, she was a creature of habit.
“I know where it is,” I tell them, “We have to get back to the college.”
“I’m so proud of you, Lucien. You remember where I’d leave you all those gifts,” Stella states as she blocks the doorway with the guard’s body.
“Shit.”
Raven
I’ve never considered myself the violent type. But I’ve never wanted to strangle anyone more than I want to strangle Stella at this moment. Of course, I can’t, because the poor guard is just as much a victim in this as we all are.
“Move. I don’t want to have to hurt this man,” Eli tells her with every bit of fire he can manage in his voice. There’s a desperation as the smoke fills the room. If not for the open window we’d have been knocked out by now.
