“What the fuck?” Harlow screamed back. “Let me go!”
“We’re doing this whether you like it or not.”
She held Harlow down with a strength she didn’t know she even had, ignoring her squirming. She was too drunk to do anything but flop like a dying fish, anyway.
Paisley ripped a strand of hair out.
“You’re insane!” Harlow yammered on. “I’m going to tell everyone at school what you did here! Opal,help me!”
But poor Opal was too focused on plucking out her own couplehairs and offering them to Paisley. “Here,” Opal said, tears glistening in her eyes. “Do the ritual. We don’t want this to get ugly.”
But now that the adrenaline was running red-hot through her, there was nowhere for the energy to go but out. She dropped Harlow, her body falling to the ground with a satisfying thud.
“Do you get why I’m doing it?” Paisley growled, eyes on Opal. “Do you think I’m insane too?”
Opal cowered. “Of course I get it. Life sucks and we need all the luck we can get.”
She was lying.
Paisley looked back over at Harlow only to find Harlow’s hands coming toward her chest. Paisley flew backward, hitting the ground with enough force for her to bite her own tongue. As blood filled her mouth and Harlow tried to hold Paisley down, suddenly all she could see was red. She should’ve never listened to Harlow. She shouldn’t have let Harlow get this drunk or talk back as much as she had. Paisley had made Harlow, and it was time to remind her who was boss. Paisley always won.
Paisley grabbed Harlow by the shoulders, pushing her as hard as she could. Enough for Harlow to stumble back onto her ass.
She wasn’t going to get up until Paisley said she could.
Paisley grabbed a piece of firewood, a thick old plank of wood she hadn’t thrown into the pit.
She swung it as hard as she could against Harlow’s head.
“Harlow!” Opal screamed.
But there wasn’t going to be a Harlow to answer.
Paisley swung again, marveling as Harlow’s hair soaked with blood, as her struggling body went still.
She wasn’t sure how many times she hit her, only that her musclesached when she finished and the world was so silent it felt like every woodland creature was watching. Her face was warm and sticky from the blood, but she didn’t reach to wipe it off. She felt every nerve of hers pulsing with energy, yet somehow she also felt outside of herself.
“Harlow!” Opal cried. “Oh my god, Paisley. What did youdo?”
Harlow’s blood might’ve been on Paisley’s face, but she finally felt her own behind her skin.
The pulsing wasn’t adrenaline anymore, but fear.
Whatdidshe do?
Harlow wasn’t moving. Harlow was dead.
She killed Harlow.
(She still had to finish her ritual.)
She—
She turned to Opal. “I’m sorry,” Paisley said.
“It’s okay. Let’s just…go back to the campsite,” Opal said.
Opal was lying.
