Page 8 of Mutual Prey

He lets out a big shuddering breath, probably trying toconvince himself that means he won’t die.

The idiot is literally pinned to the floor of a saran-wrapped shack in the middle of the forest, and he’s hoping he won’t die.

The permanent end of consciousness is a concept the human brain just can’t wrap itself around. It’s crazy what somersaults of rationalization we’re capable of just because of our inability to accept the inevitable.

“Think your last thought, and die.”

I raise my knife, and before he has time to react, I’ve plunged it into his thoracic cage.

_

Well, I need a shower.

I’ve just spent the afternoon and evening in my favorite way: hacking a body to pieces and burying them in various places of the forest. Then I bundled up all the saran wrap and disposed of that in the same way. I scrubbed every last inch of the shack too, for good measure, and shone a blue light around to make sure I’d gotten every last scrap of evidence.

Another thing I learned ever since that night I messed up in high school.Plan ahead.

Too late for that, and I realize it more than ever with the news of Finn Austen’s release, and the knowledge I must haveleft some DNA behind. But in my defense, Daddy had died a week before, so my emotions were just a bit raw. And it’s hard to scrub a place when your wrists are broken and someone is hunting you.

I know I shouldn’t have injected Finn with that stuff. That was my biggest error of all. But what can I say? I was grieving Daddy’s death, and I felt so lonely.

So I created an uncontrollable monster, and now, he’s out for blood.

The thought thrills me just as much as it did back then.

I sigh the way I always do when it comes to discarding my own clothes. They’re Gucci, and I know it’s insane to spend more than 2000 dollars on clothes I’ll wear only once. But Daddy was wealthy, and all that money is mine now. And don’t I deserve a treat?

I slip into comfortable Prada sweatpants, and hike it back to Astley. Obviously, I don’t take the car; no one saw me in it, and the tire marks lead straight from his house to the shack. The perfect crime.

My own car may be parked two blocks away from his, but that’s not suspicious. It’s close to the college, and Iama grad student now.

An hour later, I’ve settled in front of the TV, and I’m eating a box of Chow mein. I don’t do TV, at least, apart from TCM. There’s a Dashiell Hammett theme these days, and I spend the rest of the evening watching the movies adapted from his books. FirstThe Maltese Falcon,thenThe Thin Man.

By the time I’ve reached the bottom of the takeout container, it’s cold. I’ve never been a big eater, but Iwashungry after burning I don’t know how many calories earlier in the day. Still, I eat distractedly, a lot more focused on the movie than on my food.

Which is why I nearly choke on the hard, round object that’sat the very bottom of the container.

After emerging from my coughing fit, I examine the object I spit out. It’s a button, and my stomach clenches when I suddenly recognize it.

A Chanel button, from my favorite Chanel jacket.

Goddammit!

Another mistake. I realized my Chanel jacket was missing its button the day after murdering Ray Campbell. But when I’d returned to the warehouse, I hadn’t found it, so I’d concluded I’d lost it elsewhere.

Guess not.

There’s only one person who could have put that button in my Chow mein. Only one person who wouldn’t want to send me to prison—because he has worse plans for me.

Standing up on shaky legs, I sit down in front of my computer and turn it on. Then I type into the searchbar:Finn Austen.

Article after article appear.

Finn Austen, senior at Astley High School, found guilty of murder. The drug dealer killed Ray Campbell, a popular quarterback, by shooting him in the head.

“I always knew there was something off about him,” a neighbor tells us in an exclusive interview. “He kept to himself; people don’t keep to themselves in Astley. He was sullen, a quiet boy, with an unkempt appearance. He had tattoos.”

“He took drugs,” adds another neighbor. “That tells you all you need to know about him, doesn’t it?”