Page 279 of Primal

Slit Jessica’s throat.

Disemboweled Vanessa.

And I let him fuck me against a tree.

“I know what this looks like,” he says quietly. Calm. Too calm. As if this is just another Tuesday for him.

Kristy pulls me back. Her arm shoots out in front of me. “Back. The fuck. Up.”

“I’m the least of your problems right now.” His voice stays level. “Now move. I’m getting you two out.”

A laugh bubbles out of Kristy. “You’re holding a dead girl’s phone. Standing in her blood.”

He closes the distance.

Kristy shakes the spray. “One more step. I’ll blind you, you sick fuck.”

Those steel-blue eyes darken with something I don’t recognize.

“Payton,” he says. “You know me.”

Do I?

The proof is all there.

His body streaked with blood.

Vanessa. Gutted. Dripping above him.

Her phone. Ghostface was here. He’s still here.

His jaw tightens. “Listen. The real killer is—”

“Stop lying,” Kristy shrieks.

His stare cuts to the woods. “No time. He’s coming.”

I force myself to look at Vanessa again—that stretched grin, cruel and knowing.

Who did this to you?

Kade catches my eye. “I found her like this. I was trying to—”

“Save her?” My voice cracks. “Like you ‘saved’ Lana?”

His face does that thing—same exasperated eye-roll he makes when Max tells his ‘Why did Kade cross the road?’ jokes to me at the mailboxes. The ones where the punchline is always ‘Because no one wants him on their side.’

“Fuck,” he mutters, not to us but to the trees. To the night. To whatever god lets good intentions get mistaken for the butcher’s work.

His eyes snap back to mine.

“We’re leaving.” He steps forward—more like a babysitter done reasoning with toddlers than a killer. “Argue on the way.”

Kristy shoots me a look—don’t you dare trust that man.

Kade’s fingers twitch toward us. “Last chance. Come with me now.”

“Fuck you,” Kristy spits.