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“Tommy, she just got here,” Talia says, walking up and linking arms with Didi. She glares at me. “That’s no way to speak to a guest.” The two girls give me matching cat-eye glares, their eyelashes incredible…and I’m left speechless, watching them side-by-side.

Double damn.

Didi shoots her eyes up to Talia and gives a tentative smile. These two girls are going to be the death of me.

“Come on, Diana,” Talia says. “I’ll show you around our home.”

Talia flashes me a smile, and Didi gives me a vacant stare that nearly kills me. Her eyes aren’t empty; they hold so much unspoken emotion and depth. There’s a lot she’s not telling me.

Everything about what we were is broken, but it’s not over.

It was never over.

After Didi turns around, Talia looks at me.

“What are you doing, Talia?” I ask, resting my hands on her hips.

She gives me a feline grin and kisses my cheek, nibbles on my ear and whispers, “Who doesn’t love a sexy little sacrifice?”

DIDI

Talia holds my hand as she guides me toward the keg, which is set up on the side of the yard surrounding the house. She waves off the boys hovering around it and they move away from her as if she’s made of liquid.

She grabs me a drink as the yard fills with people from school, and I run my hand down my hair. No one gives me a second glance, not until a drunken athlete falls into me and I fall onto all fours, my wig nearly falling off.

A few people laugh.

I breathe in and out as my chest constricts under their watchful eyes. Talia helps me up as a couple of girls walk by and snicker, and I desperately claw at my wig, putting it back in place.

Talia waves them off. “Carry on,” she says, and the girls hurry away. I can almost sense the dark thoughts she’s having about them. My body trembles…and my chest fills with water. Holy Water. And I choke on it. The memory floods my mind of when both Cindy and her father nearly drowned me.

“Ignore them,” she says, handing me a drink. The horrid memory stays swirling in my mind while I stare down and take a small sip of beer.

The alcohol burns my throat and goes straight to my head. I nearly spit it back up, but I don’t want to appear rude, so I drink it anyway, forcing it down while Talia stares at me curiously. Admittedly, I don’t drink. I also barely sleep, because sleeping reminds me of death, and death will bring me to hell, where my soul will forever be in torment.

Finally, our eyes meet. “I can’t ignore them. You don’t know what it’s like being different.”

“Physical differences are a social construct. They are scared because they are weak-minded. Everyone in this town is weak-minded. That’s why they need us.”

I lean back against an enormous tree trunk as the canopies above wrap around us. “They think I’m Him…they think I’m going to bring them death.”

Her eyes sparkle and her eyebrows lift in a silent dare. “That’s because you are.”

I swallow as a cloud covers the moon and my body starts to buzz.

“Come on,” she says, taking my hand again. “Let’s go for a walk.”

I accept her invitation and slide my hand into hers. After all, she’s only being nice, and none of them have actually hurt me.

I spot someone waving, calling my name and running over to us. My heart sinks…it’s Tina. “Rose, you actually came!” She squinches her eyebrows together. “Who’s your friend?”

Talia stands back and watches her, almost defensively. “I’m Talia. This is my party.”

Tina’s demeanor shifts immediately. “Oh. Cindy told me about you. It’s swell to meet you, Talia.”

Tina seems oblivious to Talia’s dark undertones, and I give Talia a pleading look. Tina is innocent. She’s been kind to me.

Tina purses her lips and smiles. “See you in class tomorrow, Rose?”