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“No, but you loved her as a child loves her mother, and you came home and found her dead body.” I flinch, and he softens his voice. “That affects you, even if you don’t know it. Do you want to talk?” I shake my head, and he frowns. “I can call Faye or Lexi—”
“No,” I snap before I close my eyes. “I-I just want to be left alone, okay?”
“Even from us? From me?” he queries sadly.
“I don’t know.” I hop down and grab a toothbrush without looking at him.
“Okay,” he whispers, wrapping his arms around me for a moment. “Whatever you need, baby girl, we are here. If that’s to sit in silence, we’ll do it. If you need time alone, we’ll do that too. If you want to scream, shout, or fuck shit up, we can do that also. Anything, just... don’t put the blame on yourself, please. I know what you’re like.” With a gentle kiss on my shoulder, he shuts the door as he leaves, and I lift my head.
“Already have.” I close my eyes. “Pull it together, Blair. Red, blue, green.” I repeat it again and again until I can function. I brush my teeth, wash my face, and brush my hair, braiding it before slipping into some low hanging joggers and a crop top. Feeling more like myself but still not okay, I force myself to go find Cyrus to make sure he’s alright. I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. I know they just want to be here for me and help, but they can’t.
Unless...
Unless I’m wrong. What if we can’t stop him? What if all we can do is survive and escape him? He can’t chase us forever, he’ll get caught, but we could run.
Together.
We could get away from this and start anew like I always wanted. My heart pangs at the thought of leaving Faye, Lexi, and Allegra, but they would understand if it was to keep them safe, and I’d come back once the coast was clear.
This could work.
Now, I just have to convince them.
I’m so confident I even start to pack a bag, but then I hear a commotion that has me abandoning my task and rushing downstairs. My eyes briefly go to the space where Meredith’s body was, which is now sparkling clean, as if it never happened. I wonder if that’s how it will look after I leave?
The front door is open, and there’s a small trail of blood leading into the dining room on the right. For a moment, my heart pounds with terror, so I turn, grab the closest thing I can use as a weapon, which just so happens to be a giant candelabra, and rush into the dining room.
They all look up. Asher has gauze pressed to his cheek, which is leaking blood, Cyrus stands over him with an open first aid bag, and Bray is trying to block my view. They always do that, try to protect me from something hard. I fucking hate it. It makes me feel weak.
“What happened?” I demand, dropping the candelabra to the floor and striding over. I push Cyrus away and softly peel off the gauze. Asher hisses, and I freeze with my hands mid-air as I see the giant cut across his cheek.
“Erm, shaving?” he jokes weakly.
“Tell me now,” I order.
He sighs.
“Don’t you dare try to feed me a bullshit excuse,” I snarl, stepping back with my arms crossed. “I’m not fucking fragile. I won’t break. I want the truth.”
“I went down to the station to give them the footage they needed, and he was waiting outside dressed as a fucking cop. I was getting in my car, and it’s the only reason he didn’t slice my neck—fuck, I mean he didn’t get me too badly, and I got the fuck out of there before he could do worse,” he explains as Cyrus cleans the wound.
“It doesn’t need stitches. It might scar, but you got lucky,” he mumbles.
“Chicks dig scars,” I tease before sighing. “Fuck, he’s getting bold. This is bad, really bad. Look, I’ve been thinking…”
“Always scary,” Bray teases.
“Shut the fuck up.” I roll my eyes. “I’m serious. I think we should leave.”
“We can’t leave,” Asher says softly.
“We have to!” I yell. “Don’t you see?” I gesture at his cheek. “This is only the beginning. He’s already killed Meredith; I can’t let him kill you too.” I hiccup, and Bray tries to embrace me, but I smack him away. “Please, for me. Let’s run, let’s go on an adventure. Let’s leave all this death and shit behind.”
“It has a way of catching up to you,” Cyrus reminds me. “This isn’t a problem you can run from, baby girl, and even if it was, Crew doesn’t run. We make our stand. We won’t leave, not even for you.”
“I can’t.” I shake my head, trying to voice that I can’t lose them, but it gets caught in my throat.
“Maybe... maybe we should think about it?” Bray suggests, clearly only saying it to be on my side. That starts an argument, their voices raising as they shout back and forth, and my heart tears apart at what I’m doing.
