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God, what a bad Halloween this has been. While I don’t do much to celebrate it anymore, this is exceptionally bad by anyone’s standards.
The first time I call out for Evan, voice soft and shaky, he doesn’t notice. I wait, giving him another minute before I call again, making sure the knife isn’t visible in the dim light from the street lamps at the edge of the alley.
I doubt he’ll be stupid enough to walk into the alley. Especially after getting stabbed. But all I need is a chance to do this.
“Evan?” I call, voice soft. “Can you help me?” I push myself to my feet, eyes wide as I hide the knife behind my back.
He looks up at me and stills, keys in his hands as he sees me in my all black outfit.Though I’ve pushed the hood back to make myself look less menacing for this moment.
“Can you help me?” I ask again, and for a few moments, after I blink, we’re not standing in the hospital parking lot.
We’re in the woods.
On the lake.
And I’m about to fall in.
I’d looked at him that day, face numb with panic. He’d been the closest to me. To either of us, and I’d reached out, fingers stretching, hoping, and praying for help. Only for the ice to give out and Evan to leave with the others.
If he has any intuition or survival instinct, he’ll do the same thing right now. But a part of me hesitates. When he takes that first step toward me and the illusion of the ice-covered lake shatters from my mind, my heart sinks and I realize I can’t do this.
I can’t lure him over here to his death. Not even to save Phoenix. If Evan is willing to help me right here and now, how in the world can I pull the knife from behind my back out and stab him with it, framing Ernie in the process?
We used to be friends.
Evan takes another step. Then one more, until the distance between us is maybe four feet at best. He looks me over, warring emotions flit over his face so rapidly I have no idea what he could be thinking. But I need to figure out a lie, for when he makes it over here to help and—
“No.” Evan shakes his head, a look of derision crossing his features. “I don’t know what this is, but I’m not helping you.” He shakes his head again, relief coloring his features as he pushes off the responsibility of doing anything. “Tell Phoenix I said hi in jail.” His voice is flat, derisive, and I tilt my head to the side as my heart hammers against my ribs.
“How do you know I’ve been talking to Phoenix?”
Evan’s smirk is surprised, like he can’t believe I’m asking. “Because you couldn’t get enough of him before Daisy died.” I flinch at the callousness of his words. “So I’m sure it’s the same now that he’s back here.” I hate the cruelty, the coldness of his tone. But deep down, can I really blame him for it? He thinks Phoenix stabbed him.
“Okay.” I sigh, my shoulders falling. “Thanks, I guess.” He’s already turned back towards his car, keys still clutched in his hand, when I move.
“For what—” he starts, turning just enough to look at me, and I see the surprise in his eyes when I bury Ernie’s filthy, greasy blade deep in his chest.
Evan collapses. He slumps against me, his weight taking both of us to the ground, though I make no sound when his gasps fill the air. He fights, struggling against me, and I drag the blade free, surprised at how easy this is.
Like he’d just fallen onto the blade accidentally, and it had just slid right in between his ribs.
“You don’t know anything about Phoenix,” I whisper, extracting myself from under his crushing weight and rolling Evan over onto his back. I kick his keys away and move to stand over him, the knife blade dripping from where I clutch it in my fingers. “And you don’t know anything about me.”
There’s very little hesitation.
And I don’t feel any remorse.Not when my knees fold and gently, so carefully, I kneel over Evan and press the edge of the filthy, short blade against his throat.
“Please,” Evan gurgles, eyes wide. “Please don’t. Bailey—”
“I used to think that if I did something like this, it would be for Daisy,” I interrupt in a cool whisper. I press the blade deeper, my hand trembling with the effort as it cuts into his throat. My heart pounds, and a sick feeling tries to creep over me, only for the coldness filling my veins to shove it back into oblivion.
“But now I realize that it’s always been for me.” Quickly, before that rogue part of me can tell me to stop, I drag the blade across Evan’s throat and sit back on my heels, his blood spraying in arcs that splash across my black clothes and pale cheeks.
But I don’t leave. Not for a few minutes, at least. Not until he’s stopped writhing, and his body has grown cold between my knees. Only then do I stand and toss the blade down to the ground haphazardly, ripping the already torn side of one of the gloves until I’ve left a piece of it, too, tucked under Evan’s body, as if in his struggles he’d somehow managed to rip it off of ‘Ernie’ and it had gotten trapped there, instead of me placing it.
I hope they believe it.My thoughts are a whisper as I look down at him, and the coldness in my veins has taken over, freezing my emotions solid.I hope this sets Phoenix free.I step back from him and away, hands clenching around nothing before I whirl around and leave, knowing I need to stop by the church on my way back to my house to place the bloody evidence there instead of keeping it on my person to bite me in the ass later.
Chapter30
