AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Yet, as I gaze into Lyra’s gleaming dark eyes, I realize I’m far behind.
I grit my teeth. “You have exactly a minute to explain to me what in the hell is going on.”
She frowns. “I thought you would’ve been happy I’m doing it. I’m helping you.”
“Lyra, I didn’t ask for your fucking help! Tell me what’s really happening. You didn’t possibly…youput this detective here?! Celeste?!”
“I hadn’t planned on hurting her. But she wasn’t going to stop. Just like the detectives. They weren’t going to stop. They were after you,” she says, taking a step toward me.
I take one back, staring at her as though she’s a monster. As though she’s more disturbing than I ever could be.
It’s from the profound shock that’s taken root inside me. I’m truly at a loss for how to make sense of this turn of events.
“I found a bottle of pills in the bathtub. You used your medications.”
“I did,” she answers. “She was very easy to manipulate. I agreed to go back with her to your penthouse. She was going to tell me the truth about you. Show me this dungeon. But I already knew. So I took care of her for you. There was a struggle—she tried to put up a fight—but I had it under control.”
“The rug. You messed it up.”
“I wondered if you’d notice. I force-fed her some of the pills and waited ’til she passed out. Then I dragged her into the bathroom and set the scene.”
“You called me afterward and invited me over to your place. I had just gotten home from a Midnight Society event.”
“Busy night,” she jokes darkly. “You came over fast. I barely had enough time to shower and clean up. But I was being honest with you when I said I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. If I was going to tell you everything… or at least try to get the detectives off your back first. That’s what you didn’t understand. I had to verify what they knew. If what they knew was what I suspected about you.
“It didn’t take much convincing. Maloney told me everything I hoped he would. That it was really you. So, I convinced him to come with me by telling him I knew where you kept the dead bodies. I showed him the dungeon. And then… then I took him out too.”
The knowledge that Lyra’s killed for me—like I’ve killed for her—further blows my mind. I can’t process it no matter how hard I try as I stand opposite her and notice the eager light shining in her eyes as she stares at me.
It’s as though a new version of her has emerged. A Lyra I’ve never even known about.
Gone is the self-depreciating, slightly insecure lamb I’ve obsessed over.
The woman before me is standing in what she’s done. She’sproudof it.
But… it still doesn’t compute. It doesn’t add up.
“Why?” I croak, more lost than I’ve ever been in my life.
The shine in her eyes dims and her frown returns. “Because,” she says as though it’s the most obvious fact in the world, “I’ve never gotten the chance to thank you.”
“For what? What the hell are you talking about?!”
“For protecting me.” She begins stepping toward me again, a softness about her that would be sentimental if it weren’t bathed in gruesome circumstance. “The ways you’vealwaysprotected me… you make me feel so special. No one ever has like you do.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?! This isn’t funny. This isn’t a game, Lyra. Stop this charade at once!”
I feel like I’m losing my mind.
That’s the only explanation for what’s going on. I’m slowly losing my sanity as Lyra flips the script and reveals everything I’ve known so confidently is up for question.
We’re in the middle of a dungeon with a cell in one corner and a freezer of dead bodies in the other. On the table to my right are a variety of devices I’ve used to dismember countless human bodies. Pools of blood have stained the floor we stand on.
And yet… this moment is the most disturbing moment of all.
As Lyra gazes at me so adoringly, so frank and vulnerable, I feel like I’m dreaming. This can’t be real!
“You took the fall, Kaden,” she says after a moment of poignant silence. “You took the fall for the murder. For what I did all those years ago. We were only kids… but don’t you remember?”
