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“Why, Cammie?” I whisper, my heart rapping so fast I fear I’ll pass out again. “Why are you doing this? Why have youkilled all those girls?”
I don’t even let her deny it. I know it’s her and her partner. It has to be. But nothing makes sense! After all we went through, how can she kill innocents?
She chuckles with a frosted, dead look in her eyes. “Look at you. You figured it out, huh?” She starts to clap. “Bravo!”
“I—I don’t get it.” My words quake out of me. “We don’t kill innocent people. We save them. We help them. How…how could you do this?”
“Mmm.” She twists her mouth and pouts. “I’m sorry, but we aren’t all superheroes like you and your boyfriend, killing thebadpeople.” She rolls her eyes, then stares at me with sinister intent. “Not all of us aresoooperfect,” she snarls. “I hated them, you know. All those beautiful, perfect girls walking around the world like their lives were untouchable.”
She inhales deep, then releases, as though attempting to collect herself.
“Perfect families. Perfect boyfriends. Perfect jobs. Nothing out of place. Until they met me, that is.” She grins, and all the hairs on my body stand up.
I have never seen her this way. So callous and broken. Is that what she became? I feel sorry for her in this instant. She was hurting, and no one truly saw it.
“What did you do?” I whisper.
“Well, I’d meet them. Become their friend, then I’d drug them and let my friend have a little fun.” Her lips thin into a calculating sneer. “See, some of them didn’t actually die. Some were sent away to a much more horrifying place.” Unblinking, she glares. “You know, the kind you and I know very well.”
“Oh my God!” I clutch my mouth with a hand. “You were working with the trafficking ring?”
“Yes.” Her grin widens. “See, initially, he was gonna take me, but I couldn’t let that happen, so we became friends. Once he found out about what I was doing to the girls, we came up with a business arrangement. Of sorts.” She shrugs a shoulder. “He gets some of the girls to expand his business, and the others, I let him test drive before I got to have my fun. Because no life is perfect, Kayla. You should know that more than anyone.”
“I’m…” I pant. “I’m so sorry.” Large tears roll down my eyes. “I’m so sorry I never truly saw your pain, how much more you needed from us. I’m sorry we all failed you,” I weep.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” She drives the barrel of the gun into my temple. “There’s nothing wrong with me!” Her features contort into something demonic. “They’rethe ones who were deluding themselves into believing a perfect life exists. They thought the rules of the world didn’t apply to them. I set them straight. They should thank me. Because now they know too.”
Unable to help myself, I continue to sob, while Sophia clutches on to me, crying too.
“And…and the star? Was that you or your partner?”
“All my idea.” Her face radiates like she’s proud. “Mommy used to call me her little star. Look how that turned out.” Her gaze narrows. “She never wanted me after she found out what a whore I was. Never forgave me. None of them did. Even my twelve-year-old brother looked at me with disgust. Wouldn’t talk to me when I’d go to his school and try. Laughed at me with his friends, whispered about me while they all stared from the playground.” Her nostrils flare. “So I showed them who I truly was. And that moment right before they died, when their eyes connected with mine as I sank the blade into them for that final time, that was when they truly saw me.”
“This…this isn’t you.” Pain seeps out of me in waves, unable tocomprehend how she could do this, how far she’s fallen.
She keeps her hand fastened around my hair as she pins her nose to mine. “Thisisme! And soon, you’ll see that too.”
“And…and where’s the doctor? Is he here? Is he watching us?”
Her laugh sends another cold shudder down my body. With a sigh, she rises to full height.
“Oh, the doctor won’t be joining us I’m afraid.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.” Her eyes dance maniacally. “But sweet Dr. Collins is no longer with us.” A wrinkle appears between her eyes in mock sadness.
“I—I don’t understand. I thought he…he was working with you.”
Her laughter echoes. “I lied, you idiot! I’m such a good actress, aren’t I?”
She clears her throat and tilts her chin up.
“He was so nice to me. He was helping me. How? How could he?” she sniffles dramatically, repeating the words she said when she told A and me the doctor was the one who hurt her.
“Who?” I can’t seem to breathe, the question barely falling from my lips. “Who killed him, Cammie?”
“I did.” But the voice that answers is no longer hers.
