AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Then what?” I asked, tearing my eyes away from her. I couldn’t bear to look at her face anymore.
“I waited for our next sleepover. The next morning, when your mom was making us breakfast, I told her I thought I left my favorite lip gloss in her car when she picked me up the day before. I asked her for the keys so I could go out to the garage and grab it. She had no reason to suspect me. She handed the keys right over.”
“You’re an evil fucking bitch,” I muttered. “Truly.”
Michaela laughed. “You say evil, I say resourceful. Anyway, I messed around with the car, and an hour later, she headed off to a meeting. I think it would’ve lasted maybe five minutes before everything went haywire and exploded on her.”
My eyes were blurring with hot, stinging tears again, and my heart was aching terribly. “I hate you. I fucking hate you.”
Michaela ignored me and continued prattling on. “You know, I was always surprised your dad never suspected anything about me. I mean, first his wife dies in a so-called targeted fringe attack, and then his daughter is almost stabbed to death in a massacre six months later. Most people probably wouldn’t think that was a coincidence.”
“Well, most people probably wouldn’t suspect a sixteen-year-old girl of being a psychotic murderer,” I said bitterly.
“God, you’re so dramatic.” She tapped on the steering wheel again. “Do you have any idea how fucking annoying it’s been listening to you cry and whine for the last four years? Wah, my mom died! Wah, my boyfriend tried to kill me! Wah, someone is trying to get me expelled from college! Fucking shoot me, please.”
I turned to stare at her again, eyes wide. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I snapped. “Every single one of those issues was caused directly by you!”
“I know. I’m just saying, it’s been really annoying. You seriously need therapy. Like, real therapy in a mental hospital. Not some weird farm thing halfway across the world. Although I have to say, it was nice to have space from you while you were over there.”
My eyes narrowed. “So is that what the whole Tayla thing was about? Your way of getting space from me and all my so-called drama?”
“Yup.” She nodded and smiled. “I made it up so I could have an excuse to be ‘angry’ at you and not have to listen to your incessant whining for a few days. Also, I figured it would be another kick in the teeth for you—the worry of potentially losing a so-called best friend.”
I seethed. “God, you really are such a bitch.”
“Yeah, I know. But I’m a bitch who gets what she wants. Now, would you mind shutting up for a while? We have a long drive, and I really don’t want to listen to you complaining the whole way.”
I didn’t have any desire to speak to her anymore either, so I kept my mouth shut for the next couple of hours. We rarely passed other cars due to the very late hour, but whenever I saw headlights up ahead, I tried my best to sit up straight and frantically shake my head in the hopes of attracting the other motorist’s attention. It never worked, though. They probably couldn’t see me, and even if they did, it was only for a split-second, so there was no way they’d notice that I was tied up.
We turned into the driveway of the summer house just after 3:30 in the morning. I was still wide awake due to the sheer terror I felt, and Michaela seemed equally wired.
“Home sweet home,” she said, pulling out a pocketknife. She waved it at me. “If you move at all in the next minute, I might change my mind about killing you in a few days. I might just do it now instead.”
“Got it,” I said through gritted teeth, watching helplessly as she leaned down to slice through the ropes around my ankles. The ropes fastening my hands together remained there.
“Now you can walk.” Michaela smiled and sat up again. “Let’s go.”
She came around to the passenger side to open my door and help me out a moment later.
“You’ve been here before, haven’t you?” she asked, taking my right arm in hers as she tilted her chin up toward the summer house. It was an imposing three-story building that stood proudly against the backdrop of the sea. A beautiful place to visit under any other circumstances.
I nodded curtly. “We came here for a week in the summer during seventh grade.”
“That’s right. I remember now.” She smiled again. “That was fun, wasn’t it?”
I nodded again, wondering if she’d start acting like a human if I kept reminding her of the times we shared before she turned into a complete psychopath. Maybe she’d finally feel guilty enough to stop this madness.
“We collected all those shells and made jewelry out of them,” I said softly. “Then we tried to make your parents buy them from us.”
“That’s right. But Tate bought them instead. You know he still has them, right? I saw them at his place a while ago.” Her smile suddenly faded. “Had them, I should say. We should really get used to talking about him in the past tense, shouldn’t we?”
My stomach lurched. The cold, indifferent way in which she spoke about Tate’s death instantly put any hope I had about her feeling even a sliver of guilt to rest. She wasn’t capable of it. I would die at her hands in a few days, and there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening. All I could really do was hope someone figured out where I was and help me before it was too late.
The only ‘someone’ I knew who would do that for me now was Paxton. He’d save me if he could. But was it even possible? Could he really find me here with the clock ticking so fast, counting down to my death?
All I could do was hope.
Paxton
