His heart stuttered to a sudden stop in his chest. Through a window? His mouth moved, but words flew through his mind so fast that his lips couldn’t seem to catch one to actually say it.
“We didn’t see it happen,” Eric explained. “She was alone in Tony’s room. He just sent me a text. It looks like she’ll be alright.”
Todd gripped the table edge, fingers squeezing fiercely. Amelia went in his head and came out nearly dead. That was no fucking coincidence. He’d told her not to. He’d warned her. Aurora was still in there. He could feel the twist on his thoughts, just like now.
Wait… No. It was gone. Vanished.
That’s why he felt so damn good. Aurora was out. It was just him now.
Fucking hell! He slammed his fist to the table. It buckled and jerked from the force.
What had Aurora done now?
He barreled out the door. Aurora went after Amelia last night. Somehow she got to her. There was no doubt in his mind. The bitch was going to pay for this. There was nothing to keep him from destroying her, no remaining shred of humanity. Aurora had ripped the last of it away with this single action. He wanted to crush her, more than anything. More than crack. More than a future.
“Wait!” Eric called after him, following quickly through the building and outside. “Where are you going?” he demanded, pulling his arms into his coat and practically running after Todd as he stalked toward his car.
“Where the hell do you think? I’m going to take care of our witch-bitch problem.”
“You’re going after Aurora?” Eric exclaimed. “Are you crazy? You’re sober. She’ll take over your mind!”
Todd ignored him and yanked his car door open. Eric jumped forward, blocking his path. “I can’t let you. Sandy-”
“Will thank me,” Todd interrupted. “And so should you. Now move.”
“Then I’m coming with you,” he declared.
“Fine,” Todd growled.
Eric hurried to passenger side, and they took off. Todd wasted no time on irritating things like speed limits. Eric sucked in a sharp breath as he took a hard turn. “Scared?” Todd dared him.
Eric’s voice was tight as he answered. “The last time I got in the car with someone who was this mad, I almost died.”
Todd shook his head. “You’re not the one dying today.”
His passenger was uncharacteristically quiet in the seat beside him for the remainder of the ride. When they screeched to a stop in the lot of Aurora’s loony bin, he reached across Eric, popping open the glove box for a little chemical protection. Eric watched with distaste as he packed his pipe and lit up, vaporizing his ticket to freedom.
“Sandy will never forgive us for this,” Eric said quietly.
“I don’t need forgiveness,” he muttered. His eyes rolled back as he felt the intense blast of exhilarating pleasure course through his body.
“How are you planning on doing it? You can’t bring a weapon in.”
Todd shrugged and packed another rock into the tip of his pipe. This one was small. He couldn’t be too blasted when he walked in there, just enough to keep her out of his head. “I’ll break her neck,” he answered plainly. Just like she did to Jameson.
“Have you ever broken someone’s neck before?” Eric inquired condescendingly.
“Ask me again tomorrow.”
Eric was speechless as Todd finished with his drug and tossed his pipe aside. It hit him fast as usual, pumping him up. There was no need to wait a second longer. He climbed out of his car, and Eric scrambled to follow, getting in his face. “I can’t let you do this,” he stated.
“Sure you can,” Todd replied, sidestepping to go around him, but Eric blocked and shoved him back a step. Todd’s eyes grew wide with anger at the skinny jerk. Pretty boy had nerve, he’d give him that, but it was so damn misplaced. “Think real hard before you do that again,” Todd warned. A fight would not derail him. He was going in that building whether Eric liked it or not. Whether he had to go through him or around him. Nothing could stop this.
He took a step forward, and Eric boldly shoved him again. Rage flared inside of him. “Don’t you dare try to stop me,” he growled, pointing accusingly. “This is your damn fault. All of it.”
Eric swallowed hard, his resolve cracking.
“You should have killed her at the beach, but you let the damn bitch live! Now Amelia’s in the hospital, Sandy should be, and I have to clean up your goddamn mess! So get out of my fucking way, or I’ll go straight through you.”
Eric slowly shook his head. Fucking idiot. Todd stepped forward, rage blazing like fire to his fist, but crushing guilt stomped it out cold as Eric’s car pulled into the empty space beside them. Sandy looked right at them from behind the wheel.
“Did you fucking text her?” Todd demanded, grabbing a fistful of the punk’s coat.
“Tony,” Eric snapped back defiantly.
Todd tossed him aside, and Eric barely stumbled, holding his composure and assuming a stance that was ready for anything.
Sandy got out of the car, her face an odd mix of pasty white and angry red. “I won’t let you do this,” Sandy said through gritted teeth. Her voice sounded mangled. She wore a scarf around her neck, hiding his handprints, but the injury he’d inflicted on her face stood out from her pallid skin. The sight made him want to vomit.
“You can’t stop me,” Todd growled, looking down to hold his composure.
“I know you’re angry and worried, but you can’t throw your life away.”
“What life?” he demanded vehemently. “Aurora promised to take away everything and everyone I care about, including Amelia. Last night she tried to make good on that promise. If I don’t do this, I’ll have nothing left. She’ll take it all!”
“But… Todd…” Sandy exclaimed, not knowing how to argue with the truth.
Impatiently, he strode past her, heading into the building. She and Eric followed quickly, but Eric hesitated at the door. She gave him a look that demanded he follow, but Eric shook his head and backed away carefully, eyeing the door like it was the gateway into hell. Smart sober idiot. Stay outside where it’s safe. Sandy kept near Todd as he went to the front desk. If she was going to watch him kill Aurora, so be it, because her presence did nothing to sway his plan.
He signed into the guest log as a nurse walked up to the desk. “I’m here to see Aurora Mason,” he informed her.
“I’m sorry, but she isn’t permitted visitors.”
His glance jerked up to search her face. Was she fucking kidding? “I was just here yesterday.”
“I’m sorry, but her status has changed,” she stated vaguely.
His heart slammed wildly into his ribs. “She’s still a patient, right?” he demanded.
The nurse faked a polite smile and said, “Try again another time.” She disappeared into the file room, effectively avoiding him.
Todd felt his mood spiraling wildly, wound-up anger with no place to direct it as his plan slipped from his reach. His breathing pace quickened as his mind scrambled for a new plan.
He needed to kill her. Now. It couldn’t wait. What if she was still in Amelia’s head, still trying to off her? Amelia couldn’t wait.
He pulled on the locked door to the visitation room. He shoved, pulled, and slammed his hand against it. There was no getting through, no sneaking in.
He rushed outside, feeling his rage twisting to panic. His hands shoved through his hair, pulling at it as he struggled to breathe normally.
Fucking hell! Fuck, fuck, fuck!
He wasn’t aware if Eric and Sandy were following him, so when he heard a voice telling him to stop, he spun around, expecting one of them. It wasn’t. They were in the lot, but it was Ian who jogged to him. Once he was in reach, Todd grabbed him by his crisp white shirt and threw him against his car, hard. Metal crunched on impact, and Ian winced with pain. Todd pinned him with his forearm pressed to his chest. Ian’s eyes were wide and shocked to hell.
“What the fuck do yo
u want?” Todd demanded.
His hands lifted in a show of surrender, but Todd kept a solid grip on him.
“I know what you mean to her,” Ian rushed to say. “She’d want you to know.”
“Know what?” he growled, arm pressing harder. He could feel Sandy and Eric drawing closer to the scene playing out in the parking lot. Yet another that went unnoticed. He guessed the staff assumed all the craziness happened on the inside. They were so fucking wrong.
Ian swallowed hard, nervously eyeing Todd. “She won’t be getting out. At least not anytime soon.”
“Why? What changed?”
“She tried to commit suicide last night.”
Todd snorted. “Bullshit. She would never.”
“It’s true. I was there. She started acting wild, yelling and holding her head, then the next thing I knew, she plowed through the window.”
Shock numbed his limbs, loosing his grip. “Through a window?” he repeated.
“She fell. Three stories. But don’t worry. She’ll be okay. Just a couple broken bones. She’s a fighter, our Aurora.”
He stared in shocked disgust at the broken guy in his hold. How fucking messed up. This guy was as screwed up in the head as the rest of them, just another pawn Aurora was moving around the chessboard.
“You followed us, didn’t you?” Todd demanded. “Into the woods. You gave her the books.”
“Of course. She needed them.”
“I need those books back.”
“It’s too late. She’s hidden them. I don’t know where.” He reached into his pocket, and Todd’s eyes flicked to follow the motion, expecting a knife. Instead he drew out a business card. “My number’s on the back,” he explained as he handed it over.
Todd let go of him when a couple of workers noticed the altercation and came outside. He backed away, and Ian placed the card into his hand. “Call and I’ll keep you updated on how she’s doing.”
He stared in wonder as Ian slipped back into the building with his coworkers. Sandy pressed close to Eric, and his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Todd stupidly clutched the card, watching them with wide eyes. He’d never been so stunned in his life.
Sandy was pale again. Completely white. “Amelia said something when she woke up,” she uttered in a choked whisper.
Todd took a step closer, needing to know everything concerning Amelia.
Sandy swallowed carefully before adding, “She asked, ‘did I get her?’” A chill raced over Sandy’s skin, shaking her petite shoulders. “I think she did this to Aurora. She pushed her… somehow.”
“Or dragged her down with her,” Todd added.
Sandy nodded. “Whatever she did… it bought us time.”
She was right. Months at least. Aurora’s doctors couldn’t ignore an attempted suicide. True or not, they wouldn’t know the difference.
It was fucking bizarre. Amelia… He wondered if she’d known she would be battling Aurora in her head last night, or if it had been as much of a shock to her as it was to them. Either way, she was amazing.
She fucking got her alright, and it was friggin’ incredible.
CHAPTER 32
DEVIL’S DANCE
I watched Tony at the pay phone. He leaned against the wall with his back to the waiting room. Eric and I had been at the hospital for about an hour, waiting with Tony while Amelia underwent a few more tests. He’d made a lot of phone calls in that hour, using the pay phone to keep his cell open to taking calls and texts. He didn’t say it, but I knew he was worried about Todd, and like me, half-expecting he would be his one phone call from jail. After the way he drove off from his failed attempt at murdering Aurora, I was expecting the worst.
Eric’s head rested heavily on my shoulder where he had nodded off. His hand twitched, and I wondered what he was dreaming. After the way he’d left me at the door of Reid-Pearce earlier, I was angry. On some level, I understood that he couldn’t go inside. If Aurora were to merely touch him, he might attack me. I hated our situation, and it came out as anger toward him. I didn’t feel compelled to give his mind privacy at the moment, so I grasped his hand, welcoming his vision into my head.
2002, ERIC
I pounded the empty shot glass down on the table and high-fived Jonah and Evan.
“The King!” Evan exclaimed, lifting my fist to the air in victory. “Of the field and the party!”
I laughed and brushed the shoulders of my lacrosse jersey in mock arrogance. They plowed through the room, hooting loudly and making way for me, but I didn’t follow. Instead, I grabbed an empty cup, filled it from the tap, and guzzled water. I’d gone a bit overboard, as usual, and the room was spinning. My mom would kill me for this. I laughed to myself, making a mental note to downplay the night’s events when she called tomorrow. I’d play up my victory on the field to overshadow it.
Tom clapped me on the shoulder and started rapping our song. I joined in, beatboxing the drum part, but stopped suddenly. A chill prickled at the back of my neck and trailed down to a burning cold block of ice in the pit of my stomach. I glanced up and saw a girl watching me from across the room. An oversized white leather purse hung from her shoulder, something fancy that a magazine model would hold. She leaned against the wall by a large window, twirling a lock of golden hair around her finger. Her nails, painted a fluorescent pink, glittered under the party lights. There was… something… about her. Something that felt… different.
I took a step toward her. Her plump ruby lips curled up into a smile at me. I was thinking about smiling back when Tony rushed by, looking angry as hell. He threw the front door open, and I hurried after him.
“Tony! Dude, what’s wrong?” I asked, following him down the lawn. “What happened?” I pressed, jogging to catch up to him.
“I’m an idiot!” he roared.
I stopped him when we reached his silver Mustang, grabbing him by the elbow. He spun around and shoved me. I stumbled back in shock. His face was bright red, his expression tight and twisted. “Olivia just dumped me!” he screamed. “I caught her with him! Stupid Mike!” Tears slipped from his eyes, and he swiped angrily at his cheeks with wildly trembling hands. “That asshole.”
I shook my head in shocked anger.
“They were hooking up, Eric!” he yelled. “She says she wants to be with him! Him! I followed her to this stupid school for nothing!” He shoved me again. Hard.
Crap. “Scumbags,” I growled. Mike was a friend, but going after Olivia was low. “Wanna beat him up?” I offered, grinding my fist into my palm.
“No! I want to leave. Now!”
He got in his car, slamming the door, and I rushed to follow. I barely had the door closed before Tony peeled away from the curb.
“Maybe you shouldn’t drive right now,” I suggested, fumbling with my tangled seatbelt.
“Who should drive? You?” he snapped. “That quart of alcohol you drank would disagree.”
“No, yeah, I know,” I mumbled, tossing the seatbelt to unwind it. “It’s just… you’re pretty mad.”
“No way, Eric. No fucking way! I just saw my girlfriend of three years with her legs wrapped around Mike’s ass! So, yeah, I’m mad.”
His foot jammed harder on the accelerator. Finally, my seatbelt clicked into place. “Tony, I get it.”
“Do you, Eric? Really?” he mocked.
“You just… you need to calm down, before you get us both killed.”
“No! What I need is for you to sh-” Tony slammed the brake suddenly. Lights flashed around us, and we skidded into darkness. The Mustang’s engine roared as our headlights closed in on a tree. Fast.
Shattering impact jarred us, the deafening crash throwing everything in the shrinking car into sudden motion and a quick, final stop.
Silence.
Blackness seemed to pulse around me. A sizzling sound, muffled, dragged me up from my dark, quiet nowhere. I felt numb, disoriented, and like I’d been tossed about. My chest moved with shallow breaths, and my nose twitched, itching a
t the smell of something burning. I opened my eyes. White smoke or fog drifted before me in the black of night. I squinted, my fuzzy head struggling to recall what had happened. The car seemed too small, the walls too close around me. I couldn’t move. It was as if I was wrapped up, boxed in tight. My head lolled to the side, and I saw a white airbag shoved against my friend’s face. His head moved slowly.
“Elijah?” I called, my voice sounding small and choked. “Elijah, are you alright?”
He slowly pushed back from the airbag and nodded, forehead wrinkling in worry beneath his black spiked hair. “Yeah. You?” he asked, leaning his head back against his seat cushion drowsily.
“Fine,” I answered. My woozy head tried to turn, but I couldn’t move very far. “Sandy?” I called out. My voice cracked from the smoke, and I coughed, hacking and choking. She didn’t answer, and Elijah looked at me, puzzled.
“Who’s Sandy?” he asked, squinting groggily.
“Sandy… Is Sandy alright? Is she okay?” I asked, my voice wavering in panic as I limply struggled to see the back seat.
Elijah’s eyes were focused on me, but not on my face. “Eric,” he breathed. His eyes were wide, his expression at the edge of panic. “You’re not okay,” he whispered.
I followed his gaze down. Glass was everywhere, sparkling shards glittering in the moonlight, but I couldn’t see my legs. Or much of my waist. The dashboard was on my lap. Mangled metal and busted plastic molded around me, swallowing my lower half. I tried to move again but couldn’t.
“Good thing I’m drunk,” I muttered, leaning my head back slowly. “Otherwise this might hurt.”
“I’m so sorry, Eric. I’m so sorry,” he scrambled to say.
“Just take care of Sandy,” I mumbled, my head feeling heavy as a boulder. My eyes rolled back into my head.
“Don’t move. I’m going to get help,” I heard from far away.
My breath was heavy. The hissing sounds of the engine began to fade. I heard footsteps. Even the crickets silenced in warning and anticipation.
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