This Lie Will Kill You

by Chelsea Pitcher

  Parker clasped his hands over his mouth, staggering backwards. “You took the video. Everyone blamed Shane, because of that dark hair, curving over the frame—”

  “But it was mine,” Brianna admitted. “When you’re right, you’re right.”

  Juniper gasped, and all the color bled out of Gavin’s cheeks. Brett closed his eyes. But Ruby’s eyes had grown wide at the sound of Brianna’s confession, and she stared at the girl in the mask, her gaze unflinching. “When did you start wearing the wig?”

  “Oh, I think you know the answer to that question.” Brianna reached up, scratching her head. “Did you ever see the movie The Witches? Remember how they scratched their wigs before they revealed themselves? Their true faces?”

  Ruby remembered. She’d seen The Witches and read the book when she was a child. She’d seen the movie Clue and played the game whenever she had the chance. She’d seen Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. She loved scary movies, as long as they weren’t too gory.

  Psychological torture was better, anyway.

  That was what she’d always thought. But now, with Brianna scratching that wig, Ruby’s guts clenched. She imagined a hideous sight hiding beneath that hair. Imagined a skull covered in third-degree burns. And she held her breath as the wig fell away, revealing the secret Brianna had been keeping.

  Each one of them had a secret. Each one of them was wearing a mask. And one by one, those masks would fall away.

  “Parker?” Brianna asked, looking small and vulnerable without her wig. Her head wasn’t bald, but rather, had the first downy curls of a newborn’s growing out of it. Dark and beautiful and soft. “Would you like to tell them what happened?”

  “Hey, if you decided to shave your head, that’s your problem.” Parker shrugged, crossing his arms.

  “Actually, I did. Two months ago,” Brianna added. “It wouldn’t grow back even, after the burns.” She ran her long, lithe fingers through Ruby’s crimson tresses. “You have beautiful hair, you know that?”

  “I . . . Thank you,” Ruby managed. Her heart was a wild thing, feral and thrashing. Blood pulsed in her palms.

  “It’s really a pity, what I have to do now.”

  “Leave her alone,” Parker snarled, storming up to the camera.

  “Of course, you could stop it.” Brianna turned, rummaging around in the darkness. She’d confiscated Ruby’s purse, but she also had a bag of her own. “If you told them the truth, I might let her go.”

  “Might,” Parker repeated. That was the word he stuck on. Not “let her go.” Not “the truth.” Just “might.” Without a guarantee, he’d let Ruby burn. Literally, she thought, as Brianna lifted a matchbox from her bag.

  “Parker, please,” Ruby begged. “Whatever happened, I promise I’ll forgive you. Please don’t let her kill me.”

  “I’m not going to kill you. I’m just going to . . .” She struck a match and lowered it to Ruby’s hair. “Where should I start? The ends will go up more quickly, but the roots will have more of an impact on the audience.”

  Parker made a sound like choking. Opened his mouth, as if to spill the dark, dirty secret he was keeping. Then, just as quickly, he fell silent. He wasn’t going to sacrifice himself to save Ruby.

  As usual, she’d have to do it herself.

  Ruby slammed her head backwards. There was a sizzling sound, as fire met flesh, but that was nothing compared to the sound of her skull meeting Brianna’s mask. Porcelain cracked, and when Ruby twisted around, she found a long, crooked line running down the center of the mask. She could’ve whooped in triumph. Instead she pushed to her feet, the chair still lashed to her body, and pivoted left, slamming it against her captor.

  Then, a thud.

  Then, scampering as Brianna struggled to find her footing, but Ruby didn’t stick around to watch. She bolted up a set of stairs, seeking the door at the top. She turned the knob. Pushed and pushed. The door cracked open, just enough to squeeze through, and then she was standing in the playroom with the life-size doll. Someone had written on his skin. Someone had drenched him from head to toe, and now he was dripping water onto the floor. Ruby’s heart clenched, and she fought off the dark, desperate desire to protect him. This was only a doll.

  The real Shane Ferrick was gone.

  Tearing her gaze from the boy so familiar he knocked the breath from her lungs, Ruby lunged for the playroom door. She was halfway down the hall when she heard footsteps behind her, slow and measured, as if Brianna had all the time in the world.

  Ruby didn’t. When she reached the top of the banister, she slammed the chair against it. Wood splintered but didn’t crack. She slammed it again. The rope was burning her skin, but still, she hurled that chair against the banister until it broke. It didn’t come apart entirely, but it came apart enough, and then Ruby was wriggling out of her bindings.

  She was free.

  Or so she thought. But the others had gathered at the bottom of the stairs, and they were screaming at her to turn around. She spun just in time to see Brianna reaching for her. No, not reaching. Pushing. Ruby stumbled backwards, and she barely had time to drop to her knees before she was falling. She wasn’t a girl escaping a beast. She was skin scraping and bones bruising and lungs crying out for release. But Ruby was a survivor, and this wasn’t her first time falling down the stairs.

  She wouldn’t let it break her.

  When she passed the middle of the staircase, Ruby reached out, her hand slamming against the banister. She shrieked, cursing the wrought-iron structure, and gravity, and any god that still cared about her. New bruises blossomed on her skin, but she didn’t pull back her hand. Instead she grappled until her fingers curled around the banister and her body stopped falling.

  Everything stopped.

  Then, a homecoming party. A welcoming like she’d never known. Parker and Brett were cheering at the bottom of the stairs, and Gavin had some color in his cheeks. Only Juniper failed to grin, and Ruby didn’t have time to ask why as she hobbled toward them.

  She felt the rope slide around her throat. Felt herself lift into the air, her hands going instinctively to the rope, but she couldn’t pull it away. She couldn’t free herself. The last thing she saw, before spots eclipsed her vision, was Parker’s mouth opening. “It was me!” he shouted.

  Then another thud, as Ruby’s body hit the first-floor landing. Her hands clasped her throat. She was crying, her eyes stinging like her skin, and when she looked up at Parker, she found his lashes were wet.

  Ruby reached for him. He pulled her from the ground, cradling her in his arms. And Brianna, curiously, moved back.

  “Park, you can tell me,” Ruby said softly, curling into him. “Whatever you did, you can tell me.”

  Parker peered at her. Those green eyes, which had always seemed like emeralds glittering, had a curious light to them. A wicked spark. He brushed the hair from her face, kissing her forehead tenderly, and whispered, “I made the video of you and Shane.”

  25.

  WHITE KNIGHT

  God’s honest truth, Parker only half remembered that day. He thought he’d taken care of the problem. Thought cutting off Ruby’s access to Shane’s bedroom would be enough, and the spell would unravel.

  He’d been wrong.

  The morning after he’d sent her mother into hysterics, he spied Ruby at the edge of the school park, her fingers sliding into Shane Ferrick’s hair. Parker’s fingers curled into fists. He wanted to charge into those trees and knock the forbidden fruit right out of Ruby’s hands, but that would only make it more tantalizing to her.

  He needed to cut Shane off at the roots.

  Later that day, he found himself stalking the aisles of one of his father’s grocery stores, searching for chemical hair remover. Parker could remember the summer when Ruby had tried that stuff on her legs. Tired of shaving (and too proud to let Parker pay for a waxing), Ruby had opted to burn the hair off her legs. The result had been red, splotchy skin with the occasional tuft of hair sticking
out.

  Parker had burst out laughing at the sight of it.

  Now he almost did it again, envisioning Shane’s bald, splotchy head, but there were cameras all over his father’s stores. He didn’t want to get caught acting suspicious. Calmly, he plucked a razor from one of the shelves, to give the illusion that he was shopping for himself, and then he slipped a bottle of that chemical crap into his shirt while he was bent over.

  The evening passed in a blur. Before he’d even realized where the time had gone, he was climbing out of his car at the Fallen Oaks Trailer Park, approaching Shane’s trailer in the dark. The bathroom window was cracked. It led directly into the shower, and Parker reached inside, easily locating the bottle of shampoo on a hanging rack. He knew, from conversations at school, that Shane liked to take showers “when the moon was bright.”

  He rolled his eyes at the thought, filling the bottle with hair remover.

  Then he waited for Shane to arrive. It took a good hour and a half, and when the door to the Ferricks’ bathroom opened, Parker jumped back. From the safety of the darkness, he caught a glimpse of sickly pale skin and stringy dark hair.

  He grinned.

  And time began to speed by. Maybe it was because Parker was enjoying himself, or maybe the universe was conspiring with him, speeding past the unimportant moments to get to the good stuff. Yes, that had to be it, because time slowed down again when a shriek came from the bathroom.

  Parker stepped closer, pulling his phone out of his pocket. A picture is worth a thousand words, he thought, creeping up to the glass. But what he saw there stilled his breath and knocked the smile from his face.

  Shane Ferrick wasn’t standing there in a towel, sobbing into his hands. It was Brianna. Then someone was knocking on the bathroom door, and Brianna was wrapping another towel around her head to hide what had happened.

  Parker raced for the parking lot. He’d almost reached his car when a door slammed open. He could hear it at his back, and he froze, telling himself he wouldn’t be seen. If anything, the light coming from inside the trailer would make the surrounding area darker.

  He turned and looked.

  And there, coming out of the Ferricks’ front door, was Shane. Did he know Parker was there? No, Parker realized, sliding into his Mustang. Shane didn’t look angry. He looked excited.

  He was carrying a rope.

  He’s going to see Ruby, Parker thought, as Shane slipped behind the wheel of his car. He didn’t know where the thought had come from, or why he felt so certain of it, but he did. He had hurt someone Shane loved, and now Shane was going to hurt someone he loved.

  He tailed the guy all the way to Ruby’s block.

  When Shane disappeared around the side of the house, Parker pulled out his phone. He wanted to record Shane standing in Ruby’s room with that rope. Wanted to show the world who Shane really was before he kicked his ass. Activating the camera, he set it to record, then hurried across the lawn. There was an old, fat cherry tree outside Ruby’s window, and if he set the phone in just the right crook, he could get part of her bed in the frame.

  So he did.

  Then, creeping around the tree trunk, he peered through the open window. Ruby was sliding off her bed, dressed in a tiny white nightgown, while Shane stepped toward her, whispering about leaving town. And Ruby . . .

  The love of his life.

  The girl he’d lost his virginity to.

  Ruby leaned in and agreed. Soon she was kissing him, and they were crawling all over each other, and then . . .

  She stopped.

  The breath rushed into Parker’s body. She stopped! Finally, after all his plotting, Ruby had shaken off Shane’s spell on her own. Now Shane was moving to the window, ready to slip into the night and out of Ruby’s life.

  Parker slid into the shadows with no trouble at all—that, he was getting very good at—and he waited for Shane to climb into his car and peel away. But Shane didn’t. He simply plucked an object from the passenger seat and returned to Ruby’s window.

  What the hell?

  Parker waited for Ruby’s strangled cry. He waited for the exact perfect moment to swoop in and be her white knight. He was even wearing white! His crisp white T-shirt was in perfect contrast to Shane’s dark button-down, and he felt a thrill of excitement at the thought of defending Ruby’s honor.

  But something strange was happening inside of Ruby’s bedroom. Parker took one step closer, then two. By the third step, his heart had cracked open and his brain had turned off. When he came to again, he was kneeling on the ground, the rope had been discarded, and so had Ruby’s clothes.

  Then he remembered the phone.

  He’d been recording the entire time, and he’d never once stepped in front of the camera. But would it be enough? From the looks of things, Ruby and Shane were just getting started. If Parker played this right, he could still pull off a major coup, humiliate Shane Ferrick in front of the entire school, and win back the love of his life.

  But he would have to be quick. He raced down the street, pulled open the door to his car, and practically tumbled inside. After taking three painful breaths, he turned the key in the ignition.

  Then Parker drove off into the night.

  Fifteen minutes later, when he was squeezing through the Ferricks’ bathroom window, he wondered if the universe was testing him. In fairy tales, the knight in shining armor always had to endure some great and terrible trial. In order to rescue the princess, and be worthy of a kingdom, you had to be fierce. You had to be strong. Gathering a few strands of Brianna’s hair, Parker felt invincible.

  He drove back to Ruby’s house.

  This time, he parked halfway down the block, jogged quietly to Ruby’s window, and hid behind the cherry tree. But he didn’t stop the recording yet. He needed to wait for Shane to leave, and then he could dangle that ebony hair in front of the camera. The evidence would be irrefutable. Shane would be exposed for the deviant that he was. And Parker would swoop in, comforting his princess and securing his rightful place on the throne.

  26.

  KNOCK OUT

  Ruby stared at Parker, her mouth hanging open. She was trembling, and she didn’t imagine it would stop anytime soon. “You . . .” She pushed out of his arms. She thought that if Brianna snuck up on her in that moment and slid a knife across her throat, she wouldn’t feel a thing.

  But Brianna didn’t sneak up on Ruby. Brianna wasn’t even there. During the course of Parker’s confession, she must’ve slipped down the hallway. Now Ruby could see a blur of white watching them from the dining room, while the rope remained at Ruby’s feet.

  She lifted it from the ground. Beckoning the group into the living room, she bound the doorknobs carefully, the way she’d done with Shane’s wrists one year earlier.

  Then she hurled herself at Parker.

  Her first blow knocked his face to the side, and she could already see a welt. But she didn’t stop to savor the sight. She caught him with a left hook, pushing off with her heel, the way she’d learned to do after her father disappeared. Mrs. Valentine had insisted the older girls in the family learn self-defense, and Ruby had taken to it instantly. There was so much fire inside her, so many things she’d held back over the years. It had been nice to let it out.

  It was nicer now. Parker lumbered backward, smacking into a sofa, and Ruby actually thought he was going to go down. She tossed a glance at Brett, as if to say, This isn’t so hard. But Brett was coming closer, and while Ruby didn’t think he’d knock her out to protect his precious Parker, she could envision his arms wrapping around her, lifting her as if she were weightless.

  She got in one last kick before she walked away, hands in the air. A false surrender. Once Brett let his guard down, she could go after Parker again. She could really make him pay.

  Down on the floor, Parker was kneeling, hands scrabbling for the edge of the sofa. “What the hell—”

  “You’re the reason we’re here,” she spat, hands shaking. He was staring at
her, red-faced, panting, like he didn’t even know who she was. That’s good, she thought, gritting her teeth. He has no idea who I am. But he will.

  “Brianna’s the reason we’re here,” he said, finally regaining his composure. “She tried to kill you. She tried to drown your friend.”

  Ruby glanced at Juniper, curled up on the sofa. Gavin sat beside her, keeping her warm. A surge of empathy rushed through Ruby, and she hurried over to them. She was so, so angry, ready to rip Parker’s face off, but seeing them huddled together was tugging at her heartstrings. Tugging at what was left of her. Sometimes, she thought only a piece of her had remained after the night of the fire.

  Like her soul had slipped away with Shane’s.

  She winced, sitting gingerly on the sofa. “That morning, I had the most wonderful smile on my face. The kind that sends energy all through your body, down to your toes. Then I looked at my phone, and that video was waiting for me.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “God, Parker, how could you do that?”

  “I needed you to see who he was.”

  “That isn’t who he was! That’s who you are.” Ruby’s fists tightened, and Juniper reached out to stop her from attacking again. For a moment, the girls had a conversation without words. Ruby could see the remorse in Juniper’s eyes, and she could only imagine how sorry her old friend was. Everyone at school saw the video of Shane carrying a rope into Ruby’s bedroom.

  Everyone thought he was guilty.

  “I didn’t want to believe it,” Ruby whispered as Juniper studied her. Gavin studied her too. Even Brett, who’d been glued to Parker’s side all night, couldn’t tear his gaze from Ruby.

  He slumped against the doors. “Parker told me Shane made the video. He said Shane was laughing about it that morning, bragging in the locker room—” Brett choked off, clutching his head in his hands. His brain just didn’t want to stay inside.