What Doesn't Kill You (Twisted Book 1)

by Jo Ho

  The blond reacted first, double-taking at the sight of them.

  He looked straight at Marley. She felt a wave of shock course through her.

  His name was Christian.

  Although she had never seen him before, she knew this without a shadow of a doubt. There was something about his green, golden eyes that were familiar, as was his strong jawline and the stubborn bend of his nose. His gaze held her rooted to the spot. She didn’t know how long she would have stayed like that until Tyler sprinted past her, her hand outstretched.

  Then all hell broke loose.

  Chapter 16

  Sprinting forward to stop Christian, Tyler yelled out something incomprehensible, her hand stretched out in front of her. The air seemed to twist in on itself as the rain turned suddenly solid…

  Then slashed down in shards as sharp as glass.

  They dropped down on him, slashing his bare arms to shreds. Blood welled from the cuts, dripping from his arms and mingling with the glass rain on the ground.

  Desperate to protect himself from their vicious onslaught, Christian backed away from his victim, dropping the knife which clattered to the ground. Shock radiated from Tyler as she tried to comprehend what she had just done. Whatever it was, however, it was already stopping as the glass shards were turning back into rain.

  Realizing this, Christian snatched up his knife and went back to fighting with a vengeance. Grabbing his victim by the throat, he whipped back his hand with the knife, preparing to slash down...

  When a dark and ominous mass appeared obscuring Eve for a moment before launching off of her to reveal hundreds of moths that swarmed around him, blocking his view.

  He fell back, swiping at the moths, trying desperately to clear a path so he could see again. There was a sudden movement beside him as someone appeared up close. Like a mirage, Christian could see his victim standing next to him now, but he was wearing different clothes. Christian blinked, confused, as he saw his victim now wore a dress… Cassie’s dress.

  With Christian distracted by Cassie — who Marley realized was now wearing the victim’s face — she saw her chance at saving the other guy.

  Ignoring the questions flooding her stressed mind, she rushed into the cloud of moths. She meant only to push Christian away but in the chaos, she wasn’t able to see more than a few inches from her face. When she finally reached him, they stared straight into each other's eyes. He shouted something at her, but Marley couldn’t make out what he was saying.

  Shoving out her hands blindly, Marley saw Christian’s expression abruptly twist in pain. The blood drained from his face and he froze, looking at her. Marley didn’t know what was happening but she could feel something pulsing in her hands. Not exactly sure why, she squeezed until the pulsing stopped.

  Christian gasped out loud as Eve’s moths flew away.

  And suddenly Marley saw with crystal clarity that her hands were inside of Christian’s chest.

  She had squeezed his heart until it stopped.

  Christian stared deep into her eyes, pain and shock seeping out of him.

  Then he fell to the ground.

  Dead.

  Chapter 17

  Despite his bruised and battered body, and the shame that would come from losing a fight to a Guardian — of all creatures — Michael had to choke down his laugh.

  He had been searching his entire life it had seemed for the return of the mythical Four and here they had come crashing into the church to save him. Who could have guessed that it would be his very own life that would be the catalyst to bringing them back? He couldn’t have planned it better himself. Now, not only did he know who they were, they had also killed the one person sent to help them.

  They had just made his life so much easier.

  Having seen the circle of light, Michael knew the girls had only just come into their powers. Judging by the confusion and fear he saw on their faces now, they had no idea what had just happened.

  That suited him just fine.

  Without the Guardian around to help them, the girls were on their own and easy pickings. If they had training, if they were able to learn who they were, what they could do, they would be the biggest threat to their plans. It was their fear of the girls’ powers that had sent him into this place to sniff them out, but never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that it would be this easy.

  Melting away into the darkness, he let their faces sear into his mind, memorizing them so he could seek them out later.

  Look at them! They were like lambs!

  Nothing like the powerful beings they had warned him about. Disappearing from view, he smiled to himself, a new goal in mind now.

  To destroy the girls before they learned the full extent of their powers.

  Chapter 18

  “Is he… dead?” Marley asked, unable to look at the body by her feet.

  For the first time in her life, Marley hoped that what she saw was a figment of her mind, that it was her sickness playing its evil tricks on her again, but looking at Tyler and Eve, then Cassie — who still wore the victim’s face on her body — Marley knew it wasn’t the case.

  Tyler bent down to examine Christian’s body. When there was no rise and fall of his chest, she backed away.

  “I think so.”

  Eve shared a stricken look with Marley.

  “You just killed him.”

  Marley stumbled backwards, terror making her stammer.

  “But how? I don’t know how that happened. It was an accident! You all saw right? First, the rain that turned to glass…”

  “Then the moths that came from Eve, and Cassie’s face…” Tyler finished quietly. “Yeah, we all saw it.”

  “What about my face—?” Cassie managed to ask before slapping a hand over her mouth in horror. The voice that had come out of her wasn’t her own. It was the low, rumbling voice of a man. Her fingers ran across her face, feeling the unfamiliar features.

  “Oh my God, what’s wrong with it?” she shrieked, panic making her new man-voice rise by several octaves. Diving into her handbag, she retrieved a compact and held it up to the light. When she saw what she looked like, she turned white.

  “No! This isn’t possible.”

  “Nothing that happened here was,” Eve said.

  “Do you think we’re suffering from a mass hallucination or something?” Tyler asked, blinking at Cassie’s new face until she turned away.

  Marley suddenly gasped, remembering something. “Those drinks at the bar, I didn’t pay for them, that guy did.” she began. “The jock.”

  “You think he put something in them?” Tyler asked, eyes round by the possibility.

  “But that doesn’t explain why I saw the same things you did,” Eve said quietly. “I wasn’t at the bar.”

  They fell silent, each trying to find a reason that just wasn't there. Trying to clamp down on her own panic, Marley looked around the place when something caught her attention.

  “Wait, where’s the other guy? The one he was attacking?”

  They looked around the immediate area but there was no sign of him.

  “He’s gone,” Cassie said in her own voice. She checked her reflection in the mirror again, breathing out a sigh of relief when her own face stared back at her. Whatever had happened to her face, it was over.

  For now, at least.

  Tyler reached for her phone, but Eve stopped her from dialing.

  “Who are you calling?” she demanded.

  “The police,” Tyler replied.

  “You can’t,” Cassie gasped. “How will we explain any of this to them?”

  “They’ll arrest Marley and we can’t let them do that,” Eve said, earning Marley’s gratitude. She shot her a look of thanks that Eve acknowledged.

  “No they won’t, how can they? There’s no physical proof of what happened is there? I know we all saw what she did with her hands, but look at his shirt — there isn’t a mark on him.”

  “They’ll think he had a heart a
ttack,” Marley said suddenly, picking up on Tyler’s thoughts.

  “Exactly. Besides, we can’t not report this. We can maybe leave out some of the more unexplainable details though.”

  Looking spooked, Eve picked up her bags that she had dropped on arriving in the church.

  “No. I don’t want to speak to them. I’m getting out of here,” she said, heading for the door.

  “Wait!” Tyler called after her. “You can’t go, you’re a witness!”

  “They already have you three, what more can I add?” Eve answered a little panicked Marley thought. For some reason, the thought of speaking to the police scared Eve almost as much as what had happened there tonight.

  “Please Eve. We’re all scared, but will you stay with us for this?” Marley asked quietly.

  Eve glanced at the exit, contemplating her escape for an eternity it seemed. Marley could almost see the doubts racing through her mind before she eventually came to a solution that didn’t make her any happier. She sighed and dumped her bags onto a pew.

  “Fine. But don’t expect me to be holding anyone’s hand through this.”

  Twenty minutes later the place was flooded by the presence of police.

  Having called them, the girls had waited outside the church for the cavalry to arrive so it came as a shock, when, after repeating a trimmed down version of events, they were given the news that Christian’s body had disappeared. They stood around the broken altar now, staring down at the spot where they had left him.

  “He was right there,” Marley said.

  “Yeah, right where those pieces of the cross are, that’s where he was,” Tyler agreed.

  Detective Saunders, a redhead with the air of a commanding officer, and her partner, Detective Brooks, a man in his early thirties stared them down, obviously not buying any of their stories.

  “Listen,” Saunders began, her voice hard and unwelcoming. “I’ve been working two nights straight because of rush week pranks like these. I’m tired, I’m cranky, and I just want to go home and play with my dog who has been waiting all day for me with only the radio for company, so how about you girls tell me what really happened? How is there a hole the size of Texas in the roof of this church? A historical church by the way, and the one where all the members of my family were baptized.”

  Marley looked at the others as each of them shrugged, one by one.

  “You’re seriously not giving me anything?” Saunders exclaimed in frustration.

  “We did!” Cassie said suddenly. “We told you what we know but you won’t believe us!”

  Brooks stared at them over the top of his leather notebook. “It’s a little hard to believe your story when there isn’t any sign of either of the men you mentioned.”

  “Other than the mess everywhere,” Eve snapped, apparently over the grilling they were receiving. “Or do you honestly think we blew a hole in the ceiling then started smashing up the place?” She grabbed one of Cassie’s hands suddenly, showing it to them. “Look at her nails — they’re immaculate. Not a single chip in the polish. You really think we could have done this without her even chipping a nail?”

  She eyeballed the cops, unwilling to break the stare until they finally broke it themselves. Feeling emboldened by Eve’s stance, Marley spoke up.

  “Are you arresting us or can we go?”

  Saunders gave her a withering stare but nodded reluctantly.

  “You can go, but we’ll be watching you,” she said not bothering to hide the threatening tone.

  The girls left quickly before they could change their minds.

  Chapter 19

  Moving away from the chaos surrounding the church, Eve scrolled through the apps on her phone.

  “Are you coming back to the dorm with us?” Marley asked her.

  “Yeah, you do have a room there you know,” Tyler pointed out. Eve flushed, looking slightly ashamed from her earlier treatment of her, but still, she didn’t want to be with them. It was all too confusing and frightening. Seeing the police, Eve had broken out into a cold sweat. It was all she could do not to run away from them.

  They brought nothing but bad memories for her, ones she would rather leave buried in the ground.

  She shook her head, shaking off their invitation.

  “No. I just want to go home.”

  “But it’s not safe,” Cassie said, worry causing frown lines to appear on her face.

  “I’m not walking. I’ll grab an Uber,” Eve said. “I just need to set up an account with them and I’ll be good to go.”

  Cassie shook her head. “I have one already, use mine.” Quick as a flash, she had her phone out, and the Uber app running. “I just need your details.”

  Normally super private, Eve hesitated to give out her address before she swallowed a laugh. They had already shared a murder, what harm was knowing her address going to do? She took Cassie’s phone and typed it in. Within seconds, by the wonder of technology, her car was on its way.

  “You don’t have to wait with me,” Eve said but Tyler shook her head.

  “It’s going to be here in less than three minutes. We’re fine to wait, aren’t we?” she asked the others to their agreement. Not used to this kind of thing, Eve didn’t know what to think. Aside from her brother, she’d been alone for so long now that it was strange to have other people care about her safety, particularly when the friends she’d had before weren’t anything like this. She shrugged, trying not to make the wait as big a deal as it felt to her.

  “Where do you think he went?” Cassie asked quietly, shooting furtive looks around them to make sure they weren’t being eavesdropped on.

  “Christian?” Marley said without thinking. “I don’t know.”

  “Wait, you know him?” Tyler asked, her eyes wide. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  Marley swallowed the lump in her throat, unsure of how she was going to explain herself to them. “I don’t know him, but when I saw him, it just felt like I did. And his name, Christian came to me.”

  “I thought he was looking at you funny!” Cassie said. “You were staring at each other like no one else existed.”

  Her comment made Marley self-conscious. She shrugged, helplessly, unable to explain any of it.

  “Are you psychic?” Tyler asked suddenly.

  Marley shook her head. “No. I’ve never been before.”

  Feeling a set of eyes on her, Marley turned until she found Cassie staring at her, openly curious.

  “But you’ve seen and heard things before, right?” Cassie asked.

  Marley gave her a hard stare, hoping that she didn’t know what she was talking about, but her knowing expression spoke volumes. Neither Tyler nor Eve were following the conversation, however, each looking as confused as the other.

  “What things?” Eve asked.

  “Nothing,” Marley said firmly, giving Cassie a look which she hoped the other girl would acknowledge. Luckily, she was saved from anything else as a black Prius pulled up to the curb. The driver wound down the window and spoke with an accent.

  “Car for Cassie?”

  Eve opened the door to the backseat and tossed her bags inside. Climbing in, she wound her window down.

  “Hold on,” Marley said to the driver, pulling out a notebook and pen. Scribbling something down, she tore the page out of the book and handed it to Eve through the window. “That’s my number. Text me when you’re back so we know you got home safe.”

  Blinking, Eve felt the prick of tears in the backs of her eyes. All that time she had spent with her previous friends, and they had never, ever worried over her safety like this yet here were these girls, who she had only met today, who showed more care for her than almost anyone she had ever had in her life. The thought brought a lump that she had to clear before speaking.

  “See you around.”

  Before they could respond, the driver pulled away. Marley's number gripped in her hand, Eve watched the girls recede in the rearview mirror until they were nothing more th
an shadows in the night.

  Chapter 20

  Marley couldn’t even remember walking back to the dorm.

  The last thing she could clearly recall was Eve’s Uber taking off. After that, the rest was a blur.

  Tyler sat with them, in her room, as they each tried to come to some understanding of the events of the night.

  Cassie switched on her giant flat-screen TV, flipping it onto a local news channel where a camera crew had already set up outside the church. Holding their breath, they waited for the newsreader to mention the murder but the news story only discussed the act of vandalism at the church which had caused a piece of its roof to have blown off.

  Whether or not it was his name, Christian’s body had vanished, and so had his victim.

  Feeling a throbbing in her head and knowing that a migraine was on its way, Marley stepped out of the room, leaving Tyler and Cassie to discuss amongst themselves everything that had happened. Feeling suddenly claustrophobic, Marley was desperate for some air and silence.

  “I’ll be back,” she said to the others and headed down the hall before they could stop her.

  She passed by the RA’s room and saw Rhett through the open door, reading in an armchair. He didn’t look up as she walked by and she was glad. She knew she was going against his warnings by stepping outside alone, but she was only going to be on the other side of a door. She wasn’t intending to leave the campus.

  Holding her phone in her hand, Marley reached the exit and pushed the button on the wall. The automated door swung outwards, and she stepped out into the blessed coolness, letting the breeze wash over her. Trees creaked, reminding Marley of the elms in the common, but the ones here were oaks and they seemed less threatening somehow.

  Probably because they weren’t used to murder hundreds of innocent women.

  The campus was quiet, with only the odd cricket chirping into the night. Something flew overhead. Hopefully not a bat, Marley thought, shuddering. She knew they wouldn’t harm her, but there was something about their faces that made them the stuff of nightmares.