The Temptation of Silence

by V. J. Chambers

  They were in that damned beach house, and Liam had known it.

  He wanted to crow to Dawson about it, but he was too gagged.

  Dawson was tied up and gagged on the other bed.

  Liam turned back to the bed that he’d fallen off of.

  There was a woman on that bed, sitting up, dark hair in her face. She was glaring at Finn.

  Liam went cold all over.

  Not possible.

  It couldn’t be her.

  Destiny Worth was dead.

  He’d killed her himself.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Finn’s arm was bandaged, but it was starting to bleed through the bandage.

  That must be where Dawson’s shot had gotten him. Damn it. Why couldn’t it have hit Finn somewhere worse?

  Finn was holding another syringe. He crossed the room and stabbed it into Destiny’s neck, even as she thrashed and cried out unintelligibly against her gag. Finn backed off, and she continued to thrash for several more minutes while Finn went over to dose Dawson up as well.

  Then Destiny went still, falling back on the bed.

  Finn came over to Liam.

  Liam cringed, waiting.

  But Finn only pulled the gag out of Liam’s mouth.

  Dawson sagged into the bed, also out of it.

  The gag was taped in with duct tape, which caught on some of Liam’s stubble. It pulled away very painfully, taking some hair with it.

  Liam yelled.

  “Sorry, tiger,” said Finn.

  “What the fuck?” said Liam. He turned to look at Destiny. “Who is that?”

  “Seriously?” Finn straightened. He set the syringe down on a side table behind Liam’s head.

  Liam looked at it, thinking about finding some way to grab it and jam it into Finn’s—

  It was empty.

  “I know I promised I’d make you avocado toast the next time I saw you, but—”

  “She was dead. You told you me took care of her body,” said Liam. “You guys faked that? You did that to fuck with me?”

  “No,” said Finn, rubbing his forehead. “No, I thought she was dead, too. I dumped her in the river. I didn’t see her again for fifteen years.”

  “You what?”

  “Yeah, fucking imagine this, Liam. I’m setting up at a MadCad convention, putting out my prints to sell and everything, and who walks through but her? Just… Destiny fucking Worth strolling around the convention as if she’s not dead and never has been dead.”

  Liam turned to look at her. Her eyes were closed, and her hair was spilling out over her face. She looked the same but older. There were lines on her forehead, a few strands of gray in her hair. She was motionless but she was real. She was there. She was alive. “So, you dumped her body in the river and she just climbed out?”

  “Apparently,” said Finn.

  “Did you check her pulse?”

  “I tried,” said Finn. “I guess I’m stupid at finding a pulse.”

  “She wasn’t breathing. I remember she wasn’t breathing.”

  “Yeah, she said she practiced that,” said Finn. “Only breathed when we weren’t looking. I thought she and I were setting you up. She kept talking about it, how she wanted us to do you together, and I don’t know. I’d never fucked a guy before, so I wasn’t really into it, but you know how she is, and she just talked me into it. She never shuts up, you know?”

  “Bullshit, she talked you into it.” Liam was starting to shake all over. He strained against his bonds, but his hands were zip-tied together, and he couldn’t get free. “You never needed anyone to talk you into raping anyone else.”

  Finn turned wide, wounded eyes on him. “You said that word to me before. Outside the cabin, when you were begging for your detective’s life.” He pointed at Dawson. “I don’t even know why the fuck I brought her. I should have left her. I should have shot her. I just… I didn’t think you’d like it if I killed her, and then I couldn’t leave her there, because she’d probably find us if I did. So… damn it.”

  “I said it because it’s what you do.”

  “Maybe,” said Finn. “But not with you.”

  Liam tried to get to his feet, but his ankles were zip-tied together, too, and it didn’t work.

  “It wasn’t,” said Finn.

  “I told you to stop.”

  “Yeah, but…” Finn shrugged. “Fine. Sorry. It’s not as though you never came back for more.”

  Liam shook his head. “Not like that, I didn’t.”

  Finn lowered his voice. “I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, okay? I was a stupid kid. I’m sorry. I know it was kind of brutal. I really didn’t mean it to be so bad for you.”

  “Oh, fuck that, yes you did—”

  “It was her.” Finn pointed at Destiny. “This is all her fault. So, I’m going to end it. You and me, we’re going to kill her, like we were supposed to, all those years ago, only this time, we will make the hell sure that she’s dead. Hell, I’ll cut her head off if I have to. And, then, you know, I want you to do me.”

  “You think I’m fucking you while we stare at her severed head? Really?”

  “No, I mean…” Finn swallowed. “I mean, kill me, tiger. I’m done.”

  Liam felt a dark twist to his insides. “What?”

  “I’m taking her with me,” said Finn. “She goes first. And I’d do it to myself. I really would. I tried. I got very drunk. I…” Finn’s voice broke, overcome with emotion. “I couldn’t do it. I need you to help me, tiger.”

  “You want to die? The state of Virginia will be happy to help you out with that. There’s a lethal injection with your name on it.”

  “I want you to do it. Please?”

  “Fuck you.”

  “And anyway, I’m not going back to jail. I can’t hack that. I’d rather be dead.”

  Liam wasn’t sure how he felt about this, not any of it. There were many warring emotions within him, but the predominant one seemed to be rage, so he leaned into it. “When did you decide you wanted to die?”

  “I don’t know.” Finn shrugged, scuffing his foot on the ground.

  “I don’t even believe you,” said Liam. “It’s some ploy to get something out of me. Well, I’m not doing a damned thing for you. Never.”

  “Look, none of this went right.” Finn pointed at Destiny again. “I did what she said, and she turned against me. But, fuck it, who needs her? So, I went to you. Because you and me, Liam, it’s always been about you and me. Not her. But then you said that you hated me. And then…” Finn shrugged again, looking dejected. “Well, everything was unraveling. I didn’t have her help, and I was on the run. I have no money and nowhere to stay, and…”

  “She was helping you? How?”

  “It’s like you’re not paying attention. This is all her.”

  “How is it all her?”

  “It just is.”

  “What? Are you saying she killed the women you were arrested for killing? Come on, Finn, the fast food thing gives you away. Destiny doesn’t like to watch people eat, but you’ve always—”

  “No, I did kill some people,” he said, rolling his head on his shoulders. “But she made me do that. And she did kill the girls in college. She sent you that bouquet, because she was keeping the bodies on ice. But then I guess you found that freezer.”

  Liam blinked. “Destiny killed the girls in the freezer. Not you.”

  “Is that how I kill, tiger?” Finn spread his hands. “You said it to me. You said it’s not about killing for me, it’s about fucking, and you’re right. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I mean I guess I don’t much care if they’re hurt or not, but all the blood, it’s gross, and she just… you know how she is. She talks you into shit!”

  Liam shook his head. “I am so confused right now.”

  “Well, maybe I should start at the beginning,” said Finn.

  “Okay,” said Liam. “If we’re going to have a story, can you untie me?”

  Finn considered, scrat
ching the top of his head. “I better not. I’m always trusting you, tiger, and you never come through for me. I’m sorry, but I’ve got to leave you like that.”

  Liam sighed.

  Finn settled down on the floor, sitting with his legs crossed, facing Liam. “Let’s see. Let me try to tell this in chronological order as best as I can. So, let’s go back to 2004. I thought Destiny was dead, and she never came back to her apartment in town, near as I could tell. But what I didn’t know was that her family had property out in the woods, and she had moved there. She knew my habits and your habits, and she stayed out of sight.”

  “I can’t believe she was alive all that time and she managed to completely hide that.”

  “I know. She’s insane. She’s brilliant, but she’s, you know, out of her head.”

  Liam raised his eyebrows. This was a strange thing to hear from Finn. “How do I know that you’re not simply making this up? Maybe you kept her alive somewhere, like in the bunker, in a dog crate.”

  “You went back to the bunker,” said Finn. “I know you did, that spring, and you never found her there.”

  “No, that’s true,” said Liam. “But you had her clothes to give to Dawson in January.”

  “I dumped her naked in the river,” said Finn.

  “And you kept her clothes? What did you do, rub yourself on them from time to time, relive your first kill?”

  Finn lifted his chin, looking him over. He smirked. “What do you think?”

  “Gross,” muttered Liam.

  “Well, she’s not dead, is she, so it was hardly my first kill. Besides, you did it, not me.”

  “As you just said, she’s not dead.”

  “Look, what makes more sense, tiger? That I was keeping a woman prisoner somewhere or that she, with all her money and all her properties and all her influence, was manipulating everything?”

  Liam only shook his head. “I don’t know that any of this makes sense. It all stretches credulity.”

  “Why don’t you stop interrupting me?”

  “Fine.” Liam raised his eyebrows expectantly. “Tell the story, Finn.”

  “Okay, well, she started killing girls,” said Finn. “Luring them to these weird parties and using stuff that we made up together for the fanfic—shit. I guess I need to go back further. Okay, so while you and Destiny were broken up junior year, we wrote This Love together.”

  “You both wrote it?”

  “I wrote most of it,” said Finn. “Destiny’s kind of… an idea person. She came up with the idea for it, and she had a vague outline, but I had to do the actual writing. She couldn’t be bothered with all of that. She did a lot of the sock puppet accounts, though, and she would go over all my chapters to make sure the voice was right and everything. I guess, in a way, I was the author, and she was the editor.”

  “What was the point of the fanfic?” said Liam.

  “To fuck with people?” said Finn. “It was kind of exciting, actually, being able to rile people up like that, to trick them and to control them.”

  “Right,” said Liam. “Sometimes I forget you’re a psychopath.”

  “Whatever,” muttered Finn. “Everyone likes fucking with other people. It’s just that people like you, Liam, have weaknesses and those weaknesses make them less effective at it. You’re still interrupting me.”

  “You interrupted yourself,” said Liam.

  “I was simply clarifying something,” said Finn. “You needed to understand that when she started using Lola’s name, it was like she was stealing something from me.”

  “I thought you didn’t know she was alive.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “So, how did you know about Lola Gem?”

  “You know what, I don’t know why I’m bothering to explain myself to you. You’re determined to hate me.”

  Liam rolled his eyes. “You said to me that when Destiny was killed and you fucked her dead body, that was when you were forged into a serial killer or something like that. But now you’re telling me you didn’t kill anyone else?”

  “I didn’t say anything like that. All the victims in the past year in Cape Christopher are mine. I did that.”

  “You said—”

  “I said Destiny made me do it,” said Finn. “Look, after I dumped her body in the river, I got… I don’t know… It honestly wasn’t a great time for me. I was pretty drunk when all that went down, and a bunch of weird things happened that night. It was my first time having anal sex with a man and I thought I had sex with a dead body, too, and I, uh… well, I was confused about myself and my sexual identity afterwards. And it didn’t help that you decided you hated me and moved out of our dorm.”

  Liam gave him a nasty smile. “Yes, I’m so sorry you had such a fallout after you forced yourself on me. We should definitely give your emotional reactions priority in that situation.”

  Finn gave him a withering look. “I was lonely is all. And paranoid, because I was pretty sure that they were going to find her body and drag it out of the river. And you and me, we were with her all the time, so they were going to come and question us. I thought you’d lie, because you were the one who strangled her to death, but I wasn’t sure. I thought you might lie and say it was me instead.”

  “Poor, poor Finn.”

  “Well, anyway, that never happened. Time passed, and I eventually decided that they were never going to find her body, and I was glad about it. But then I saw Destiny at that MadCad convention, and everything changed. We, um, reconnected, and she had this group of people—mostly women, but some men too—and they sort of followed her around, fawning over her. I guess she started building them up back when we were in college, but we didn’t know about all the things she was doing. You know how she’d suddenly start ‘projects’ and then disappear for weeks at a time?”

  “Well, yeah,” said Liam. “She was a strange person in that way.”

  “She was off amassing her following. Some of which she’s killed. And when she found me, it was like she’d found some lost little duckling who’d wandered off from the fold. She wanted me back, and she wanted you back. She wanted us together and with her. So, the plan was this: I was supposed to get you and get you ready and then bring you back to her, and the three of us would—”

  “Even assuming this is true, and it sounds crazy, why would you do what she said? I was the one who followed Destiny around like she was dragging me by the cock. You weren’t like that with her.”

  “Are you kidding?” Finn blinked at him.

  “If you think you can convince me that Destiny forced you to do anything—”

  “She understands me,” said Finn. His voice lowered. “No one understands me like she does, not even you. She knows what I like. She knows…” He cracked one set of his knuckles and the the other. “She gave me what I wanted. She gave me dead bodies to fuck.”

  Liam grimaced, but he was too disgusted to express his revulsion out loud. He was horrified, too. He wasn’t sure if he believed anything that Finn was saying, anyway, but certainly, if Finn was going to make up a lie, that meant he would try to be sympathetic, and this was the opposite of sympathetic. It was probably true.

  “Then she took them away,” said Finn. “And she said she wouldn’t give them back if I didn’t do what she said and go and get you. But I didn’t want her ordering me around. I didn’t want to be hers. I wanted to belong to myself, so… I captured you.”

  “You know what you’re skipping here is how she convinced you to kill those women in Cape Christopher,” said Liam. “Because she made you do that, as you keep saying.”

  “She did.” Finn sounded a little sulky about this.

  “What? She held a gun to your head?”

  “You know how she is,” said Finn. “You know how she gets to you. You remember how she convinced you to choke her in the first place, right? I know you, Liam, and that kind of deviant sexual activity could never have been you. I mean, the only edgy thing you ever did was want dick.”

&nb
sp; Liam snorted. “Being attracted to men is edgy?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “You’ve been living as a gay man,” said Liam. “Near as I can tell, you’ve dated men exclusively for years now.”

  Finn bit down on his bottom lip. “Well… if I’m honest, my ideal sexual partner—”

  “Is a dead woman,” said Liam, nodding. “Right. Sorry. What was I thinking?”

  “I do… with you, Liam, what I feel for you—”

  “Spare me.”

  “But it’s true. You make me feel things I don’t feel with anyone else, and—”

  “I think I might be done with this story.” Liam glared at him.

  “Destiny would let me fuck her after I killed each of the victims,” said Finn. “And she’s very good at playing dead, and she’s… it’s like a whole ritual with us, a whole… but I don’t like it, and I don’t want to be hers, and I don’t want to want her anymore. I don’t want her to control me. When I first escaped from prison, she was pulling my strings, but I decided I wanted free of that. We got into an argument about it, and then she cut me off.”

  “What? In what way did she cut you off?”

  “Financially.”

  “She was giving you money?”

  “It’s not easy to be on the run when all your bank accounts have been frozen,” said Finn darkly. “Anyway, whatever. I’m done with it. With all of it. I want her dead, and I want you to help me. You have to help me, tiger, because you have to see that she ruined your life too. Everything that she made me do to you, it was all her. So, we kill her, and then I fuck her, and then you kill me. What do you say?”

  Liam gazed at him incredulously. “No.”

  Finn got to his feet. “Well, I figured you’d take some convincing. Probably the best way to convince you, though, is to just let her talk to you.” He walked over to where Destiny was lying on the bed and yanked her gag off.

  Then he left the room, locking the door behind him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Dawson had been awake for some time. When Slater had given her the injection in her neck, he hadn’t managed to get the right spot, she didn’t think. She lay still, however, pretending to be passed out, listening as Slater and Liam spoke.