“Ash did this,” I added, knowing Travis had a thing for her.
“I know,” he finally said. When he exhaled, the air around him filled with smoke. “Those chains are mine.”
I blinked, my hungover mind trying to piece it together. If Ash did this, and the chains were his… “You helped her do this?” Every word I spoke felt like knives shoved into my brain, but I couldn’t sit there quietly. No, I had to know the truth.
“She came up with the idea all on her own, I just supplied her with some necessary equipment for the job.” Travis threw his cigarette down, burning the carpet before he shoved his heel on it and put it out. He didn’t care about any singed holes; he knew I had the money to fix it before I stopped renting the place. “She’s upset with you.”
Upset with me because of him, because of Brooklyn. “You showed her the video. You fucking took that video!” I grimaced as I shouted at him, my headache only intensifying. Damn this hangover. Damn Travis. Damn Ash. Damn every single fucking one of them.
“You still don’t get it,” Travis said, sounding pensive. His lips were drawn into a thin line as he walked over to the bed. I knew better than to try and reach for him, so I simply watched him saunter over like he ruled this roost. “Ash is the queen, and you’re just a pawn, Sawyer.”
My jaw tensed. I didn’t like his insinuation that I was just a pawn in the game. “If I’m a pawn, what are you?”
Travis’s blue eyes sparkled as he glanced at the cuffs on my wrists, and for a moment I grew worried. I might’ve been hungover, but I recognized the darkness lingering behind his stare, and a pit started to form in my stomach.
That, or I needed to throw up.
“I’m her knight,” Travis said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out…the key. The fucking key. Of course he had the key; who else would have it? Certainly not Ash, because that would make too much goddamn sense.
“She’s not my queen,” I muttered, watching as he went to unlock me, wrist after wrist. Once I was free, I felt like grabbing him, beating on him for the shit he pulled, but I held back, rubbing my wrists as I sat up, feeling new waves of nausea bubbling inside.
Travis took a step back, tossing the key onto my bed, clearly in no hurry to get his chains back. “Ash is everyone’s queen, and right now she’s in danger. I only came here to let you out, but I have to go back.”
Was he shacking up in her dorm room, then? I scoffed, doubting Declan liked that. They seemed to flock to her like love-obsessed boys who’d just discovered what a cunt felt like around their dicks.
“She’s in the hospital,” Travis whispered, his azure stare clouding over with something I couldn’t name, and my head hurt too much to ask.
Ash was in the hospital? Good. It meant she’d stay away from me for a while, then. It meant I had some time to myself. I didn’t give a single shit that Ash was in the hospital, or even why that was. “Then go,” I whispered lowly, running a hand through my hair.
My hair…which was covered in crusty pink stuff?
Fuck.
Travis stared down at me, a muscle in his jaw tensing. “You don’t even care.”
“No, I don’t fucking care,” I hissed, doing my best to ignore the headache pounding away in my skull. “I don’t fucking care about Ash at all, Travis. I’ll leave that honor to you.” I got up, pushing past him as I headed to the bathroom. My jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw my reflection.
Pink fucking hair.
Of fucking course.
Travis said nothing else as he headed down the hall, leaving me alone. I stripped out of my clothes and hopped in the shower, scrubbing my hair with a fierceness that only made my aching head hurt worse.
Alone.
I was alone, just like I always was, and even after I graduated Hillcrest, even after my parents introduced me to whoever it was they wanted me to be with, strictly for monetary purposes, I’d still be alone. Which was fine, because it was something I’d grown used to. You didn’t get to be a Salvatore and have real friends, or real, down-to-earth girlfriends.
Once I was done in the shower, once I saw that my hair was still a terrifying shade of pink, I knew I needed to take something for my head. I practically tripped myself as I went down the stairs, my fingers itching with a need to take something a little stronger than Tylenol.
I found myself in the corner of the kitchen, standing before a certain drawer.
I think, after everything, I deserved a little break. A break from my life, from the pain. A break from it all.
Oxy would do.
Chapter Six – Ash
I stood in the forest in a daze, my mind blanking as time went on. That basement, that cabin…the look on Ray’s face. How was I ever supposed to sleep again? How was I supposed to close my eyes at night and not picture the fifteen graves I’d stumbled upon? The girl in the basement, the one he wanted me to join him in, would make number sixteen. And I…I would be number seventeen, provided he caught me.
If I had my way, he’d never catch me. If I had my way today, he’d never see me again.
I was smarter than that. I never told him where I lived, though I supposed now that I was eighteen, it was public record. He could probably Google me and find me, if he really wanted to. He could try to tell the cops that I was in on the whole thing, even though I wasn’t, or he could try to go after the one family member I had.
God, if he hurt my mom…Mom was all the family I had. Without her, I had no one. Kelsey, sure, but a friend and a mother were two separate things.
As long as the police came and checked out the cabin, as long as he didn’t hide all of the evidence—and how could he, when so many unmarked graves were nearby—they’d get him. They had his name, they could track him down. There were probably a lot of men with the same name, but that didn’t matter. I’d done everything I could, and now it was just a waiting game.
Tick tock went the clock.
Even if he was arrested, even if he was put on trial, I’d still always watch for him. In class, I’d sit near the windows, watching the parking lots nearby, worried he’d show his face. During graduation, when everyone was happy to finally get out of high school, I’d be waiting for him to pop up. He had a habit of appearing everywhere you didn’t want him. My life, for example.
I didn’t want an older boyfriend, but I was a druggie when it came to danger. I thought I was living life on the edge, dating someone who was practically double my age. I wasn’t; I was just a fucktard who deserved what she got.
Stupid. I was stupid. This whole thing happened because of my stupidity.
Two honks came from down the road, and I stumbled out of the woods, leaning closer to the road as I moved out in the open, where anyone and everyone could see me. If I saw Ray’s car driving toward me, I’d dart back in the woods. I wasn’t very attuned with nature though; I doubted I’d be able to find civilization after getting lost in the forests of these gentle hills.
It wasn’t Ray’s car, though. It was Kelsey’s.
She was but a dot at the gas station down the street, leaning her torso out of her window as she peered both ways. I waved my arms, hoping I wasn’t too far away, praying that she’d see me.
She did.
Kelsey turned around in the gas station, slowing her car as she pulled up beside me. I got in, slamming the door after me and saying, “Drive.” It was all I could get out. My voice was dry, my lips cracked. I needed water. Running for miles on end wasn’t good for you, not when you weren’t used to the physical activity, and not when you still felt like running.
I wanted to run so far and so fast, pretend as if this day just didn’t happen. If I could run into yesterday, convince my past self to never come on this weekend getaway, I would’ve. Alas, life was not a movie, and I was stuck wondering just how my life had come to this. Kids made mistakes, I knew, but this? This went beyond drinking and driving. This was worse than cheating on a math test.
This was murder.
Kelsey’s dark hair
was up in a messy bun, and she wore no makeup. She looked like she just rolled out of bed, which made sense, since today was Saturday. Last night was the night to party. I would’ve been with her, had I not been with Ray.
Oh, God. I was with him last night, in his bed, while that girl was in the basement, a gag in her mouth…
No. I couldn’t lose myself to those thoughts.
“Ash,” Kelsey said, too busy staring at me with her mouth agape to drive. “What—”
She didn’t know the urgency here, so I said again, “Drive!” Finally I was frantic enough, pleading enough, for her to release the brake pedal and step on the gas. Finally, her cheap car started going, and never had I ever felt so thankful to this rust bucket.
“Ash, what happened?” Kelsey asked, tossing looks at me. The road around us was empty, and I peered behind us, fearing that Ray would be right on our tails. But, again, this was my life, not a movie. Ray was nowhere to be seen. I was alone with Kelsey and her questioning, curious gaze.
I said nothing, not knowing what I could say. I couldn’t tell her the truth, because I knew then she’d want me to go to the cops. Kelsey wouldn’t force me, but she wasn’t stupid. No, here and now, I was the stupid one, the one making the worst decisions of her life.
Kelsey then said something that took me so off-guard, all I could do was stare at her and blink: “We need to talk about it. I mean, look at you. I don’t mind the rust bucket getting some new stains, but that…that looks like blood.”
“What?” I asked, glancing down at myself. I didn’t have blood on me. I didn’t—
But…I did.
I blinked, lifting my hands in front of my face, as if seeing it for the first time. Bright red smeared all over my hands, my fingers. My right palm was clean, but that was because I’d touched the old guy’s phone. I’d gotten blood on his phone.
“Ash, you need to tell me what happened,” Kelsey said, shooting me another look. “You’re my best friend, my only friend, really, so if there’s anyone I can help hide a body, it’s you—” Kelsey’s words were a joke, but right now they were completely misplaced.
My hands were not the only red parts of me. My shirt had blood splatter, too.
I’d been covered in blood this whole time and hadn’t realized it. My mind must’ve blocked it out, and in the next few moments, I found out why.
I tried to breathe, but no breath came to my lungs. It kept getting caught in the base of my throat, short, quick, erratic breaths that did nothing to ease my need for oxygen. My chest felt like a heavy weight rested on it, and my fingers started to shake. Over and over, terrible thoughts entered my head and refused to leave.
He was going to get me. He was going to make me his. He was going to kill me if I didn’t…
Too lost in my own head to realize it, Kelsey had pulled her car off the side of the road, undoing her seatbelt to reach for me. She grabbed a shoulder, her fingers digging into my arm, her eyes calm, considering her best friend had called her in the middle of nowhere covered in blood.
“Slow your breathing,” Kelsey murmured, her hand warm on my otherwise cold skin, even through the shirt. “In and out, Ash. Whatever happened, we’ll get through it. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay. We don’t have to. You just need to breathe.”
Breathing. Seemed simple enough, yet it was breathing that gave me so much trouble in this particular moment.
As I stared at my hands, as I fought to listen to my friend and get my breathing under control, as my mind spiraled into all the possible ways this could go wrong, how stupid I was for thinking that this was all okay, I couldn’t help but wonder one thing.
What have I done?
Beeping. The first sound I heard when I came to in that hospital room was beeping. The machines went on behind me as if nothing was wrong. My vitals were…just as vitals should be. I was alive, which was more than I could say for sixteen other girls.
The one in the basement didn’t make it. By the time the police arrived on the scene, her body was room temperature.
Mine, luckily, was still warm. Because unlike that girl in the basement, I was still alive. Somehow. Someway. My body felt like a million pounds in this hospital bed, and as I moved my neck to study the room, I found that it moved about as well as Kelsey’s rust bucket did, too.
Slowly, but at least it moved.
My eyes fell to my hands, and I spread out my fingers. Though they felt like shit—every part of me felt like shit, actually—I was able to move them. I was just about to check my toes when a nurse came in, saw that I was awake, and rushed to my side, giving me a smile that made me feel…useless. Like I was some injured kid who she felt bad for. The pity in her gaze and her smile made me want to turn away.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, and I had to avert my eyes from her smile. She was only trying to be nice, but I wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries. If she knew what happened, she wouldn’t be so kind to me.
“Fine,” I muttered, staring at the window near me. The sky was blue…huh. Seemed odd. Seemed like today should be a rainy day, didn’t it?
“Do you know why you’re here?” she asked, peering down at me, patient.
I nodded once. “A car hit me,” I mumbled, reliving the way the big metal frame of the car had lifted me up and over it, how I’d rolled off and fell to the concrete below. How I’d grown numb, not able to feel any of my limbs. And then Ray…
“Let me get the doctor,” she said, scurrying out like a good little nurse. But I didn’t want the doctor. What I wanted—what I really, truly wanted above anything else—was something I could never have, because it involved some time travel and a whole lot of flashes from those fancy Men in Black memory joggers.
The doctor was a middle-aged man who looked like he was tired—to which I would say, tell me about it. He asked me to wiggle a bunch of body parts as the nurse took my blood pressure. I complied, being quiet as a mouse. The sooner I got out of here, the better. Will was also in the hospital, so I doubted he’d be paying my medical bills this time.
No, I wouldn’t be so lucky twice.
“None of your bones are broken,” the doctor rattled off, looking at whatever was on his clipboard. X-rays, maybe? Other scans taken of me while I was out of it? “No internal injuries. You’re just bruised, fortunately. You’ll feel like you got in a bad car wreck for a while. It’s going to get worse before it gets better, but you were lucky, Miss…”
“Ash,” I spoke, throat dry. Nothing broken, which was great. “So can I go now?” I wanted out of this room ASAP, so my bill wasn’t too high. I didn’t have insurance, and paying for this room for even an hour was far too much. Judging from the bright light coming in through the window, it was at least noon. Maybe later.
“Ash,” the doctor spoke my name with a smile. “I want to keep an eye on you for at least twenty-four hours to make sure there’s no concussion. You hit your head pretty hard on the pavement. There are some police officers here, waiting to talk to you once you’re feeling up to it.” He waited a moment before asking, “Should I let them in?”
A twenty-four-hour surveillance. Great. There would be no running from this, from them. I would be forced to answer their questions eventually, so might as well get it over with now and not prolong it needlessly.
I shrugged, and the movement made my spine ache.
The doctor and nurse both left the room, but they were soon replaced by a pair of officers, both of them women. One blonde, one brown-haired, both middle-aged. They seemed nice, for cops. Then again, I didn’t really like being around cops, not after what happened with Ray. A part of me thought they’d take one look at me, know what I did, and arrest me on sight.
I was no angel.
“How are you feeling?” the blonde one spoke as the other pulled out a pad of paper.
“I’ve been better” was my answer this time. I wondered how many times I’d be asked that question today. The brown-haired one asked me my name, and I gave it to them,
watching as the one scribbled it down. I didn’t have my ID on me, I guess. And my phone… “I dropped my phone in the bathroom, before I…” I trailed off, before I got hit. For some reason, I couldn’t say it again.
I knew I got hit by a car, and I sure as shit felt it, but for some reason, I was nervous to say it again, as if I thought I was trying my luck. Say it three times and the magic was broken. If I say it so much, whoever hit me might come back and try to finish the job.
Was it an accident? Was it Ray?
“I’ll let the nurse know,” the blonde one spoke. “I’m Officer White, and that’s Officer Melendez. We’re going to be investigating your case, along with William Briggs’s case. You two know each other, correct?”
I nodded. My body was sore, but didn’t feel too pain-filled. Whatever was dripping into my IV must’ve been helping with that. I was sure once I wasn’t hooked up to it, the pain would be full-force.
“How is he?” I croaked out, just as the nurse returned to the room, poking her head in as she carried a tray…full with a teeny, tiny cup of water, some gooey-looking Jell-O, and some crackers. Right. Yummy. Couldn’t eat a full meal, I guess. I went right for the water, gulping it down in one swallow, before the nurse was even gone.
“I’ll get you more,” the nurse said before leaving, once more closing me in with the cops.
“Mr. Briggs is recovering. He had to have surgery,” the brown-haired cop, Melendez, answered. “He’s currently unable to answer our questions, so we were hoping to ask you about him, and then get into yours. Does that sound like a plan?”
Sounded like that’s how this was going to go whether I agreed to it or not. I doubted I could roll off this bed and run away, anyway. I was stuck here, stuck answering their questions, stuck feeling guilty, as if all of this was my fault.
It was my fault. What happened to Will was my fault. The car hitting me…not exactly my fault, but I was kind of freaking out at the time, hyperventilating and all that, so in a weird, roundabout way, that was my fault, too. Should’ve listened to mommy and looked both ways before crossing the street.
Skank: A Dark College Bully Romance (Hillcrest University Book 3) Page 4