She doesn’t respond, so I step inside. Moving the flashlight on my phone all around as memories flood me all at once. “This isn’t funny. We should get out of here.”

  Rumor has it, a farmer killed his wife here. The property was left to their son, but no one has lived in the house for years.

  Last time I was here, I was in a state of brain fog and it didn’t faze me. I also had Blaise’s strong arms around me and felt untouchable. Right now, I’m scared. “Emery,” I say again, taking a few more steps inside.

  I’m struck silent when someone grabs me from behind, slapping a hand over my mouth. “You really should be more careful. Ya know that?”

  Chase.

  My body collapses in his arm when I lose my footing. With one hand over my mouth and the other wrapped around my waist, pushing my sweatshirt up, I'm pulled farther into the house.

  "Put me down," I say, but my words are muffled.

  "Not a chance, birthday girl. Always remember, we're two steps ahead of you, and one step ahead of Blaise.

  What's that supposed to mean? That Blaise is always a step ahead of me? Is he here? I try to look around, but I can't see anything. I also don't hear anyone else. Where is Emery?

  Chase stops walking, giving me a chance to get back on my feet. Little good it does because he's still holding on to me as if his life depends on it.

  He removes his hand from my mouth and places it around my waist with the other. “Did you really think we wouldn’t find out you came tonight?

  "I guess I just took you and your posse for idiots."

  Chase laughs in a mocking tone. "Well, I’m glad you came because I still haven't had a chance to feel how tight your pussy is around my cock."

  My stomach retracts when Chase slides his hand up my bra, cupping my breast in his hand. "Stop." My voice cracks. "I'll scream.” It's a last-ditch effort, but we both know that no one will even care.

  He doesn't stop. Instead, he begins pinching the bud of my nipple. "They're small, but I'm sure I could slide my cock between them and come all over your face."

  "You're disgusting."

  "And you're fucking stupid," says Lilith, coming out of nowhere without a mask on. "We need to hurry this shit up. I've got beer to drink and friends to hang out with. Unlike this sorry bitch who has no friends."

  Swallowing hard, I push down the lump rising in my throat. My heart sinks into my stomach while dread washes over me. I should have known better than to come here. Let alone wander away from the party. "I’ll tell everyone what you did. Everyone will know that you guys tried to kill me."

  Chase laughs; this time, it's not sarcastic or ill-forced. He actually finds what I said funny. "She's fucking crazy. Maybe that's why no one likes her."

  “I’m not crazy. I know it was you guys. I have—”

  Lilith silences me by slapping her hand over my mouth. Pressing hard, her nails dig into the skin of my cheek. "How's that feel?" She digs harder, piercing the skin. "Do you remember the time you scratched my face? Still got a small scar on my chin from that shit."

  I do remember. But she had it coming. Everything bad that happens to Lilith is warranted.

  “Strip her down,” Lilith demands of Chase.

  He doesn't move as he holds me from behind.

  "Now!" Lilith quips.

  Chase lifts me up and begins carrying me into an open space in the house that I take to be the living room. "Please, Chase. I'll do anything."

  Just like that night, I'm at his mercy.

  "Anything?"

  My eyes pinch shut as I nod. "Yes."

  He keeps walking, holding me tight as we leave Lilith’s sight. "I'm going to put you down. But I swear to God, if you run, I will catch you and what comes next will hurt." He sets me down on my feet and takes me by the arm as he positions me in front of the fireplace.

  "How did you and Lilith know I was here?”

  "You think this was your plan, but it was ours to begin with. Get you out here, have a little fun with ya."

  "Blaise will find out. He'll kill you all."

  That laugh again. "Oh, Blaise. Your almighty protector. I know you two hate each other, but you should actually thank him. Without him, you'd have probably been raped by the entire senior class."

  Bile rises up my throat and I swallow it down. "Keep that in mind when you're stripping my clothes off because I'm telling him everything."

  Chase's phone begins vibrating, and he uses his free hand to reach into his pocket.

  This is my chance.

  When his guard is down, I step in front of him, lift my knee and ram it straight to his balls.

  "Ugh. You fucking whore!" he cries out in pain. His phone drops to the floor as he grabs his crotch.

  Wasting no time, I haul ass and go to run out of the house, but I’m stopped by someone standing at the doorway. His or her arms are spread wide. It’s too dark to see anything, but I recognize the mask. That’s when it hits me. It’s one of the masks I didn’t recognize that night.

  "Grab her!" Chase shouts as he wobbles back into the room with sore balls. It's hard to see anything, but I can feel Chase's venomous breaths hit my neck. “Fucking bitch.” He grabs me by the hair and yanks me backward. I stumble and fall on my back, dropping my phone.

  Shrieking, I try to get up, but it’s no use. "Get off me," I scream, patting the floor to try and find my phone. The flashlight is still on, hitting the ceiling.

  "Get her clothes off,” Lilith tells him as she lingers over us.

  Chase starts pulling my sweatshirt and even the fight I put up isn't enough. He tugs it over my head while Lilith tugs at my pants. I feel them slide down as tears fall from my face.

  I just wanted to have fun tonight. I wanted to prove to myself that I’m not a pushover. I was wrong, though. I have no physical strength. My mind is weak. I'm useless. A waste of bones as Blaise once said.

  Chase trails his tongue up my cheek, licking my tears. I turn my head and snarl in disgust. "Mmm, salty. Just like your personality."

  "Fuck you!" I hiss, lying there like a stiff board, letting them do whatever it is they have planned.

  Lilith shines her flashlight on me and orders Chase, “Get her up on the wall in the living room.”

  My tears slide as I shake my head no. “Please,” I beg of him.

  Where is Emery? I wanna scream at the top of my lungs, hoping she will hear me. Hoping anyone will hear me.

  “Just fucking do it!” Lilith snaps.

  I’m lying there in just a bra and underwear. Modesty be damned. I’m more vulnerable than I have ever been in my life and willing to do anything to save myself.

  “You will all live to regret this,” I choke in a pitted rage. “You will pay for tonight and for starting the fire at the barn.”

  “We didn’t start the damn fire!” Chase hisses, slamming my wrist back down on the floor. “I don’t know why you keep saying that. Yes, we locked you in the barn. But we never lit it on fire.”

  “Why did you do it?” I cry, unable to stop the tears that fall. “Why did you all make a mockery of me, day in and day out? What did I do to deserve it?”

  “It was Blaise,” Lilith begins. “Blaise started it all freshman year. He practically handed you over on a silver platter and told us to make your life miserable. So, we did. Then, he thought he could end it all when he told us to stop, but you were too much fun.” Lilith smiles and it’s unnerving. “You made it so fucking easy. You’re our favorite toy, Penelope.”

  I already know this to be true. Blaise was always the mastermind. My heart aches. After everything, I wanted to believe he wasn’t a terrible person. But, he is.

  Lilith begins getting antsy, walking back and forth in front of where I lie. “Get her back in the living room. Get her against the wall and I’ll take the damn pictures myself.”

  On the wall? What is she talking about?

  Chase begins pulling me up while I kick my legs. “Quit fighting the inevitable.”

  “Emery!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

  “Save your breath, sweetheart. No one’s coming for you.”

  Like a slap in the face, it hits me. He’s right. No one is going to save me. In this town, all I have is myself.

  Chase tosses me over his shoulder and I pound my fists into his back, squirming, fighting like hell. But it’s not enough.

  His hand smacks my ass hard and he laughs. “Keep trying. I like it when they fight back.”

  I growl, “I will never stop fighting!”

  Chase drops me down to my feet and his arms instantly wrap around me as he pushes me against the wall. I look up and notice two metal clamps screwed into the wall. He grabs one hand and sets it in place, ready to close the clamp around it.

  “Take the rest of her clothes off,” Lilith says as she joins us. She’s not alone, though. “Look who decided to join us,” she says in a chipper tone, acknowledging the newcomer. It’s hard to see, but it’s definitely a guy with that build.

  The other person wearing the mystery mask that night stands off to the side.

  “Get your phone out,” Lilith tells the person. “You’re taking the pics.” She’s always barking orders like some damn queen on a throne.

  “Let her go,” I hear someone say. It’s not a new voice, nor a stranger. His voice is laced with threat, though I can’t see him.

  “Blaise,” I cry out, “please help me.”

  Chase freezes, looking at Blaise as he enters the room. He’s wearing a mask. A skull mask. Blaise doesn’t stop until he’s directly in front of Chase. Cocking his fist, he unleashes it right on the side of Chase’s head. Chase staggers to the side but comes back up with a twitch in his lips. Blaise does it again and again, until Chase falls to the floor. It's all too familiar to the fight I witnessed at the party only an hour ago.

  In fact, it was the same mask. No. Was it Blaise that attacked the quarterback?

  Oh my God. Could it be because he was talking to me?

  “You’re lucky I don’t kill you right here and now,” Blaise shouts between blows to Chase’s face.

  “Come on. We need to go,” I hear the newcomer in the familiar mask say.

  That voice.

  It can’t be.

  “No,” Lilith retorts. “Blaise does not call the shots here. I do.” Lilith drops the light on the phone she’s holding up. "We had a deal."

  My head is spinning in a spiral of confusion. I have no idea what’s going on as I stand here. My hands free, my legs able to move, but for some reason, they don’t.

  “Blaise,” Lilith singsongs. “Are you backing out on me?”

  Once Chase is incoherent on the floor, Blaise gets to his feet and stalks toward Lilith. "Fuck the deal."

  Using this opportunity to get at least one answer to the dozens of questions storming through my head, I take steps toward the unknown person, though I’m pretty sure I know who it is since I heard her voice. She takes a few steps back and when a sliver of light from the moon casts through the window, I’m able to see her shirt. Reaching out, I grab her mask and pull it off.

  “No.”

  “Pen, I can explain,” Emery says with remorse. It won’t work, though. I’ve been betrayed a lot in my life, but nothing cuts as deep as this does.

  It’s not even about tonight. I was gone for two years and left without a goodbye. Emery has every reason to be angry with me. I know she was there now. The proof is all over her face. This is about two years ago when my best friend put on that mask and stood outside of the barn while my enemies tortured me. This is about the fire and the unanswered cries for help as she stood by idly and allowed them to lock me inside.

  “All this time. You were part of it.” I can’t think straight. I’m nauseous and on the verge of passing out.

  “All of you.” I spin around, looking from Blaise to Chase’s lifeless body, to Lilith, and then to Emery. “You all hate me so much that you’d take pictures of me naked, to what? Show the entire student body? Students who already hate me because of you? You’d lock me in a barn and set it on fire…to kill me? Was that your plan?”

  Emery drops to her knees in tears while Lilith just stands there with a smirk on her face. She’s desensitized to all emotion, so I don’t expect her to feel bad for what she did.

  “Take your mask off,” I say to the other guy who has not been identified.

  When he doesn’t, I pull it off myself, and he doesn’t even fight me off.

  Another punch to the gut. “Wade?”

  Blaise comes toward me, putting a hand on my arm, but I swat it away. “No!” I snap at him. I try to say something to him, but the words get lodged in my throat.

  I have to get out of here.

  CHAPTER 15

  BLAISE

  “Penny, wait,” I holler as I chase after her. Bypassing my car, she heads for the trails.

  “Leave me alone,” she cries out as she begins to slow to a brisk walk.

  I reach out to grab her, but she shifts to the right. I try again, but she shifts back. “Damn it! Would you stop and listen to me?”

  “Give me your hand,” I say to her, reaching out, offering to help.

  “You expect me to hold the hand that’s pushed me down for years. Not a chance.”

  “Just hear me out.”

  Her breaths are labored as she slows even more. As she goes to step over a log in her way, she trips. I catch her fall, but she drops weightlessly to the ground. “Why should I?” She sniffles as her cries ring out until she’s full-blown sobbing. “Go back to your friends. Don’t you have a deal with them?”

  I crouch down beside her as she drops her face into her hands. “It’s not what you think.” I pull off my mask, followed by my sweatshirt. I wrap it around her shoulders as she sits here shivering.

  Snarling, she looks over at me. “Everyone keeps saying that but I think I know enough.”

  Fuck. How did we get here? My fingers rake through my hair as I try to think of what I can say or do next to get out of this mess.

  “You’re right. I do have a deal with Lilith. I stay out of her way. You’re wrong, though. They are not my friends. Not anymore.”

  “Stop talking.” Penny pushes herself off the ground, but her body is too weak as her knees give out and she falls again, this time into my arms. She tries to push me away, but I hold tightly to her. “Nothing you say will ever make me forgive you. All these years…all these years you have tried to make my life hell. Congratulations. You did it.”

  “At first, I did. But did it ever cross your mind that I was never trying to hurt you? Maybe I was just trying to protect you.”

  “Protect me?” She cackles. “What a crock of shit.”

  “It’s true. After the fire, everything changed.”

  “Oh. You mean after you tried to roast me? Gee, thanks for protecting me.”

  I can’t tell her the truth. Even if she never believes it, I tried. Maybe I can’t protect her from Lilith or Chase. But I can protect her from the truth.

  Voices draw near so I give Penny a tug to try and pull her up. “Just leave me here. Let them have me. I don’t even care anymore.”

  I look over my shoulder as they come closer. “I need you to wait here.”

  She doesn’t say anything, but in the state of mind she’s in and given that she has no strength, she won’t get far.

  I stand up, leaving her sitting there with my shirt wrapped around her.

  Going back toward the farm, I’m met with Lilith and Emery. “Traitor!” Lilith says as she nudges past me.

  “Not so fast.” I snatch her arm and pull her body flush with mine. “You fucking touch her or say a damn word and I’ll pin everything on you,” I enunciate, “Everything.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Try me. She already thinks it was you. I can make it happen.” I look at Emery. “And you, too. She remembers more than you bitches think. If you so much as look at her the wrong way, you’re done for. Now, turn around and walk out of here and take a different trail. This one’s in use.”

  Lilith snatches her arm back while Emery obeys my commands. It’s apparent that Emery isn’t cut out for Lilith’s games. She has no idea what she got into by attaching herself to this noxious bitch.

  “Fine,” Lilith spews. “New deal. You keep my name out of your mouth and I’ll do the same.” She extends her hand, but I hold back.

  “And Penny?”

  She simpers with her hand still stretched out. “The little mouse can run back to where she belongs and I’ll leave her alone.”

  “Get Chase out of the house. No cops. No ambulance.”

  “Make Wade do it.”

  “Wade won’t be helping.” She doesn’t know it, but Wade was on my side the entire time. Penny doesn’t know it either. She will, though.

  “Ugh. Whatever. Let’s just make this deal, so I can go get drunk. Tonight is turning out to be a real drag.”

  We shake hands and she goes on her way. A handshake that means nothing because that’s what she gets when she makes a deal with the devil.

  I go back to where I left Penny, hoping she’s still there. When I don’t see her, I begin to panic. She’s going to walk up to that party half-naked. Fuck!

  I start jogging down the trail but stop when I hear her.

  “Over here,” she says, pressed up against a tree.

  Her expression is void. I’m not even sure if talking to her right now will do any good. I scoop her up in my arms, cradling her as I walk back to the farm where my car is.

  When her eyes close, I’m relieved. She’s gotta be exhausted from the events of the night.

  This is exactly why I didn’t want her to come back to this town. She should have stayed in Portland. This is why she has to hate me. It’s why I can’t love her like I want to.

  CHAPTER 16

  PENELOPE

  My eyes flutter open, and it takes me a minute to realize I’m not in my room. It’s dark and the only light is coming from the open door of the bathroom. I’m wearing one of Blaise’s t-shirts and a pair of his boxer shorts.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25