Page 148 of Dare To Fall

My cell chimes just as I reach the chapel. Stopping outside, I pull it out.

Kitten: Where did you go?

Me: Kellan asked me to meet him in the chapel. He said he found something and wanted to show me. I didn’t want to wake you.

Kitten: I’m coming to meet you. I want to be there, too.

I blow out a breath, but don’t try and talk her out of it.

Me: Find Garrett first. Don’t walk through the woods alone.

I pocket my cell and push open the doors to the chapel.

“Kell?” I step inside. “What was so mysterious that we had to meet here?” When he doesn’t reply, I call his name again. “Kellan?” My voice echoes around the interior.

I pull out my cell and check the message he’d sent me, just in case I misread it. But no, it clearly tells me to meet him here.

“Kellan, stop fucking around.” Moving deeper inside, I head up the aisle between the rows of pews, and then I spot him. I roll my eyes. “Really?”

He’s sprawled out on top of the altar, head turned toward me. He watches me, a slight smile on his face, as I move closer, but he doesn’t speak.

“What did you find? Something else of Zoey’s?” I sigh when he still doesn’t reply. “Enough with the dramatics, just fucking—” A sound to my left cuts me off, and I tilt my head searching it out. It sounds like a muffled shout.

“Is someone else here?”

There it is again. There’s definitely someone else in here. Ignoring Kellan, I walk along one of the pews, listening for the sound again.

“Kellan, who else is here?” He ignores me, and his lack of responses makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Kell?”

I start to turn back to my friend, when what sounds like a muffled shout echoes around the chapel. I stop and spin.

There.

I turn and walk toward the pulpit on the far left of where the altar is. A shape comes into view, and it takes me a second for my brain to catch up with what my eyes are seeing.

“Miles?” I pick up speed and drop to my knees in front of the swim captain. There’s a gag wrapped around his mouth, and his hands and feet are tied together. “What the fuck?”

He mumbles something, eyes widening, and he jerks his head forward. Something cold touches my throat, and I freeze in the middle of reaching for the gag.

“What the fuck is it about you that makes people want to be your friend? No matter what I fucking do, you won’t fucking leave.”

The voice is recognizable, yet there’s something off about it.

“Everyone believes you’re the fucking monster I called you. They believe you do all the bad things that happen around here. But they still fucking talk to you. They all want to be your fucking friend.” The blade he’s holding taps lightly against my throat. “Stand up.”

Miles is shaking his head, trying to say something, but I can’t figure it out.

“It’ll be okay. Just hold tight,” I tell him, then stand.

“Fucking slowly.” The tip of the knife digs into my throat, just above my jugular.

Holding my hands out to my sides, I ease upwards.

“You know, I’ve asked everyone what it is about you. Why they fucking like you so much. They all deny it, but I can see it in their eyes. They can’t hide it from me. All the girls want you; all the boys want to be you. I’ve done fucking everything you have. I’m better than you are, but all I hear is Eli, Eli, fucking Eli.”

“Can I turn around?” I know who it is, but I’m finding it hard to believe. I need to see to be sure.

“No, you fucking can’t.”

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