Page 37 of Trick or Treat

Scarlett

I don’t recall ever seeing River or coming to this part of the woods. Saint and Blade are on either side of me as I stand here, but River and Nixon are in front of us, and River appears to be covered in red paint. Either that, or I must be having another hallucination.

I keep seeing someone holding a knife and repeatedly stabbing it into someone. There are screams and even chanting and cheering, and the person stabbing continues, becoming soaked in blood as it sprays from every gash in the body on the grass.What is happening?A ringing pierces my ears, and I go to cover them, only to realize I’m holding a knife. I drop it and back up, colliding with Blade, who shoves me into River.

"Scar,help." he begs in hushed tones, but confusion sets in, and I’m not sure what he’s talking about.

As I spin in circles and look around, I see that everyone is laughing and enjoying themselves. Riley and Melanie have joined us in the circle and are also jumping around. Saint gives me a wink as I turn to face him, licking his lips like he’s hungry—for me.

"What's the matter, trouble?" Deja vu strikes once more, but this time, my mind is completely clouded, and I’m unable to piece together the facts in a way that makes sense. So I just stop trying.

"I'm confused. What's happening?"

"What's happening? You stabbed River," he laughs, but I swear I heard him wrong.

I stumble over to Blade, collapsing in his outstretched arms for comfort as the trip threatens to turn bad.

"Aww, my little sinner, what's wrong?" He brushes my blood-stained hair back while running his bloody thumb along my lip and looking intently into my eyes.

"I don't know what's happening. What's going on with River?"

He shakes his head and grins as he kisses the tip of my nose. "He's just going for a little swim to clean off. He's a littledirty."

Through hazy, blurry vision, I see River, Riley, and Nixon walk down to the lake and jump back in, my mind finally at ease knowing I didn’t stab him to death as Saint claimed. I peer over Blade's shoulder, noticing Melanie now lying on the ground, gazing at the sky as if she’s resting, and everyone else is unwinding for the night.

As the night comes to a close, I find myself getting comfortable in Blade's embrace, unknowingly covered in my ex's blood, letting the drugs take me away to the depths of my mind where I am safe and everything will be fine.

fourteen

Amnesia

August

Scarlett

Another day, I wake up unable to move a single muscle in my body. As I attempt to sit up to silence my alarm, my skin and bones feel pierced by a million knives, and I wince in pain. My head hammers, feeling like my skull is cracking, and grabbing it doesn't help. My ears are hurting too. They experience a loud ringing that makes them feel like they’re bleeding. My body feels heavy and sluggish, and I can’t seem to get myself to move.What the fuck happened last night?

I lay here, clueless and a little frustrated that I can’t recall anything, trying to search my mind for the last thing I do recall, but I can't even think at the moment. When I look down, my eyes are sore and throbbing, and I notice marks on my hands and arms, which I quickly pull the blanket over to conceal. A groan escapes my scratchy throat, and I manage to turn on my side. I close my eyes again, ignoring the pain and hoping for a few more minutes of sleep before I have to get up to get ready for work. But that doesn't happen.

Melanie's scream penetrates the silence around me, causing my eyes to flutter open. My door slams open, and she rushes into my room, jumping on my bed in terror.

"Scarlett, you need to wake up!" Sheshakes me, thinking I'm sleeping.

"I'm awake, Mel," I groan again, my gaze fixed on the window, watching the rain fall.

"What happened last night? I can't remember shit," she asks, trying to get me up.

"I can't remember either. Did we go out?"

"No idea. Why can't we remember? Were we drugged or something?" She asks, her voice panicked, as she scrolls through Instagram on her phone.

"Who would have drugged us, though?" I finally turn to face her, rising slowly.

I reach for my phone and unlock it, oblivious to the radiating pain. When I launch the app, my heart sinks and bile rises in my throat. "Uh, Mel… Have you seen what's trending?" With tears already welling up in my eyes, I turn my phone so she can see what’s at the top of my feed.

She draws a breath, drops her phone, and grabs mine from my hands. "No fucking way! Is thatRiver?!"

I sit here with my eyes cast down, picking at my nails frantically as she screams while reading the article. I nod, but nothing comes out of my mouth. She puts the phone down and picks up her own while desperately looking for additional news reports about what happened. Picking up my phone again, I read the article slowly, feeling a lump in my throat that won’t go away when I swallow. My body trembles, my hands sweat, and nausea threatens to knock me to the ground.

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