Page 119 of Priest and his Anarchist

I pull myself away and shrug my jeans back on, catching the fallen bodies around the room. One after the other, they come into view, and one after the other, I realize who they are.

My eyes fly back to where she’s passed out. If I leave her, she’ll die. I should leave her. She should die. But I fall back to my knees and bring my hand to her chest, pumping it in hundreds. Images flash through my mind with each one…

My legs burn the faster I run, but I know that I’m only a few steps away and I’d have found the darkest hiding spot. Somewhere that none of them would be able to find me in. I fucking hate this game, but for whatever reason, Mom and Dad want us to learn. They wanted us to play, and they said that one day, it will help. I wasn’t so sure.

I run through the maze, zipping past the perfectly manicured flowers and deeper and deeper into the darkness that eloped the castle’s maze. I’ve never gone this far in before. Not because I was afraid, I wasn’t. But because Mother told us to stay away from it.

Ha! Bet Evie and Halen wouldn’t find me now. Fucking Evie. She can always find me, even in the darkest of rooms.

I stop running, leaning over to rest my hands on my thighs when footsteps sound out behind me and a twig snaps. I quickly spin around, annoyed that they found me again—I was so sure that this would do it—“What the fuck are you doing here?”

Her brown hair is long, a complete contrast to her pale skin. Her mouth falls open, and a side smirk that reminds me of death swoops over her face. “Following you, of course.”

“Why!” No one follows me. Everyone runs away from me, afraid that I’ll kill their whole family.

“Because,” she whispers, and the closer she gets, the colder I become. I like it. It feels oddly comforting, and that makes no sense. When she is a breath away, her hand lifts and touches mine. “We are the same, you and I.”

My mouth opens to answer. Maybe cuss her out, because there’s no one like me…

She wore her hair in pigtails, but it is as dark as mine. Her eyes are bright, but I can never make out the color, and when she smiles, she’s missing a tooth.

Oddly cute.

She barks out a laugh that pierces my ears.

Never mind…

“Well don’t. Unless you want to get lost…” I answer, turning back around. Beneath a curved archway, there’s a concrete bench covered in moss and vines.

“What is that?” the weird girl asks.

I can’t tell if she is just crazy or stupid, since everyone knows not to annoy me. Why didn’t she?

“I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.” I take her hand with mine. “Scared?” I ask, a brow lifted.

“Me?” Her eyes turn a brilliant shade of something I can’t put my finger on. “Never. I’m excited.”

I stop. “Who are you here with?”

“My parents.” Her words are lost in the wind. Turning to look up, she smiles. “I’m?—“

“—I know.” My fingers clench.

She blinks. “Oh so you doooo know me?” She forges a brilliant smile.

“I know who you are.”

Only because of those damn eyes.

I toss my cigarette in the puddle of blood and scoop her up from the ground. Stepping over the three bodies, I carry her to the bed.

How many more had she killed? How long did I turn my back? Evie and I were only gone for not even twenty minutes. Where the fuck did everyone go in that time?

Blankets swallow her limp body when I lay her down. At every tick on the clock, I find myself being pulled closer and closer to the edge. Like a stranger in my home.

No. This shouldn’t feel like this.

I stumble backward, reaching for the door. Plucking the cigarette from behind my ear, I bite down on the end. Maybe Dad is right, and it is a habit we couldn’t run from. The fact that Deacon puffs on a fucking unicorn’s asshole of a vape proves that. Could not be me. Fucking weird ass generation.

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