Page 206 of Deviant

She says it with such certainty that I actually feel her pull them out of my stomach with her bare hands.

“You’re insane.”

“Am I?” She cocks her head to the side. “Or am I the sanest person here? Besides, I never liked the words insane or psychotic. I always preferred eccentric.”

“I tried to warn you that she was bat shit crazy. But did any of you listen?” David blurts out, real fear starting to shine in his gaze as he stares at Mackenzie’s nefarious grin.

“Oh, David.” She tisks, shaking her head. “I had such high hopes for you. What a disappointment you turned out to be.”

I gawk at her, wondering if she was always this psychotic or ifThe Scourgebrought it out of her.

“But don’t worry. I’ll get to you too. But my real prize will be to hunt sweet little Rowen here and gut her like a pig. Oink.Oink,” she provokes with her finger pressed hard on the tip of her nose to make her point.

Nostril’s flaring, Elias pulls my arm so that I lean back into my seat and snarls at Mackenzie.

“Touch her, and it will be the last thing you do.”

“So you say,” she sings. “And there was a time I would have believed you. But love has made you weak. Vulnerable. Your threats feel hollow to me now. But I’ll tell you what?” she says, leaning even further into the table until she’s mere inches away from Elias’s face. “I’ll let you watch as I carve into her pretty face.”

Elias grabs the edge of the table, intending to strangle Mackenzie right here, right now, but I hold onto his wrist, preventing him from murdering her when the cameras in the room are all pointed at us.

“Don’t do it. It would be your third offense, and I don’t think our hosts would take that lightly.”

“Lady Hawthorne is not wrong. Should any one of you bring any bodily harm to the other chosen candidates, then death is the only outcome my employers will accept for such defiance.”

I let out a deep exhale when Elias stands down, even if reluctantly.

“I suggest you use the next seven days wisely,” Henry adds somberly. “For three must fall for one to rise.”

You might think that seven days would feel like an eternity when a death sentence looms over you, but you’d be mistaken. Unlike the earlier weeks spent in this house, which dragged on endlessly, this last week zipped by in a blurry haze. Perhapsit was because we knew precisely who the enemy was and no longer needed to coexist with one another. Long gone are the forced meals in the dining room or the faked forced smiles we had to put on whenever passing each other in the hallways. Even Five’s taste test at meals became obsolete.The Scourgewouldn’t dare kill us now when their grand event was so close on the horizon. One less candidate would cut into their profit margins, and they wouldn’t want that.

With a towel wrapped around my body, I chew on my bottom lip, gazing at the dress Five picked out for me to wear tonight, laid out on the bed. It’s a pretty white dress, like one I would have worn to a Harvest Festival, but not for a hunt. This dress screams out prey, easy picking for some psycho like Mackenzie.

It’s funny how, on my actual Harvest Festival, I wore something similar, even if less glamorous, so that I could catch the eye of a hunter, but now the very idea of me wearing this dress churns my stomach.

“What’s wrong? Don’t like the dress?” Elias asks, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind and placing his chin on my shoulder.

“No. I don’t. I despise it and everything it represents.”

“That’s a lot of hate for one silly dress.”

“That’s because it’s a lie. I’m no longer the type of girl who would wear something like this. It’s too virginal… too innocent.”

“Virginal, huh?” He chuckles, amused. “If I remember correctly, you were wearing a dress a lot like that one when I fucked you from behind in that alley. The little moans you made while I fucked you good and hard didn’t sound very virginal to me.”

I spin in his arms and slap his shoulder.

“I knew it was you that night!”

He lifts my chin up so I can meet his eyes and smiles.

“Was there ever any doubt?”

“You sure had me second-guessing myself there for a minute.”

“I’m sorry about that. I was still set on my revenge back then,” he replies, genuine regret in his midnight gaze.

“It wasn’t that long ago. Four weeks by my count.”

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