Page 39 of Bleed for Me

“This isn’t real,” I whispered, shaking my head.

“Come play with me.” She giggled, her voice tittering around the room as if she were speaking through a megaphone. “Do you want to play with me, Rosie?”

Reality told me this wasn’t real, but I rose from my bed anyways. Shelookedreal. Her blonde hair was unkempt—much like it was the night she died. It flowed around her shoulders but there was no vent in the room. Her smile widened and she ran through the door as a ghost would, disappearing from sight.

“Daisy, wait!” I called out, my heart pumping wildly.

Her giggle resounded all around me as if she were still in the room. “Come find me,” she replied.

Slipping on my shoes, I darted for the door and slipped out into the hall. She stood at the end, a sinister smile curling the corners of her mouth before she took a right. I quickened my pace until I was jogging, needing to see her even if she were just a figment of my imagination. Adrenaline pulsed through my veins, guilt slamming into me.

When I made it around the corner, she was gone. My shoulders dropped in defeat as I looked up and down the hall, but she was nowhere in sight. Not even the tittering laugh. The lights above me flickered, giving the area an ominousappearance. Suddenly, it felt like something wasverywrong. Chills erupted along my skin, and I turned to head back to my room, only to be stopped in my tracks by two girls with brown eyes and long dark hair.

Alina and Rachel.

Alina stepped forward first, a snarl curling the corners of her mouth as she looked me up and down as if I were simply beneath her.

“What’s so perfect about you?” she demanded, catching me off guard.

Alarm bells bounced around my skull. Narcissists. Alina had sadistic personality disorder. She got off on inflicting pain and I was helpless. Goosebumps attacked my exposed arms, and I absentmindedly rubbed my hands against them, trying to keep myself as small as possible.

“I-I don’t know what you mean,” I muttered.

She took another step forward, leaving her sister to follow her lead. “Archer likes you and I want to knowwhy.”

Instinctively, I stepped back. There was nowhere for me to go, though, because it was a dead end. My breathing increased, hating the way they stared me down—like I was their newest fixation. A game they could play with and dispose of when they were finished.

“I don’t want Archer.” I breathed, glancing around for an escape route.

Rachel laughed, drawing my attention back to her. “It didn’t look that way in group therapy the other day.” She smirked. She knew exactly what she was doing. “Do you make a habit out of letting random people touch you that you aren’t interested in?”

I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes from my recent encounter with a fake Daisy and then this. “I don’t want any trouble.” I said, raising my head to look Alina in the eye.

Her gaze traveled over me slowly and then her nose wrinkled in distaste. “Maybe you should have thought about that, skank,” she hissed. Before I could even process her words, she was lunging forward, grabbing a handful of my hair and jerking my head back.

A gasp slipped from my lips, pain radiating through my scalp. She was skinnier than I was, but she had an iron grip. Rachel moved forward, stopping right in front of me. She smirked, clearly getting off on this. Alina tugged harder, causing my neck to bend more and my back to arch. My hands latched onto her wrist, but even as I pulled at her arm, she didn’t let up.

“I wonder if he’ll still like you when you’re not so pretty anymore.” Rachel grinned, fishing in her jacket pocket and pulling out a piece of glass.

My eyes widened, a whimper bubbling up from my throat. I tried to jerk out of Alina’s hold, but my attempts were useless. She threaded her fingers even more tightly in my hair, giving me no room to move at all. My heart beat wildly in my chest, fear spiking through me.

I couldn’t die here. Not like this. Not by the hands of a couple of mean girls.

Not mean girls. Psychopaths.

“Please,” I choked out. “I’ll stay away from him. Whatever you want. Just don’t do this.” I already planned on steering clear of him after Seven’s threat, with the exception of visitation. They didn’t need to know that, though.

Rachel snorted in response, obviously not satisfied by that in the slightest. She placed the sharp edge of the glass to my cheek, right beneath my cheek bone. My blood heated, spreading through my veins, and lighting a fire inside of me. There was nothing I could do to get out of this. I winced as she added more pressure, my chest heaving.

“That’s not good enough,” Alina snapped, her voice loud in my ear, making me flinch.

“Then what do you want?” I demanded, a sting slicing through my cheek followed by a trickle of warmth that I knew was blood.

Rachel didn’t relent. She continued to slash the glass down the side of my face, forcing a whimper from my lips. My nails bit into Alina’s wrist, but that didn’t do anything either.

“It’s simple really,” Alina answered. “We don’t want Archer looking at you anymore.”

Rachel grinned maniacally before moving the makeshift weapon to the corner of my mouth, an evil glint in her dark irises.

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