Page 75 of Twice as Twisted

Jane looks up, little bits of broken pine needle and dirt stuck to her forehead where she pressed it to the ground. She nods, her tear-stained face ghostly in the moonlight.

I remember thinking the girl I was waiting for came back to me, but the girl Olive was waiting for never did. I can change that. I can make up for what I did, for smashing her head. Maybe even for what I did to Harper, and Gloria, and all the girls I hurt. Maybe I can be forgiven, maybe I can erase all that, by saving this one girl. Not for me, but for Olive.

I grab Jane under the arms and pull her to her feet, squeezing her against my chest with one arm. I crush my lips to the top of her shorn head, inhaling the scent of ocean wind and musty basement and antiseptic from her. Then, I turn her around and give her back a firm push.

“Run.”

I watch her go. The people who matter always leave. But maybe, for one of them who knows that as well as I do, I can make someone come back. I can’t go back, but this time, I’m not just watching someone walk away from me. I’m watching her walk back into Olive’s life. I stand there so long I barely notice that my face is cold, and it takes me longer to realize it’s wet. Until I don’t hear her crashing through the woods anymore.

Then I turn and walk back toward the car. The moon is less than a quarter, but it’s bright enough to light my way. I hope Jane has as good a sense of direction as I do. I hope she’s movingas confidently as I am, armed with the flashlight I shoved into her hand before I let her go.

I hear a snap of twigs, and I stop, listening for the crackle of a police radio, a shout, a siren.

Still nothing, just the shrieking pines.

Fuck. Is she following me back? Coming for me now that she has the means for revenge?

No, she wouldn’t lie to me.

Would she?

I take another step, moving slowly, setting my feet down carefully so as not to make a sound. My heartbeat is drumming loud in my ears.

The truth is, I don’t know the first thing about Jane. I don’t even know her real name, just the nickname her sister used and the one Baron gave her.

Plain Jane.

Fuck. I shouldn’t have given her that gun.

I stop again, and this time, I hear it. The heavy, slow approach of footfalls.

I don’t move for a long minute, and at last, a lone figure steps out of the shadows.

sixteen

Baron Dolce

My brother stops dead when he sees me, but if he’s surprised, he masks it well.

“Did you do it?” I ask.

“What do you think?”

“I think you hold onto things even after they’ve lost their value because you remember what they once were, instead of their potential for future use.”

“I never saw Jane before you destroyed her,” he says. “If she has sentimental value to anyone, it’s you.”

“Where’d you leave her body?”

His jaw clenches, and he gestures back towards the forest.

“I’m going to need you to lead me to it,” I say.

“Why?” he demands. “You don’t think I could do it?”

“You didn’t think I’d just accept she was gone, did you?”

“Of course I did,” he says. “We don’t lie to each other.”

---