Page 70 of Her Wicked Knights
I don't say anything, fixing my eyes instead on the screen that shows the start of the haunted house.
I've seen Whit do things that aren't humanly possible. I've seen the past life he speaks about. I've witnessed him slink inside of my mind and get a death grip on my brain, effectively shutting it off so that when he released me from his hold, I had no idea what the fuck he did to me.
And yet, I don't know how much I believe all ofthis.
Audrey's face comes across the screen on the wall, and I feel myself pulled back to the moment, to the grim reality of what we're doing. As I watch, Carson slides his hand beneath her top, gripping her breast. They've stopped walking, and she closes her eyes for just a second before her mouth curves in a sinister grin.
"Stop making me horny when I'm about to commit murder."
I nearly snort.
"I wanna fuck you so bad." Carson pants as Nick steps up behind my girlfriend, his hands on her hips. "One last time."
One last time.
I bristle, worried that Audrey will catch onto his meaning and realize we're coming for her and not the girl she set up.
But of course, Audrey doesn't even pay attention to what he just said. She pushes Carson off of her, smirking when he stumbles. "So then fuck me. But wait until her blood is dripping around us and we have our power."
I've pushed the limits with Audrey, tested boundaries...
But hearing her tell Carson to fuck her with her best friend's blood dripping around them? That's a new low for her, and I didn't think she could sink any lower.
I grind my jaw together, resisting the urge to go out there and strangle her myself. I don't need to be filmed committing murder.
This haunted house was truly the perfect place for this, given that everything is recorded up 'til the last room, where we stand watching and waiting. We're going to manipulate the footage, of course, just the way that Whit manipulated the footage that serves as an alibi for me and Mark.
He and Marley are lagging behind, and I'd much rather watch them... her.
It takes a minute before she appears on the screen. She looks like she's on edge, anxious about what's to come. She doesn't notice Jake creeping up behind her in the melted-face maskof Freddy Krueger, until Mark points for her to turn around, laughing.
Jake advances on her, slipping a blade into the waistband of her jeans, and that snaps Mark out of it. He wrenches Marley away, glaring at Jake in disgust. For once, I think I agree with him. We should be killing Jake tonight, too. He's just as guilty of every awful thing Audrey has done, but Whit won't allow it. The mayor's son will draw too much attention. But if we keep him alive, if he's complicit, then he has as much to lose as the rest of us.
I watch Marley lean toward Mark, watch her trust him, watch her let him lead her to the coffin prop in the graveyard.
And then I can watch nothing else, because Audrey joins us, rushing to grab her costume. She doesn't acknowledge the rest of us as we slowly close them in, as Carson dons his clown costume and Nick moves in on her other side with a blade in his hand.
When Audrey does pick up a knife, she runs a finger down the blade, testing it with a smirk.
"The world belongs to those who take what they want." She turns to get a glance at Whit, who nods at her, gently encouraging her to believe that she's safe.
That's one thing Audrey and I agree on. The world doesn't give you things just because you're breathing and existing; you have to take the things you want. Problem for Audrey is, she has no loyalty. You don't take what you want if it's going to harm someone you're supposed to care about. Sure, I can excuse stalking Marley, watching her, obsessing over her, touching her in her sleep. But none of those things have ever been done with the intent tohurther, unlike the barbs Audrey so frequently drops. And plotting to murder her best friend so that she can have the magic that bleeds from Marley's veins? That's fucking vicious. For that reason alone, I am able to suspend my conscience, to stop looking at her as an insecure, petulant childwho resulted to manipulation because she didn't understand how to make genuine connections with people.
Audrey catches a glimpse of Carson as he straightens, the clown mask in his right hand, and I watch her lips move, but I don't hear what she says. The blood is rushing too fast in my ears, thundering over everything else. But I see her kiss him like she's done it a dozen times before, and I don't doubt she has.
The thing is, Carson's just like Audrey. He's not loyal, and she doesn't mean anything to him.
When he yanks her hair in his fist and her mouth opens in a gasp, she looks at him with unmistakable lust in her eyes, like she's expecting this to go somewhere very different from the reality of what's about to happen.
When he uses his grip on her to whip her around and force her to her knees, she gasps, shock and excitement twining together as she waits for whatever Carson's going to give her. I knew she was this way with me, but I somehow always assumed that everyone else she hooked up with was more like her relationship with Jake, where she called the shots, did the seducing.
I don't love Audrey; I'm not sure I ever even liked her. But there's a small part of me—a very small part—that recoils as Carson drags a blade across her throat, spilling her blood upon the floor and sending her falling flat on the ground in shock, clutching at her throat to try and stop the bleeding.
Nick moves in behind her, pressing a boot flat on her back and pinning her down so that when he stabs her in the middle of her back, she falls to the ground again, a strange sort of scream clawing through her severed throat.
Whit pushes Jake forward as Nick pulls his knife out of Audrey's back. With the mask on, I can't see Jake's face, but I notice the way his hand trembles around the blade. Kind of funny, since he's killed more than anyone else here.
He's as pathetic as he's always proven to be, stabbing her slowly in the shoulder, looking away as he drives the blade into the fleshy part.
