Page 1 of Don't Look Back
PROLOGUE - AVERY’S MOM
STELLA LYNN
He’s going to kill me. I know this with the same certainty as I know my name or what color the sky is. To be honest, I’m a little surprised it has taken this long for him to grow bored with me. But I deserve this after what I did. Or rather, what I should have done all those years ago, but instead remained silent. I know it was high school, so long ago. But I still should have done more. Hell, I should have done something - anything - other than the passive acceptance I chose. At the time, I tried to justify my silence by telling myself I was respecting her privacy.
But I know the truth now. All the pain I’ve endured in this lifetime is my karmic penance for standing idly by while my friend suffered. She asked me to keep quiet, but I should have comforted her and then helped her get whatever justice or revenge would help heal her soul.
The night Savannah was attacked will haunt me for whatever remaining time I have left on this earth. It always has. I had left the cheerleading squad a few weeks prior because therowing team was taking up the majority of my time. Sailing had always been my true passion, so the decision came easily. There was nothing like the freedom and peace I felt being out on the water. It was where I belonged. Where I’ve always truly belonged, that being said, I remained friends with some of the girls on the cheer squad. Savannah was my closest friend, even though I also saw the other girls regularly, as our school schedules overlapped.
I still remember the satisfied smirk of the cheer team girls as they bragged to each other about what they had done that night after the dance. To their friend, my friend. How could they? Bile rose in my throat, and indignant rage flowed through me on her behalf. When I approached Savannah to ask her about what I heard and see if she was alright, she had begged me to stay quiet and let her handle things. Said she had a plan. So…I did. I never went to the police or told them about the confession I had overheard. Never recorded it or pushed for more. Nothing.
Never confronted the girls about it. Which, in all honesty, I felt was the least I could do. I was angry and hurt on my friend's behalf that they could be so cruel to someone I thought they considered a friend. However, I was afraid that if I pursued them, Savannah would perceive it as a betrayal of her trust. That was the last thing I would ever want. After everything she went through, I could not take away her choice in how she chose to heal. Even if I knew in my soul I should have done more.
Never bothered to ask the names of the men. Or hunted them down.
I never did a damn thing…But I should have.
It wasn’t until after we were married that I find out who all the men were. Turns out, I married one of them, and according to the law, married spouses can’t testify against each other. So once again, my silence was forced. I think that was his plan all along. He stopped being kind the day after we were married. Once he had me, I finally saw the monster that he truly was. The one Savannah had also borne witness to. We still occasionally kept in touch, but with my illness taking over, it became harder and harder to keep up with friends or even get out of bed.
The only light I had left in my life was my little girl, Avery. When she was born, Savannah had told me about her plan for revenge, knowing that if it meant taking out my husband, I would be all in. Yet again, my silence held firm. This time, however, it would be to help right some wrongs. I \ needed to be strong for what lay ahead. Avery needed to be stronger.
Reaching out with a shaking hand, I grabbed some paper and a pen from the nightstand. Even that slight movement made exhaustion seep into my bones. I knew my time on this earth was coming to an end. When the beatings started to escalate and become suspicious, my lovely husband began poisoning me. It happened slowly over time. When I realized what he was doing, it was too late. I was in total organ failure, my body finally shutting down. Withering away from all the years of abuse it has endured. I wouldn’t be here to see my daughter's eighteenth birthday, so I had to get all this written down. She deserved to know.
My Dearest Daughter, Avery…..
The minutes ticked by as words flowed from my pen onto the page before me. I lost myself in my writing. Time had become meaningless in my efforts to document every last gory detail of what had transpired in the years leading up to this moment….and to what was still yet to come. Avery would need to know everything; after all, she did have a role to play in all this. Just like the others, her time would come. I could only pray my little girl would be strong enough to face what the future held, for whatEdithwould bring. There was no other choice. The sins of the parents would be avenged by those they were least expecting. They would all suffer for what they did to Savannah. My only regret wasn’t using my daughter, knowing what was to come – oh no… It was that I would not be here to see the day everything came to fruition.
By the time I finished writing, my hands shook with fatigue. I was slipping away. Growing weaker with each moment that passed. I know death would take me soon. I've made my peace with that. But I will admit I was still afraid. Not of dying itself, truth be told, I’ve wished for it on more than one occasion when the beatings my husband dealt became worse. But more so, all the uncertainty of what came after. Regardless, I would find out soon enough.
Smiling wickedly, I slipped the letter into an envelope and tucked it underneath my pillow. Savannah would be by in the morning to pick it up while my husband was at work. I hate that the only greeting she will receive is my corpse. That woman has experienced more than enough death and suffering. Just as I had kept my silence, she would keep hers. Someone else would need to “discover” my body, or the entire plan would be at risk.
Part of me hopes it would be Avery, rather thanhim.
Part of me hopes it would be anyone but her.
At least I had the forethought to give Savannah a spare key to the house in case of such an occasion. When Avery turns eighteen, Savannah will use that same key to deliver the letter.
And then it will all begin.
1
AVERY
CURRENT DAY - AGE SEVENTEEN
There’s something wrong here. With this town, this school, all of it. I can feel it deep within my bones. How no one else seems to recognize this is beyond me. Day in and day out, people mingle around and go about their day as if there’s nothing wrong. As if there isn’t an unknown darkness slowly choking the life out of all those who live here.
Good old Warren, Connecticut. A place where the wealthy flaunt their status, appearances determine value, and everyone knows to avoid the old Deveroux mansion.
Rumor is it’s haunted.
That wouldn’t surprise me in the least, honestly. This town… It beats you down time and time again. It rips apart your soul piece by piece. Smashes all your hopes and rips apart every last dream you’ve ever had. Yet somehow, before you know it, you don’teven want to leave. This place becomes a part of you. No one can resist the pull. It finds a way to keep you here while slowly draining the life from you… changing you. Until you’re nothing like the person you used to be. Until you’re just likethem. All of those who came before you. But not me. I’m going to make it out of this eerie, cursed hellhole one day.
Until then, I just need to play my cards right.
Now, some people may think this is a bit morbid for a person’s first thoughts of the day. But as I pull up to Wisteria High School, I can’t seem to help myself.
Through the car windshield, I watch as all the little sheeple begin to file out into the courtyard, getting ready for the day to begin. Their cliques and patterns are all painfully redundant by now. The high school stereotypes get awfully boring sometimes.
