Page 57 of The Players

I was pinned.

Savannah loomed over, her messy blond hair framing her crazed face. Once again, I thought of murderers I’d seen on TV, how their wide eyes roved around in their skulls while seeking out their prey. Savannah was crazy. There would be no reasoning with her.

“Once I cut you up, we’re going to burn down this store so there won’t be any evidence.” She held up a large gas can that sloshed in her fist before she set it down next to a lighter on the counter. “Then grandma can warm up a bit.”

Her words burrowed into me like a thousand glass shards. She was going to kill me and then kill my grandmother. I’d come only to die, and my grandmother would perish with me. Despair squeezed my chest until I could barely breathe. This could not be how things ended. I thought of my parents and my grandmother. How I had failed them. I thought of Randy who would lose her best friend and her parents' livelihood in one blow. I thought of Hector and Lowell and even Mills. I’d never see them again. Never hold them.

Tears burned in my eyes. I couldn’t breathe well since my mouth was taped shut, but I sucked in struggling breaths through my nose as the smell of gasoline flooded me.

I would be tortured. She would cut me up. Then I would burn.

I pushed horrible thoughts away. I couldn’t let that happen because no one would look for Gram. Once the fire started, Randy and the boys would come looking for me, but they wouldn’t know to search the freezer. Gram would die a horrible death which meant I had to survive. I had to save Gram. We would not die at the hands of this psychopathicbottle blond.

She leaned over me while bringing the knife close to my face. “This is going to be so much fun, Vivian.” She twirled the giant blade so it reflected off the dim light from the back of the store. It looked very sharp and deadly. I shrunk away from it, but Ty and Spencer held me tight.

There was no way out, but I needed to think of something and I needed to think fast.

I tried to shout words through my taped-up lips, gesturing with my head and popping my eyes open like she needed to hear what I had to say.

“What is that? Do you have some last words? And don’t try to scream or I’ll cut out your tongue.”

Smiling wide, she reached down and ripped my duct tape off.

The pain was incredible as it took off layers of my skin, but I didn’t cry out. Instead, I forced a weak whisper out of my lips as if my voice was broken.

“What?” She leaned closer.

I whispered the words again but even quieter this time.

“Speak up, bitch,” she said, leaning down until her hair tickled against my face. She was close. Close enough.

I rammed my head up as hard and as fast as I could. Our skulls collided with an awful crunch. My brain knocked around in my head, making me dizzy, but I wasn’t the one holding the butcher knife. Savannah stumbled back, the knife slashing wildly through the air as she waved her arms to try to maintain her balance.

“What the fuck? Watch out!” Tyler stumbled back to avoid being slashed by the knife. As he did so, he let go of my hands.

I had one second to react. As fast as I could, I grabbed for the butcher knife now loose in Savannah’s hand. The handle brushed my fingertips, but she screamed and jerked her hand away. The blade went clattering to the floor somewhere in the darkness.

“You bitch!” Savannah shouted. She was still holding her head, but now she was bent over, looking for the knife. “Don’t just stand there, help me!” she shouted at Ty. When he turned away to help her, I felt Spencer’s hands let go of my ankles. When I looked up, he was backing away.

He let me go. I didn’t have time to process this. Instead, I bolted off the table and took off.

“No!” Savannah screamed at my back as I tore out of the deli area. “Get her!”

I didn’t look back as I tore toward the freezer section. It was nearly pitch dark here, but I didn’t need eyes to see. My hands gripped each door handle, keeping me oriented as I ran until I got to the approximate place where my grandmother had been.

I pulled the freezer door open. “Gram?”

Shuffling sounds and a muffled groan greeted me. I had found her, but now what?

Footsteps pounded in my direction. I reached into the case and grabbed for whatever I could find. My grandmother’s sweater bunched in my fists as I pulled. “Can you walk, Gram? We need to get out of here.”

Her weight shifted toward me, but I remembered she had been taped to a chair. I fumbled down, trying to find the tape and rip it free.

Suddenly, light and heat flooded the store. When I glanced over my shoulder, a giant flame engulfed the cereal aisle. Savannah stood in front of it with the gas can which she chucked in my direction. Blood meandered down her forehead and painted her features until she looked like a zombie prom queen ready to tear us all apart.

“You’re not getting out of here alive, orphan,” she said, shuffling toward me like a prom queen zombie. Her high heels were gone and her dress was ripped. “You’re not leaving. You know that, right? Not after what you know. Now I really can’t let you go.”

She stalked toward me, the flames at her back. The butcher knife was in her hand. The orange flame danced on the blade as she advanced. Tyler and Spencer were nowhere to be found.

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