Page 1 of Heart of a Killer

Prologue

FOUR MONTHS EARLIER

“Hey, Brie! Are you going to Michelle’s party tonight?”

“Yeah, why?”

Ashley chuckles. “Well, because yesterday you told me you were grounded.”

My parents are out of town again on a business trip. I’m thankful for it, too, because I’d stayed up for days taking a handful of Mom’s Adderall. The exhaustion from my bender is finally catching up to me. At least they aren’t here to see me, face down on the horn, with my car through the garage door. The blaring went all night until my nanny arrived the following day. There were complaints from the neighbors, and now there’s a noticeable car-sized hole in the garage door. I couldn’t hide it and the nanny had to tell them, so they grounded me from a thousand miles away for being irresponsible.

I turn to her with a mischievous grin on my face. “Since when do you know me to follow the rules? My parents are still out of town, so they won’t even know.”

My parents try to act like parents are supposed to, or maybe it’s what they’ve seen on T.V. I’m not sure where they got their parenting examples from, but they’re shit. They’re more worried about their social hour and martinis at the yacht clubs. No time to care about me and what I’m doing unless it affects their image.

Besides, I’m eighteen now, so what do they care? I’m practically an adult or some shit.

This fucking cafeteria food looks disgusting, and I just end up pushing it around on the tray. Ashley isn’t paying attention to me anymore, just scrolling on her phone. Same story, new day; nothing ever changes around here. We’re just rich kids with way too much freedom. Most of my so-called “friends” are too busy backstabbing and getting lost in social media to feel seen. Me, I just want to feel. I need to express myself without worrying about ruining someone else’s image or reaping the consequences. If I could float away, I’d feel free—weightless, even.

I expel a haggard breath at the thought of being away from this world, imagining myself as a balloon with no strings attached. My arm is pushed out from where it had been propping my head, making me almost face-plant in the rabbit food we have for lunch today.

“What the fuck?!”

I turn to see Cole with a smirk on his face. He is the most popular guy in school because he’s the star quarterback, and the girls fall over him. He eats that shit up like candy and takes advantage of them. He’s cheated on his girlfriend more times than I can count and is still able to maintain that image of being the preacher’s son.

“What was that for?”

“You were staring off into space again,” he says, laughing, as if that explains it all.

“What do you want?” Don’t get me wrong—he’s hot. He’s, like, ‘putting a stick of butter on asphalt and watching it bubble and melt in 2.5 seconds’ hot! But he’s pretty annoying too. He’s always messing with me as if we’re still in kindergarten.

“Are you going to Michelle’s party tonight?”

I roll my eyes for an exaggerated effect. “Yes, and I swear if one more person asks me, I’m going to scream.”

“Gah, a’ight, chill.”

He knows he’s good looking, but really, he’s a fucking tool. The perfect guy for me, my parents would say. No one knows the real me because I can’t be myself. I’d rather do drugs all day, so I can mentally not be here anymore.

“Sorry, I’m just in a mood today.”

“What mood is that? Bitch mode?”

All I can do is cut my eyes at him. He’s trying my nerves today and just pushing all the buttons.

The bell for next period sounds overhead, and everyone gets up to dump their tray on the washer’s conveyor belt. I only have one more class since I have senior leave. And since they canceled cheer practice today, I get to cut out early and go home. Thank fuck for that. The Xanax I took last night is still coursing through my system and the bed is calling my name.

After dragging ass to my last class, struggling to maintain consciousness, and dodging everyone who tries to talk to me, the day is finally over. I swear, how often can people ask me the same question before it’s acceptable to rip their heads off?

When I get home, it is as quiet and lonely as always. Besides me, the only person here is Rosie, our housekeeper, nanny, and stand-in parent. You know, whatever my parents need because they don’t know how to do it themselves.

The house is white and large, too big for the two people whoactuallylive here. There’s a home gym, theater, and a pool in the back with a hot tub. All the fancy things one could dream of. Everything is so modernized, almost clinical. My room is the only one off-limits to my parents’ interior designers. After years of throwing bitch fits, I finally got to paint my white room fuchsia pink. I have a million pillows and blankets because the bed is where I live, unless I go to school.

Or parties. Those ragers are where I get most of the drugs to numb myself. Everyone gives them out freely because who gives a fuck when we can just get money for more? I check the time on my phone—only two in the afternoon—and I set the alarm to wake up and get ready for Michelle’s party at seven. I snuggle up in my piles of covers and pillows, feeling like I’m sleeping on a cloud, and fall fast asleep.

* * *

The alarm blaringwakes me from my beauty sleep. It’s so dark in the room that it seems like my eyes never opened. Once my vision adjusts to the dark, I see a black form in the corner. My heart starts racing, and my chest begins to ache as the walls around me close in. My hand fumbles around for the lamp, and my eyes never leave the shadow in the corner. Breaths come shallow and quick. Then my hand finally finds the switch, and a burst of light fills the room.

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