Page 130 of Sinister Legacy
Keira drops her burger onto the plate, looking green.
Beside her, Madison stops chewing. “Nice. Now I’m not hungry anymore.”
Unbothered by the topic, I wolf down my burger while they stare at me.
Kara looks at me disapprovingly before resuming dipping her fry in the ketchup, smearing it around the white plate and through the dusting of salt. “I don’t know how to move on from here. How to be a normal teenager again.”
“No one expects us to be normal,” Madison says, reaching for her glass of coke. “I have recurring nightmares about what happened in the bathroom. The way the killer taunted me and dragged the knife along the stalls.”
“I struggle, too,” Keira admits, looking around the table. “Every time someone dies, we’re expected to move on after a day. I had two exams this week.Two.It’s safe to say my grades are tanking.”
My thumb soothingly rubs the slender column of her neck. I wish I could take her pain away.
With a soft smile in my direction, she leans in close, resting her head against my shoulder. I inhale her apple shampoo, kissing the top of her head. It’s safe to say I’m more than obsessed with this girl. I’m falling for her.
Sirens outside draw nearer, and the interior of the burger bar lights up with blue and red lights. Keira straightens up and looks out the window as two cop cars pull up in the parking lot.
The doors open, cops draw their guns, and Officer Wells holds up a megaphone. “Keira Hill. Step outside.”
“What the hell?” Madison whispers, and for once, we’re on the same wavelength.
Keira is shaking beside me as she scoots her chair back and slowly rises to her feet. I seize her wrist before she has a chance to leave. We don’t speak, but I see the truth in her eyes. The defeat. “I’ll see you soon, King.”
Without another backward glance, she walks out. The bell sounds above the door, grabbing me in a chokehold and throwing me violently back into the present moment. I’m up on my feet in the next second, tearing through the restaurant.
As I stumble through the door with the others hot my heel, Officer Wells is reading Keira her rights.
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…”
The words fade out.Everythingfades out except for the glistening, delicate tears on Keira’s lashes.
Her biggest fear has come true.
She has become her father.
“What the actual fuck?” Madison shouts, shouldering through two officers. “What are you arresting her for?”
Officer Riveiro guides Keira into the back of the cop car with a hand on her head.
Officer Wells looks tired. Regretful. “Murder in the first degree.”
“But why?!” Madison cries out, growling at the officers to get out of her fucking way. “What evidence have you got?”
Officer Wells looks back at the car before walking up to us, unaffected by Madison’s murderous glare or my tense shoulders. “The evidence is damning.”
“Damning how?” Kara asks, and he slides his haunted eyes to hers.
“We found a Halloween mask alongside her stepdad’s remains. A devil’s mask, to be precise. It had Keira’s DNA on it.”
“That’s bullshit,” Madison blurts. “Someone is setting her up.”
I say nothing as I dig my nails into my palms to stop myself from pummeling Officer Wells to the ground for stealing Keira away from me. I want to ram my fist into his bearded face and listen to the crunch of his nose breaking. My teeth grind so hard that I worry my molars will pulverize.
“I’m sorry.” He walks away, hopping into the car.
The sirens fade away into the distance and then it’s just us, staring at the tire marks in the parking lot, our ears ringing from the loud sirens.
“I can’t fucking believe this,” Madison mumbles, swiping angrily at her wet cheeks.
