Page 3

Kali

How could I have ever thought Chance was in league with Blake? I’d known the eldest of the two half-brothers for longer, had trusted him implicitly, yet I had let Blake taint our friendship and let it chip away at the trust I had for him. Trust that was earned fair and square.

Not only that, but I’d let my trust issues get in the way of speaking to Rhodes about Bianca, and now she was dead. I didn’t actually believe anyone would have shown up to investigate on time to save her, but at least her family, her little sister, wouldn’t have to worry and wonder. She’d had concrete answers that would give her the opportunity to heal from losing her sister, especially in such a gruesome manner, but I had let my fears get in the way of that.

I would have to rectify my mistake. I couldn’t let my personal fears cause any more harm. Blake was going down, and I would get justice for us all.

But first…

‘Kali?’

My smile was weak and wobbly, but it was the only effort I could muster. ‘Hey, you.’

His inhale was shaky, and he looked like he was about to collapse. ‘Hey, back.’

‘He got you, too, huh?’ I asked, then immediately wished the earth would open up and swallow me whole. What the fuck was I even saying?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

‘Kali, I… Shit.’ His voice broke as he tried to move toward me, but he was stuck. He hadn’t quite disconnected from his body just yet. Something was still keeping him attached, and he frowned down at his floating feet in frustrated confusion.

‘You need to accept that you’re dead now, Chance. It’s the only way to move away from your bones,’ I informed him, my voice void of all emotion. I didn’t sound like myself. It was like listening to someone else talk, but my mind was struggling to comprehend all that was happening. ‘Even then, it’ll take some time before you can move very far.’

He seemed rather dumbstruck momentarily before his expression went slack as his mind spun, piecing things together. ‘Are you… buried nearby?’

I nodded numbly. ‘Out back with the other girls.’

He cursed again, glaring down at his younger brother. The man who had now betrayed us both was hacking away at Chance’s body like he did with all of his kills. I wasn’t sure why he cut us into pieces, since he was only burying us in the backyard, but it was his ritual all the same. I had wondered briefly if he would follow the same MO with Chance since he was the complete opposite of his usual victims, but I got more information about Blake with this particular kill than I ever had before. It wasn’t just about the victims, it was about the method. Heenjoyedbreaking us into smaller pieces.

Sick fuck.

‘How many?’ he asked after tearing his gaze away from the gruesome sight. He wilted where he floated above his body, and Iunderstood from first-hand experience how disturbing it was to witness. It was horrific watching him do that with other people, but to your own body? If I still dreamed, it would be filled with nightmares.

‘Of his victims?’ I asked, and he nodded the clarification. ‘I don’t know. There have been dozens of us, but I don’t know how many came before me.’

‘Oh, Kali…’

The sheer, unadulterated heartbreak in his voice almost had me crumpling, but I refused to let the weight of Blake’s actions crush me. I couldn’t let them crush Chance, either, because it was clear to see how much he was struggling with his murder, and rightfully so.

‘Later,’ I told him, ending the route he was about to go down before he could go any further. This wasn’t the time to get into things.

But he didn’t seem to hear me. His eyes had latched back onto what Blake was doing to his hollow corpse, and he swayed where he levitated above it all. He was seeing things he could never unsee. I had watched his smile as he’d died, a peace in his expression I was shocked to see, but this was something far beyond the scope of what we as people should ever have had to experience. To bear witness to one’s own mutilation, the desecration of our now-empty vessels after death was its own, malicious form of torture. It bit. It clawed. It tore out the innocence from our very souls and shoved us into a limbo of madness that hovered just over there, not quite tangible but very much present.

Though now, I was almost certain I had touched it, and it had touched back.

I didn’t want that for Chance. Not him. And yet, it was too late. He had joined me in purgatory, condemned to face eternity toeither wither away into a forgotten memory like the others, or to seek vengeance like me.

Which path would he choose?

Would he forsake me, now that he knew the truth? Would he discover that his own journey disconnected from mine? Or would he stay by my side, my vendetta nowours?

The truth hit me harder than I was prepared for. I didn’t know Chance like I once had. I wasn’t even sure how long I’d been dead. By the grey dotting his hair and the wrinkles around his eyes, it seemed I had been gone for quite some time. He had visibly aged, and that time spent apart meant I didn’t know him as I once had.

We weren’t strangers, but we weren’t close anymore, either. So, where did that leave us?

I kept my distance as he watched Blake work, needing to offer reassurance but unable to do so. Chance’s body was no longer recognisable in the mess. I felt every ounce of my being screaming to reach out to him, but not only because I wanted to comfort him, but because this new power that had awoken inside of me was screaming to be fed. I didn’t want to accidentally absorb him like Bianca, so I stayed by the stairs, right beside the cop who was whimpering in the corner, trying to make herself small enough to evade notice.

It wouldn’t last. She was his victim, regardless.