Page 14 of Boys Who Taint (Spine Ridge University #5)

Ghost

From a distance, I watch her glance back and forth between the party in the woods and the wooden stool near The Edge, tempted by promises of revenge.

My devious little plaything … So easily persuaded by the idea of violence, as long as it doesn’t come from your heart.

But you know as well as I do that it’s all lies.

You want nothing more than to feel what it’s like to kill the one you want to hate so desperately, but you don’t want to feel the tsunami of guilt that comes after.

Because won’t that make you exactly like him?

I smile as she steps closer and closer, tentatively glancing around to see if anyone’s watching her approach.

And oh yes … am I fucking watching her.

The bonfire behind her makes her skin glow with heat, her red hair flittering in the dark, those freckles on her face like little soot particles floating in the wind. She creeps up to the stool when no one watches, like a tiny bug intent on crawling over the evidence, only to set it all ablaze.

Do it. Go on. Start the fire that roars in your heart.

Aspen

I take the paper out of my pocket and stare at it for a second, my breathing growing more and more erratic the closer I get to my decision.

No one knows I’m here. No one knows what I’m about to do. Not even me, and that’s what makes it so terrifying.

Because that mask on that stool is definitely the same one I saw that night when my stalker first revealed himself. And even though I know I shouldn’t … we both know I’m about to let him into my life.

All for the sake of revenge.

I place the note down onto the stool, the weight of the world coming down on me the moment I let go. Because right next to the mask is a tiny, typed-out note waiting for me.

Good choice … now run as hard and as fast as you can.

Because my price will be your body … belonging to me.

My lip shudders as the note falls out of my hand.

In the distance far beyond the woods, two sparkly, red eyes hidden behind the same mask meet mine.

I swallow.

A sudden short gust of wind blows soot from the bonfire all across The Edge, burning specks painfully igniting the fire on my skin.

I tap them off, but the paper I placed down on the stool flutters away with the wind, down, down, down, toward the hollow grounds below, along with all of my demons come to life.

Because my masked stalker is still watching me through the thicket of the woods with a goddamn smile on his face.

Waiting.

Waiting for me …

Oh God.

I bolt off as fast as I can in the opposite direction, through the woods, beyond the bonfire party. Through the thick of night, into the forest, as my heart begins to pound.

Because the Ghost’s price for ending Levi’s life … is me .

Where do I go? Back to the party, back to Grey?

No, I don’t want him to get hurt.

But can I keep running from the inevitable?

A branch hits me in the face, but I ignore the sharp pain as I dart through the trees and head back to the street beyond.

Because if I ever go back to the party, if I ever tell anyone about this stalker of mine, I doubt Levi will ever get the punishment he deserves, and I will never get the sweet taste of revenge.

But if I stop, this ghost who’s been haunting me will definitely catch me.

I glance over my shoulder to take a second guess, but that masked stranger is right behind me, wearing that same hoodie with a black balaclava pulled over his mouth and a white mask to cover half his face … in his hand is a knife.

But it’s his eyes that haunt me the most. His lenses are a shimmery bright red. Hauntingly demonic.

And getting closer and closer to me.

I don’t stop running until I’m all the way back on the Spine Ridge University campus. I don’t know where I’m going or how long I can keep running. How long my legs will keep me going until they cave in on me … how long it’ll be until he gets his hands on me.

I swallow down the nerves and head inside the main building. If I’m going to have to hide out somewhere without anyone seeing us, this is the safest option. For now.

The front doors are closed, but that doesn’t stop me from finding a fire exit on the left side of the building. I crank it open and run inside. But before the door closes behind me, a foot is wedged inside, keeping it from closing.

When I glance over my shoulder, I trip over a chair and fall to the floor.

My ghost steps inside, his gleaming knife a warning of what’s to come.

Panic seeps into my bones.

I crawl up and dart off toward the nearest staircase, which leads up to the big auditorium hall, where hundreds of seats lead down the steps that I can use to my advantage to escape him.

At least for now.

There are multiple doors in here, which means there’s at least one way to get out, so I ram the door shut behind me and head down the steps.

The bright lights above flicker as harshly as my heart as I try to keep my cool while heading down the steps. Two more doors are near the stage, but the moment I climb on, the whole auditorium is cast into darkness.

The silence is deafening, and all I can feel is my own heart quaking in my body at the prospect of what I’m about to face.

The sound boxes in each corner of the auditorium crackle with noise when, finally, a whispery voice emerges. “Not fast enough …”

Oh shit.

“I have you right where I want you …” he whispers.

“Where are you?!” I yell through the darkness. “Show yourself!”

The voice laughs menacingly. Not at all like anything I’ve ever heard before.

“How much are you willing to beg?” he whispers.

The microphone beeps through the crackling boxes, and I turn to gaze at the exits.

A bright light is turned on right above my head, blinding me.

Turning up the crank on the adrenaline spiking my veins.

My breathing is erratic. Unhinged.

I can’t see a goddamn thing …

Except for the man in the hoodie with the glowing red eyes slowly walking down the steps I had just bolted down from, a sharp knife tightly clutched in his hand.

I race to the door on the left of the stage, and I jerk the handle hard, but it refuses to budge.

I glance over my shoulder. He’s nearly all the way down.

Shit.

I dart to the other end of the stage right before he gets there, staking my hopes on the last door available, but that too is locked. But it doesn’t make any sense. Unless it was locked from the inside out.

My bones suddenly feel cold.

He knew I was going to run in here.

When I turn around, there he is, in the middle of the stage, staring right back at me.

A devilish smile forms on his lips.

He takes two more steps.

CLICK.

All the lights have turned off again, and my mind is reeling.

I kneel as my hand dives into my boot, where I keep my only weapon; a small knife my mom once tucked into my hand and told me to keep with me at all costs, no matter where I go.

But how do I fight my enemy if I can’t even see him?

I breathe in and start walking away from the door. I have no choice but to move. He’ll find me if I don’t. So I slide past some seats and try not to make a sound as I head back up the stairs to the only remaining door.

I slip on one of the steps.

Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.

I can hear his hard steps moving up the stairs right behind me.

Two hands wrap around my ankle.

Shit!

I immediately swipe the knife left and right behind me, and the blade cuts through his arm. He hisses and retracts his claws as I swiftly crawl to my feet and jerk the handle of the door in front of me, to no avail.

All the doors are locked. There’s no way out.

I run to the opposite end of the hall and bolt down the steps there, back to the stage. There has to be another door, right? Somewhere, anywhere—

Suddenly, an arm wraps around my body from behind, and a knife slowly slips underneath my chin.

“Don’t move or my knife will taste your precious blood,” he whispers into my ear. “Now drop your knife.”