Page 101 of Marked By Shadows
I couldn’t reach for the hood and partial mask, not while holding her down. Instead I shifted my weight, flipping her, sitting on top of her, and pressing her face into the water until she sputtered and shrieked at me, trying to buck me off. That voice I recognized, and it stunned me long enough that she succeeded in shoving me to the side and rolling away. Water dripping from her face, washing away some make-up, mask askew, but leaving the reflective contacts. Her bodysuit cleverly made with dark edges to make her appear thinner, emaciated, and pale.
“Great costume, MaryAnn,” I said. “But I’m kind of lost on the entire point of all this,” I told her. “Is this some sort of game? I have to say I’m not amused.”
“This isn’t a game,” she snarled.
“Does Freya know what you’re doing?”
She shrieked. “You have no right to even say her name!” She lunged at me, not hitting me but grabbing the stick and shoving me backward hard. I landed half in the small stream with a splash, but managed to catch the stick. She dragged me back out without trying as she tried to take it back. “It was supposed to be that worthless boyfriend of yours! Not you.”
I yanked at the stick, trying to wrestle it from her as she didn’t appear to be otherwise armed, but she’d given me a gun. “Why Alex?” I demanded.
“He took you from the group. You hurt Freya because of him. She was so excited to be a part of your return.” She pulled at the stick hard. I let it go at the last second and she fell backward from her own momentum. I leapt for the stick, sweeping it up and jumping away.
“What’s the point of all this? Kill Alex and then what? I come back to the group? Didn’t seem to work for any of the others you killed,” I said, keeping a good distance and trying to find my phone. It must have landed face down since that stupid flashlight thing was hard to turn off. Or it had landed in the water.
“I haven’t killed anyone,” MaryAnn defended. “They all saved themselves from their worst fears.”
“How’s that?” I jabbed the stick at her when she started to get up. She crawled backward a little, struggling in the mud for traction.
“Freya told me all about your boyfriend’s issues. How he was in a mental ward before. Would have been easy for him to just end it.”
My gut turned cold. “You wanted him to kill himself?”
“It was the easiest way to get rid of him. You don’t need him. You had us.”
Wow, crazyville. “What about Chad? I thought you had a thing with him?”
She laughed and it sounded more than a little unhinged as she got to her feet. I held out the stick to keep her away. I wondered if my phone was up on the top of the ravine? It was probably only two meters or so of a steep incline. “Chad’s sweet. Would do anything I asked him to. Except apparently bring Alex to me.”
Was that where Alex was? Chad had him? “Everyone is leaving the group, why are you focused on me and Alex?”
“You hurt Freya. Byrony hurt Freya. Everyone treats her like crap when she does so much for us. Everyone needs to be punished.”
“And the other missing cosplayers? Did they hurt Freya too?”
“Yes,” MaryAnn hissed. “She gave you everything, made you a star, and you abandoned her. Now she’s having a hard time keeping followers and product deals because of her age, and you could have helped!” She bent slowly, keeping back, but pulled a hunting knife from her boot. “She even made you that costume for your debut. And you rejected it.”
“Does Freya know you’re doing all this? That you punish people who hurt her?” I backed away. There was no way I was getting up that ravine without her stabbing me in the back, and the narrow bank of the stream didn’t give me much space to move. I suspected we’d landed more in some sort of bog runoff to the nearby lake. It would be a good place to hide a body. The only way out was past her. And I wasn’t exactly trained in combat.
“She doesn’t need to know.”
“But Freya’s going off to travel too. Leaving you behind, what will you do?”
“I’ve got her tied up with contracts to the same fabric line I’m in. They wanted her anyway. We’ll be together all the time.”
So she’d been manipulating us all. “The gun was stupid,” I told her. “I don’t know how to use one.” She came closer, and I jabbed the stick at her, making her step back. She limped a little, and I wondered if she’d hurt her leg in the fall. That could be to my advantage.
“Didn’t seem to matter to anyone before.”
“Americans are obsessed with guns. But I’m not American,” I reminded her.
“You going to try some kung fu shit on me?” She taunted.
“That’s a racist stereotype. I’m Japanese and Irish. And even if I were Chinese, not many of them know kung fu.”
“Whatever.” She stalked at me, grabbing for the stick, knife held up like one of those slasher movies. It wasn’t really a good way to hold a knife in general, not enough force behind it. So when she grabbed the stick and tried to slash me, I shoved the stick hard, and kicked out toward that limping leg. Must have landed enough of a blow to hurt because she screamed and collapsed inward a little, as if to protect her core.
I used those few seconds to roll around her, drop the stick and run. The narrow stretch of ravine lasted a couple more meters before spitting me out on the side of the lake. I could see the swimming area in the distance, with the lifeguard tower and parking lot. Of course, the fact that they were empty and in the wrong direction didn’t exactly help. Without my phone I would be forced to run forever, and my energy wouldn’t hold out that long. The area surrounding Sam Houston National Park wasn’t butted up against housing, or even small businesses like gas stations. In the middle of the night, there was no one. I thought hard about what options I might have.