Page 85 of Soul So Dark

Eventually, the trees start to thin out and I come to what looks like a shed, streaked with peeling black paint. Maybe there used to be a farm up here and these are its ruins. I listen for voices or footsteps and, hearing nothing, I start creeping along the exterior toward the door. But I don’t get far before a sound stops me in my tracks.

Then another.

Slowly, I swivel my head and lean in, peering through a knot in the weathered planks of wood.

Half the roof collapsed long ago, leaving a gaping hole in the ceiling that lets in enough light to see three figures. Mason is sitting on the edge of a cracked workbench next to a pile of scrap wood and there’s a girl with long blonde hair standing between his legs. It looks like Tyler with the teal eyes, who was in Jordy’s car with us, but the rest of her body is blocked by another figure standing close behind her. And he’s really tall…

“We should fuck the good girl right out of her.”

My jaw drops and I stop breathing. I’d know that deep baritone voice anywhere.

“She’s not good,” Mason sneers. “She’s dark as hell.” Then he cradles her chin in his hand, tips her head back, and leans in close. “La Strega…” he rumbles in an Italian accent.

What does that even mean?

“Oh yeah, that’s why he likes you.” My brother leers over Tyler’s shoulder, then wraps her hair around his fist. “No one would ever guess that Nix is such a freak.”

Tyler lets out a muffled cry as Colson clenches her scalp, to which the boys let out a rumble of satisfied laughs.

“You like that, Ty?” Mason runs his hands up and down her neck. “You want Col to watch me fuck you in the dirt?”

My heart’s pounding so loud that I’m sure they can hear me on the other side of the wall. Are they hurting her? I can’t see her face. We’re playing a game, what the hell are they doing? Should I…do something?

“I think she’s trying to impress you,” Colson says to Mason, “is it working?”

“Hell yeah, it’s working.” Mason leans down and covers her mouth with a long, deep kiss. Then he pulls back, hovering over her face menacingly. “Who keeps you safe?”

Tyler fidgets against Colson’s hand at the back of her head. “Y-you,” she stammers.

Slowly, Mason nods back at her. “Are you my woman now?”

“Yes…yes…” Tyler gasps, nodding eagerly as her flannel shirt slides off her shoulders to expose her thin white tank top.

Mason nods and Colson immediately steps back and wraps his arm around her waist, walking them both backward. Moments later, he sinks to the floor, collapsing onto a pile of dusty hay as he pulls Tyler down onto his lap.

Facing away from him, she straddles Colson’s torso, her hair still twisted around his fist. Mason hops off the bench and strolls toward them, unbuckling his belt as he goes. I’m terrified, paralyzed with dread.

Until I look at Tyler.

I can see most of her face now. Her hungry teal eyes look impossibly fluorescent and she’s watching Mason like she’d devour him if Colson wasn’t holding her back by her hair. Then I watch with abject horror as Colson shoves his hand down the front of his pants, pulls his cock out, and starts jerking it at Tyler’s back.

Oh my god, I’m going to vomit.

But I can’t look away as the train wreck only intensifies. Mason comes to a halt in front of Tyler, his jeans hanging loose on his hips, and reaches down the front of them. She watches intently as he pulls his cock out and sinks it deep into her throat. Colson keeps hold of her hair, bobbing her head back and forth to the sound of Mason’s moans as he thrusts into her mouth.

Suddenly, there's a snap and I whip around, trying to decipher any shapes in shadows.

Then I see him.

From about 10 yards away, a faceless figure in a black hoodie stares back at me from around the side of a thick tree. After a few seconds, he slowly swings around the trunk and then pauses, glancing at the shed and then back to me. I think it's Alex, but then comes the sickening realization that they all have dark hoodies on.

He's too short to be Aiden, and Colson and Mason are…busyin the shed next to me. But there are more of them, and in the dark they all look the same. It could be Josh...or Rory....

He's wearing black track pants, like the ones Colson wears with his soccer uniform. Was Alex wearing those tonight? It's no use, because even if he was, all of them have the same kind.

He steps into the dead leaves. And as soon as he does, I whip around and take off through the trees. Pure adrenaline propels me through the brush and over the forest floor scattered with branches and roots. I should've worn pants instead of shorts; each stride stings as the thorns and razor-sharp leaves slash across my calves and thighs. As if he can’t see my pale skin glowing in the darkness anyway.

Soon, I come to a drop-off at the edge of a ravine. I shouldn’t be going out this far.