Page 20 of Vying Girls (Girls of Hazelhurst #2)

Yeah, well, Nic was once my family too. Born on the same day, twelve hours apart. That feeling of being the oldest twin still lives within me even now apparently. Nic can hurt me all she likes but no one gets to hurt her.

‘I will literally put you over this cliff if you don’t get him the fuck out of there.’

Blakely grins. ‘First, I would love, love, to see you try. And second, I don’t know what the fuck you’re on about, so you better speak quick before it’s you going over the cliff.’

‘Damien hurt Nic. When they were kids. It’s like—it’s huge. Trauma fucking central. I can’t even explain how bad.’ I cast a worried look into the tunnel. ‘Nothing bad happens down there, right?’

I nearly jump out my skin when Blakely’s hand clamps hard on my arm. ‘Hurt her how?’

I freeze at the ice in her voice, those pale eyes eviscerating me with their intensity. ‘In the worst way,’ I whisper.

She drops my arm, jaw grinding as she regards the tunnel. She points to the ground. ‘Stay the fuck here.’ Then she disappears into the dark.

Feeling ill, I step into the tunnel and slide down the wall. I hug my bare legs to my chest, heart thudding painfully as I prepare to wait.

Nic

I push off the wall, coming to face him. He’s taken off his mask, that stubbled, shadowy face so sickeningly familiar it twists my guts.

It was something Aunt Kathleen used to comment on, how he looked so much like them. How he was meant to be part of their family. Until he got worse, until she grew ashamed. Scared of him too, looking back. Never commented the same again.

Steeling myself, I let that numb, life-preserving mask fall over me.

‘You cut your hair.’ Still catching his breath, he looks me up and down, clearly disliking what he sees. ‘Heard you bat for the other side now. Come on now, I wasn’t that bad.’

‘What the fuck are you doing here, Damien?’

My voice is thready, embarrassingly weak.

‘I was invited.’

‘Convenient. Doing some outreach in your old age?’

‘Killing two bones with one stone.’ He pauses, regarding me closer this time. He purses his lips, some semblance of a smirk on them. ‘Missed you, Nicole.’

This fear. This dread. I used to dream about meeting him again, a shield of preparedness. I’d have so much to say. My turn for revenge. How many times have I killed him in my mind? Each death more cathartic than the last. And yet, now it’s happened, I’m nothing but terrified.

He glances the way we came. ‘Enjoying The Order? Right on the back of my success. Bet you never even needed to do the initiation. You’re welcome, by the way. Only one in our family to make president. How about that? Probably would have been you on that throne if not for that nepo and her pup.’

‘Fina’s welcome to it. It’s not all that.’

‘No? Weren’t even wearing your mask. Damn disrespectful that, if not convenient for me.’

He takes a step closer. There’s nowhere for me to run apart from deeper into the tunnels. I hold my ground, body like stone.

‘Do you know what happens when there’s no closure?

’ His voice has taken on that tone now, the one it used to whenever I said no, whenever I wasn’t as into it as him.

By the end, that was all the time. He puts two fingers to his temple like a gun.

‘It festers. Becomes more than it was. Gets to the point you’re thinking of them more than back when you were together. ’

‘We were never together, fucker.’

He scoffs, his breath on my face. ‘Funny. I remember us being pretty fused actually. Every night.’ He steps closer again, backing me into the wall. ‘Why did you run, Nicole? Why’d you leave us?’

Swallowing against the dryness in my mouth, I glance over his shoulder. ‘Why don’t we go outside to talk?’

‘I’m good down here.’ He looks around us. ‘Feels strangely familiar, don’t you think? You, me, the dark. Wonder if you screamed, they’d hear it up there?’ He puts his palm to the tunnel wall, blocking me against it. ‘This stone looks like it’s keeping some secrets.’

‘I’ll ask you again, Damien. What do you want?’

He steps away, still careful to keep between me and the exit. ‘I mean what I said up there. Once family, always family.’

I flit over his speech in my mind. What did he say again? Hard to remember, the state I was in. ‘You want something? A favour?’

‘We’re always wanting something, Nicole. I’m always wanting from you.’

‘Alright.’ I draw in a breath, trying to think. ‘But not down here. We’ll go up and talk.’

As quick as a viper, he lashes out, knocking my phone to the ground and smothering the light. A breath escapes me when he slams me against the wall, one arm across my chest like a prison bar.

‘You don’t dictate the rules here, Nicole. It’s me you owe. All I did for you, all we did for you, only for you to leave without a whiff of a goodbye. Not to any of us. Joey fucking cried for weeks.’

I close my eyes, despite the pitch black surrounding us. I need it darker. So dark I lose myself, dissolving into nothing.

‘You’re not an idiot, Damien. I never went far. You could have found me anytime.’

He chuckles, bathing my face in it. ‘Nicole, you stupid bitch. I knew where you were this whole time.’

So, he does want something. Wouldn’t be here otherwise. I just need to figure out what.

‘I need you to come home,’ he says, gentling his arm.

‘What?’

‘There’s shit that needs dealing with. That we need your help with.’

‘You’re fucking crazy,’ I gasp out, outrage overcoming my fear for a second.

‘Maybe, but you are if you don’t do what you’re told.’

‘I’m not setting foot in that hellhole,’ I spit.

Tensing, I wait for him to hurt me.

‘Okay,’ he says instead, his voice deceptively jovial. ‘Okay. Fair dos. Weren’t happy there, were you? Not even when I took you under my wing, ungrateful fucking cunt.’

I wince at his insult. Always hated this swing between merry and furious. You never knew when it would come. Kept you constantly on edge, just how he wanted it.

‘You know, I did my research before coming here. Dunno, just had a feeling you wouldn’t comply. You’ve not got much going on, have you? Bit of sports, those two dykes you room with…that pretty one too.’

My skin prickles at the mention of Tilda.

‘Is that your girl?’

‘No.’

‘No? Huh, that’s odd. Sure do seem close, if a bit volatile. But we like it like that, don’t we? All that seething rage. Does something to people like you and me.’

‘We’re not together,’ I say more firmly, hating the insinuation that we’re similar. He used to do that all the time, carving out this tiny world to stuff us both inside. No one else understood us. It kept me away from them and glued to him. I see it all so fucking clearly now.

And I can’t bear him knowing of Tilda, using her as a bargaining chip. Because that’s where this is going. The threat’s right there, bobbing on the surface. He doesn’t even have to voice it.

‘Looks like we have the same type.’ He breathes out a laugh. ‘Never thought I’d say that. Love a girl who dances on the edge of darkness. I’ve been watching you. Watching her. So fixed on her, you never even noticed. Loves young dream. You and your friends like sharing, hm? Good news for me.’

‘You don’t fucking touch her.’

‘And I won’t—not if you do as you’re told. But if you don’t…well, wouldn’t mind giving that one a new tattoo. She’d look good with my initials. You always did.’

‘You fucker.’

With all my might, I push him. I think it takes him by surprise. He stumbles before regaining his footing. He slams me against the tunnel wall, making me cry out with the pain of it.

I squeeze my eyes closed, waiting for the blow, knowing it’s coming this time.

But instead, cold rushes in as his weight disappears, an alien orange light filtering through my eyelids.

I open them the same moment Damien hits the floor. Blakely stands above him, grinning like a psycho.

‘Baby goth was right.’ She kicks him in the ribs, making him cough. ‘You did just come here to cause trouble.’

Behind her is another figure, mask still up, brandishing a torch. The curious animal with her confirms to me it’s Fina. She picks up my phone and hands it to me. Then she gestures me away from Damien.

‘Might let this puppy here rip you a new one.’ Blakely pushes him back down when he tries to rise. ‘Does like her raw food. Only the best for these wolves. Though, I’m thinking you might just poison her.’

‘Get the fuck off me, bitch. This is a family matter. Fucking hell, do you know who I am?!’

‘Do you know who we are?’ she counters, pushing him into the wall. ‘We can make you disappear so fucking quickly, you wouldn’t even know. Do you know who I am?’ She scoffs. ‘Real original, fucktard.’

They fall into a standoff as I watch from my place next to Fina. Mora’s sniffing at my legs, determining if I’m some kind of threat, and the torch fire is so warm, so soothing. I envision taking it from her, thrusting it into Damien’s face.

Before I can do anything of the sort, Blakely lunges and twists Damien into a hold he can’t escape from.

Bastard’s trying though. There’s spittle flying from his mouth, teeth bared as he fights.

In the firelight, he’s a diabolical thing.

He catches my eyes, the threat in them so stark I almost stagger back.

‘Come on, fucker.’ Blakely’s still grinning, like she’s enjoying every moment of this. ‘Time to take a little boat ride.’

I move backwards as they struggle past.

‘Yo, Nic,’ Blakely calls back. ‘Your little girl’s up there. Better go find her before she comes find you.’

They disappear into the dark. Fina leads me a different way, the way I came. Fuck knows where Blakely’s going with Damien. I’m too numb to care.

My legs begin to shake when I spot signs of the dying daylight. There’s a figure huddled against the wall. Tilda jumps up when she sees us, my hockey stuff in a pile with hers.

‘He won’t be back,’ Fina says, then leaves me alone with my other demon.

Tilda

‘Was that a wolf?’