“You’re supposed to be dead,” I croaked.
“Well, that’s the thing I love about life, Reed,” she replied, taking a few steps toward me. “It’s just full of little surprises.”
CRAZY BITCH
“No,” I blurted, backing up. My mind was reeling so fast it made my eyes water, while my heart felt like it was being torn from my body, oh so slowly. “No, no, no! You’re dead. I saw your dead body. I held your dead body!”
Cheyenne smirked as Graham advanced slightly, keeping me in his sights. If I wasn’t so completely thrown by the presence of a living, breathing Cheyenne Martin, I’m sure I would have been freaking out over the fact that he had a gun trained on my chest. Unfortunately, for the moment, the walking-dead thing was a bit distracting.
“Amazing what modern science can do,” Cheyenne said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Her gaze flicked over my friends dismissively. “I thought I told you to leave your friends in the car. Five murders are so much messier than one.”
Kiran whimpered and clung to Noelle as her knees gave out from under her. My eyes flicked to Graham, who darted an uncertain look over his shoulder at Cheyenne. I got the sudden hopeful feeling that this was the first time she’d floated the idea of actual murder. Whatever the case may be, he didn’t seem quite so certain all of a sudden.
I had backed my way behind Kiran and my eyes flicked to the heavy pocket of her black hooded jacket. As she was currently cowering with her eyes closed, I had a feeling I couldn’t trust her to whip out that stun gun at the appropriate moment. Surreptitiously, I reached into her pocket, withdrew the gun, and slipped it inside the waistband of my tight, soaking, itchy jeans.
“Graham, the door,” Cheyenne said.
Keeping the gun aloft with one hand, Graham walked behind us and opened the door. I wondered, briefly, if Sawyer was in there.
“Get inside,” Cheyenne ordered, taking a few steps forward. “Now!”
Taylor jumped and Kiran whimpered. Noelle and I turned and walked through the door, helping Kiran along. Taylor was right behind us, and Ivy brought up the rear.
“I don’t want to die, Noelle,” Kiran murmured. “I don’t want to die.”
“Shhhhh. We’ll get out of this,” Noelle promised her. “Don’t worry.”
We found ourselves inside an airy, high-ceilinged, dark-paneled room. In the center was the biggest bed I’d ever seen, surrounded by four posts and covered with swaths and swaths of pink fabrics and lace. There were at least two dozen silk and satin pillows perfectly arranged at the head of the bed, and a huge, swirling pink C embroidered into the bedspread.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Ivy said, backing her way into the room so she could face Cheyenne. “This isn’t you.”
“Yeah, well, a lot can happen to a person in a year. I, for instance, killed myself,” Cheyenne said snarkily.
She let out an evil, barking laugh that sent chills down my spine. That was not Cheyenne’s laugh. I had never liked the girl, but she’d always been a normal kind of obnoxious. This? This was off.
“Yeah, would you mind explaining that?” Ivy asked as Cheyenne closed the heavy oak door with a thud. “The whole school went to your funeral.”
I kept a watchful eye on Graham as Ivy and Cheyenne talked. He walked over to the window and used the gun to move aside the curtain, peeking out. Then he slipped a cell phone from his pocket and checked it for messages. Where was his brother? Was he keeping him locked up here somewhere? I racked my brain, trying to place the room we were in now and figure out how far we were from the room in which I’d seen Sawyer, but my panicked mind was drawing a blank.
“Yes, but no one ever saw my body, right?” Cheyenne said, crossing her arms over her chest. “At least not after that first morning.” Her eyes flicked to me, an amused glint shining from their depths. Suddenly I wondered if she’d heard what I’d said that morning when we’d found her unconscious on the floor of her room. Had I been emotional? Stupid? Scared? I couldn’t recall much aside from the sight of her pale skin, the burst blood vessels around her eyes, and Rose sobbing in the corner. Just remembering how devastated and scared and crushed my friends had been brought the hot, sour taste of hatred into my mouth. “My mother had to pay off a lot of people to make it look real, but it wasn’t all that difficult. As soon as she found out who that Sabine girl really was, she knew she could blackmail her into doing anything in return for keeping quiet.”
“You knew Sabine was Ariana’s sister?” I demanded.
“Of course.” Cheyenne lifted a shoulder. “What, are you miffed I didn’t warn you? Why would I? My mother and I both wanted you dead. It would’ve been so much easier if the little twit had been able to pull it off.”
“Yeah, but I was shot instead,” Ivy snapped, her face burning red. “So that didn’t go exactly as planned, did it?”
Cheyenne tsked under her breath. “I’m sorry about that, I,” she said, pouting her lips. “Sometimes collateral damage is a necessary evil.”
Ivy advanced on Cheyenne like she was going to tear her hair out, but Graham lifted the gun and aimed.
“Freeze!” he blurted, and Ivy did.
“Back up there with your friends,” he said, waving the gun toward the rest of us. Taylor started to cry quietly and Kiran let out a low moan. Ivy took a couple of steps back.
“Sabine’s mom is some kind of voodoo specialist or something,” Cheyenne continued. “We told her we wanted to make it appear that I was dead, so she whipped up this awful sludge for me to drink, and voilà.” She lifted her hands at her sides. “No more Cheyenne. Then it was just a matter of paying off Mrs. Naylor to confirm I was door-nailed and make a fake phone call to nine-one-one, and hiring some dudes to come in, throw a sheet over me, and cart me out of there. Two hours later I woke up back here with a massive headache, but otherwise alive and well.”
“Why?” Noelle demanded, holding Kiran’s hand at her side. “Why would you do that?”