She’s mine, and I’m not going to stop until she’s paid the price for what she took.
Only she and I really know that she’s the murderer who started the fire. There’s no proof, though, so the only way she’s going to pay for her murderous crimes is if I make her pay.
The officials called it a boiler explosion, but I know the truth, and she knows it too. Now there’s nothing I won’t do to exact my revenge against her and bring some justice to the people who lost their lives or who were hurt.
She’s going to pay for her sins, and I will be the jury, the judge, and the jailer.
Especially after Astor. Thanks to her, he’s poisoned for me.
It doesn’t matter that he saved Dana. It’s his only
redemption, but that doesn’t change the fact that at his core he’s just a huge, inconsiderate, ass.
I spend the next few days thinking of everything I know about Victoria and her small circle, of everything they’ve done to me and to the people I care most about, and what she cares most about, and how I can best get her back. I avoid calling Wills and Blair, even though I know they’re probably worrying about me.
I wonder if they know now, too, or if they somehow escaped the rumor mill since they’re away from school. If they do know, neither of them brings it up. I know they’re grieving in their own way, for their own friends. Dana escaped alive. Two of their close friends were not so lucky.
Just another reason to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.
I think back to my first days in Hawthorne Academy.
I remember finding out about a blacklist that Astor was in charge of. A list of those people who had done wrong to the point that a dark mark would follow them right out of high school, into college, and even beyond into the rest of their lives.
Being named on the blacklist was the equivalent of making the person a social pariah forever.
I wish I could add Victoria’s name to that list—if it even exists. It would be the best way to get even with her, and to get vengeance for the lives that she took and all the pain that she caused.
That would be the most effective way of getting Victoria back, but getting Astor to put his girlfriend on it would be pretty difficult to do. He lords the list over everyone, reveling in the power that he holds and the way that he can control everyone with it. He’s obsolete from it, of course, which makes him the maker of kings and paupers, in a very real way.
In his eyes it makes him a god of sorts, and I suppose it’s true.
I want to give this new project of mine, this revenge on Victoria, the attention it deserves. I will spend some time thinking about it and find just the right way to bring her to justice. In the meantime, I’ve got other things going on.
I’m washing my hands in the girl’s restroom one morning when Laura Brighton, the surviving brunette member of what most of the school calls the ‘Malibu Twins’, comes up to me. Alisha was the blonde version of the Twins, until she died in the explosion. Laura has been completely lost without her best friend, and I feel so bad for her since the night the whole tragedy happened.
She’s one of the few students who elected to stay at the school over break. I imagine it was to feel closer to her old friend, to a sense of normalcy. I can understand that.
“Hey Teddy …” She gives me the merest hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth, or what would be a smile if she could manage to make one.
“Hi, Laura. How are you doing?” I ask her sincerely. I know she must be beyond devastated. She and Alisha did everything together, and though they have been Victoria’s constant entourage since I first came to the school, Laura has been noticeably absent from her mistress’ side since that terrible night.
Laura sighs and her face twists with pain as she tries to hold it in. “Not great, actually.”
“I’m so sorry,” I tell her, meaning every word of it. I really am, despite everything she and Alisha did to me in the past.
“I was actually wondering if I could talk with you. I thought maybe we could get a coffee or go for a walk or something.” She looks at me hopefully, and I nod.
“Yeah, anytime. I can talk with you now, actually, if you want,” I offer. My boys, Wills and Blair, aren’t due to show up until later, so for a rare moment, I’m free.
“Thank you. I appreciate it.” She turns and walks with me out of the bathroom, and I lead us off to the library. There are a number of spaces tucked away throughout the library which make perfect hidden spots to have a private conversation.
We’re seated in a couple of thickly cushioned red velvet chairs on the second level of the library, in a reference section that no one uses because Google has made it basically obsolete.
“What’s going on?” I ask, looking at her in earnest.
It takes Laura a long minute, but she draws in a deep breath and finally begins to open up to me. “I’m so ripped up about Alisha. I can’t believe she’s gone. It just seems so unreal. I mean, she was just here. We were making plans for the Christmas holiday, we were talking about New Year’s Eve … I mean, we talk about everything. College, boys, school, our futures. We were sisters, and now she’s gone.”
I reach out and squeeze her hand. “I know you two were really close. It doesn’t seem real to anyone that all three of them aren’t here with us anymore.”