“Then the wreck happened, and I panicked …” she cries. “After I went home to Demi, I met up with David, and his father stitched up my wound …”
His father is a doctor at the hospital where Shelby works. Now it all makes sense. Becky had told me that she cut it while at the lake. I never second-guessed her.
“They fucking deserved it! You all deserved to be in that car!” David shouts.
“We all get what we deserve.” I nod my head and pull the matches out of my back pocket. Done with all of this. I don’t have the time for this shit.
Cole reaches down and grabs the can of gasoline sitting next to him that we found in the garage of the Lowes house.
“What the fuck?” David barks.
Cole throws the gasoline onto him.
I nod my head to Shane, and he grips the back of Becky’s neck where we cut her. Yanking her head up, forcing her to watch. “Do you love him?” he asks her.
It’s the same thing she had asked me regarding Demi. I know what he’s getting at.
“Yes.” She sobs. “Please just let us go. I won’t talk … He won’t talk …”
“We’re not afraid of you talking, baby.” He smiles down at her, and her body wracks with a sob. “This is what happens to those who fuck with the sharks.” She whimpers. “You can’t beat us, Becky. No one can.”
“Deke—” She cries my name, about to beg me.
I interrupt her, no longer caring. “I’ve heard that burning to death is a painful way to die.” I strike the match on the side of the box. “I hope it’s true.” Then I toss it on him.
He screams out as the flames lick his body. Falling to his side, he rolls, and Cole grabs Austin to pull her farther away from the flames.
Becky leans forward, screaming out into the cold night as she watches the only guy she ever truly loved burn to death. And I feel nothing for her. For him.
There are times I wonder how we got here.
Evil.
Ruthless.
But then I remember that we started playing the game a long time ago and that turned into real life. And life is a fucking mess. It’s bloody. If you want to survive, you fight. And just because I’m not afraid to die doesn’t mean I’m ready to give up living. I’ve finally found a girl who I know will accept me for me. Love me for me. And I’m not ready to give her up yet.
DEKE
The guys and I stand around Austin as she kneels on the snow-covered ground, pounding away on the guys’ smoldering bodies with a hammer. She has a lot of pent-up aggression after everything they have done. The cold air smells like burnt flesh, and Cole stands next to me, watching her with pride and lust. I’m pretty sure if me and the rest of guys weren’t here with Becky, he would fuck her right here and now.
She wipes the sweat off her still blood-covered forehead and stands. “Done,” she states.
“Now what?” Shane asks.
“Scoop up the remaining ashes and throw them over the cliff.” She lifts her chin over to the right where the ocean hits the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. “Get rid of everything. The grass will show where the fire was, but by the time winter is over, it shouldn’t be that noticeable.” Then she looks at me. “Where are their phones?”
“I have them,” Cole answers, removing them from his pockets.
She takes them from him before throwing them to the ground. Then she walks over to Shane who still has Becky on her knees. “Where is your phone?” Austin demands.
Becky sobs, and Shane pushes her forward by the back of her neck, leaning down and ripping it from her back pocket. He hands it to Austin.
“What are you doing?” Shane asks her.
“Gotta get rid of everything.” She looks up at Cole and snaps her fingers, ordering, “Knife.” Once it’s in her hands, she continues. “Who knows how much they shared through texts? Messenger?” Then starts pushing buttons on the phone. “I’m going to uninstall the messenger and Facebook app.” We all stand silently as she does all three.
Then she begins to beat the shit out of them with her hammer.
Once she’s done, she picks up a fishing net that she also found in the garage of her father’s house and begins to cut it in three sperate pieces. “Hand me a few pieces from that broken headstone,” she orders Bennett.
He does so without hesitation, then looks at Cole, and he just shrugs. He’s just as much in the dark as the rest of us.
She lays the three pieces of fishing net down on the ground and then places a phone and a part of the headstone in each one. Then she ties them all off. Standing up, she walks over to the cliff and throws them over. Turning back to us, she places her hands on her hips. “If the police go looking for the guys, they will be able to pin their last location using their phones. But without the evidence, they don’t have shit. And even if for some insane reason they manage to find one of their phones, they won’t be able to get anything off it after it’s been sitting at the bottom of the ocean. After I took a hammer to them.”