Prologue
Kinsey
November 12,2021
8:57 p.m.
If anyonein Crown Point deserved to die, it was Cerina Vincent.
I was done with her and all her nasty, tyrannical bullshit. Fuckingdone.
“If she didn’t want this to happen, she shouldn’t have messed with you,” a sinister voice whispered in my ear. “Don’t you think?”
I blinked rapidly, trying to figure out if the voice was in my head or coming from a real person. No matter how hard I tried to concentrate, I couldn’t figure it out. The voice was right, though. Cerina had taken things way too far. Messed with me one too many times. She could cry and beg as much as she wanted, but it was too late. Something had to be done.
“Come on, Kinsey. Look at her. She’s a monster,” the voice went on. “After everything she’s done, you can’t just let her get away with it, can you?”
“No,” I muttered. Some distant part of my brain registered that the voice was familiar. Was it coming from me? Was I standing here talking to myself?
Where was‘here’, anyway? Nothing around me looked familiar. In fact, nothing even looked real, apart from the sight of Cerina cowering before me. I knew that was real. I could reach out and touch her if I wanted.
“I’m sorry. I’ll stop!” she cried out, eyes flashing with tears. “I won’t do it anymore!”
I didn’t acknowledge her. I wanted to, but I couldn’t. The world was spinning and my thoughts and memories were disintegrating, slipping away like dust through my fingertips. I was suddenly struck by the notion that gigantic slimy tendrils had snatched me away and dragged me off to a distant world. A world where I knew absolutely nothing, apparently.
I blinked again and rubbed the side of my head. Seriously, where was I?
The answer to that question continued to evade me, along with the knowledge of how and when I arrived. My mind seemed to have stopped processing information, like someone had sawed open my skull and removed all the necessary parts of my brain. My body felt strange too. It seemed like my veins were filled with music and light, making me want to jump around and dance, but at the same time my limbs were heavy and sluggish, rooting me to the spot.
It occurred to me that someone could’ve drugged me. Or maybe I did it to myself. I wasn’t the type to take pills at a party, but I could’ve changed my mind. I had no idea, though. Try as I might, I couldn't remember a thing.
“Jax?” I mumbled, raising a hand to rub my eyes. “Did you say something?”
“Jax isn’t here. It’s just you and Cerina,” the strange voice whispered again. “Remember?”
No.
I blinked slowly, trying to clear my vision. It didn’t help. Everything around me was still hazy. I couldn’t tell where I was. Couldn’t tellwhenI was.
Think,I commanded my foggy brain, trying to dredge up my most recent memory.
The last thing I clearly recalled doing was attending Crown Point Academy’s annual Sweetheart dance in the ballroom on the west side of the campus, but I knew I wasn’t there anymore. It was warm and ear-splittingly loud in that room, filled with giddy girls dressed in pink or red dresses and boys in suits with matching flowers in their buttonholes. The place I was standing in right now was cold and dark, and the loudest thing beside the mysterious voice in my ear was Cerina’s desperate whimpering and the chilly fall wind whistling through the trees around us.
I knew I should probably be afraid, but I wasn’t. Some little part of me knew I was safe and in control. There was a reason Cerina was sobbing and shaking in terror while I was dry-eyed and unaffected.
“Please, Kinsey,” she said. “Don’t do this. Don’t let this happen!”
My eyes drifted shut for a second. I was becoming untethered from reality; sliding into a dream state where nothing from the real world mattered anymore.
Yes!That explained everything. This was a dream. I would wake up soon, and all of the crazy stuff would fade away.
“She really shouldn’t have messed with you,” the strange yet familiar voice droned on. “It’s time to make her pay.”
I opened my eyes and nodded mutely as my mind sank deeper into the dark, twisted dreamscape.That’s right, stranger.Cerina shouldn’t have tried to ruin my life. She shouldn’t have come anywhere near me. She should’ve known that someone, somewhere along the line, would finally stand up to a bully like her. Make her pay for all the heinous things she’d done.
“Please,” she said, lifting a hand. “I promise… I’ll stop. I’ll stop it all. I won’t say anything. I won’t do anything. I swear!”
“It’s too late for that, Cerina.” The voice sounded distant, like it was traveling through a thick pane of glass. I still couldn’t be sure if it was coming from me or someone else, but I knew it wasn’t in my head now. If it was, Cerina wouldn’t be able to hear it.