“Come on, Kinsey. Look at her. She’s a monster,” the voice went on.
I opened my eyes and squinted down at my feet. Cerina was cowering there, eyes flashing with fear. I remembered now. We were in the quad gazebo together. Someone had hit her on the head.
“After everything she’s done, you can’t just let her get away with it, can you?” the voice went on in my ear.
“No,” I muttered.
The voice was right. I could stop Cerina. Jax and Erin could help me. We could come up with a plan to dethrone her from her Queen Bee position and stop her from hurting anyone ever again.
It needed to happen. Someone had to stand up to her once and for all. Why not me?
“I’m sorry. I’ll stop!” she cried out, eyes flashing with tears. “I won’t do it anymore!”
“Don’t listen to her,” the voice muttered against my ear. Who was it? Why did they sound so familiar?
“Jax?” I mumbled, raising a hand to rub my eyes. “Did you say something?”
“Jax isn’t here. It’s just you and Cerina. Remember?”
No.
I blinked slowly, trying to clear my vision. It didn’t help. Everything around me had gone hazy again; a jumble of blurry outlines hanging in the air.
“Please, Kinsey,” Cerina whimpered. “Don’t do this. Don’t let this happen!”
My eyes drifted shut again. I was becoming untethered from reality; sliding into a dream state.
“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 slowly.
“Please,” Cerina cried out, 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.”
“Please!” Cerina’s wide blue eyes skimmed the area behind me before landing on my face. “Kinsey…please.What the fuck is wrong with you? You can still stop this!Run!”
“Pick it up,” the voice whispered to me again. “Go on. You know what to do with it.”
I looked down to see a glinting silver blade on the floor. At the sight of it, something wild unleashed inside me. The seething tidal wave of anger and resentment I’d bottled up for the last few months rose up my throat, burning me from the inside out.
“Come on. Do it. You know you want to,” the voice told me. “It’ll feel so good to give her what she deserves.”
I smiled and nodded. Maybe I could cut Cerina out of that gorgeous designer dress. Leave her to run naked through the school. Humiliate her the same way she’d humiliated me so many times in the past. She deserved it.
“I don’t want you to cut her dress,” the voice said, sounding irritated. “I want you to cuther.”
I hadn’t even realized that I’d spoken my thoughts out loud. I swayed on the spot, feeling like I was about to pass out again.
“We’re running out of time. She’s not going to do it,” another voice piped up.
“It doesn’t matter if she doesn’t actually do it,” the first voice hissed. “She just needs tothinkshe did it.”
“I know! But you need to hurry it along. We’re going to run out of time.”
“Kinsey.” The first voice was closer now. Louder and blunter. “Pick up the fucking knife. Stab Cerina.”
“No. I can’t do that.” I shook my head, eyelids fluttering shut again.