LAURA DIEGOI paused at the doorway when the sound of a woman’s voice floated through to my ears as I stood at the door to the wood house I had been living in, a spark of electricity sizzling down my spine when the voice came again.I’d taken great pains to find the cabin, only managing to stake my flag on it and warn off the other hobos because it had been empty when I came, and now someone else had come along to stuff their nose in my turf.The nose that I planned on putting a nice little bullet in as promptly as I could manage it.I dropped to my haunches, slithering along the side of the house and peering through the windows to find the intruder.How had they managed to get past the traps? A woman no less, had she been watching me? How much did she know?I gritted my teeth, remembering that I had forgotten to clasp the padlock firmly over the trapdoor just inches from my head, on the other side of the wall.I hadn't seen the need, since the dungeon didn't have any prisoners, not
ALEXANDER“Darlene?” I puzzled as I sat in the cool air of the dark car, feeling my eyebrows scrunch up when I realized it was she who had been calling me.I pressed to call button, waiting patiently for the ring of the call tune when the automated voice told me that the number was switched off.Had something happened at home? Was my wife calling because she had seen the news? I hadn't thought about what her reaction to my little stunt would be, realizing I wasn't at all certain how she would take it.A beast. That was what she would think of me, displaying the dead woman’s body like that for cheap shock, it was beneath me. Beneath the McKenzies, a man had to do what a man had to do.”Goddammit,” I sighed, realizing I would have to settle for asking her when I got home and deciding it best to shelf the pit of worry that had opened in my stomach.The drive to the manor was uneventful, with news crews overflowing into the asphalt as I pressed on the gas, feeling like each second would b
DARLENEMy mouth felt dry when the static of memory dropped into my head, like the flash of a camera lens going off in the darkroom of my mind and the restive blindness that followed.We had been sixteen, fresh out of high school and setting our sights on world domination when Laura’s birthday rolled around.I'd first seen it at the dollar store, the trench coat. Brown leather that shone through the blue-tinted glass. Laura was instantly in love with it, I could tell by the teary glimmer in her doe eyes, and the sag in her shoulders when we pulled our puffy faces from the squeaky clean window.And later, the way her eyes lit up when I’d hurled it at her head by the cozy fireplace of my father’s cottage house.The same brown trench coat the figure standing quietly in the shadows was wearing now as the beat of silence stretched between us.“L-Laura? I-is that you?” I croaked, willing the shake in my hands to still as the flashlight dropped from my hands to the grass wordlessly, the fluo
LAURA DIEGO“You should leave Dar, it’s dangerous here,” I needled, tucking the sharp silver of my father’s old butcher knife behind me as the woman watched me with something akin to horror on her face.“Laura,” Darlene squeaked breathlessly, but I only stared back, quietly, watching her shake her head and stumble back to the forest, then quietly following at first.I wondered what it was that she saw now, Darlene when she looked at me. Things could not go back to the way they had been, not anymore.“I'm not like you Dar,” I whispered inwardly, watching from the tree lines as my best friend peeled out of the loamy lot, speeding from view with enough force that she left a trail of smoke behind, the red of her car appearing blue in the sepia darkness.Had it been wise to let her go? I thought so, there was no one in the basement, besides the blood and the skin tarps I had pinned to the wall. That would have been hard to explain. I would see this as a favor, for old times' sake.”Fucking
ALEXANDERNo one moved for a moment as we stood in a half circle in the living room of the McKenzie manor.My mother gasped, seeming to sag on her feet as I motioned my brother outside, I didn't have time to lose, I had to find Darlene before it was too late, before whatever forces threatened to tear us apart created too wide of a rift for me to close.“You drive,” Fredrick scathed, nodding to me as we ran out of the mansion, wordlessly getting into the car and backing into the freeway, racing against time to take back my woman.I gritted my teeth, watching Fredrick brace himself against the dashboard as I pressed my foot down on the gas and the car hummed underneath me, whizzing past the litter of a few cars on the yellow-lit street.“How do you know where she is?” I chipped, not daring to take my eyes off the rolad as Fredrick shifted unnervingly beside me and I resisted the urge to ask the question again.I was going to get Darlene back, whatever it took. I couldn't risk losing my
ALEXANDER“What the hell? What is it? What was that noise?” I asked, my voice instantly dropping to a hushed whisper as I let my eyes roam over his haggard appearance. The strawberry blonde of his tossed hair was matted to his face where he had been sweating excessively, and the icy blue of his eyes had a faraway look in them. Like he was realizing something I didn't see.If I hadn't known any better, I would say that my brother had seen a ghost! I watched as he raked a hand through his hair, snapping his eyes away from me to tug on the cuff of his shirt sleeve.”Uh, it's nothing, I just, tripped and fell is all,” Fredrick mumbled, and my eyes followed the fingers tugging on his shirt immediately before he shielded his eyes and I angled the torch down.It was something he did when he was lying.But what was there for my brother to lie about? Something large and dark pressed at the edge of my consciousness until it was all I could do not to fall into another lapse.”Why did you bring m
DARLENEThe mass of reporters crowding the gates clustered around my bright red convertible, their white faces animated by pressing against the glass until the gates opened and I shot into the expansive driveway like a bullet train.I snapped my phone from the charging port, biting down the urge to hurry up the lot into the house when I caught sight of Stephanie McKenzie’s perfect face.She was standing in a loose line in the front foyer with some groundskeepers and maidservants, staring at me expectantly as I closed the distance between us.“Darlene! Y-you’re okay!” Alexander’s mother chortled, and I jerked away in surprise when her hands clamped warmly against my arms.“What's going on? Is Mr. McKenzie okay? Why is everyone outside?” I started, looking at the maids who avoided my stare, turning their gazes downward instead.My heart had begun to thump oddly in my ears again as I took in their side-long glances, what was going on here?“Where’s Alexander? I need to speak to him! Ther
FREDRICKI could tell my touch had aroused my brother's wife, because she jumped away from me like a grasshopper from a child’s fingers, the minute my palm grazed the small of her back.Was Darlene playing hard to get? I couldn’t tell. It had never been easy for me to understand women, my brother seemed to have inherited all my father’s charms in that area.The woman seemed to observe me for the longest time, and it felt harder and harder to breathe as her soft hazel eyes followed mine before she smiled.“I have no idea, I’m just happy everyone’s safe.” Darlene sighed, turning away from me so that I got the uneasy feeling that she was hiding something from me.It seemed like an eternity since I had kissed her, and the urge to press my lips against her full pink mouth rose suddenly so that I had to dig my hands into my palm to resist.I took a cautionary step back. I didn't know how she would react to it, and the last thing I needed was Alexander getting riled up and remembering what h