head …
It’s coming from inside the house.
No, not from the house.
From my phone.
My phone has been hacked and is playing the song from my memories, the same song that was sent on that file through that text message.
I throw my hands over my ears as the music screams through my mind, makes my brain bleed, makes my fingers long to be stained with blood.
Kill them.
Kill them, Raven.
Kill the other three birds.
Be the killer we created.
Kill again.
Kill the Raven Three.
Zay
Everyone thinks I’m a scary motherfucker. And I am, because I do my best to be one. I don’t know how to be any other way and, for the most part, it’s been fine. Then Raven came along, and it’s messing with my head.
It’s not like I like her or anything like that. It’s that stupid feeling that I know her. I’d chalk it up to be being weird, but then Hunter showed us that pendant Raven found back at her house that her uncle was apparently trying to burn. That feather-shaped pendant looks so much like the one we gave the girl from the past, the one that none of us can remember her name. The faded girl from my even more faded memories. She’s an image so worn that I can barely remember her, yet she haunts almost every inch of my mind, which I know doesn’t really make sense. I think it’s that way because I can’t remember parts of my life. I’ve tried therapy, and it helped in some ways, except for when it comes to that girl.
“Raven has to be her,” Hunter mutters as we discuss why on earth Raven would know that nursery rhyme. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
We’re in the room we have most of our meetings in, the one with soundproofed walls and no cameras. It has a passcode entrance, and no one knows the code except for the three of us.
“Just because she knows a nursery rhyme, doesn’t mean she’s the girl from our past,” Jax replies as he leans back in the leather sofa with his arms crossed. “Everyone who lives in Honeyton knows that stupid rhyme.”
“Which means she’s been here before,” Hunter stresses as he slants forward in the chair and rests his arms on top of his knees. “Yet she doesn’t think she has.”
“Or she’s lying about it,” Jax states, reaching for his drink on the table beside him. “She’s so evasive about everything that she very well could be.”
Hunter shakes his head. “Or she could be telling the truth. She could be her. And I think you already are thinking that. I think you just don’t want to admit it yet because it’s going to force you to face a lot of things you’ve been avoiding for years.”
Hunter is probably right. We’ve all been that way. And if Raven is the girl from our past, it’s going to … Well, I’m not sure if it’ll heal us or break us. It all really depends.
Jax studies him for a moment. “You know what I think? You’re getting too attached to her already.”
“I am not,” Hunter insists, tension flowing off of him.
Jax narrows his eyes at Hunter. “I saw you kiss her in the car.”
My gaze darts to Hunter. “You fucking kissed her again?”
“Maybe …” Hunter pauses, frowning. Then he shakes the look off and sits up straighter. “You know what? Yeah, I kissed her. A few times, actually. But why does it even matter? You’re the one who said I’m supposed to teach her how to flirt.”
“Yeah, flirt,” Jax stresses, the muscle in his jaw pulsating. “Not make out with her multiple times.”
“I didn’t really mean for it to happen. Or, well, the first time I kissed her I didn’t …” Hunter sighs, staring down at his hands. “I just … I feel this weird connection to her.”
“So do I,” I mumble. “But that doesn’t mean I just go around kissing her.”
“You don’t kiss anyone,” Hunter reminds me. “I have a feeling, though, that maybe you’ll finally break that habit with Raven.”
I grind my teeth together, knowing he may very well be right. Deep down, I want to kiss Raven, crash my lips against hers and see what it feels like. “We made a rule not to kiss her or hook up with her, and here you are just a day later, breaking the rules.”
“You sound jealous,” Hunter states with a challenge in his eyes.
I glare at him, and he glares right back.
“And this is why I made