The Initial Insult - Mindy McGinnis Page 0,85
back now,” I tell her. “You’ve got your half of the necklace.”
It rests, lackluster, against her gray skin, next to a runnel of her blood.
Her half, the half that reads Best. Because that’s the half she wanted. Of course she did. And maybe that’s right. Maybe Felicity Turnado is better than Tress Montor, not because of her house or her car or her parents or her clothes. Maybe Felicity Turnado is better than Tress Montor because she never killed anyone.
“I’m going to get Hugh,” I tell her. “Hey!” I clap my hands in front of her face, sending a massive jolt of pain up my arm. “Felicity—I’m getting Hugh. We’re going to get you out of here.”
“Hugh?” she asks. “Hugh didn’t carry me.”
“Okay,” I tell her, agreeing with whatever she says. “I’m leaving you the phone, okay? I’m leaving you the light.”
She doesn’t answer, so I go, lost in pitch blackness as soon as I turn my back, slipping in my own blood, finding the staircase by feel, pulling myself along the banister, one-handed, resting halfway up.
Jesus Christ. Neither one of us is going to make it.
I elbow the hook open, fall into the kitchen, sending bottles scattering. The glass rolls across the floor, making hollow music.
“Hugh!” I cry, not caring who finds me. Not caring who helps. Not caring about the questions. I just have to save my friend.
Chapter 80
Felicity
“Hugh didn’t carry me.”
My voice is strained, tired, a worn-out note.
But it’s not wrong.
“Hugh didn’t carry me,” I say again, a little louder.
Something rests against my skin, something metal on my chest, something sticking in place. Something wet. Something smells something . . .
Chapter 81
Tress
I crawl on my elbows through the kitchen, black spots spraying my vision. I cry for Hugh, cry for help. I call for Brynn. I call for Maddie. I even call for Gretchen. No one comes.
I struggle to my feet, pulling myself up with a chair, and lurch to the door.
Chapter 82
Cat
The smell of the girl
is everywhere.
Red. Death.
Spots in the room
with the swinging boy
down these steps, a drop
I lick and taste
her last / best
Felicity / FELICITY
a puddle of her, in this room
with chairs
Felicity / FELICITY
a smear, by that door.
A beckoning, below.
Felicity / FELICITY
Chapter 83
Tress
Piles of people. Hands and arms and legs. Slick skin, pale faces. Hot breaths, warm and vacant, fill the air. There is no more laughter. All are silent.
Hugh, in his throne, suddenly small, bleary, barely there, a question not asked yet on his lips. Ribbit, naked, collapsed on the floor, the zigzag scar on the back of his calf bright and angry, fresh like only yesterday. The clock ticks, backward, the only thing moving in the room.
I’m down again, more blood out than in, crawling over people, but they are wrong, too small, hands and faces and feet, and the boy in the concert T-shirt is too young to be here, is only a child, who thought I was his mother in the stairwell; why are we all children again?
On the stairs, the clock stops.
Chapter 84
Felicity
Shadow. Shadow and light. Something in the dark. Something on my chest. Something is near me. Something is here.
Chapter 85
Cat
Another girl
different now
almost gone
her blood has spilled
mixed with my girl’s
together they are
Fel—Tress—icity / FEL—TRESS—ICITY
Chapter 86
Felicity
My hair it floats tangles with Annabelle’s we float bubbles from her mouth bubbles from Lee’s nose eyes flat and dead and fish take a nibble there is a weight on my chest, half of a heart. I am pulled angry words (no don’t can’t shouldn’t won’t LISTEN TO ME!). Hair dangles swinging with my hair and the heart it tangles I am carried out of the water I am carried onto the bank I am carried I am dripping I am wet I am
carry me take care of me
not the raven flashing tattoo black it is an angry Z red slash of skin not healed stitches like small mouths held tightly shut hands on my face hands wanting me to be okay this boy always wanting to help always wanting to make it better always wanting to make up for the thing that was so wrong Oh Tress oh Tress oh Tress they are dead and I knew but I didn’t know that I knew and he KNOWS he KNOWS—not me. Oh Tress you are in danger and you will not stop I know you and you will know and I cannot help you I am going I am going I am going
Chapter 87
Felicity
I am gone.
Chapter 88
Tress
I am helpless, and there is no one