Page 70 of Devils' Day Party
“I was going to tell you …” she starts, trailing off as she realizes what a cop-out statement that is. “We've been sleeping together for a while now.”
“How long?” I gather her clothes from the floor and toss the pile into her lap, trying to control my rage. It's not fair of me. It's hypocritical as fuck, but I can't help myself.
“Since last year's Devils' Day,” Luke whispers, keeping her eyes downcast.
Now that, that is a blow.
I exhale sharply, closing my eyes and wishing I had my mask with me. Instead, it's back at the gas station, in my abandoned car. If this were day one of this nightmare, I'd be terrified about Little Bee, about her getting towed away, about how it might look that my mangled car was left in the parking lot. Interesting how a little perspective can change everything.
I care little to nothing about my car right now.
“You've been sleeping together for a whole year?” I repeat, sitting down heavily on the edge of the bed. No way I'm moving any further onto it. If I happened to sit in a wet spot … well, I'd just rather not test the fates. “How? Why?” I glance back at Luke, my mind whirling with all the new things I've learned in the last … week? How many days has it been since this started? I should probably be keeping track.
A quick count in my head tells me it’s been six. Six, long, strange days on repeat. Seven, if you count the first day.
“How?” Luke echoes, yanking her shirt over her head and not bothering with a bra. Like me, she probably realizes that we'll likely be stuck in here all day. As far as pranks go, it isn't a big deal. Maybe it would have been, on day one, but a lot's changed since then. Raz was spitting mad today, wasn't he? After yesterday, after all those revelations, my heart feels shattered and raw.
Behind all of that anger and rage, Raz is just … waiting for me.
In the span of just a few hours, he can be mine.
But I can never keep him.
Not with my world the way it is, a continuous cycle of a day that should have only happened once.
“How is …” Luke starts and then shakes her head, as if to clear it. “Sonja found me while you were with Calix last year. But … then after, I went looking for you, and then you called me, and well, I couldn't exactly tell you with your heart broken to pieces.”
My mouth tightens and I look toward the boarded-up window, wishing I could see out and into the thick canopy of the trees. “Karma.” Calix's fingers light on my shoulder as I stare out into the darkness, at the strings of yellow Edison bulbs clinging to the tree limbs. “Come back to bed.”
“I kept looking for the perfect moment to tell you, but Sonja wanted to keep our relationship a secret.” I hear the blankets rustle behind me and keep my gaze straight ahead, so Luke can slip back into her skirt and panties.
“And you didn't see any problem with that? Fucking a member of the Knight Crew and keeping it a dirty, little secret? She's been using you, Luke.”
“No,” Luke says firmly as I turn back to look her, her blue hair mussed up, her lips slightly swollen from Sonja's kisses. My nose wrinkles, but how can I be so judgmental when—according to my own timeline—I slept with Sonja's male clone just yesterday. My chest clenches with pain as I remember curling up against Raz's side, of murmuring sleepily until the wee hours of the morning. “She's just … damaged. They all are, you know? The Knight Crew.”
“That excuses the way they treat people then?” I ask, feeling a guilty pit in my stomach when I think of Pearl and the things I said to her. She killed herself because of you, Karma. At some point, I'm going to have to find her. If she's that close to the edge, then I can't just keep living day after day without doing something.
What was it that Luke said? That I needed to master my environment? Master my own timeline …
“It doesn't excuse anything.” Luke is standing up now, at the edge of the bed. As I turn to glance at her, she redirects her gaze to the floor, shame apparent in her expression. “People are imperfect; they make mistakes. Some people just make more than others. I'm sorry that I lied to you, Karma, or that the Knight Crew thought bringing you here was awful enough to count as a Devils' Day prank.”
On a different day, in a different timeline, I'd be furious with Luke. I'd yell. I'd scream. I'd say things that I regretted.
Instead, I squeeze my skirt in my fist and close my eyes, searching to control my temper, to bring my emotions in check.
