Page 137 of Havoc at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys 1)
“Get fucked,” Aaron growls out, and gets a right hook to the face from Timmy for the trouble.
“I still say we take them with us and get out of here while we have the upper-hand,” Mitch continues, just before the sound of breaking glass gives us all pause.
“What upper-hand?” Vic asks, appearing from the fog with his bat in hand. He swings it hard and hits Mitch in the thigh, drawing a scream from one of the Charter brothers while the other—Logan—launches himself at Victor. The two of them end up in a fight while I use the moment of surprise to throw a punch at Billie’s face.
She howls with pain as Oscar appears and grabs Kyler around the neck, putting him in a chokehold and yanking him back. There’s a momentary burst of pain before Kyler loses his grip on my hair, and I sit up, shoving Billie off of me. She sprawls to the floor as I crawl over her, hitting her in the face. Once, twice, three times. As she groans and tries to crawl away from me, I stand up and turn to help Aaron.
But Callum’s already there with his own baseball bat, hitting Danny in the shoulder before he goes for Timmy next. Hael is on the other side, taking care of two more of the clown-masked wearing idiots.
I stand there stone-still in the middle of the brawl, breathing hard, watching as the boys systematically take down their rivals—skeletons versus clowns. It’s a ghastly sight, the fog swirling around our feet, clown faces leering at us from the ceiling. I have to say, Stacey Langford is one crazy bitch to have set all of this up.
Aaron finally finds his feet, panting and covered in blood. Our eyes meet, and his go wide.
“Bernadette!” he shouts, and I turn just in time to see Danny Ensbrook lift a revolver up and point it at my face. His finger clenches on the trigger, and my heart stops in my chest.
Callum’s bat hits him hard in the side of the neck, knocking him over and sending the shot wide. Danny stumbles, falling hard to the ground, the nails from the bat raking through the side of his throat. And then there’s blood, so much fucking blood.
The fight doesn’t stop though, the remaining members of Mitch’s gang throwing themselves at Havoc in one, last frenzied attack. Even Billie gets back to her feet, coming at me again. You’d think she’d have enough sense to get the hell out of there, but she must really want to prove herself. She throws her body into me again, knife point forward, but I knock the thrust aside and then hit her right in the throat.
She stumbles back as several more skeletons appear from the fog, tying up the loose ends and quieting the last of the dissenters. A few of the clowns take off when they realize this is over, that they’ve lost, abandoning their comrades in a way that Havoc never would.
“Everybody out,” Oscar says, nodding at Mitch Charter, groaning and passed out on the floor by Vic’s feet. “And take everyone but Danny with you.”
The unnamed Havoc Boys scramble to follow Oscar’s orders, leaving us alone with Danny Ensbrook. It takes me a minute to figure out why he’d be the exception to the rule. But then I look down and notice that my sneakers are standing in a pool of ruby red.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Cal says, kneeling down and putting his hands on the side of Danny’s neck. “He’s bleeding everywhere; I think I hit an artery.”
“Femoral artery, more like,” Vic says as Oscar drops down next to Danny’s body.
“And Cal,” Oscar says, pulling his friend’s hand away from Danny’s neck. “He’s not bleeding anymore; the nails tore right through his neck.” Oscar looks at up at the leader of the Havoc Boys with an expression that says it’s already too late for Danny. “He’s dead,” Oscar confirms coolly, rising to his feet and giving Vic another look.
“Are you serious?” Hael asks, cursing under his breath as he moves over to stand beside the … body. I have to admit, my mind’s gone completely blank at that word. Dead. Danny is dead? Despite the guns and the bravado tonight, I don’t think anyone was supposed to die. If they were, Victor would’ve put a hole in Mitch Charter’s head.
“Unfortunately,” Oscar says on the end of a long sigh, staring down at Danny’s slumped form.
Callum stands up and stumbles against the wall, hands over his face. There’s fucking blood everywhere. The metallic smell of it is making me sick; I feel like I might throw up.
“I’ve screwed myself, haven’t I?” he whispers, shaking all over. But all I can think is you did it to save me. I move over to Callum and put my hand on his arm. He stiffens up, but he doesn’t push me away.
