Page 136 of Chaos at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys 2)
I mean, come on.
“Weak?” I query, cocking my head to one side as Principal Vaughn slinks from his office like the rat he is, bloodied fingers bandaged, his hand in a sling to keep the severed stumps from jostling. He’s sweating profusely, and honestly looks on the verge of passing out. “Kali, honey, if you thought you were in trouble before, you’ve just dug your own grave.”
She sneers at me and then reaches out to backhand me across the face. I’m proud to say that I take the blow without stumbling, lifting my head up to look at her with blood running into my mouth.
“Where are you taking her?” Vaughn simpers as he moves over to stand beside Neil. My stepfather is studying me curiously, eyes glinting with possibilities. This is his greatest dream come true, a chance to break that wild mare in that he’s always wanted. Crush my spirits, take what’s left of me, rape me into an early grave the way he did to Penelope.
“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” he says, scowling as he looks the principal up and down, like even Neil finds him pathetic and weak. “I’m just gonna take her to pay a visit to her sister.” Neil moves over to give Kali a kiss as Vaughn watches me with fear in his eyes. The thing is, when he glances at Neil, I get the idea that he isn’t the one that he’s afraid of.
“Call an ambulance for Ms. Keating,” I whisper, just before Neil shoves me from behind and Kali’s laughter fills the hallway. Scott doesn’t respond to me, stepping back and watching as I leave Prescott High with my worst nightmare holding me hostage.
Kali watches as Neil puts me into the back of his squad car, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him in a way that makes my stomach churn. Well, I don’t know if the baby she’s carrying is his, but it very well might be. I wonder if Mitch knows, and then file the information away to use against him later.
I could scream, but then, I’m a girl in cuffs and Neil is a cop. Who would care? Who would try to help me?
Nobody.
Until the Havoc boys come, I have to save myself.
Glancing out the window at the brick walls of Prescott High, I wonder where the rest of the Havoc Crew is.
Or … I do until I see a skeleton mask lying on the sidewalk beside a spatter of blood.
Charter Crew.
My jaw clenches as I turn back around to watch Neil climb into the driver’s seat.
“You ready, Bernadette?” he asks me.
I might not be, but I can tell from his voice that he’s been waiting for this moment for years.
I’m sure he plans on savoring every wicked, awful moment.The Thing drives me almost an hour outside of town to the cemetery where Penelope is buried. I could bike that route with my eyes closed I’ve been there so many times. Resting my head against the window, I listen to “Tiptoe Through the Tulips with Me” by Tiny Tim, a 1968 nightmare of a song that makes my bones hurt.
It’s featured in plenty of horror movies because it’s scary as shit, like a maudlin clown with a knife. It’s always been Neil’s favorite song. It sets the tone for the afternoon as he winds up a quiet blacktop road toward the parking lot of Our Lady of Mercy cemetery. My father was Catholic, so we have a family burial plot here.
The nicest thing Pamela ever did for Pen was to bury her here beside our dad.
Probably because it was pre-paid so therefore, in her eyes, free.
Neil parks the car, humming the words to the song under his breath as he loads his pistol with a fresh magazine, bobbing his head in time with the music.
This primal sense of survival takes over me as I exhale, sitting in the back of his cop car, fully aware that he could kill me at any moment.
That’s not what he’s here for though, not yet. If I died now then he’d never get to stick it to me, show me he was boss, punish me for all my years of resistance. Nah, it wouldn’t be near as fun. I’m sure he intends on raping me, too.
I swallow back my fear, letting that icy lump crash into my stomach as I let my alpha female side take over.
Fight, Bernie, always.
The boys will come for me. I just need to buy them time. That’s my job right now.
Neil climbs out of the car and then opens my door, gesturing with his gun to indicate that I get out. For a moment, he just studies me, but then his lips curve up into an insidious smile.
“We’re going to play a game together, Bernadette,” he tells me as I lick dried blood from my lip, staring back at him as I wait for the rules of this nightmare. Memories flicker in my mind, but I push them back. Not going there, not right now. The Thing makes a show of checking his gun to ensure that the safety is off. “You remember when we used to play hide ‘n’ seek when you were a kid?”
