Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“I’m going to go spend a few days in a sensory deprivation chamber to get my head straight and try to figure out how the fuck I was manipulated by a twenty-one-year-old girl!”
“I didn’t do that. I wouldn’t do that.”
“I guess it’s not entirely your fault,” he says. “I should have never answered the call. I assured myself that it was just like any other, but I was wrong. There must have been a sliver of humanity left in me after all.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“And then I became fascinated by the pretty, murderous thing that curled up in my psychotic, egomaniacal brother’s lap like a kitten”
“What”
“Maybe I was even a little jealous, but I won’t make that mistake again. The next time I see either of you, it’ll just be to make sure you’re really dead.”
With his bag in his hand, he walks out the door.
His brother. Declan was his little brotherthe one his dad chose to keep when men in gold masks came to his home demanding he hand over one of his sons to save himself. Declan got a new brother to love and protect and a life of privilege; Sebastian was raised in seclusion and extreme abuse to prepare him for a life of violence and blind loyalty.
Declan went to concerts and dreamed of being a rockstar. Sebastian was a child who wished for death.
“Sebastian, you don’t have to do this!” I shout after him. “Don’t go.”
I pull myself up from the floor and step out into the hallway where he stands in front of the elevator, staring straight ahead, waiting.
“Sebastian, please stay,” I sob, tears streaming down my face. “It doesn’t have to be like this. We’re not monsters.”
“You’ll see how wrong you are,” he says calmly.
“I love you,” I tell him, my lower lip quivering. “We could be a family.”
The elevator finally dings, and the doors open in front of him.
“Look at me!” I scream at the top of my lungs before he steps inside. He actually turns, maybe just because there are others in the hallway now, and he’s worried about what I’ll do next. “I mean it.”
His eyes are empty, his face emotionless when he turns away and steps into the elevator without another word. I stay there until the elevator doors close, leaving me with the handful of people lingering in the hallway, staring at me.
It could be worse. They could be taking photos or trying to steal my blood.
Sniffling, I wipe my cheeks and return to the room. I feel like a puppet moving around gathering my things and dressing myselfbut my mind tells my body it has to move anyway, and so what else am I going to do?
I wait in the lobby for my sister and her friends, shifting uncomfortably in my seat as the waistband of my pants rubs up against the cut near my hip.
“Hey,” Blakely says. “I didn’t know if you’d be riding home with us or not with Sebastian here.”
“Um, no, he, uh he left early,” I tell her, grabbing my suitcase and heading toward the parking garage.
“You look like you’ve been crying,” she says. “I guess you saw the news.”
“What news?” I ask.
“Oh I’m sorry, Teagan ”
“For what? Sorry for what?”
She sighs, pulling her phone from her pocket and handing it to me. “They think those girls are dead.”
I read the headline on the screen: Former Gods of Tomorrow Blood Cult Members, River and Hazel Pinault-Hollis, Suspected Dead from Apparent Suicide.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
“Yeah,” I lie. “Yeah, I just need to sit down before I read this.”
“Yeah, no problem,” she says.
We all pile into the vehicle, and I read the details on Blakely’s phone. River and Hazel’s ankle bracelets were removed in their home a few nights ago, where police found suicide letters, and they’ve been searching for them ever since. They got a lead when a car reported stolen from nearby was found abandoned in the Kaibab National Forest near The Grand Canyon. Police K-9 units alerted on their scent in the car and followed it to a nearby cliff, where the trail was lost. They’ve been combing the area for any sign of their whereabouts or remains, but believe it’s likely that by now, animals could have gotten to them and torn them apart.
But I know that’s not the case. They wouldn’t have jumped; I just hope they made it out of the country safely and without any interference from shiny assholes.
Which reminds me, there’s a new one following me now. And I have no way to warn Declan and Luca that they know they’re here. Now, I have to be afraid that if they aren’t coming back for me, it’s because they were caught by The Order and either killed or sent away, and it’s my fault. I wish I’d told Declan that I love him even though I’m angry. I wonder if, when they come for him, he’ll think I gave them away.
I wonder how long it’ll take before all of the wondering drives me insane again.
I hand the phone back to my sister and then lean back in my seat, silently crying on and off for the rest of the drive.
After Blakely drops me off, I go to my room, take out my phone, and send more texts I know will go unanswered.
ME I meant everything I said.
ME I miss you.
ME We don’t have to be monsters.
I take my pills and fall asleep, and when I wake up later that afternoon and try to send another message, it doesn’t go through.
The service has been disconnected. Now, I have no way to communicate with any of them.
Or do I?
I quickly spring up in bed and sit down at my desk, and then I log into my old @blacklicoricenotpoison account I created to contact Luca after the first concert.
It’s still there.
After ensuring the door is locked, I lower the lights, put on an old Halloween mask, and hit record.
“I don’t know what the odds are that you’ll actually see this, but there are some things I need to say, and so I had to try. I’m still mad at you, but I do love you, and I didn’t get to tell you that.” I swallow a lump in my throat before continuing, my voice cracking. “Don’t come for me it’s not safe. I’ll be okay.”
Ispend the next week at home, too afraid to leave the house aside from when my mom made me pick out a couple of dresses for the wedding and the rehearsal dinner. She agreed to let me wear black to the rehearsal and picked out a sage green tulle mini dress with a high neckline and embroidered flowers for the wedding. It’s pretty, and it has enough of that light purple color in it to go with the rest of the decor.
But I’m always looking over my shoulder, wondering who is watching me now, where they are, and how long they’re going to let me live. I sleep with my knife clutched tightly in my fist when I’m able to sleep at all.
I take my phone with me now. I’m not afraid of the police.
And since I can’t be with Luca and Declan, and Sebastian left me, I told my parents that, yes, I’d move to North Carolina with my Aunt Beth. This morning, we packed a moving truck with most of my things so that they’d arrive around the same time I do. As soon as it pulled away, we left for the airport.
We’ve been waiting to get through security for over an hour. Blakely and Austin didn’t ride with us, but I can see them a couple of rows ahead of me; she’s carrying her wedding dress and looks like she’s losing her shit.
“You know, if you wanted to, you could fly to Aunt Beth’s next week, and we could have someone ship your car. You don’t have to drive out there alone,” my mom says.
“It’s okay,” I tell her. “I don’t mind driving. It’ll be fun.”
I’ll likely be killed somewhere in the middlein one of the desolate places where there are no people, only bodies. But I’ll probably be dissolved in a barrel.
Twenty minutes later, I finally step into the body scanner, placing my feet on the indicated spaces and holding my arms above my head.
“Ma’am, step to the side, please,” the TSA agent says. I panic for a moment, but I know I put my knife in my checked bag; I’ve felt naked and exposed without it all morning.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.