Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“It’s okay, baby,” Luca says. I’d almost forgotten he was there, holding me back. He kisses me on the side of the head. “Everything dies. There’s nothing that makes you feel alive quite like witnessing death. But you probably already know that, don’t you?”
“I don’tI barely knew him.”
“But you felt it, didn’t you?” he asks.
“Of course she did,” Declan says.
I shake my head. “I don’t remember.”
He gently lays Layla back on the grass. “We need to take care of this,” he says to Luca. “Go get the guys.”
Luca releases me and walks toward the house. I hold my breath and take a few steps forward before Declan turns on me, pointing the knife at my throat. “Nope. Sit. You’re part of this. You’re going to help.”
“How am I” I start. But I am part of this, aren’t I? I look at the bloody, lifeless girl crumpled on the grass and remember what she said to me when she woke me up.
Not only am I a part of this, it’s my fault. I gave her the idea.
I’m responsible.
“I didn’tI can’t breathe,” I force out between shallow breaths. I clutch at my chest with shaky hands, trying to coerce my lungs to cooperate and suck in air, but they refuse. Spots cloud my vision, and I drop down onto the ground.
“It’s okay,” Declan says, sitting beside me. “You’re having a panic attack. Just try and relax. Drop your head and focus on my voice. Breathe, Teagan.”
It’s not. It’s not okay in any way, and I know that. Here I am with a dead body at my feet again. And it’s my fault again.
“No one did anything wrong here, Teagan,” Declan says, running his hand down my back. “Everything is going to be fine. This is all fine. It’s just the way it’s supposed to be.” He reaches for my chin with bloody hands and turns my face toward him. “And if you can stop overthinking it, I think you’ll see the beauty in it.”
“What?”
I look up and see three figures crossing the yard toward us, two carrying shovels.
“Oh my god!” Brady’s voice comes out as a high-pitched scream when he sees Layla on the ground. “Oh, fuck. Shit.” He turns and vomits into the grass, and once he stops, he begins to sob.
“It’s all right,” Rhett says, rubbing his back.
“But she was”
“She was in a lot of pain, honey,” Rhett says.
“Brady, we don’t have time for this,” Declan says.
“Just give him a minute,” Rhett says. “He’ll be okay. Brady, we’re going to go pick a nice spot by the river to bury our friend, okay? Don’t you think she’d want you to do that for her?”
“Y-yes,” he says through sobs.
“Where’s Eli?” Declan asks Luca.
He shrugs. “Out, I guess.”
“Fine. We need to move now. Rhett and Brady, come with me. Teagan you’re with him.”
“But what what am I supposed to do?” I ask.
He kneels beside Layla, caressing her cheek before running his fingers through the blood dripping from her mouth. He then stands in front of me, grabs me by the chin, and forces those bloody fingers past my lips and onto my tongue. “You’re a part of us,” he says. “You’re going to get her ready.”
Declan takes off toward the woods with Rhett and Brady behind him. I look at Luca and watch him shake out a white sheet and lay it flat in the grass.
“Help me move her,” he says. “Grab her ankles. I’ll get her shoulders. Set her on the edge, and then we’re going to roll her up, okay?”
I open my mouth to protest, but no sound comes out.
“Teagan, don’t make this difficult,” he says. “She’s going to be a lot harder to move on my own; don’t make me have to cut her into smaller pieces.”
“What?!”
“I’m kidding, Teagan,” he says, laughing. “I’m not going to cut my friend up. Just help me, okay?”
“That’s your idea of a joke? You’re making jokes right now?”
He sighs and places a hand on each of my cheeks. “Teagan, baby. Look at me.”
I shake my head. “No.”
“Look at me, Teag.”
He rests his forehead on mine, and I force myself to look up into his emerald-green eyes.
“That’s better,” he says softly, nuzzling my face with his own. “Help me, Teagan. Okay? You don’t have anything to worry about. I’ll take care of you.”
“Okay,” I whisper.
“That’s my good girl,” he says. “My pretty, sweet, poison girl.”
His lips engulf mine, slowly and sensually, waiting for me to let him in, and I do. I can’t explain itmaybe I’m just desperate for comfort or for something else to get lost inbut I part my lips and let his tongue slip past mine. I reach out and fist his shirt in my hands, and he bites my lip before he pulls away.
“Let’s take care of this okay? Just get it over with, Teagan.”
“Okay.”
Layla wears only a white nightshirt, and there’s nowhere I can grab her that isn’t covered in blood. Luca lifts her from under her arms and looks at me, waiting. I take a deep breath and kneel in the blood-soaked grass, then pick her up under her thighs and carry her to the edge of the sheet.
“Roll her up tightly,” he says. “She’ll be easier to carry that way. Are you ready?”
“Yeah,” I say, wondering how many bodies they’ve buried in the backyard.
Luca takes the edge of the sheet and almost pulls it over her face, but before he does, he stops, leans down, and kisses her on the forehead. “Bye, Baby Lay. I’ll miss you so much,” he says.
Will he, though? Will he miss her? If they rolled me up in a sheet and buried me in their backyard, would anyone fucking miss me?
I’m losing it again. I look down at my bloodstained hands and clothes, and my breathing becomes shallow.
“Teagan?” he says, laying his bloody hand on my own.
“I’m fine,” I say, pulling my hand away. I grab my side of the sheet and pull it over her body, and he does the same. We roll her several times before there’s no slack left, watching as the sheet saturates with more and more blood each time.
Luca hands me some rope. “Tie this around her legs and ankles a few times,” he says.
I take it from him and do as he asks while he does the same, tying the rope around her torso and her neck.
“I should be able to carry her myself,” he says. “Just walk ahead of me and take the flashlight, okay?”
“Okay.”
He holds it out to me, and I take it. I click it on and wait while he reaches beneath the sheet and hauls her into his arms. Then, I start walking down the trail.
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.