Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
I don’t breathe as they pass me, filing into the bathroom behind Declan.
One of the three helps Declan pull Luca to his feet. The masked man kneels and removes some clothing from a backpack.
“Girls, help him get these bloody clothes off and get changed,” Declan says. “Then, Luca, you’re going to follow them out the side gate; there’s a van waiting for you. They’re going to take you to a doctor.”
“By himself?” I ask, helping him into the black sweats.
“I’ll be fine, Teagan,” Luca says.
The same masked man who gave Luca the clothes bandages his wound before pulling the black hoodie over his head. He hands Luca a pair of shoes and still says nothing. Declan speaks for him instead.
“Don’t put them on yetdrop them just outside the door, and then slip your feet into them. Try not to step in any blood.”
I look down and realize the others have plastic booties covering their shoes. Luca moves toward the door, and only the one masked man follows. The other two seem to be waiting for something else, standing over Heidi’s sister’s body.
“Luca, I love you,” I tell him. My lower lip quivers, and I bite it, hoping to hold back the tears.
“I love you, too. Don’t worryall right? It’ll be okay.”
I watch him drop the shoes outside the door and slip into them as instructed, and then the masked man follows him out, removing the plastic from his shoes and leaving it behind.
Once the door closes, one of the masked men clicks his tongue until I look at him. Cold, dark eyes stare at me from behind tiny circular holes in the gold surface. He points at the body and then holds up one finger on his gloved hand and waves it at me in a ‘no’ gesture, the way you might scold a child.
It’s bone-chilling.
The third masked man takes a few steps forward until only centimeters separate him from River.
“You two are next,” Declan says. “Everything off.”
“Declan,” River pleads, looking instead at the man beside her. “I don’t want to. I’m not even that bloody; it’s not on my clothes.”
“You two have to move through the hotel. We can’t risk bringing DNA through thereyou need to be clean.”
“But Declan”
“Riv, you can do it now and make it easy, or you can make this hard, and I’ll let them undress you after I make you watch how they get that body to fit into”he pauses, pointing at a small, black plastic carry-on suitcase”that bag. Then, you’ll be picking pieces of whatever-her-fucking-name-is out of your eyes. Take. Your. Fucking. Clothes. Off. Be naked by the time I step back in here.”
Wait what?
He turns to the door and then sighs, turning back to the man looming over River. “Give her a little bit of space,” he says. “She’s afraid of men.”
He takes a step back, gesturing between River and Declan.
“No, not me,” Declan says. “But most other men.”
I almost throw up when he disappears out the door, leaving us alone with them.
The man to her right leans against the bathroom stall and snaps his fingers, and she cries as she slowly undresses. The one who wagged his finger at me kneels beside the body, assembling something from inside his bag.
I’ve never seen one before, but I’m pretty sure it’s a bone saw.
That’s how they’re going to get her in the plastic box.
“I’m sorry, River,” I tell her as I remove my own clothes.
She doesn’t reply, keeping her eyes fixed on the floor in front of her.
We’re both fully naked when Declan steps back inside the bathroom, dragging a hose behind him.
“Quite frankly, Riv, I’m offended that you think I’d let anything happen to my girls. Teagan, you’re familiar with this,” he says. “Want to go first?”
I shrug and step in front of him. At least it’s not freezing in here.
But it doesn’t feel good. It takes much longer to spray me down than it did that night in the woods. I stare at my feet, watching the bloody water run down my body and then to a drain in the floor until he moves on to River.
My heart aches watching her cry through the entire process, head down with her arms crossed over her chest, and plead with any cosmic force that might be listening for it to be over soon.
When he’s finished, he turns off the lights, and the masked man standing with River takes out a blacklight and runs it over our bodies. Declan cleans away any lingering blood stains and then stops on my nails.
Of course, it’s caked under every single one.
The masked man removes a nail kit from his bag, handing it to Declan. He takes out a pair of clippers and trims my nails down to the quickuntil they’re painfully shortand then scrubs the raw skin clean. River loses most of the nails on her right hand, too.
Then, we’re both given a pair of black shorts and a couple of t-shirts. I step into the shorts and then pull the shirt over my head. On the front of the shirt is a woman with comically large tits, the words ‘Everything is bigger in Texas!’ in bold font underneath her.
If Luca were here, I’d tell him this is the worst part of my night.
I sigh, shaking my head as I look up from the ridiculous fucking shirt and see the masked man holding the bone saw watching me, shaking with silent laughter.
I cock my head to the side. “Really, Bone Saw?” I deadpan.
Still laughing, Bone Saw gets Declan’s attention before pointing to me and making the chef’s kiss motion with his hand.
“Yeah, no. She’s mine,” Declan says, handing River and me each a pair of sandals. “Don’t put them on until you get out the door. Then, go through the side gate and the hotel’s back entrance. Take the stairs up to our floor and wait in my room for me. Keep your heads down, and don’t talk before you’re in the room. Got it?”
“Yeah, I got it,” I tell him.
“River?” he presses.
“Yes,” she replies weakly.
Declan hands me the key after we both step into our sandals, and we make our way out the side gate and around the back of the building.
“River?”
“He said not to talk,” she says softly.
If River hates me, then what am I going to do? It’s not like I wanted to kill herI’m not dangerous, I didn’t plan this. I certainly didn’t mean to get her sucked into it. I think the image of Riverfree-spirited, loving, eternal optimist Riversobbing, naked, and terrified in the bathroom will haunt me just as much as that tattered, blood-soaked grey sweatshirt.
I can’t fucking breathe.
I saved Luca.
I’m not a bad person.
It’s not my fault.
I’m sobbing by the time we get to the staircase.
When we finally make it to the top floor and into the hotel room, Hazel is there waiting for us.
“Oh, thank god!” she says, jumping off the couch and crossing the room in half the number of strides it typically takes.
She throws her arms around River, who sinks into her, weeping against her chest. “It’s okay,” Hazel says, stroking her hair, kissing her. “You’re safe now. I’m so sorry, Riv. Come sit down, okay? Sit.”
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.