“Flynn appreciates your attention,” Felix chuckled. “He does so love an audience.”
“Well, I hope he loves new gloves.” Because he sure as hell wasn’t getting those clean.
“Ah, Poppet,” Felix purred while taking a step closer. “You’re truly delightful. You’re not horrified by the blood or worried about your friend. No. You’re worried about a little laundry.”
“He’s not my friend.” I didn’t have any friends. Friends made it hard to disappear.
Felix arched a brow. “So, you wouldn’t care if we slit his throat right now?”
“Not really,” I shrugged.
That may have been cold, but the only thing I knew about Austin was that he had a bitchy wife. If I didn’t have the energy to care about my own life, why should I care about his? Then again, that could’ve been the drugs talking.
The smile on Felix’s face spread wide enough to show his perfect white teeth. “I knew you were a star.”
“I’m not a star.” There was only one star in my family, and her light was snuffed out.
“Oh, but you are.” Felix bent over, bringing his lips to the shell of my ear and whispered, “You have blood on your hands, too, don’t you, Poppet?”
I couldn’t deny his claim, but I wasn’tgoing to confirm it either. Instead, I turned away from him and swallowed back the heavy ball of guilt that formed in my throat.
“Come play with me, Mazie.”
That was the last thing she said to me. I could hear it so clearly. The haunting memory of my baby sister followed me around. I couldn’t escape her. Even now, when I was staring back at the face of death, I could smell the scent of her strawberry shampoo and see her bright smile in the mirror’s fractured reflection. Maybe this was my penance?
“If only you played with her, she wouldn’t have went out to the pool all alone.”
How did he know that?
My stare snapped up to Felix’s ice-blue eyes, gleaming with amusement.
He smiled back, then did something I never expected. He reached down and unbuckled the strap binding my left wrist, then he did the same with the right wrist and my ankles.
Why was he letting me go? This wasn’t right.
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll run away?”
“Go,” he stood, and arched his hand through the air. “Run, if you can.”
Was this a trick?
I looked over my shoulder at the door, then back at him, and over to the knife in Flynn’s hand. Everything in me screamed to get up and run as fast as I could, but I just sat there, unmoving. My mind wanted to fight, but my soul was resigned to its fate.
Felix tipped his head and smirked down at me. “Guilt is the sweetest chain, Poppet. Invisible, unbreakable, and stronger than any rope I could tie you with. You want to be punished.”
No, I didn’t. Did I?
Once again, I looked over my shoulder at my escape. Yet once again, I didn’t move.
“And that is why you’re my star. But Poppet…” He grabbed my chin and forced me to look up at him. “Stars have to perform.”
My stomach sank as his eyes drifted over to Austin and Gina.
“We have an audience to appease,after all.”
December 31, 4:02 am
Ikept telling myself to run. If not for myself, then for Austin and Gina. If I could get out, then I could get them some help. But my body refused to move. I stayed where I was, staring back at Felix’s sinister smirk while Austin’s blood continued to add to the pool beneath him. Each soft plop of a crimson drop rang through my ears like a drum, taunting me with my own guilt.
