Flynn tilted his head and bowed low in my direction, as though I’d earned the stage.
“No,” I shook my head.
“Violence suits you, Poppet. Wear it proudly.” Felix waved his gloved finger at me. “The audience doesn’t forgive hesitation, but they adore authenticity.”
Austin rolled his eyes my way. “Whose side are you on?”
“I—I—I…” was all I could stammer out. I couldn’t explain my actions to myself, let alone him.
Austin’s glare cut through me, sharper than Flynn’s knife ever could.Whose side are you on?My hand still burned from the strike. Proof I’d crossed a line that should never have.
Felix looked at me as if he’d been waiting for this exact fracture.
“It’s their fault.” I pointed at the twisted brothers.
They messed with my head and made it so I couldn’t think.
“Don’t blame us, Poppet.” Felix circled behind Gina and placed both his hands on her shoulders.
She tried to flinch away but had nowhere to go.
“We only ever reveal what’s already inside you.”
What the hell was that supposed to mean? I looked around at the mirrors, which seemed to shimmer in the light, and down at the worn and dull floor. Nothing in this place felt right. The laughter I was haunted by was tooreal here. This wasn’t a normal hotel. Where was I? And who were they?
I lifted my eyes back over to the brothers. “What are you?”
Were they even human? There was a question I never thought I’d ask myself. Maybe I was losing my mind.
Felix crouched down behind Gina and pressed his cheek to hers. “I don’t think she liked your performance, Gina.”
Flynn stepped forward and raised his knife, still gleaming with Austin’s blood.
“Wait…” I held out my hand. “Don’t….”
Felix’s ice-blue eyes locked on mine, pinning me in place. “All acts must come to an end, Poppet.”
Flynn grabbed Gina’s hair and yanked her head back, stretching her throat long under the pale chandelier light.
Austin thrashed and bellowed her name, but his binds held him in place. The only thing he accomplished was tipping his chair over onto the floor as Flynn drew the blade across Gina’s neck in one clean stroke.
Her scream was choked off and drowned out in a wet gurgle as blood poured down her chest.
Austin sobbed openly and cursed out his promises of vengeance. All I could do was watch as the light left Gina’s eyes and she stared back at me, empty and hollow, bright honey orbs suddenly void of all signs of life.
Just like her.
“Come play with me, Mazie.”
I could’ve run. I could’ve tried to get help. Instead, I let someone else die.
My stomach lurched, and the room tilted. I couldn’t breathe. Gina’s silence held heavily onto my lungs while the sting of my slap seared across my palm. The chandelier light fractured and spun in dizzy spirals.
Two words echoed through my mind as my knees buckled, and darkness seeped into my vision.
My fault.
The last thing I heard was Felix’s applause.
