Awe struck in Zeke’s eyes as he sat still in the black chair by the window with Ollie by his side. Ollie’s fingers moved fluently across the pages of his journal under the sun, glances stolen between us. I inhaled the chilly air through my nose, and it felt like spearmint coating my throat and lungs when the door to the group therapy room swung open.
Bria stood there, examining the room with a raging fire in her eyes.
My fingers froze over the keys. My eyes darted back and forth to Ollie and Zeke by the window. Ollie flinched, sending a panic inside me.
“Keep playing,love. It sounds beautiful,” Bria snarled, closing the door behind her. The click of the lock bounced, and she turned to face us. “Hey, Ollie,” Bria smirked, but her stride closed in on me. Ollie stood, Zeke’s eyes bulged, and I jerked my eyes in her direction.
“What are you doing here?” I asked nervously as she circled me.
“Bria,” Ollie warned, and before he could make it to me, the edge of a sharp blade pressed against my windpipe.
“Sit down, Ollie, or I’ll cut the bitch in two.”
My eyes fixed on Ollie, afraid to move—afraid to blink. The lightning crashed behind my eyes and my vision clouded, but even my tears were too afraid to fall. Ollie’s light eyes bottomed out, fear zeroing in, and the change happened almost immediately. He inched forward, his palms out in front of him, begging with scrambled words and a broken tone.
The sharp tip of the cold blade pierced my skin. It burned, and warm blood trickled down the length of my neck. I sank my teeth into my lip to fight my body from trembling or moving at all.
“N-n-n-no,” Ollie stammered with bloodshot eyes. “Please, don’t do this, Bria. God, I’m fucking begging you.”
I wanted to speak, but it was hard to get any words out when you couldn’t breathe. Shock took complete possession of me, and I sat stunned and watched as Ollie broke apart from ten feet away.
His words sounded distant, and his movements seemed lost in slow motion. Time lagged, and I squeezed my eyes closed to wait for the inevitable.
“Sit down, darling.” Her tone was calm. Too calm. Bria’s hair brushed against my cheek as she leaned over. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
“For what?” Ollie shouted, then quickly lowered his tone. “What did she ever do to you? Bria, you can walk away. Right now, we’ll never speak of this. Please!Fuck. Don’t do this!”
“Madilyn,” Bria deadpanned. “My name is Madilyn and if I have to hear you call me that name one more time … ”
“I don’t understand,” Ollie’s voice shook, grasping his hair with tears falling from his red eyes. “But we can go talk. Let her go. We’ll sort this out.”
“No, I think Mia deserves to know the truth before I finally get rid of her,” the girl said close to my ear. My eyes sprang open to see Ollie take two steps forward when she yanked my head back and dug the blade into my throat. “You want to test me? She’ll be gone by the time you get here, Ollie. I wouldn’t suggest taking another step.”
Ollie stopped in his tracks, and his hands shook at his sides.
“I wanted a clean break, too—a fresh start,” she continued with her story. “Brianna, the girl you’ve come to know as Maddie, the two of us got close at the institution before we arrived. Really close. The plan was brilliant. I’d have a new identity, Maddie would have access to me. The bitch did whatever I said, actually followed through with it and switched our folders, switched our bloody identities, before we arrived to Dolor. I had her eating out of the palm of my hand,” the girl blew out a menacing laugh. I turned my eyes to her, the girl I thought I knew—the girl whose black short hair grazed my cheek and I had called Bria for almost two years. She was fucking Madilyn—she was Maddie. She had been the one with the delusional disorder this entire time. “Can you believe she actually fell in love with me?
“But when we arrived, things between you and me just clicked. Brianna got jealous and decided to go out of her way to fuck you before I could, Ollie. All this just to spite me. Big mistake. So just like she went out of her way to have you, I went out of my way to have the cow removed and tossed into the Looney Bin. You were always mine, Ollie. You were never hers. You still are! I’ll never forget that night we made love. It’s all I can think about. You know it, too. Or at least until this one came along. Not only did Mia steal you from me … no, she went as far as calling me a rapist! Can you believe that, Ollie? Like I’d have to rape you, you fucked anything that walked,” the blade applied more pressure against my throat, and my eyes strained from the pressure, “I mean, I was just about to have you back, and she had to come along and fuck it all up, didn’t she? Then Mia hadmeraped! Talk about a fucking hypocrite, ya? Remember that, Mia? Watching Isaac take advantage of me?” she seethed in my ear.
“It wasn’t Mia’s fault,” Ollie rushed out.
“The hell it’s not! When you left, I learned everythingMia. I learned how she talked, how she moved. I wanted to know what it was about her that made you tick, why you chose her and not me! Turns out, she’s nothing more than a shallow whore.” Her knee cap rammed into my spine, and my head bounced backward, and she fisted my hair. I winced, and Ollie jumped forward. “Come closer, please Ollie. I dare you. I so dare you.”
Ollie gripped his hair, his jaw working overtime as tears fell fast from his battered eyes. “Don’t think I won’t kill you, Bria. Or Maddie. Whatever the fuck your name is. You so much as lay another finger on her. I swear to God I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Oh hush, I’m not done with my story yet,” Madilyn laughed, “You were gone, and I was on my way to becoming this girl you always wanted. Then I overheard Lynch talking about your return. I had to make my move, get this one out of the picture for good. So many times, I almost had her. Even tossed Brianna straight into your arms to keep you occupied and away from Mia. Can you believe that? I let Brianna fuck you, keep you satisfied until we could be together. That’s how much I love you, Ollie.”
“You need help,” Ollie gritted out with red in his eyes. “Let me help you. You’re sick.”
“Yeah, well love makes you do crazy things,” Madilyn grabbed my arm and pulled me off the bench, leading me to a chair with the blade held firmly at my throat. The misery consuming Ollie hurt more than the knife or thought of death. I wanted to hold him, tell him that it was going to be okay. I wanted to wipe his tears and be there for him. “Any last words?”
“You trust me, love?” Ollie asked me, trying to maintain a steady voice, but it was laced with all emotion. I sucked in my lips and nodded. His lips trembled. “Close your eyes, real tight,” another tear fell down his red cheek, and he looked up before his eyes hit mine again, “don’t open them, no matter what.”
I screwed my eyes closed, holding them real tight until the stars appeared. The stars turned into white shapes—triangles, spheres, moving and transforming. I envisioned Ollie and me dancing, the fireworks, the library. I fought to replay our stolen moments as the tip of the blade punctured my skin. Hot tears spilled from the corners, but I was no longer afraid. Voices sounded around me as my head spun, and the sharp blade disappeared from my throat and was replaced by Ollie’s warm hand, granting permission for me to breathe again.
A gasp echoed.
And then a thump sounded.
