No worries there.
“She didn’t want to tell her parents either and possibly get them in trouble. So we came up with a plan.”
Two teenage girls, thinking they needed to solve this astronomical problem all on their own. Mallory was afraid her molars were going to crack she was clenching them so tightly.
“I spent the night with her last night, and we were walking back to my house this morning when he just popped up on the road next to us, walking along like he was our buddy or something.”
She shuddered.
“He wouldn’t leave, and we didn’t know what to do. We’d come up with a plan, but we hadn’t expected it to happen right then. But then I looked at Gina, and she nodded and…”
Mallory and Remy both remained silent, allowing her to collect her thoughts.
“We headed straight to my house. My parents are in Florida, so it would be just the two of us. Well, three of us, because he walked right in behind us, like he had every right to be there.”
“What was your plan?” Remy asked quietly.
“We were going to lure him over to my house, and we were going to scare him. There’s this big-ass butcher knife in the block in the kitchen. I was going to pull it out, wave it around, warn him to leave us both alone. That’s it. That’s all we were going to do.” Her voice cracked.
“So you decided to enact that plan this morning, since he showed up out of the blue?” Mallory guessed.
She nodded.
“But that isn’t what ultimately happened,” Remy murmured.
Alaina shook her head. “Gina got scared. She panicked. Took off running. Instead of chasing her, Deke turned to me, and the look in his eye…”
She closed her own eyes. “We were standing in the kitchen. The knife block wasright there. I thought about how scared Gina was, how she felt like she had nowhere to go to feel safe. And then he smiled, but it wasn’t a happy, cheery smile, y’know?”
“Yeah,” Mallory said. “I know.”
“I just grabbed the butcher knife. The biggest one in the block. I think…I think at that point I was still hoping I could scare him off. But the second he saw that knife in my hand, he came at me, and I…”
She blew out a deep, shuddering breath. “I stabbed him. Again and again, I just kept stabbing him. Until he fell to the floor. Until he stopped moving.”
“And you’re sure he’s dead?” Remy asked, not sounding at all shocked or appalled by her story.
Alaina blinked her eyes open and stared at him. “I stabbed him so many times, I lost count.”
Remy nodded and turned back around to face the front. “I’d say he’s likely dead.”
“Did anyone see you? Were you being followed?” Mallory asked while she forced herself not to press any harder on the gas pedal. Now was not the time to get pulled over for speeding.
“No. I dropped the knife, cleaned off the blood that had gotten on my hands and face, and then I shifted and ran. But they’ll figure it out. He’s lying in a pool of his own blood in my parents’ kitchen right now. The knife is still there. And my clothes, which are covered in blood.”
“Your parents are in Florida?” Remy prompted.
She nodded. “My grandparents—they live in one of those senior packs down there. My grandpa fell, hurt his hip. They went to make sure everything is okay. I didn’t want to miss school, so I stayed home.”
Alaina paused.
“I can’t go back. I don’t know what to do.” She blinked rapidly and swiped at the tears that trailed down her cheeks. “I want my parents,” she said, sounding like a frightened child.
Wordlessly, Remy pulled a napkin out of the center console and offered it to Alaina, who used it to wipe her eyes.
Mallory’s mind whirled, processing the information Alaina had just told them, combining it with what had happened to her when she was Alaina’s age—and then fifteen years later. Her mind added a dash ofwho else has he done this to?
She had a recipe forI’m glad he’s dead.
