Finally, the noise in her head quieted. Instead of her control returning, it slipped further away, leaving behind both reassurance and hollow surrender. Audrey was too tired to care. She let it take what it needed, feeling that everything and everyone had proven more dangerous. Her shoulders drooped.
“My bosses will want your version,” Skyler said, her eyes shifting toward the window as if listening for footsteps in the hall. “Did you kill them?” For all her trained ease, a bundle of tension twisted beneath Skyler’s steady voice—like there was more at stake than a simple favor, like she was weighing what it would cost her if Audrey’s story was wrong.
The question hovered in the air. It should have been easy to deflect. After ten years of questioning, she knew how to give just enough to stop people from digging. But the crypt had broken her willpower—or maybe Alex’s absence had. Or maybe it disappeared after two impossible people found her on her first day out and neither looked surprised by what she was.
Whatever had happened that night hadn’t stayed hidden. If she didn’t start saying it out loud, if she didn’t hear it outside her own head, she was going to lose control of it.
Audrey tried to make the room focus and started talking.
“I came home late,” she started. “My parents were fighting, which wasn’t new, and I was in the kitchen, listening.”
An unfamiliar aura from the backyard entered her mind.
“Then I saw a man in the backyard, watching.”
Skyler didn’t interrupt. Audrey let the memory settle for half a second too long.
“He stood below the pine tree, but he didn’t belong there. That was the first thing I knew for certain.” What she didn’t say was that the most upsetting part was what she couldn’t hear. The silence wasn’t just odd—it was impossible, and she couldn’t decide if it meant he was hiding himself, or if something even worse was at work.
She let out a quivering breath and continued. “I heard my mom say they needed to split Cary and me up. We were identical. We didn’t…separate. I ran into the room, but it was too late. My mom had a kitchen knife, and my sister pressed against her, the blade to her neck. My dad moved, and so did I. One second the knife was here—” Audrey touched her own neck. “Next, my dad’s throat was open.”
Silence.
“I don’t know who cut him open. But it was on me. I didn’t get there fast enough. My mom looked at me like?—”
Audrey stopped as Skyler leaned back, a subtle discomfort settling between them. Ten years had taught Audrey to read body language: Skyler wasn't shocked, but she instinctively withdrew, caution winking in her eyes. Something in Audrey's story unsettled people. It wasn’t just a tragedy; it was a story with too many unanswered questions.
This made people uneasy.
Audrey tried not to let it bother her.
“My mother still held my sister and had the knife in her hand again by the time I looked up from the floor. I begged her to stop, but she sliced Cary’s throat anyway. Not deep enough to kill, but enough that she collapsed onto the couch. Next, she came for me.”
Audrey’s memories were fractured here, but she plowed on.
“She didn’t even look like my mom anymore. I barely recognized her,” she said. “The fire came next. It exploded through the walls and the floor. My mom died where she stood. So, I dragged my dad outside. That’s why there was blood on the sidewalk.” Audrey’s voice lowered. “And I went back for Cary… but I couldn’t get to her in time.”
The words were heavy and final.
“You didn’t kill them,” Skyler said quietly.
Audrey didn’t answer. Because she didn’t want to lie about it this time. The prosecutor’s voice slid back in.
Why did you lie?
What did you have to hide?
A fact she’d hidden deep rose in her mind. The truth was that a vital piece inside her had surfaced that night, and it hadn’t followed the rules she understood.
Skyler exhaled slowly. “The police’s version was neat.”
Audrey shook her head. “And also wrong. The blood splatter analyst was a fraud—Alex tore him to pieces during my appeal.”
Skyler studied her. “I never said I didn’t believe you. There are just pieces about that night that don’t make sense.”
Emotion choked Audrey’s throat as Skyler squeezed her hand. “We’ll figure it out, though.”
Someone else might believe me.
