Ritual sacrifice?
Then, without time for me to respond, Landon reached into his back pocket, pulled out something quickly, and thrust it into my stomach. I let out a quick gasp as I felt the sharp pain of a blade.
Landon’s eyes went big as we stared at each other. It took me a minute to catch my breath, but then I looked down, to where his hand was still on the blade.
“Did you just fucking stab me?” I asked, not entirely sure I was comprehending what actually happened. Landon didn’t speak, which was well enough. I dropped my own knife and let it clatter to the wooden deck. I smacked his hand away from my stomach. Then, I wrapped my hand around his knife and bit down while I pulled it from my gut.
I hissed as it hurt almost worse coming out than going in. I forced myself to straighten once it was out. I raised it to my eyes, staring at the blood.
My blood.
“Nah, fuck this.” I let out a loud grunt as I thrust the knife forward and up. It punctured his skin right under his chin and went up through his mouth and, hopefully, his brain.
His mouth fell open, and he fell back. I shook my head and held tight to the knife, letting my body heal the gash in my stomach. It didn’t feel pleasant, but I knew it’d be over soon.
Landon was helpless. I think I did get his brain because his eyes were rolling into the back of his head and blood began to trickle from his mouth, nose, and eyes.
When I no longer felt the pain from his stabbing, I stood, smiled, and twisted the knife further into his head. “I am special. Just not the way you think. Sorry about your luck.”
I removed it quickly and then sliced it across his neck. He collapsed. I bent down and grabbed Desi’s knife to finish him off once and for all.
Desi stood there, silently watching me remove Landon’s head from his body. This wasn’t new to me, so it went fairly quickly, but it didn’t make it any less messy. By the time I stood back up, I was covered head to toe in Landon’s blood.
I looked up into Desi’s eyes and sighed with exhaustion.
“Why does hanging out with you always lead to murder?”
He laughed and reached for me. I let him pull me into his arms. He reached for my chin and tilted my head up so we could kiss. It had been months since we had touched each other like this, and it was like an explosion of emotions. When our lips pulled away, he laughed again and answered me.
“Because it’s fucking fun.”
29
We found the boat's captain shaking in his boots, pleading for his life at the helm. Luckily, we needed him to get back to the dock, so I didn’t kill him. And, to get us there safely, Scout and I left quietly when we got there. It was probably bad enough that he’d have to clean up all the blood.
“What do we do now?” Scout asked when we got into my rental car.
“We go home. I cleaned it. I have a few surprises, actually. I think you’ll like it.”
“Home?” Her voice squeaked. I raised an eyebrow as I shifted into drive and started offtowardmy hotel.
“Do you have something you want to do before?”
“I mean,” she paused. “I don’t know. I have some stuff at my apartment. I should probably tell someone I’m leaving.”
“Like who?” I demanded. “Fuck Ginata. She hasn’t seen me since I got here. She couldn’t give me a hello. She doesn’t deserve a goodbye.”
“She’s not horrible.” Scout’s voice came out in a whisper. “She saved me.”
“From what?” I turned a corner a bit sharply, and she fell forward. The seatbelt locked and threw her back.
“You.”
Silence fell over us then. Would I be able to fix this rift between us? The memory of that night was fuzzy at best. No wonder she hated me.I hated myself.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I wish I could take that night back.”
“Life doesn’t work that way,” she sighed and turned to look out the window. “If it did, I can think of a hundred different nights I’d like to redo.”
