“I thought so at first.” Jason clutched his throbbing shoulder. Had Mikey hit a major artery? He felt light-headed, but it might have been from the horrific unreality of the situation. “But last year she told me it was you.”
“That bitch! She said she wouldn’t—” Mikey gulped, and then his lips curled into a sneer. “I knew that she’d dumped you that summer so she could fuck your brother. She would’ve said anything to discredit me.”
The knowledge of Tiffany’s betrayal didn’t hurt Jason as much as he thought it would. He’d always known she wanted to marry a football hero, and he’d come to terms with the fact that wasn’t him. “It was so obvious. You were working at the school library. You had access to the color printer.”
Carrie’s face had gone very white. “Why didn’t you say something, Jason?”
Jason shrugged, and then regretted it when the movement sent a lick of pain rippling through his body. “I was protecting Mikey.” Like he usually did. “And by that time, I thought everyone had moved on and it wouldn’t have mattered who did it.”
“You actually believe him, Carrie?” Mikey said.
Jason should have told him to shut up. Because these protests were classic Mikey: deflect, deflect, deflect, never taking responsibility for his actions. Carrie would see the pattern. Mikey was paving the way to his own downfall.
Carrie’s hands shifted around the haft of the axe. “Jason onlyever lies to protect others. You lie to protect yourself. Why would you do such a thing, Michael?”
“Yes, whywouldyou do such a thing?” Jason demanded, hoping to fluster Mikey even more. A flustered Mikey would make mistakes, and Jason might be able to get away. “I thought you cared about Carrie.”
A vein throbbed at Mikey’s temple as his glance darted back and forth from Carrie to Jason.
Carrie sighed with disappointment and turned toward Jason. She put her bloody gloved hand on his good shoulder and rested her chin on it. It would’ve been an affectionate gesture if not for her other hand holding the axe only inches from his throat. Jason swallowed hard as if he could pull his Adam’s apple away from the blade. “What do you think, Jason?” she said, seemingly ignoring Mikey.
That did the trick. Mikey’s face flushed darkly and he blurted, “You were supposed to come crying tome!”
Carrie let go of Jason and recoiled as if Mikey had slapped her. At that moment Jason didn’t know who was more fucked up, Mikey with his unhealthy obsession, or Carrie.
“Instead you left Cedar Lake, still mooning overthisasshole,” Mikey snarled, gesturing at Jason. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Did you really think a guy like him would ever notice a girl like you, when he could fuck someone like Tiffany?”
He stabbed a finger at his own chest. “I’mthe only one who truly cares about you. No one else.”
Carrie shivered like a dog shaking off water. Jason didn’t blame her. Mikey’s words made him want to take a shower, too.
Then she straightened, lifting her chin like she was pulling a drawstring tight around her feelings.
“Daniel used to say the same thing,” she said.
Mikey went dead quiet, mouth slack.
“Tiffany was right. Everyone always wants to save me. Theywant to keep Saint Carrie safely on a pedestal and heaven forbid she try to step off. I thought you were different, Michael.”
She gazed at Mikey like he was something scraped off the bottom of her shoe. Jason didn’t know how he’d missed how beautiful she was. If Mikey hadn’t spread her photo all over school four years ago, maybe Jason would’ve reached out to her, just to talk. Maybe he would’ve gotten to know her better, and seen her as more than shy, sweet Carrie Zhao. They could’ve developed a deep friendship or something more. Now it was too late. Now she was glorious and terrifying, made more intimidating by the look of rapturous calm on her luminous face. A murderous Madonna. Saint Carrie of the Axe.
Mikey must have seen it, too, because he rasped, “Carrie—”
He ducked behind Jason, as if he expected Jason to help. Because that’s what Jason always did. Protected him or took the rap.
Mikey had killed Jen and Patrick. He’d let Carrie murder Tiffany and Freddy in horrible ways. The black cloud descended over Jason’s vision, and he saw only red. He squirmed away from his cousin. Mikey could face the music alone, for once. There was nothing Jason could do to help him now anyway, even if he wanted to.
Carrie put a finger to Mikey’s lips. “Michael.Mikey.You disappoint me.”
Mikey’s face mottled to the tips of his ears, and his fists clenched in anger. The anger of someone who’d fed all his change into a vending machine and was about to kick it because it wasn’t dispensing what he’d wanted. “I only did it because I love you!”
He panted furiously, probably expecting Carrie to fall in his arms at his confession like they did in movies.
Her answering smile was bland. “Love hurts.”
She looked at Jason as she said this, not Mikey, and the axe flashed.
27
