Page 77 of Little Twisted Things

“Not true.” I folded my arms. “But what about that apartment Alex visited? He was cheating on me. I saw it with my own eyes. They hugged and laughed.”

“I wish I could say he was, but he wasn’t. She was nothing more than the wife of a professor friend of his. She had asked Alex to find a rare edition of a book her husband wanted for his birthday. Alex did, and he brought it over to her. She was thanking him. If you’d stuck around a little longer, you would have seen that he was in and out in ten minutes. But I have to admit, it fit perfectly with my plan.”

I placed my hands into the pockets of my sweatpants, my fingers tightening around the syringe I’d placed in them before entering the forest. I walked slowly toward her.

“What are you doing?” she asked. “Stop where you are and don’t come any closer.”

I looked up and saw Sydney sitting in the large oak tree. I nodded, and she jumped onto Mara. They both fell to the ground. I quickly removed the syringe from my pocket, ran over, and shoved it into the side of Mara’s neck.

“This is your last chapter, bitch!” I spat. “Are you okay?” I looked at Sydney.

“I’m fine.” She smiled. “Thanks, Dahlia.”

“Let’s get her inside.”

Sydney and I dragged Mara’s body into the tree house, where a large steel cage sat in the middle of the room. We threw her inside, chained her up, and secured the door so she could never escape.

Suddenly, I could hear their voices. The Librarian. Sunny. A smile swept over my lips. They were awake.

“Dahlia,” I heard Dr. Bondi’s voice. “It’s time to wake up.”

My eyes flew open. I turned my head and looked at her. “It worked, Dr. Bondi. Mara is locked up, and she’s never escaping.” I sat up. “Did you hear everything she said?”

“I did.” She picked up the small recorder from the table. “I also recorded it.”

“Katherine can never know about her or what happened to her when she was four. Do you agree? She has no memory of Mara whatsoever, and it needs to stay that way. Something like that will break her even more than she already is.”

“I agree with you, Dahlia.”

“Good. Now, when can I get out of here?”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible. Katherine needs a lot of help. It hasn’t been that long since she found out about you and the others. We need to work on Katherine accepting what she’s learned and how to work with the system. You all can live peacefully together without any more violence.”

“And what if Katherine doesn’t want to come back here? She’s very happy at the cottage with Elias.”

“If she chooses to stay there and you stay here, nothing will change. You will still be bound to this institution, getting the help you need.”

“And how long will that be for?” I asked.

“It’s up to the judge. Detective Walker knows everything you’ve done. She just can’t ignore that. Justice needs to be served. Some may disagree, but I’d rather be locked up in here than in prison. Talk to Katherine and see what she says.”

George was waiting for me on the other side of the door when I left Dr. Bondi’s office and took me back to my room. I lay down on the bed, closed my eyes, and visited Katherine at the cottage.

“Hey, you.” I smiled as I stepped onto the porch.

“Dahlia. Hi.” She grinned. “What are you doing here?”

“We need to talk, Katherine.”

“Of course. I’ll go get us some iced tea, and we can go sit down by the water.”

“Hi, Dahlia.” Elias waved from the garden.

“Hi, Elias.” I waved back.

Katherine emerged from the cottage with two glasses of iced tea. I took a glass from her, and we sat in the loungers by the water.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” she asked.