Battle of the Killers

72 | The Aries Trap

NERVOUSNESS. It took over my whole body. Our plan to confront Aries had my stomach in pretzel knots. We went over the plan multiple times, but it still didn't stop my racing chest.

A tight breath squeaked from my throat as I loitered in the hallway to the right of the gym, eyes staring at the threshold, waiting for Chi.

She appeared moments later, a bright smile on her rosy cheeks. Khan must've really upped his charm in his texts to her because she was skipping down the hall, leaving an invisible pink glow in her wake.

She farted mid-skip, almost falling but regained her balance while looking around to see if anyone heard it before continuing on.

Once she was out of sight and I heard her sultry murmur and Khan's voice, I knew it was my time to act. I let out a slow sigh and tiptoed to the gym.

If I wanted to be honest, we didn't have much of a plan. Khan was hopefully supposed to keep Chi distracted long enough for me to get Aries to hopefully confess. How I was going to do that I didn't know.

Khan told me to act assertive and confident and show no fear. Yeah, easier said than done when you're dealing with a guy who got away with savagely murdering his ex-girlfriend.

Tini would've been able to do it. But she was gone now. A part of me wished for her to just come back. Every time I would feel for her, nothing but emptiness nudged at me. She was gone. Fuck it, I didn't need her anyway.

The closer I got to the gym, the harder my nails dug into the knife riding up my sleeve, as my blade heels clicked in a rhythm on the hardwood floors.

This plan might be a crapshoot, but I was prepared. I wasn't dying today.

Coming to the threshold, the smooth air-conditioned air splashed my face as I watched Aries to do bicep curls with a dumbbell.

He must've felt me staring because he jolted around, stumbling when he spotted me.

"Hey," I said, voice coming out low like one of those fake voice-changing phone apps, very scary and confident. Not.

Aries stood up straight, squaring his shoulders as his dark brown eyes hardened. "What do you want?"

"I wan-t...." I said, stumbling. Be confident and assertive. "I want to...." Shit. What the hell was I supposed to say? Just ask him?

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he snapped at me, fist clenching around the dumbbell.

"I know what you did," I blurted out fast.

Once those words left my lips, his whole demeanor changed — shock, confusion, and rage flittered over his features. "I don't know what you're t-talking about."

His newfound change gave me a confidence booster, and I straightened my spine and smiled. "I know your secret," I said, letting the words come out smooth and hard. "And how you did it and why."

He lowered his eyes. "You don't know shit."

"'I don't know shit?' Really?" I said before letting out a condescending laugh. "How about I tell everyone the shit I don't know and see how they react? They'll laugh and ridicule you just like your parents and fans would have."

I think I was doing a great job of talking out of my ass because he began to sweat a bit.

"No one will believe your lies," he said, voice getting higher as his eyes started to glaze over like he was getting lost in his own head.

"Lies? I don't think they're lies." I shrugged. "I have footage of you watching Khan."

Those brown eyes of his widened, and his mouth parted, but he said nothing, so I continued talking out of my ass, trying to get him to breakdown and confess. A part of me felt really bad, but I needed to know the truth.

"Layla told me everything about you," I said. "Everything."

"S-she did?" he asked, eyes averting downward before shaking his head and clenching the dumbbell again. "I d-don't know what you're talking about. Layla knew nothing about me."

I laughed. "Nothing? She knew everything and was going to expose you and you killed her before she could. Just like your ex. She was going to expose you too until you silenced her."

So many emotions flickered over his face before he shut down completely, eyes becoming like voids.

"And now I'm going to expose you and tell everyone," I said, exaggerating my voice. "And they're going—"

Within a nanosecond he thinned his lips and chugged the dumbbell at me. A light squeak left my lips as my face barely dodged the heavy metal, and it smashed into my hand instead.

A prickling pain rocketed up my fingers to my elbow, and I sloshed back into the wall, dropping my knife. A second later, he was on me.

He tackled me back into the wall, shoulder landing into my bellybutton, knocking all of the sticky air out of my lungs. Everything felt weak for a moment, and I couldn't control my body, and I just dropped.

He didn't let me fall though. He took advantage of my temporary weakness and tried to latch his hands around my neck and squeeze.

Just like his ex. That's how she died. That realization sent a surge of fresh adrenaline throughout my core, and I dead weighted my body, which caught him off guard and he had to reposition his hands.

That gave me a small window to attack. I surged my chest forward into his torso, knocking his hands off me while sending him flying back a bit, but I hurt my breasts in the process.

I winced and fell onto my ass and began searching for my knife, but it was nowhere to be seen. Shit. I tried to hop to my feet, but he bounced back faster and tried to grab my throat again.

I threw my body back onto the floor and used my feet to kick at him like a child during a tantrum. Aries tried to smack them away, but I was too fast, so he just bear-hugged them to his chest and lifted me off the ground.

I wiggled in the air like a worm, clawing the air, trying to latch onto something so he wouldn't be able to drop me on my neck. "Get off me!" My fingers reached for the radiator, holding onto it enough for me to pull myself forward.

He pulled back, stretching my body. A tugging agony formed in the small of my back as we both pulled my body in opposite directions.

This isn't working. The pain just kept getting worse, and it was starting to make me tired, so the next time he pulled hard on my legs, I let go.

We both went flying across the room. My chest and stomach crashed into the floor with a loud thump.

"Ouch," I whispered as I turned onto my back.

Aries got to his feet first and ran over to me, but I kicked my legs out, trying to form a barrier between us. He tried to grab my legs again, but I kicked out with my heels, landing a sharp edge into his moving hand before following up with one in the thigh. It went in clean and quick.

"You stupid, bitch." He let out a rough scream, jumping back as thin streams of blood leaked from his wounds. He wiped his bloody hand on his white shirt, smearing it. "I'm going to fucking kill you just like I did her."

Fuck, I was in trouble. Where the hell was Khan?

♟♙♟