trickery [lashton]

four ♠︎ luke

  The dingy motel room smelled of cigarette smoke and old beer and I repressed the urge to gag as I walked in. There was a laptop sitting on one bed and a lot of weapons on the other. I pretended to look shocked at the weapons.

  "Let's get started. I'm eager to gank this bitch," Calum grinned and sat down on the bed, opening the laptop. I sat next to him and looked at what he was doing. Ashton began cleaning the weapons, looking at me occasionally. "So here are the list of people at the crime scene before or during both attacks," Calum said, pulling up a list on his computer. "The ones who aren't possibilities are marked out." I was listed as a possibility.

  "Okay," I murmured, trying to ignore my name on the page. "So you only have six possibilities?"

  "Yes," Calum said and I nodded, scooting back and leaning my back against the headboard. Calum moved as well and scooted towards me a bit, our legs touching. He put the laptop on our touching legs and looked at me. "Anything?"

  "Caleb Short went to my high school. He was suspended a lot for pranks and stuff, but nothing deadly," I lied, twisting my fingers together. Hopefully it would take the attention off of me for a second. Calum clicked on the page and I changed it to put a jail-worthy prank on his criminal record.

  "He pulled a prank on a kid and killed him a year ago. That's sketchy," Calum murmured and I looked at Ashton, noticing his jaw was clenched as he angrily cleaned out a shotgun. He looked up at me and his eyes caught mine. I looked down and blushed, pulling my sweater sleeves over my hands and into sweater paws. "Should we check him out?" No one responded and Calum snapped. "Ashton?"

I looked up and his whiskey eyes met mine, only I didn't look away this time. I blushed and he smiled, like he had won an award. "The sexual tension in here is too much," Calum mumbled and my cheeks darkened. He slammed his laptop shut and got up. "Come on, Ash." Our gaze broke and Ashton got up, pulling a stake out from under the bed. My blood ran cold as I gulped, staring at it.

"This kills tricksters," Ashton told me and I nodded, feeling fear pit in my stomach. Him and Calum took turns changing into tux's in the bathroom. "Stay here, okay?" I nodded again and him and Calum walked towards the door, opening it.

  "Wait!" I exclaimed, running over to them. I bit my lip and stared at my black Vans. "Please be careful."

  Ashton grinned and nodded, before waving as him and Calum hopped into their car. I sighed and shut the hotel door, wandering around the room. I kept thinking of possible scenarios of them forgetting about the trickster. I could make up an image and say that it was the trickster, but I didn't want to lie. I wanted to come clean about everything, but I was a monster, and no matter how Ashton felt for me, he would end me without a second thought.

  I needed to get my mind off of this. I was overthinking, and I knew that doing that would only make me more nervous. I walked out of the hotel and down the street, scuffling my feet over the pavement. I kept an eye out for people that I thought deserved to be killed (meaning arrogant and people with a holier-than-thou attitude.) I couldn't stand them, which is why I tended to prank them.

  I people watched for a while, before I saw a kid that looked like he was still in high school bullying a cute nerdy looking kid with comics clutched to his chest. The bully was ranting about how much the other kid was a freak for reading comics about aliens; simply because aliens didn't exist. 

  "Hey!" I yelled, grabbing the attention of both the bully and the victim. "Leave him alone."

  "Stay out of this, punk!" they bully yelled and I walked over to him.

  "Hey, the 90's called, they want their insults back."

  The bully seethed and threw a punch at me, which I avoided, stepping back. He continued firing punches at me and one finally hit my cheek, the force behind the blow sending me backwards. Headlights flashed, and the victim's eyes flashed silver in the light. Holy shit - he was a shapeshifter.

  "Luke!" a familiar voice called out, causing the bully to freeze up and run. The victim started getting away too, but I grabbed his wrist.

  "Wait," I whispered, causing him to look at me, pale green eyes blown wide in panic. "I'm not going to hurt you. You're a shifter, right?" I asked and his expression turned to one of absolute terror. "I'm a trickster, it's okay," I whispered so Ashton, who was running this way, couldn't hear. "What's your name?"

  "M-Michael," was all the boy said before he ran off.

  "Luke, are you okay?" Ashton asked, helping me up. "What happened?"

  "Some kid was bullying someone, so I intervened."

  "You could've gotten seriously hurt," Ashton scolded me, placing a hand on my jaw to examine my face. "He hit you pretty hard, huh? It's already starting to bruise."

  "Where's Calum?"

  "Why?" Ashton asked, looking directly into my blue eyes with his pretty whiskey ones.

  "Just asking."

  "He's in the car. C'mon, you should ice that," Ashton said as he guided me to the car. "The guy was a flop. Turns out he's never known about doing something illegal. Could've been playing dumb, but I can read people."

  "Oh, okay. Who's next on the list?" What he said next made my blood run cold.

  "You."