Killer Instinct

35 | Roland

         

OCEAN CITY

SUNDAY

3:18 AM

44 HOURS, 42 MINUTES UNTIL DEADLINE

The room immediately erupted into absolute chaos.

"Are you insane? She's not going to kill you!"

"Michael, I'm not going to kill you."

"The second anyone kills my brother, I'm killing them."

"Someone already killed your brother, Mary."

"Shut up, Jordan."

Roland and Michael both remained quiet while the girls all screamed at each other and at Michael, until the wore themselves out and sat in silence.

"Well, that was fun." Michael said, straightening up in his chair a bit. "Now if you'd let me explain my idea, I think we would all be a little bit happier."

Mary crossed her arms over her chest, clearly not open to doing anything that would endanger the only brother she had left. Everyone else nodded slowly, unsure of what was coming next.

"I'm obviously not going to ask Jordan to actually kill me." Michael started. "I'm not an idiot."

"Could've had me fooled." Jordan muttered.

"Thanks for the support." Michael snapped back, "Just listen to me." He took a deep breath before continuing, "I think that Jordan should fake my death. But first, she needs to contact the stalker."

Roland watched as Jordan shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"It's literally the perfect plan to figure out who this person is. They obviously want me dead, and Jordan can say that she needs proof that she'll be safe from Dean if she follows through with what they want. She would have to meet the stalker in person, right? She would find out who he is!"

Everyone was quiet for a second after Michael finished outlining his plan, before Roland decided to speak. He never spoke, so it would be a change.

"I think this might work."

Everyone turned to look at him in surprise.

"You're supposed to be the most rational one out of all of us, and you think we should go through with this?" Lindsey asked incredulously, "There are so many things that could go wrong with this plan."

"Then let's test it out." Michael offered, "Jordan can text the stalker and ask if they'd be willing to meet her in person. If they say no, we go with a different plan. If they say yes, then we know we have at least one obstacle out of the way."

"Well, it's up to Jordan." Mary said, turning to face her best friend—or, maybe ex-best friend? Roland wasn't quite sure where the two girls stood with each other, "If she's willing to do this and risk her own life to catch this person, then we'll give it a shot."

Jordan was quiet, looking down at her hands. Roland felt bad for the girl—she had gone through way more in the past few days than most people went through in a lifetime. Finding out her best friend was sleeping with her older brother, finding out that her mother had been unfaithful to her father and that had resulted in a half-brother who she was tracking down a murderer with. Being ordered to kill her best friend's twin brother under threat of being murdered herself if she didn't follow through.

Anyone else probably would have cracked under all of the terrible events. But it seemed that a lifetime of enduring Mary's abuse had toughened up a formerly ditzy pretty girl.