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BINGO
London, England, November 2000
JK's POV
The manuscript dropped from my hands onto the table with a thud. I could have gasped, cursed, cried even but I was physically and mentally paralysed.
There was no way. There was no way the woman I had loved for years was capable of such evil; of murdering my greatest friends.
I read it as an alternate ending, something she had crafted to shock readers - it was a smart tactic. That's what I told myself at first, before I turned page after page, delving deeper into her brutality.
The entire manuscript was her way of savouring her brilliancy - of taking pleasure in her crimes.
And it was all fucking real.
A wave of nausea overwhelmed me, and my body buckled, leaving me gagging over the small bin.
"Oof, crazy right?" Her southern accent seized hold of my heart and squeezed until there was nothing left but a lingering numbness and the sound of dripping blood in the corner of my mind. "Personally, I think that ending was way juicier than the published version. But oh well, the heart wants what the heart wants, ay honey?"
Silence prevailed and I slowly lifted myself to see her resting against the doorframe. She was dolled up with her honey blonde hair sleek and straight, just skimming the curve of her breasts peeking through her silk robe. She blinked prettily, long black lashes and rosy pink blush lightly dusting her bronzed complexion - the one overflowing with that signature Fontaine glow. She always looked immaculate, even after I had her screaming into a pillow less than twenty minutes ago.
Fuck, I almost lost my train of thought.
"I don't get it..." I managed to utter out, the acid in my throat settling like fire. "What is this?"
"Come on now, Jungkook, you're not stupid." She was acting like I was the crazy one. "I wrote a book and altered the ending to suit me, it's not hard to understand. I wanted Tae, so I got him."
No doubt she was watching me the whole time; enjoying my expression change with every heinous act.
It was my turn to come face to face with Stella Fontenot. She was confident, arrogant, and insanely beautiful in a way even more maddening than before. I wasn't supposed to still be attracted to her, but she was the definition of femme fatale. She was born to seduce - to ensnare her lovers - to lure them into deadly traps.
I didn't doubt for a second that this was one of them.
"But, but it's all a lie, you don't have him?" My fingers curled around the arms of the chair to conceal my genuine fear. "You don't have him because he's fucking dead... because you killed him!"
I could feel myself falling deeper and deeper into a state of shock and there was no way of escaping it. I tried to stand up but overestimated my balance and stumbled back against the large windowsill. I considered my options, of course, I would have opened it and jumped... plummeted... I don't know- did anything to get away from her.
But seriously, what type of window doesn't open? Sorry, that was a stupid question. Windows belonging to intelligent individuals known as psychopaths are sealed shut... so nobody can hear the screams of their victims.
The woman I loved couldn't have done this, but there she stood in front of me, biting down on her perfectly full lips so smugly, so tauntingly. I had kissed those, revelled in her sweetness and fooled myself with the idea that our time had finally come.
"Hey, a girl can change her mind you know? As soon as I saw Jimin standing on that roof, willing to clean up my mess even after I broke his heart, I made a momentary decision that turned out to be one of the best choices I've ever made. Killing Tae made me successful." The laugh that poured out of her slender frame was unsettling as she walked around the room, dragging her fingers along the meticulously organised surfaces. "You think I still love that son of a bitch? God no, I'm just stubborn and don't like to lose. Tae's probably rolling in his grave watching people swoon over our sweet Parisienne reunion."
I tried to think of any clues that I could have missed but she was too bright, too sharp. A girl like her wouldn't have slipped up on a single thing. But maybe that was a clue in itself - psychopaths always are the smartest people in the room.
"You made everyone root for you and Jimin, for us?" I managed to conjure up the confidence to say. "You convinced everyone that Diana and Tae were better together and for what?"
"Wrong. I never wrote the chapters about Tae and Dotty. They're all from the witch herself. It was her dream to become an author, and I stole it. Now look at me, all successful whilst she's dead in a ditch. It feels fucking amazing."
"The book is hers?" That would make a lot of sense.
"Couple passages and chapters here and there, but everyone's favourite chapters are the ones I wrote so I don't really care. You know there's this thing called smut and people go mad for it?"
I remember watching Diana writing away on her little typewriter. The girl always lounging with a book in her hand and a snack in the other. She spent so much time and effort making something of herself, to once again be in Satine's shadow.
Satine stood with her shoulder against the bookshelf, looking proud and downright evil. I barely recognised her in that moment, and it wasn't even the blonde hair that threw me off, it was the idea that the girl I once knew was always one step ahead. She was a liar, a murderer, a master manipulator and there was nothing I could do to stop her.
"You're crazy."
"Now, now, Jungkookie, look what happened to Tae. You wouldn't want that to be you, huh?" Her pink lips separated to show her pearly white teeth. "Haven't you heard? You should never call a crazy person, crazy."
I wanted to know how she did it, how she was able to get away with it all, but I suppose a part of me already knew. I wasn't even sure if I wanted an answer to my next question, but I also sure as hell wasn't dying today without one.
"What was real and what was fake?"
"It's been so long! Why do you even care?"
Her tongue poked out from between her teeth once the realisation hit. She knew why.
"Please, just tell me... You owe me that much." Why was I trying to reason with a lunatic?
"Ugh," she rolled her eyes, "well I sure as hell ain't French. My maid Maria spoke the language whilst I was growing up, so I picked it up quickly. Though, I did slip up that time at Freddie's, the night you took me home. Whoopsie."
I'm going to be sick again.
"Let's see, I also wasn't assaulted in Dilroy's Motel. It was all a ploy to get me back at Taehyung's and feeding into his toxic masculinity. Yours too now that I think about it. You both couldn't bear to see such a soft, pathetic woman in distress. I self-inflicted those bruises, and they worked a treat."
Yup, vomit was fighting its way up my throat.
"What about-" I started, but paused once sparks of gold shot through her dark irises, enough to melt my heart to mush. Why was I still attracted to her after everything?
"What about you, right? That's why you asked in the first place. You're wondering if what happened between us was real..." Satine made her way forward now; pushing me further and further back until the glass blocked the way. "Oh, did I find you irresistible, Jungkookie. Your little piercings, those tattoos, I could just-" She bit down on her lip, letting her eyes roll back with pleasure. She brushed the slit in her robe, making me suck in a large breath. "Remember that time you caught me playing with myself? I bet you dreamt of taking over..."
I wished she was wrong. That day set it all in stone for me - once I saw her chest rising and falling as her fingers toyed with her clit. I wanted her all for myself.
"You were a mixture. A part of me was desperate to get back at Taehyung, but a part of me also wanted to see what was underneath those leather jeans. You were sweet and totally didn't disappoint."
She grew closer and closer, her eyelashes batting as she perched against the desk.
My face screwed up with disgust. "Get the fuck away from me." I clung to the windowsill, glancing to and from the door.
She followed my eyes, hers full of amusement. "Don't even think about it, there'll be a bullet in the back of your skull before you even reach the stairs. You should be thankful you've even made it this far, some people don't have the luxury." Was she fucking with me? Her dark brows raised like I was the selfish one; like I should be grateful she had spared my life during her killing rampage only to corner me three years later during her second finale.
"You killed good, innocent people. Tae was just confused and desperate not to hurt you, but you made him out to be some insensitive jerk. You wrote Diana as some villain; like she was nothing more than a fraud." The fact that my best friend was dead only just settled in.
"For starters, as far as my readers know, Taehyung's just a figment of my imagination. Also, thanks to me, Dakota Murphy was found guilty of murder in the first degree. Yoongi's and Austin's parents can finally rest knowing their son's murderer was found dead in Newtown Creek."
It was planned out to a T. Satine honestly thought by framing Diana she had done a good deed.
"And for the record, I only killed people that messed with me and Tae, I mean don't forget Dominique!" Taehyung's first bunny boiler had slipped our minds as soon as Satine chased her out of the bar. "That one was a quickie, I love a quickie. She tried to attack me and thought she would get away with it? Ha. I went to the bathroom to powder my nose, slipped out the back exit and cracked the bitch's skull. Not sure how I got away with it, but thankfully her body had decomposed in that landfill site by the time they found her. Jimin had to cover that one up in the end as well."
She looked sort of embarrassed after her last line, I thought it was just her humanity seeping through, but who was I kidding? Dominique was crazy, but it turns out Satine was just as insane.
"Berry Miller literally raped and impregnated me with his little jock baby, he definitely wasn't innocent. That one was called for, come on now?" What did she want? A fist bump? "On the night of the gala I told him I'd give him a blow job in the board room if he told Tae about Dotty, but once I saw that gold engraved chain dangling around his neck, I knew he had to be put down."
Satine stood over my trembling form. I was trying not to be terrified of her, but it was hard with the vivid description of all those murders still circling my mind.
Yes, a part of me felt for her, I really did. Once I read that chapter and had to imagine her being taken advantage of in the worst possible way, I knew I couldn't sleep until I found her.
"I'm sorry he did that to you," I whispered, looking up at her raised chin. As much as I wanted to believe she was rotten to the core and past the point of saving, there was no mistaking the hint of misery behind her dark eyes. She was only a girl after all. "I'm sorry that those men kept taking advantage of you when they knew better."
All I could hope was that she knew my apology was genuine.
"They're all dead so who gives a fuck? Berry met the end of a blunt butter knife and Jimin strangled the shit out of Alex. I will always be the one left standing, Jungkook, I don't need your sympathy."
Satine was always strong, it's the one trait she never faked.
There were still so many unanswered questions, things I wanted to know so badly, but as I watched her open her desk draw and bring out that hand knife, I knew I wasn't getting out alive.
"This has all ended terribly," she frowned. "As you're well aware, I planned for you to die years ago. For all I knew Jimin had already found you and pushed you into shark-infested waters. But once I saw your little face in that audience earlier, I realised there was a way around it all. You would have believed anything I told you. We could have gone forward like nothing ever happened. You and me."
The thought quite clearly aroused her because she climbed onto my lap, the bare skin of her pussy rubbing against my groin.
Maybe one last taste?
Wait, fuck, no.
Her lips met my neck, the heat of her tongue having me gasping for air as she pressed it into the small dip.
"I didn't want things to end like this, Kookie, but you had to be nosey. We all know what happens to those who go digging..." Her head cocked to the side with a sinister smirk. She was referring to Yoongi. "I have to kill you now, sweets."
Oh fuck.
"You can't play a game with someone who never knew they were playing, Satine. This is what this is to you - a game."
I just needed a few more moments to think, to come up with a plan.
"No, this is real life. In games you get multiple lives, here you only get one. What this is, is revenge."
The tip of her knife pressed against my throat, cutting off my airway. I could still breathe, but like usual, she had completely stolen the air out of the room.
"Revenge for what? I love you; I've always loved you. I was nothing but good to you."
There was a moment when I thought she was truly listening. Her lips hovered in front of mine, her eyes scanning for a hint of forgery. Even her body language had softened.
So leaning forward; still being drawn in by the enchantress that was Satine Fontaine, I let my lips brush against hers one last time.
"Oh sweetheart," her entire face dropped into a condescending pout. "Revenge for destroying my happily ever after. You could have just stayed in freakin' Timbuktu but nooooo, you had to come and almost risk me everything."
"No," I begged, scrambling under her body weight. "I don't want to die, I haven't lived. I'm still young!"
"It'll be quick, I promise. You'll hardly... feel... a... thing." Her hand flinched and I closed my eyes, anticipating the agony of her blade. I must have died quickly because we were left in complete silence.
Wait, nope, spoke too soon.
One eye opened to find Satine's chin trembling as she squinted across the street into the other set of houses.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding-"
A loud crash echoed through the room as the window behind me shattered, cutting both of our skin amidst the blast. I watched in shock as her body was thrown backwards, a bullet hole having ripped through her shoulder.
Terrible fucking shot.
"Fuck!" She spat with her teeth bared, putting pressure onto her gushing wound. "Son of a nutcracker that hurt!"
I took my opportunity to run, not even turning to see the face of my saviour. I'm sure whoever it was had their hands full, because if one thing was for sure, Stella Fontenot was very much pissed off, with now yet another person added to her hit list.
And the betrayal was going to sting like a bitch.
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A/N
What am I doing? Am I setting this up for a... for a book 2?
Hehehehehe 😈
The playlist at the beginning was a major giveaway... Song names like Stella and Dakota included. Psycho. Demons. So many clues in all the songs!
Continue on to the epilogue now 🤪