October first, the first week of the carnival;
Through the eyes that are not my own, I'm in a haunted house; one of the many ones we've set up in this carnival. I see hands that are not my own slit the throat of one of my classmates.
I think, had I not had this vision, I might've been among the many that mistook this dead body as a prompt.
October eighth, the second week of the carnival.
I don't even know what I was expecting. Of course the murderer would pick the carnival as the perfect location, it's so easy to mistake a real murder for a fake one.
So I watch as gloved hands cut off the air supply to another classmate, and I make sure some staff accidentally comes across it.
October fifteenth, the third week of the carnival.
I was ready for it this time, I was waiting for it to happen all night. This time, I tried to focus more on the vision itself than the constant panic of feeling insane. I try so hard to look for clues, in the hands, the body that I'm inhabiting, the eyes of the victim, a reflection–anything. I try to look for any guests that would have gloves, any staff, but nothing. It's always a dead end.
October twenty second, the fourth week of the carnival.
I'm so tired. So very tired of the feeling of going insane, of having my rival find and wipe blood off of me every time. I'm sick of the out of body experience, of feeling like all the signs lead to me. I told Henry about my plan, about trying to figure out my clues. Only this time, he killed under the tracks of a roller coaster and I could hardly make out anything in the dark.
October twenty ninth, the fifth week of the carnival.
The house of mirrors. I grew dizzy from all the mirrors, under the body, over them, all around. I didn't know which reflection to try and focus on, but each time the knife stabbed my science classmate, the blood would cover any reflection I could catch. It happened after the carnival was closed for the night meaning they had access to the keys. A new lead, only that, Henry hacked into the surveillance cameras and everyone was where they were supposed to be. Another dead end.
October thirty-first, the last day of the carnival.
It also happened to be halloween. Which also happened to be my birthday, but with all the killings going on, I wasn't really excited. The new, more strict, curfew and security—thanks to the frequency of murders—it was a miracle they haven't cancelled. I was sure I'd get another vision, I just hoped I wasn't around any of my friends when it did. My birthday present this year? I got to pick out their costumes.
"You two are nerds." Xander tells Alyssa and I, and though his voice makes it sound like a deadpan, amusement shows in his amber eyes.
I put my hands on my hips and Alyssa clutches her Star Wars wampa hat defensively and we mock gasp.
Jayden kisses her forehead, the red paint on his face leaving a little mark.
I'm wearing a Spider-Gwen costume, Alyssa wears a wanda costume, and Jayden wears a vision costume. Xander usually throws on a Batman shirt and calls it a day but this time I made sure to give him the best Anakin costume I could find.
For the last day of the carnival, the school extended the grounds to the opera house for their big halloween charity party. The opera house is beautiful, with details coating the walls and pathways adorned with the deepest crimson curtains. The middle of the opera house was hollowed out, as if to create a ballroom feel. It was gorgeous, yet something in my gut told me it wouldn't last.
We see Jaydens little sister, Fatme, and Xander immediately leaves us for her. I predict by the end of the night they'll be kissing, the same way I predicted Jayden and Aly. Internally I'm holding up a sign that says #Fander. I make my way to the open bar and tab the bartender down for a wine.
I scan the carnival, my eyes landing on a small booth that says; Fortune teller. It's strange, I've worked on this carnival this whole month and this is the first I'm seeing it. I eye it for a while more, the flow of the tent doors seeming almost welcoming before I hear a familiar London boy call out, "Whiskey."
I turn to find Henry there, and I immediately scowl. He's wearing a spiderman costume. Did we just unintentionally match? Henry wears a smirk, complete opposite to my glare. "I like your costume."
"I, however, don't like yours." He mock flinches, placing his hand to his chest as if I pierced him. The bartender hands me my drink first, and eyes me for a while. "Spider-girl, I like your peter parker look." He flashes me a smile, but before I could reply, I'm beaten to it. "There actually is a spider-girl, and her name is gwen stacy, get it right." Henry deadpans. He takes in the bartender's green lantern costume and glares, one that's perfected so much it could shrivel a man. And I realize, he's never glared at me like that.
I roll my eyes, and my gaze lands back on the fortune teller tent. Only this time, the tents flaps are wide open. And I can't help but feel drawn to it. Henry must follow my line of sight because he says, "Do you seriously believe in that?"
I shrug. "After all that you've seen and heard me do, do you really think this is the most unbelievable? Plus, it couldn't hurt." I think back to the Ouija board and how it responded to my question. I couldn't help but take a second guess at the supernatural. The school itself was rumored to be haunted, and I never believed them until I started paying attention. All the little hallucinations here and there, I can't say I didn't believe it.
I make my way to the tent, and when Henry follows I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. I don't need a man. Never. But knowing someone was there with you, even if it's the same person that might not care if anything happened to you, was comforting. When I walk in, there's a long narrow hallway ahead, which is strange considering the tent looked quite small. I walked and walked through it and just as I was ready to give up, I saw the table. There was a simple crystal ball, and a ticking clock. Was anyone even here?
I sat down at one of the chairs just as an two old women came out of the curtains, their backs to us as one of them says, "Welcome! Are you ready to-" the girl is cut off as her eyes landed on me. Her whole demeanor stiffened, her face dropping. She looked sick. The other girl, who looked to be her twin, turns around to see what's the matter and quickly follows suit.
I wasn't sure if they were going to say anything before one girl quietly says, "Get out."
I was taken aback by her tone. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come in unannounced, the tent was-"
"Please leave." The sincerity in her voice made me stop. She looked terrified
I was beyond confused, not knowing what to say. But Henry does. "We're paying customers, I'll even pay you extra." He sounds annoyed.
"I cannot help you." The first girl says, her eyes never leaving mine. Her sister turns to Henry and says, "We won't take your money-"
"I only have six thousand on me right now." He says, and the two girls look at each other. The girl in front of me takes a deep breath. She looks at me and I can't help but see recognition. But I've never met her in my life.
"You know something." I say. I take a step towards her, "Please, you know what's happening to me, do you know what's happening?" I know what I saw in her eyes, but I was a medicated girl, and there was something very wrong with me. Maybe even worse than going insane.
"I need to know." I say quietly. The eldest sighed and sat down, motioning to my hands. She shuddered as she touched me, her hands slightly shaking as she read my palms. She starts slightly shaking her head, as if not liking what she's seeing.
"You almost look normal." She mumbles. I furrow my brows about to ask what she meant by that, but she shakes her head. "I don't know what you are, all I know is that your heart beats differently."
"What?" I ask, incredibly confused.
She ignores me. "You must leave him."
"What do you mean?" I ask, growing frustrated.
"The pretty boy you're with, you must leave him." I watch from my peripheral vision as Henry stiffens.
"We're not even-"
"You two are already entwined. You should've never met in the first place." She laughs a dry laugh, "This is a tragedy waiting to be written."
"What?" My patience is growing thin and this is getting us nowhere.
"The healer and the destroyer. You're like a forbidden fruit to each other. You will both die before your time if you don't stop yourself." Healer? Destroyer? How did she know about-
The younger sister cuts in, "You must leave. Now, it isn't safe."
"But you didn't tell me what I am-"
"Only you know what you are, girl. You're not normal." I already knew that.
"Am I crazy? Am I the one-" I start, feeling my sanity and patience slip.
"You're not, and you don't need a stupid fortune teller to tell you that." He places his promised money on the table motions for me to come. "We're done here, and I'll make sure the headmasters talk to you for the unwarranted disrespect to her."
They say nothing as we leave. And even outside, Henry and I don't talk either. Not until he says, "I don't care, you know."
"You don't care that I might me the reason you die?" I snap, mad that I can't just be a normal girl.
"I've never been one to follow the rules anyway." He says.
"I could kill you."
"I wouldn't mind it."
"Not funny."
"Not joking." He deadpans.
I have insults reserved just for him at the tip of my tongue, but before I'm given the chance to reply, someone knocks into me and the feel of liquid running over the fabric of my cape hits me. I jolt, trying to prevent it from going anywhere else. Fuck. And it's white.
I turn to glare at the person behind it, but I find Henry already doing it for me. The man doesn't look him the eyes and instead looks nervously to me, rapidly apologizing and I might be easy going with many things, but my outfit is so not one of them. Henry leads me into a bathroom, and locks the door behind us. He tells me to take off my cape and once I hand it to him, he starts scrubbing at the material.
After a while, he says, "I'm too selfish to stop now, though. We have too much fun together."
I lean back on the sink, watching him. "I'm not going to be just another vice for you to get addicted to. I don't want to be your form of self destruction."
When he hands me the cloth back, he says, "That's not the truth." I ignore him and I make my way to the door, glad I didn't have to spend another minute locked in this room with him.
Except it won't open.
As if it was locked.
From the outside.
I try shaking the doorknob, using all my strength. I frantically try to open it but it just won't budge. Henry places his hand over mine, and tries for himself. When it doesn't budge, he moves me, and pushes against the door. Nothing. I bang on the door, hoping someone could hear us through the loud music but our chances don't look too good. Henry and I are stuck in this room, and I'm scared more than anything that we might kill each other before anyone finds us.
He takes his phone out and calls someone, telling them to get there fast. I take out mine and call Xavier. It goes to voicemail and I wish just this once that I hadn't set him and Fatme up, maybe if he wasn't so entranced by her he'd pick up. I try Jayden and Aly, but neither of them reply, which isn't surprising.
Henry leans against the walls and crosses his arms, watching me. I place my phone down and watch him, my back to the door. "Well," he says, his tone bored. "there's no one else I want to torture but you."
I think he notices my slight discomfort because he sighs. "All women were villains."
"Are you quizzing me?" I ask, and he just replies with the time I have left. "Lapvona." I answer
He continues, "Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own. Fifteen seconds."
"Jane eyre." I answer almost immediately. It's the book I was named after and a faint smile tugs at my lips at the thought. It evaporates when I see Henry eyeing it. "Why are you doing this?"
"Do you not realize the way it's calming you down? I like to think my rivals deduction skills are better than that."
I mock gasp. "Who knew you were such a charmer underneath your grumpy facade?"
And although my tone is playful, his is serious. "Don't go telling anyone else or they might get jealous to find out it's only for you."
I roll my eyes. His words, though they linger, don't have an effect on me. At least, I've trained myself not to. Henry has been obsessed with corrupting me for so long that sometimes I still can't tell if he actually means what he says. He's an English lit student and knows exactly what to say.
After a while, he says, "Don't you want to survive this world that keeps trying to destroy you?" When I don't say anything he adds, "You're stronger than you believe, Jane."
My gaze lands on his. "You've never doubted me when I told you I didn't do it?"
"No. Not even a little." He says quietly. I search his eyes for a lie, but I can't find any. And I realize, maybe for the first time, that he's the only one that truly knows me. He's the only one that would believe a crazy, medicated girl over reality.
Without Henry, I would be alone. Without him, I might've gaslit myself into thinking this was all in my head. Without him, I might just lose my mind.
My mouth parts, and his dark eyes quickly dart to it and back to my eyes. He's closer now, but my mind is currently too scrambled to figure out when what why. "This seems familiar." He mentions, his voice sounding rasp.
I know exactly what he's referring to. A few years ago, after our round, we were the only ones in the break room when the door jammed shut. We had to stay and wait for someone to not only find but also get help to open the door. It took two hours. And in the entirety of those two hours we argued about everything and anything, because Henry had his way of getting under my skin like no other. But somehow, in the middle of that, he leaned in to kiss me. I was confused, having called him the ugliest thing i've ever seen only moments ago. So confused that I panicked and covered his mouth with my hand before he could.
"Please, don't cover my mouth this time." He whispers when his mouth is only an inch from mine. Even in heels, even as he's bending to reach my height, I have to crane my neck. He looks like he could be the devils son, and I suppose in some ways, he is.
But before we make any contact, the door handle fiddles and we draw back as if we've been shot. We don't make eye contact, and I can feel my traitorous skin redden once more. No, no, no, no. This is Henry Vitiello. The same boy I've hated since I was fourteen, the boy that irritated me so much that I couldn't sleep some nights. The boy I needed to be better than, not kiss. Maybe I should've taken the damn meds.
"Nothing happened," I say in a rush, "don't tell anyone."
I watch as he stiffens. "I wouldn't dare stain your reputation, love." he says codly and I grimace at his choice of words. But before I can amend them, the door opens, and he's gone. Whatever.
Henry's pov
I could've easily picked the lock. I've been trained to do it since I was a little boy. But I didn't. I chose to spend an hour locked in a room with her, just like I did when we were fifteen.
For someone who has a special place in hell for all the sins i've committed, god had given me more time with her than I deserved. I think that's why her last words stung. They weren't meant to offend, but it felt worse than any insult she's spewed at me. Because, I know, the monster never gets the girl.
A phone call snaps me back into reality. "Have you disposed of the bodies yet?"
No, not today. I won't let her get a vision on her birthday.