I pulled the polish across my fresh nails. Having asked Wren to bring me my nail varnish remover and polish up the second I knew Zane was in the guys' hands and that he was on his way to me, alive. Leo was next door pissed on the Whiskey the guys had been making him drink before he had the home made operation on a coffee table. He's fine. They said. A few months recovery and he'll be right as rain. I've had worse. He'd said, pulling on my arm until he could kiss me. There was too much going on for me to tell him what I'd done. He could hear about it tomorrow.
Right now, though, I was sat in a barely lit room. The light swinging slightly as the air moved with the 3 people hanging from the rafters. Heavy breathing through the ties around there mouth, keeping them quiet. 2 loud knocks echoed on the door and I could breath.
"Come in." The door pulled open and I didn't even look up, using the edge of one nail to tidy up my dark red polish.
"Where do you want him?"
"Facing them." I screwed the lid back onto the polish, blowing on my nails slowly. There wasn't any rush. He wasn't going anywhere. None of them were. I lifted my head as heavy chains were pulled, Zane fighting as his hands were pulled up, forcing him to his tiptoes in his pristine red bottomed shoes. "Thanks Christian. You can tell Lili to tell them now." He nodded once, turning and leaving me alone with the 4 of them. I let out a relaxed sigh, turning my head up to him with an innocent smile. "I wish I could say you look good tied up Zane but honestly it's a little pathetic." He shook in the holdings like if he moved enough it'd set him out. I brought my eyes back down to my hands, gently tapping the polish to make sure it was dry. "Did you see my note in your little spy room? You know, I have never had such obvious clarity and I genuinely didn't ever expect to be that calm after the initial shock, obviously."
He was furious. Trying to be intimidating like it was going to scare me. To be scared, someone else has to have the upper hand. He didn't have a damn thing right now.
"It's a little easy to find you if you essentially stick a neon sign over your hide out Zane. I did have you pegged as being a little smarter than that but I guess you can't have everything." He tried to speak and I smirked. "Sorry, what was that? You've got a little something in your mouth babe." I looked up at his mum. "Do you know what he said Elizabeth? Because I don't have a clue." She whimpered. "Oh. Right. You guys have the gags too. Durh. Forgive me, I just lost my best friend," I turned my head, standing up slowly to face Zane. Having changed my boots out for heels to make sure I wasn't a short arse right now. Killing someone in heels was apparently a lot more fun. According to Lili anyway. "Which is really funny because I am almost 100% sure I warned you about what would happen if she got hurt and if I do remember correctly you're the one who pulled the trigger on her." I took 3 steps over to a table behind me, picking up his precious matte black knife, fingers running over the blood stained snake. My blood. He hadn't cleaned it properly. It wasn't like this when I'd seen it last month when I was the one it was being used against. But it was now. "I'm a woman of my word Zane. When I told you I would destroy everything you love, I wasn't joking."
I stepped to Elizabeth, tears starting to flood her face. I slid the knife under gag, slicing it off and cutting her cheek in the process. Zane became more abrupt as his mother pleaded.
"I am sorry Elizabeth. You were brilliant. I really really liked you. This isn't you. This is your son's fault. Your bloods on his hands. Not mine." I tipped her head up, slicing his knife across her throat. I stared, watching the blood pour out of her, light draining from her eyes as seconds passed, quiet sobs in my ears as the rest of the group watched their mother die at my hands.
Slowly I turned my back to the corpse. Zane shoved on the ropes and I sighed as he tried to speak. 5 quick steps and I cut his tie from around his mouth.
"There more fun when I can hear you begging for me to stop."
"You're insane."
"I'm not insane. You took me, insisted I knew what was going on when I had no clue about any of this. You cut me-" I sliced the knife across his thighs, cutting through his trousers. He flinched, feet lifting off the for a second as he tried to get away. "You slapped me, you gave me no other choice but to give you my body just to survive another day. All for something I didn't know. To know about a life, I've been forced into. Then you take my best friend and you kill her, my boyfriend gets shot and I'm covered in blood. There is a few things you didn't count on Zane."
"You didn't count on me being a fast learner. You didn't count on how much I'd be willing to give for her. You didn't count on how I'd been walking a very fine line between angel and devil and you didn't count on being the one to push me over the edge. You could have kept this explicitly with my family. Between you and my brothers and my dad. You could have gone on like you have been. Fight after fight. No one really getting above the other. But you didn't. You came for me. Coming for me landed Leo as my body guard and unlucky for you, he took a liking to me. You didn't count on me learning how to shoot. You didn't count on the fury you started burning in my chest. I can never go back and remove your touch from my body. I can't remove the scars on my thighs. I can't get Alara back. I can't get the Freya you had back." He spat at me and I smiled, wiping his mother's bloody smears over my face and rolling my eyes. "As much as I can't get her back babe-" I turned and walked over to Zara, pushing the knife under my belt and putting my gun in my hand, pressing the metal into his sisters head, pulling the fabric out of her mouth. "I can sure as fuck make sure you die having watched your family die and knowing-" I stepped away, closer to him. "Knowing that you could have stopped it. That you raped me, for nothing."
"You agreed." I held the gun up, pointing at his kneecap and pulling the trigger. Zane screamed and I dropped my hand with a sigh.
"You had a knife and told me I'd be dead if I said no Zane. That's not consent. Vance." He lifted his head to me from Zara. Obviously trying to calm her down as she breathed heavily. "Maybe we should tell him about your little secrets huh?" He shook his head. "No? Why not? Sleeping with his sister under his roof not something you want him to know?"
"Z-Zane- I'm sorry-" Zara sobbed weakly.
"Oh, have we got family apology time? I'd like to watch this." I pulled my chair up beside Vance, untying his mouth quickly. He creaked in his seat. "Do I have time for popcorn?" They all looked at me and I smiled. "Oh wait. I forgot-" Pointing the gun at Zara's chest and pulling the trigger. The 2 boys howled, it echoing around the room louder than the gunshot. The ties holding them both down shook, not giving even an inch. "You guys don't have long by the way. Might want to get out the soppy I love yous and whatever else."
"When I get out of here Freya, I swear to god-" I rolled my eyes at him, sending another shot through the room, hitting him in the same spot.
"What don't you understand about you not getting out of here Zane?" I stood up and walked across the room, putting Vance and Zara out of their misery and turning back to him, ghost white, mouth open barely breathing. "You did this. You made a fucking monster. Are you proud? Are you happy? Is this what you wanted? You wanted to watch me crack?"
"You- you actually- I didn't think-" He looked down. "YOU SHOT ME."
"Murdered your mother, sister and best friend too." I nodded, grabbing his face tight in my hand, forcing him to look at me. "Does it hurt? Right there in the middle of your chest. Burning and aching. Does it hurt looking me in the eyes knowing I get to live and they're dead?" He stared. "It's okay Zane. It's okay to surrender now. You're dying anyway. You're bleeding out and I'm not stopping it. You can admit you regret it. That you'd go back and change it."
"Who the fuck are you?"
"I'm the girl reading in a coffee shop waiting for her old friend to bring her a guy who's just perfect for her. I'm the girl you called angel, the girl you said was too pure for this cruel world. A delicate flower that couldn't be picked. I need to be stared at in a jar forever."
"So what? That was all a lie?"
"Not a lie. I was her. But you know when you go to the circus and there's a hall of mirrors and things are distorted, not exactly what it seems? You cracked the mirror and showed me what was behind Zane. I could have gone my whole life behind a book sat drinking fruity cocktails in pastel pinks. But this illusion of a perfect life, of a perfect girl. You've shattered it." I shrugged. "And this is so much better, don't you think? I know Leo thinks so. He told me with his head between my legs a few hours ago." Zane tried to pull his head back and I smirked. "You're not dying without knowing you got nothing out of this. See Leo was able to give me something you never could have, every last touch you put on my skin, he kissed away." I pulled the knife from my belt, sinking it into his stomach. "Ever," Twist. "Single," Twist. "Inch." Remove. "He's taller, stronger, made me come over and over again and we've only had sex twice. When you die Zane in about 3 minutes approximately. No one will remember you as anything other than the guy I tortured."
I stepped back, pulling my chair in front of him a foot away and sitting down.
"I think I'm going to frame this knife. Covered in your blood. Mine's still under here somewhere. It'll be a nice reminder of what happens when you push the good girl too far huh? A nice little gift for me along with all the money in your bank accounts." He hung his head in shame, blood pooling around his feet.
I sat there. In silence. Watching as he slowly went limp.
I wish I could say it was a prank. But desperate times call for desperate measures.