Moana
When I came to, I felt myself sitting in a chair with my wrists tied behind me. My head was pounding from the blow that knocked me out, but that wasn't the only thing I felt on my head.
Something cold and hard was pressed up against my temple.
My eyes fluttered open, squinting against the bright light of a spotlight. The light was so bright as it shined down on me that I could hardly see past it, but I could tell that I was inside the warehouse now.
The cold metal thing pressed harder into my temple. And then, a familiar voice spoke out.
"Hello, Moana."
I jumped at the voice and whipped my head around, my eyes widening as I saw Ethan standing beside me with a gun raised to my head.
"E-Ethan?" I whispered, my voice shaking.
Ethan smiled; it was that same creepy smile that I saw on the night of the banquet, when he didn't think that I was looking. But now, he knew that I was looking right at him and he didn't bother to keep up the facade anymore.
"Didn't expect to see me, huh?" he asked.
"Where's Ella?" I asked. I looked around frantically, only to see her tied to another chair next to me. She was sleeping. "What did you do to her?"
"Don't worry," Ethan said calmly. "She's not hurt. Just under a spell. That way, she won't need to experience any of this. She will have just gone to sleep, and she'll never wake up."
I shook my head vehemently as tears began to pool up in my eyes. "Ethan, you don't need to do this," I begged. "At least don't hurt Ella. Please. I thought we were friends. Why are you doing this?"
Ethan sighed, but continued to press the barrel of the pistol in his hand against my head.
"You're both innocent," he admitted, "but you see... It's not that simple. It was thanks to Edrick and his parents that my beautiful mother killed herself."
His mother killed herself? I thought back to the news article that Olivia showed me the other day, and it never indicated that she killed herself. In fact, it indicated quite the opposite; that Michael had killed her. And knowing Michael, I was sure of it. Did he really sink his claws in so much that he convinced Ethan that his poor mother killed herself?
"Ethan, I—" I began, but was quickly cut off by the gun pushing harder into my temple. A choked sob caught in my throat, followed by a whimper.
"Just... Shut the fuck up," Ethan snarled. "It's going to be easier on all of us if you just shut up and don't talk. Now, where was I..." He paused for a moment, still holding the gun against his head, and then his face lit up. "So, as I was saying, I've been looking for ways to get back at that godforsaken family. I wanted to make them feel the same pain that I felt when my mother died... First, when I was a kid, I tried killing the family pets. It started with a pet bird, then a cat, and a puppy that Michael got for Edrick on his birthday. But although it caused them pain, it wasn't enough. It wasn't the same sort of pain that I felt when I found my mom's body laying in her bathtub. Ever since then, I've been plotting the perfect way to make them all suffer greatly. At first, I was just going to kill Ella, since Edrick didn't have anyone else that he actually gave a shit about; but then, you came into the picture. You, with your pretty face, your long red hair, and your hot body..."
Ethan paused then, his eyes traveling down from my face to my neck, my breasts, over my belly and down to my thighs. But even then, as he drank me in with his eyes, he never once lowered the gun. I felt myself trembling violently beneath the cold metal of the barrel. My eyes then caught something in the corner, just beyond the bright light that was shining on me. It was someone's body, laying in a heap. It was Kelly.
"Of course," he continued, "my half- brother was taken with you from the start. And I don't blame him. You're a gem, Moana. A real gem... But you're too perfect not to kill. You're the perfect key that I've been missing. Once you and Ella are both gone, then Edrick will finally know what it's like to be truly alone, to be truly heartbroken. After you, I'll take Verona next. I don't think that Michael is really capable of true human emotions, but he'll still feel the sting of loneliness. She is his mate, after all, despite the fact that he betrayed her by fucking my prostitute mother."
"What about Kelly?" I asked, nodding my head toward where Kelly lay. "What did she ever do to you? From the looks of it, she only ever helped you. Did you kill her, too?"
Ethan shrugged. "She's not dead; just knocked out. Honestly, I couldn't care less about Kelly. She was only ever a pawn throughout all of this; her insatiable obsession with Edrick just made her easy to control, to manipulate. As I'm sure you're guessing now, judging from the look on your face, yes; I did tell her to hire those Rogues a while back to kidnap you. But of course, Edrick came to your rescue. It's okay, though. Now, it'll be even easier to pin everything on her."
He paused then, and lowered the gun slightly before making an innocent face like a puppy dog. His eyes became big and filled with tears, and his lower lip started to quiver. "Officers, Kelly killed them! I had to knock her out, but it was too late! Look! Look at how their skulls are filled with bullet holes! She's insane!"
When he was finished, his face went cold again, and he let out a wry chuckle before harshly pressing the gun up against my temple again. But this time, I didn't flinch away. Instead, I turned my head and spat on him. A wad of spit landed on the front of his shirt. He grimaced at it for a moment in shock before his cold, emotionless gaze returned to me.
"I trusted you," I growled. "I thought you were my friend."
"Well, you shouldn't have been so naive," Ethan replied coldly. "Maybe you should've listened to Edrick when he kept telling you to stay away." He paused, then, licking his lips, and shot me a toothy grin. "You know, that night that I took you out to dinner... I did want to have sex with you, of course. How could I not? I do like you, Moana. But... You refused."
"Would you have killed me anyway?" I whispered. "Even if I had slept with you that night like you wanted, would you have still decided to kill me?"
Ethan stared at me for a moment with a strange light in his eyes. He chuckled grimly, but then his smile quickly faded and he shoved the gun harder against my head.
"Of course I still would have killed you," he said, his voice so nonchalant that it made me sick. "You slipped through my fingers that night, though; your innocence, your devotion, made me hesitate. For too long, I went back and forth on whether I should do it. But I've made my decision now."
He grinned, clicking the safety off on the gun as his eyes glinted in the light.
"And now, I'm finally going to get it over with."