Jersey's face is the first I see. After that, I soak in all the other murderers surrounding me. I see her brother, standing roughly a yard away, too close for my preference. I girl I recognize as Ebony Wouser, the target of many of Shain's cruel pranks. Some of my other fellow students are here, including one of Raven's ex-boyfriends.
My sister was a Forgotten magnet, wasn't she?
"Hello, Eris," Jersey says pleasantly, "Lance." Lance continues glaring at her. I'm guessing his cover is blown. Shame. It was, in my opinion, quite an asset.
"I'll take this to mean you're not killing the Banks," Ebony states. Lance turns his attention to her.
"I'll take that to mean you will," he retorts.
York says, "Their lives aren't ours to take."
"For once, you got something right," I snap. York grins.
"Feisty. Have you told her Lance? Her mark?" I half-glance at Lance, but decide York is better worth my bad attention.
"And who might that be?" I inquire.
"In good time, Eris," a voice I've always dreaded says.
"Well, Brace, there's no time like the present," I reply. He snorts.
"Ah, you always were cocky. A few years of intense training would have smothered that little quality of yours." I cross my arms.
"Yeah, I doubt that, highly." He looks impressed.
"Eris, I must admit, I am surprised you've made it this far. I believe you are finally ready," he says.
"Ready for what exactly?" I ask suspiciously, although I already suspect. They want me to kill my "mark".
"All of the information," Brace states.
I reply, "News flash. Thanks to the fact that you guys suck, I already have all the information." Of course I'm bluffing, but they don't know that. I can't let them know how valuable their info is.
Unfortunately, Brace calls my bluff rather quickly.
"Oh really? So you know who your mark is?"
I'm busted.
"I didn't tell her," Lance admitted. "She doesn't need to know."
"That is quite incorrect," Brace tells him, "if she is to eliminate her mark."
"I'm not," I remind him. "I've made my choice. Now leave us alone. Or kill us. It won't matter either way, because I can't vouch for Lance, but I'm going to fight you until one of us is dead." Brace snickers. This causes others, including Jersey and York, to chuckle as well.
Do they ever have an original thought? Oh yeah, how they kill their "marks".
Jersey says, "You might change your mind when you learn the truth."
"Just shut up, Jersey," Lance says. "Leave her alone, or I'll shoot you and your brother."
"Our lives don't matter," York speaks up. "The only thing that matters is the greater picture, which Eris will help us achieve."
"He warned you," I state. Then I shoot Brace in the arm. He exclaims in agony. I grin. "Now Daddy's got a nice new injury to match his son's."
He looks up at me, malice filling his normally composed face.
"What have you done to Will?" he demands.
"Why? Was he your favorite killer?" I ask playfully. "Don't worry. I'll tell him you died valiantly."
Brace says, "You really are a cocky little thing, aren't you?"
"That's what they tell me," I reply. Still aiming the gun at him, I tell Lance, "We're leaving, now, while we've got the advantage." He nods and aims his gun at Brace too. Our entire improvised plan of escape is based on the Forgotten being unwilling to lose their boss. Either way, they'd lose their job.
We slowly back down the hallway. The Forgotten are watching us with beady eyes, waiting for a slip up.
There isn't one.
We decide to go to the Bristills. Since they already know who I really am, it'll be easier to explain the showdown at school.
When we arrive, I see the driver is gone. As I rode to school with Shain and back with Lance, I didn't need the car. Where did he go? Bathroom break?
I suddenly remember the Forgotten's plan. They kill their parents' adopted child, then their parents. Whoever killed Raven is probably after them.
"Hurry," I whisper. Judging by the green sick look on Lance's face, he's figured out what I have. The Bristills might not be here anymore.
We run to the door and find it ajar. My heart leaps. There is blood on the floor. No maid or servant is in sight.
I hold my breath as I make my way around the downstairs. No one is found. No body, nothing.
"That's a good sign," I mutter. Then I hear a voice, my voice upstairs. It's Raven's recording...the one that was stolen. I confer this to Lance.
"We should investigate," he says. He has a different look on his face than the sick appearance. Does he know something I don't? Well, many things. Not many relevant to this situation though.
"Is this about Raven's killer?" I ask him, following him upstairs. "Tell me, is her killer after their parents?"
"No," he says tensely, "your sister's killer isn't after the Bristills." The way he said it makes me believe he's lying to me. Why would he lie though? Unless Shain was right about him. Why hasn't he betrayed me then?
The recording turns out to be coming from Raven's room. The door is shut and locked.
"Can you kick it down?" I ask.
"Who am I, Thor?" he asks in an irritated tone. I sigh.
"Fine," I snap. I run into it with all the force I can muster. The door doesn't fall to the ground with a thud, but I see I broke the lock. The door swings up.
Lance and I gasp in unison. Blood is in thick globs on the floor. Mrs. Bristill would be furious her precious carpet was tainted.
Then I see Mrs. Bristill. She is lying propped up against the nightstand. Her eyes are unseeing. A kitchen knife is protruding from her chest.
I scream, drowning out Raven's recording. I kneel down beside the woman I thought I despised. Hatred is not one of the many emotions flooding through me at the moment.
I stay there for who knows how long. I didn't love Mrs. Bristill, but she was the only mother I ever had.
I turn around to look up at Lance.
"Who did this?" I ask. He looks away, avoiding my eyes. "You know! You know!" He looks at me and I stare pleadingly at him with the most innocent expression I can think of. Not that it would do me much good.
"I'll give you answers, Eris," a voice says. It's a voice I thought I knew. It's the one York was speaking to in the school hallway.
Then, out of the closet, steps Cardinal Bristill, dragging her father.
"No," I say. "Cardinal, what is this?"
"My mother," she replies, "dead."
"But...but you're not..." I can't finish the thought, too shocked to think straight. I need to correct this before the fight breaks out. And trust me, there will be a fight.
"Their child?" she asks. She looks down at Mr. Bristill. He is unconscious, but not bloody. He isn't dead. Why?
"See, I'm not Cardinal," she says. "After Will urged us not to kill her, we Forgotten came up with an ingenious idea. I would become Cardinal to appease you and Will. So, before I killed her, our doctors used facial surgery to make my face look like hers and vice versa. Today, I placed her body amongst those in the school. Then I came here, to kill the mother who rejected me. But I saved Daddy for my brother...." She pauses, probably to soak in my horror.
She turns to Lance. "And here he is."