CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
[33]
song: after hours by the weeknd
DAISY'S EYES HORRIFIEDLY TRAILED DOWN TO CAROL, desperately hoping she had hallucinated the whole thing. But there she laid, her eyes still open, but seeing nothing, as blood spewed from her head, covering the tile floor as it inched closer to Daisy's feet.
Daisy slowly looked up at Kai, "What have you done?" She asked, her voice trembling with terror.
"I saved you." Kai says, letting out a breath, holding his hand out for Daisy to help her step over Carol's body. "Come on, we gotta be quick."
Daisy was shaking so hard she looked like she was dancing, she didn't even process that she was moving out of the locker room until she was halfway down the hall being guided towards the library.
Kai turned on the library lights and shut the door behind him, quickly walking Daisy towards one of the study tables in between rows of shelves.
Fright consumed every cell in her body, swelling them with terror. With every second she practically felt the rise of her blood pressure, but she knew that this was the least of her worries.
"What the fuck have you done?!" She screamed as she shoved Kai away from her. Her voice coarse, and angry.
Kai stumbled back, but didn't appear phased by Daisy's sudden aggression. He looked like a tired parent just waiting for their child to stop throwing a tantrum.
"Why did you do that?!" She asks frantically, shaking her head quickly as tears began to fall from her eyes in disbelief.
Kai rubbed his temples, then turned to Daisy with a stern look on his face. "Because she was going to tell everyone and I couldn't just let her leave!" He spoke, like it was perfectly okay and justified.
"She was wasted she probably wouldn't even have remembered in the morning!" Daisy says back, flailing her arms out towards him. "You killed her."
"Don't try and play innocent with me, Daisy." Kai says annoyedly, rolling his eyes. "You were gonna do it anyways I just saved you the trouble."
"Oh, you're so righteous, Kai." She responded, just as annoyed and sarcastic. "Really, you're such a hero."
Kai breathed heavily, staring at Daisy with angry, annoyed eyes as she continued on. He hears the library door open, and turned to Daisy, who didn't hear it, and looked like she was about to say something else, but Kai quickly grabbed her face, colliding their lips together.
Daisy pushed him off her, giving him a 'what the fuck' look, as he put a finger to his lips to shut her up.
Daisy quieted and listened. "Daisy? You in here?" Jen says, somewhere else in the library.
Fuck. Daisy thought.
"Kiss me." Kai whispered.
The thought of kissing Kai right now actually made her want to scream, she didn't even want to look at him right now, let alone touch him. When Daisy didn't move, Kai stepped towards her and kissed her again.
The kiss was slow and perfunctory, a duty done, a ritual performed. Kai backed her up to the table, and she reflexively sat up on it. She tried to relax, she tried to let her shoulders fall and she tried to calm down— but the sound kept ringing through her head. The sound of brute force, the sound of bone cracking beneath someone's hand— beneath Kai's hand.
She pulled away for a second, to push back down the vomit that crept up her throat, to try and take a breath, but Kai had quickly reconnected their lips, kissing her eagerly and sloppily.
"Daisy—" Jen said, walking past the aisle her and Kai sat in, only to find them kissing. Jen's face dropped, and Daisy pulled away again, pushing Kai off of her again. "Are you serious?" Jen said, looking at Kai then to Daisy. She shook her head, than began to walk away.
"Jen we were just—" Daisy hops off the table and chased after her quickly.
Jen spun around quickly, her eyes wide and angry. She pointed a finger at Daisy as she spoke. "One night." She said. "I asked for one night without Kai, where you and I could hang out like we used to and you can't even do that." She spat.
Daisy wanted to start crying, but she held it together. "He just— we just—" She didn't even have an excuse that she could give Jen, she didn't have any time to think of one.
"I am done being your second option." Jen says angrily, before turning back around and leaving the library.
As soon as the door shut, she fell to her knees and started crying. Daisy cried as if her brain was being shredded from the inside. Emotional pain flowed out of her every pore. From her mouth came a cry from so raw that even Kai's eyes suddenly wet with tears, as he leaned down towards her and rubbed her back.
"It's alright." He spoke softly. It was as if every sound that escaped her mouth was set to the frequency that would shatter his heart to pieces again and again and again.
"It's not alright." She cried, as her body couldn't support her weight anymore and she just laid down on the ground, crawling into a ball of fear as she sobbed. "Nothing's alright. Nothing will ever be alright." Her body grew still as she lay on the floor, her eyes staying glued on the ground beside her. "What have we done?" She let out, so quiet, that she could barely hear herself.
Kai sat beside her, leaned up against a book shelf with a hand on her head, softly stroking her hair as she tried to catch her breath. He let out a deep breath, letting his head fall back on the shelf as he closed his eyes.
There was no question on how long they had laid there. Time had become still as they she tried to process what had just happened. Kai might've fallen asleep for a while, but Daisy stayed awake, terrified and frozen in fear, thinking that if she didn't move nothing would happen.
Not long after Kai fell asleep, a shrill scream had woken him up. And it wasn't long before the halls of Wayward high were filled with cops and EMTs.
The senior girls cried as a police held them outside, trying to push them away from the scene, as a gurney with a white sheet covering the body rolled out. Kai and Daisy stood in the back, watching as Carol rolled out from the school and into the ambulance.
Police lights flashed against everyone's skin, as they waited for answers that were definitely not coming— at least not tonight.
Josette and Jen watched with wide eyes as the gurney was loaded into the ambulance, in the crowd opposite Daisy and Kai. And Kai watched Josette intently, watching her process and think 'who could've done something like this?' only to quickly come to her conclusion as her eyes found Kai in the opposite crowd.
Kai didn't retort his eyes, he wanted Josette to know. He wanted her to know no matter how hard she tried to keep him and Daisy apart, she was already apart of this life. She breathed heavily, watching as her brother became less and less recognizable.
Daisy didn't even have the energy to panic anymore. She knew they were fucked and that there was nothing she could do about it anymore.
The girl who found Carol's body sobbed as she spoke to the police, as they wrote down her words. More cars flooded the parking lot, worried parents coming to come pick up their daughters, others just wanting to see what was happening— as it had yet to hit the news.
"I'm going home." Daisy says, her voice coarse and rough. Her eyes stayed glued on the police lights as she spoke.
"I'll drive." Kai says, glancing down at her.
"No." Daisy said, immediately after. "No. I'm going to call my mom and she's going to pick me up." She had yet to lift her eyes away from the police lights.
Kai watched her as she spoke, contemplating whether or not he should insist he drove her home. But she had turned and walked back towards the school before he could get another word in.
Her body felt limp as she walked, completely numb. As she approached the doors, a cop held his arm out and stopped her from entering the school.
"You can't go in there right now." He said, shaking his head.
"I need to use the phone." Daisy said dully.
The cop turned her away from the doors. "This is a crime scene you need to back up."
Daisy shoved the cop's arm away from her. "I need to call my mom." She said frustratedly.
The cop looked at her sternly. "Use a different phone—"
"It's okay, I'll handle this." Someone says as they approached Daisy and the cop.
George comes into view, and the cop hesitantly walks away. George gently guides Daisy away from the doors and away from the crowd; to a quieter spot beside his police car. "Are you okay, Daisy?" George asks, genuinely concerned.
She swallowed harshly. "I want to call my mom." Daisy says, a little on edge. She glances around, immediately meeting Kai's eyes as he watched the conversation from the back of the crowd. Daisy quickly turned back to George. "Please let me call my mom." She says, in a more frantic tone.
"Daisy!" Susan says, as she gets out of her car that she hadn't even parked in a proper parking spot. Daisy immediately felt her body relax at the sight of her mom, who worriedly and quickly ran to her daughter. "Oh, baby." She says comfortingly as she wrapped her arms around Daisy. "Are you okay?" Susan asks as she looks around at all the commotion.
"Mhm." Was all Daisy could get out, as she held on to her mom.
"They're not gonna be doing any questioning tonight, so you can take her home." George nods to Susan.
Susan guides Daisy to her car, and Daisy felt like a child again. Having her mom open her door for her, making sure she got inside the car okay, as Daisy just lay there almost lifeless and terrified. She started driving, and as Daisy's eyes trailed up to the window, Kai was still watching as the car left the parking lot.
She readjusted herself in her seat and focused on the road ahead. The fear sat on her like a pillow over her mouth and nose. Enough air gets by it, allowing her body to keep functioning, but it's crippling all the same.
How could she just sit there and let it happen? All of it?
a/n
sorry if u got a notification last night that this updated, i tried to publish it but ig wattpad was down or somethin and it never did!
— jane