Machete Page 25

  Becket brought me a few sheets, and I covered his father the second I could. Becket would need to help me with things I would rather he not have been involved in but desperate times...

  I rolled his father up, getting him double wrapped so that none of him could be seen, and more blood wouldn’t have leaked out. It. Was. Everywhere. It got on my hands, and clothes, and stained the floor. I tried not to get frustrated when it seeped out of the sheets, and when it bled through in a second. It defeated the entire purpose of covering him.

  I sighed, looking over at Becket a bit regretfully. “Can you get all the blood and contain it for me?”

  I stood up and got out of the way, staring at the congealing mess on my skin and clothes. Becket must have seen the look on my face because he took care of me first. The blood left my body like a magnet pulled at it, making it float through the air in a grisly trail of dark red. Becket pulled it from the floor and sheets as well, and I felt stupid for not asking him to do this sooner. I watched as white and grey sheets turned back to their natural colors, and blood poured down the sink. I walked over and turned the water on, making sure to get everything down and cleaned up. We couldn’t leave anything for the police to find. Though I wasn’t sure a lack of blood would mean anything to them if they opened a case, since Becket was a blood worker.

  Once the blood was cleaned, I asked Becket to help me carry his father into the car. His face remained expressionless, and I wished that all we had to do was sit and breathe. But we had work to do here, and I couldn’t comfort Becket until the evidence was all gone.

  I came up with a plan as I drove out into the woods, and the ease of how it came to me was frightening. It seemed so simple but I didn’t like how quick I was to have this plan. At least it came in handy.

  I found a river in the woods that I’d been to a few times. Mostly a place I came to when I didn’t want to go home, when I wanted to wander. Now, it would mean something else to me, and I would not want to come back.

  We got out of the car and unwrapped Becket’s father from the sheets. I tried not to stare at his empty face, or notice how white his skin was, or how still he looked. It didn’t matter.

  After laying the body down at the side of the river, I looked up at Becket. “Can you find me some stones? Heavy ones, preferably.”

  He left me but didn’t vanish out of sight. River rocks were plentiful, and Becket moved to the shallower parts to collect them. Where I was, the river ran deep. I couldn’t see down very clearly but that was a good thing. The body would sink, and then no one would ever see it again. Not until every bit of flesh on him was eaten away by fish or other things around here. I hoped that by the time he was found -- if he was ever found -- then there would be nothing to connect him to Becket. I wished I could alter the bones to make it more convincing.

  When Becket returned with a pile, we got on our knees beside the body. I took a breath and said, “This is going to get very ugly, Becket. You can look away if you want to.”

  “I don’t,” he stated simply.

  I pulled up his father’s shirt, calling on my abilities. His skin pulled apart in a long, straight line in his torso. He didn’t bleed, and I didn’t look inside of his body. Avoiding seeing something that would make me sick, I started putting stones in the man, filling him up as best I could. Becket helped, not saying a word.

  When we were finished, I sealed the wound I’d made, and it was like it had never been there in the first place. The rocks left Dr. Anders lumpy in the middle but that wouldn’t be a problem for very long.

  Becket took him by the feet and I hauled him up under his arms. One swing, two, three, and we threw the man into the river. In seconds, the body sank. We watched it until we could not see it anymore.

  X

  Everything was back in order, cleaned, and as if nothing happened in the first place. All but Becket, who was so, so quiet. His head was on my chest as we laid in the grass along the side of my house. No one was around, and the silence went back to being a comfort. I’d never been so happy to be almost alone.

  I ran my hand through Becket’s hair, skimming his neck with my fingers. I’d been doing it for hours, and hoped that it was making him feel a little better. I did not know how to comfort this but Becket didn’t make me feel as useless as I knew I was.

  “I’m going to protect you,” I promised. Looking down at him, I said, “No one is going to hurt you, and I’m never going anywhere. You know that, right?”

  Becket took a second before responding. “He was all I had for so long, and now he’s gone.”

  “He is,” I said. “But you’re not alone. I love you.”

  Becket’s hand found mine, and his thumb brushed the side of my palm. “You make me feel not alone.”

  I heard the footsteps before a voice filled the air not long after. Both Becket and I turned to see Merry hightailing it over to us. From where she came, I had no damn clue.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked. It wasn’t supposed to be aggressive but I wasn’t sure I was capable of being nice to anyone but Becket right now. At least she didn’t take it personally.

  The girl stopped and put her hands on her sides, catching her breath. “Well, I decided to try to be a human being and check up on Becket and you. Your warm welcome fills me with ooie-gooies. Thank you for that.”

  My eyes narrowed. “Sorry, I’m not more chipper. Those bitches you were friends with decided to try and hurt my boyfriend.”

  “Yeah,” Merry huffed. “I’m not pleased about it. But I’m not the only one upset by this situation, and I thought I would warn you.”

  “About?” Becket asked as we got up to our feet.

  The girl glared at nothing. “I overheard Hel and her gaggle of slags talking about Manny. She’s pissed off that you retaliated, despite the fact that you did, like, nothing to make up for what she did. All I heard was that she wanted to find you after school. Thought I would give you a heads up.”

  Screaming would have made me feel better but it would have startled Becket. Probably. Instead of screaming, I pushed all of that rage deep down inside of me, letting it boil as pressure built.

  That feeling came back to me, and all I wanted to do was kill that girl. For hurting Becket a year ago, for doing it at every chance she got now, and for attempting to humiliate him at school. It didn’t touch him, and that was the only reason I could leave her alive this morning. Now, I wasn’t so sure I could handle it.

  “When did you hear this?” Becket asked.

  “An hour ago,” Merry said. “It was when I was about to walk home from school. They were chatting and I listened in. Then they saw me and got all annoying about it. I had to leave.”

  “And they’re coming here?” I asked, only then wondering how the hell Merry knew where I lived. I supposed it wouldn’t have been hard to figure out if one asked the right people but still.

  “Supposedly.”

  I wasn’t given time to think it over because Merry having to walk here really cut down on the prep time we’d had. Two cars drove up my street, close together and moving too slowly. I knew Hel’s car in a moment because I’d seen her hanging out by it a million times. And I knew Julian’s car because more than a few times, he or his friends had cornered me in the parking lot. He liked to find me when I was all alone, without anyone to protect me. That might have worked a month ago but I had more fight in me now.

  “What should we do?” Becket asked.

  Trying to think, I looked at Merry. “Are you staying? I wouldn’t blame you if you took off. This will probably be very irritating.”

  She shrugged. “Might as well stay. No rush in getting home. Besides, punching someone might make the day a little better.”

  Nothing would make this day better for me because every nerve felt on edge. I just dumped a fucking body, and I didn’t even have more than a couple of hours to decompress before these monsters showed up, looking to do damage. They picked a very bad day to come and poke the broken gir
l.

  I took Becket’s hand, waiting for things to turn sour again.

  They all poured out of the parked cars, Hel wearing a smug grin on her face. Oh, did she think she scared us, showing up at my home? Maybe make some tissue fly around my head with her weak-ass paper working? I did not scare so easy anymore. Nothing about her would intimidate me. I could have crushed her without effort.

  Julian and his boys walked around, trailing Hel and her groupies as they headed over to us. “Freaks,” he said with a bow.

  I flipped him off. “Hey, dickhead.”

  He smiled. “Feisty. Maybe if you were more like this before, then I would have tried harder with you.”

  I smiled back at him. “And I would have tried and succeeded in bleeding you like a pig.”

  Hel smirked. “Aw, your boyfriend pass on his love of blood to you? How sweet.”

  Merry rolled her eyes. “You can at least try to be clever. You can’t be stupid and a bitch. Pick one or the other, or you’ll never get anywhere in life.”

  Her dryness and the flat tone delighted me.

  Hel glared at her. “You’re not funny, Merry.”

  “Neither are you. And no one is charmed by your behavior. If anyone is even pretending to be, they want something from you. Let me guess, you screwed Jules over there, and then he started doing what you asked of him?” Hel’s cheeks turned pink. “Ah, I’m right. Wonderful.”

  “Fuck you,” Hel spat, the epitome of cleverness. “I’m not here for you. I’m here to teach the creep and his whore a lesson. If you don’t wanna get hurt, then you should leave.”

  Merry only crossed her arms.

  I smiled, my mind far, far away. “So, are we gonna rumble or something? What do you think is going to happen here? Other than me making sure you pay for what you did?”

  “What I did?” Hel said. “I didn’t do anything but expose your creep for what he is. But you like what he is, don’t you?” She took a step closer to me. “I bet you make him cut you open so he can watch you bleed.”

  “Stop,” I said in warning. “Today is not the day for this.” That venom swelled in my mouth, everything in me telling me to let it out. I wanted to destroy, and I only held onto humanity by a razor-thin edge. Hand over hand, trying to pull myself back up, away from the temptation. I wasn’t sure I could make it.

  Hel did not stop.

  A grin stretched across her face. “He was so easy to bring home,” she said to me. “Like a puppy desperate for love. He would have done anything I asked of him. Probably still would. You’re not special.”

  I didn’t think I was. “Leave,” I said to her.

  Hel did not leave.

  “It’s actually kind of perfect that you two ended up together. Two pieces of garbage that no one else would want. Defective toys. How long do you think it’ll be before the creep turns on you? Do you think he’ll kill you quickly? Or do you think he’ll wanna make it slow? Watching you bleed out underneath him?”

  The thin barrier holding me from something I didn’t know I had snapped in half a second. Not just snapped. Vanished like it was never there to start with. I had warned her that today was not the day.

  The blood poured down her throat in a cascade that made me think of a waterfall. Almost pretty, actually. Her hand flew uselessly to the wound I’d put there. She gasped, gargled, and drowned there before her friends even had a chance to realize what had happened.

  Then her body fell to the grass, her eyes open and chest utterly still. Blood leaked onto the ground beneath us. I just stared at her, feeling nothing.

  Hel’s heart did not beat.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Bleed A Little More

  Becket

  Manny’s eyes went from the dead girl to the people standing in front of us.

  “Well, fuck,” Merry said, crossing her arms. “This certainly messes with my timetable.” When everyone looked at her, she grinned, continuing, “On the bright side, I don’t think anyone would blame me for what’s about to happen.” A harsh wind pulled dead leaves off the ground and made them swirl around us in a heavy cloud. The bite of the air ate through my sweater.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you!” Julian shouted, being the first person to come out of their shock. He stared at us with huge eyes. I just cocked my head.

  “You are the ones that attacked us,” I said. “Why are you acting as if this is a strange reaction?”

  “We didn’t kill you!” Julian shouted. His friends started to get nervous, and looked like they were prepared to bolt.

  “We can’t let them get away,” Merry said, glancing back at Manny and me. “At the very least, they’ll put Manny in prison, and you’ll never see her again, Becket. At the worst, they’ll do the same to me and you because we didn’t stop her. Plus, they’re assholes. I hate assholes.”

  Manny blinked, looking at Merry for a second before turning her attention back onto the kids in front of us. “Merry is right,” she said. “I won’t let you take me away from Becket.”

  I had already done the worst thing that I could to stay with Manny. They weren’t about to take me away from her either. The harsh wind blew harder, making it virtually impossible for them to walk. That was all right with me because I didn’t need to walk. I focused on Julian as he stared at Manny with hatred. I felt his power rise up. It wasn’t anything special but there was a lot he could do with trees.

  The ground rumbled beneath me. I focused on Julian, calling to his blood in a crooning whisper. It poured from his nose, his ears, and his mouth. Poured in a river. One of his friends rushed me, and Manny turned hard eyes onto him. His skin split right down his face and peeled back, leaving a bloody maw where his mouth used to be. The guy screamed, falling to the ground.

  I directed Julian’s blood towards the gutters and pushed it down, as far as it would go. It flowed from his body until every drop was gone, leaving him a mummified husk. It fell to the ground in a dry rattle. Finally, the girls started to scream. They tried to run away from their dead friends but Merry stood in front of them. “Now Jade, Crimson, you both know that I can’t let this happen.”

  “Why are you doing this?! The creep will just kill you next!”

  “Nah,” Merry said. “Cuz, ya see, I’m not trying to drag him away from Manny, and I’m kinda his accomplice now. You’re not the kind to turn on you’re in-cahoots, are you, Becket?”

  I cocked my head at her. “Why would I?”

  She waved at me, then grinned at the girls. Another hard wind blew against them, and they both ended up falling flat on their bottoms. They started to roll across the ground with Merry walking them back to us. Her eyes never left her victims as they came closer and closer.

  The one remaining guy, Ricky, had been standing frozen. Shock was making his face look pasty white. Kind of like a poorly made doll. His glassy eyes lifted so that he could stare at us, and his hands went into the air. “I-I-I won’t tell anybody. I promise. Please, don’t hurt me.”

  The three people sobbed, on their knees. Their eyes remained locked on us. I should have felt something, I supposed. Pity, perhaps but I couldn’t feel anything. I had been hollowed out, left to flounder when my father had died. When I had killed him. Then Manny showed up, and those feelings had disappeared. She was the reason I had done everything. She was my reason for being this thing. I would rather keep her around for the rest of eternity than anyone else.

  These three, who had done nothing but torment her, I didn’t care about them.

  Neither did Merry. The wind picked up until it was like a powerful punch. It slammed into Ricky, and he went flying backward. Right into a tree. A dry snap followed his collision, and then his body laid on the ground, limp. Lifeless.

  Crimson shot to her feet, going for Merry. She had a small knife in her hand, one that looked better suited to peeling apples than trying to stab someone. Manny shouted something, and then Crimson came to a shuddering stop. A wound opened up along her back, blood staining her shirt im
mediately. Seeing the blood, I started to call it.

  The girl fell to her knees, screaming in agony that wasn’t real. Losing blood didn’t hurt. It just left you. She would feel dizzy or disoriented perhaps but nothing beyond that. Nothing worth her histrionics. I called the blood and sent it sliding across the grass, into the gutter with Julian’s. In no time at all, Crimson no longer moved.

  Jade put her hands up, as if she could ward us off by doing so. “Leave me alone,” she begged. “I didn’t do anything to you. Leave me alone.” She scooted backward on the ground, her butt dragging along the grass. “It was all them. I promise that I didn’t do anything... I promise.” Her tear-choked voice shook with each word.

  Manny and I turned towards her. I would have been willing to let her go but Merry shook her head. “Didn’t do anything? You... didn’t do anything? Funny. I remember you being the one to tell Hel you had a copier. At the time, I didn’t realize what that meant but I’m thinking about it now, and... Hmmm.”

  Jade shook her head even harder. “Please.”

  “No,” Merry said. “You don’t care whose life you ruin, so I don’t care about taking yours.” She made a gesture, and Jade’s mouth fell open in a wide O of panic. She hit her chest but that didn’t make any air enter her body. She continued her abuse, trying to breathe but nothing happened. Her skin started to turn colors, going red, then dark purple. When she fell to the ground, her body hit with a thud. She did not move again.

  The three of us stood there for a few seconds, and then Manny slumped. She covered her face with her hands. “Oh shit. How are we going to cover this up? This is so many bodies.”

  Merry smiled. “You don’t have to worry about this, actually. I know some people.”

  “You know some people that can take care of six dead bodies?” Manny asked, incredulous.

  Merry nodded. “I do. Believe me when I say it’s best that you don’t ask too many questions beyond that though. Look, I’ll even give you my home address, so that if this blows up in our faces, you can come kill me. That’s how confident I am.”