We The Pretty Stars (Court High 4)

“What fire?”

He barely listened to me, shaking his head and making the job he did on my wrists extra tight. His jaw clenched. “The fire should have worked. It should have taken care of all this, but he got you out. The little shit got you out.”

My eyes widened, the tears blinking down my face. “You started the fire at the vet clinic?”

He shot me nothing but another wild look, all he needed to do to prove I was right. He’d tried to kill me…

What. The. Hell…

“You came for your sister. You…” He stopped, his loose hair whipping all over. He pushed it away, going back to my ankles to double-bind them. “I told you to stay away, but no. You and your goddamn sister…”

My sister?

He bound my ankles so tight I feared he’d snap them. I whimpered, but that only got me a kick to the kneecaps. I screeched and immediately weight pinned me. Principal Hastings pressed a finger to my lips, a rough, salty finger as he hovered over me.

My stomach rolled, on the cusp of vomiting, and his hand moved from my mouth to my throat.

“You’re making me do this,” he said, frowning. “Both of you.”

“Do what?” The words shook from my lips, and his finger returned there.

He tsked. “I told you to stay away from Royal Prinze. That he would get you in trouble. You’re so much like her… Always in trouble and putting your nose in things that have nothing to do with you.”

“What—”

He shushed me again, more crazed muttering as he sat beside me. Propping his legs up, he rested elbows on them, shaking his head. “The Prinzes… so elite, aren’t they?”

The tears fell down the sides of my face, the sun in my eyes, as I realized the open air and where we were. I was at Route 80, on train tracks at Route 80. My sister died here.

Would I die here?

I closed my eyes, every ounce of my body quivering. “Principal Hastings… please.”

No way was he listening to me, not listening to anything, but eventually, he faced me. He frowned again. “They think they own the world but do nothing but cause trouble. You should have stayed away from him.” A chuckle curled his lip up, a complete fucking loon. “He made your sister believe she was a god. That she could take anything she wanted. That she could take what’s mine…”

“What’s yours?”

Finally, I got his attention, and when he shifted on top of me this second time, I believed I actually would vomit, right in his goddamn face.

Long fingers folded over my mouth, biting into my cheeks. “She was mine, and look what you made me do to her? You’re always looking at me, Ms. Lindquist. Always looking…”

A finger drifted over my lips, and I shuddered. He touched my throat. “Daisy loved me, you know? We were together. We were in love, and I did everything for her. Messed up things with my wife…” He gripped my throat, squeezing slightly. “I did everything.”

He leaned in, and I closed my eyes, his hot breath on the shell of my ear.

“Your sister only stood in the way of that,” he said. “I told Daisy we could be together. I told her I just had to leave Lena. She could leave her husband, and we could be together, but then your goddamn sister and her Prinze god complex!”

My eyes squeezed tight, not believing what I was hearing. I couldn’t be hearing this.

The hand around my neck gripped tighter. “So I took care of it,” he said, my breath leaving me. “I took care of everything, our obstacles… I got rid of the only thing between us, but it still wasn’t enough. Daisy didn’t want me. She’d been with your sister… she didn’t want me.”

My mouth trembled, my head shaking. “You… You murderer!”

The words didn’t leave long before the hand around my throat squeezed, cutting off all sound. Principal Hastings guided my head over via my neck, his nose and mouth against my ear. “And you knew that, didn’t you? You knew. You’re always looking at me. Always looking, seeing the truth…”

“I didn’t. I don’t. I swear.” And I didn’t. Not until now.

I thought back to those stares I recalled him giving me. Every “look” I gave him, he obviously interpreted as something else, every glance his own goddamn guilt. He took my sister out and thought I found out his secret.