Pretty When She Cries - Black Mountain Academy

I glance over at Carson, and he nods to confirm Wyatt’s admission. Now the Snapchat makes sense. He never wanted her. She was just trying to make his life miserable.

“It’s all in there,” Wyatt says. “You can see everything for yourself.”

Carson and I both look at the closet where he’s pointing. Audrey screeches, nearly choking herself on the sock.

“What’s in there?” Carson asks.

“Everything.”

We exchange a glance, and Carson nods before disappearing into the closet. He’s gone for a minute before he returns, and he looks like he might puke.

“You better go check it out yourself.”

I leave him to watch Audrey and Wyatt and head for the closet. I imagine she’ll probably have some of the pills in there. Maybe some pictures or a journal or something. But when I step inside, it’s like a goddamn insane asylum.

The entire closet is a shrine to Killian O’Conner, the character I played on Blood River Legacy. Laminated photo montages cover every wall. Lines of script etched into the paint with what looks like a knife. Lists of female characters from the show with their names crossed out, and the word DIE written over them in bold marker.

It only gets worse from there. There’s a lock of what looks like my hair pinned to the wall. Tee shirts she must have stolen from my duffel bag hung in rows. Pairs of my socks. A piece of cardboard with gum plastered all over it. Gum I can only imagine she must have dug out of the trash. On the opposite side of that are vacuum-sealed bags of clothing items. When I start to pick through them, I realize they are items from the Blood River Legacy set. Every year, the studio would donate some of the wardrobe items to charity auctions. From what I can tell, it looks like Audrey bought every piece she could find that Killian O’Conner had worn. Is this what she used the money for?

My stomach heaves as I take it all in. Photos of Kailani with her eyes gouged out. Her entire schedule printed on a piece of paper with scribbled notes about her habits. Where she goes after school. What she does. And beneath that, there’s a list of ideas to break her, crossed out and rewritten hundreds of times.

DIE DEMON DIE.The words are written all over Kailani’s face in another photograph. I can’t stomach looking at it much longer. But then I see the clear plastic bottle full of liquid. The label looks familiar, and it isn’t until I get closer that I realize why. It’s an exact replica of the label from the TV show. In the fictional world of Blood River, vampires would use bottles of acid to kill the demons.

The room spins as I pick it up, instinctively knowing it was meant for Kail. It’s all beginning to make sense now. Demon slut. That’s what Audrey always called her. Because she’s so fucking delusional, she actually wants to believe I’m Killian O’Conner and Kailani is a demon.

I try to compose myself as I carry it into Audrey’s bedroom and set it down on her dresser. I know I can’t expect an honest answer from her, so I look at Wyatt.

“What the hell is this?”

“It’s some kind of acid from one of her dad’s renovation sites.” He winces as he wriggles his wrists against the tape. “God, this is fucking tight, can you at least loosen it up a bit?”

“What is the acid for?” My voice is murderous.

“What do you think?” He glances back at Audrey, who’s shaking her head spastically. “That freaking psycho wanted Gavin to use it on Kailani. Destroy her face or some shit. I don’t know. You have to ask her.”

Heat crawls up the base of my spine and bleeds into the outer edges of my limbs. I close my eyes and try to rein it in because if I don’t, I’m going to lose my shit. Carson seems to sense this, so he takes control of the room.

“And which one of you fuckwits did she ask to break Kail’s ankle?”

Wyatt hesitates. I open my eyes in time to watch Carson kick him in the nuts again. His face turns green, and he curls into a little ball, gagging like he’s going to vomit.

“Which. One?” Carson repeats.

“Fucking Gavin,” he heaves. “Okay? It wasn’t me.”

“Yeah, you are so innocent in all of this, aren’t you?” Carson shakes his head.

My homicidal gaze swivels to Audrey, and for a moment, the weight of her destruction settles over me. Because of her, almost all our lives were ruined. Kail left for two years and came back so full of hurt and rage she nearly lost herself. Carson spiraled into addiction and destroyed his knee, along with any chance at a football career. I nearly killed myself in a car accident. Kail’s shattered ankle. The money. The lies. Our tattered relationship. The list goes on.