Scars (The Triad 1)

SCARLET

It was called Hell House for a reason. An entire family was supposedly murdered within its walls like our own version of The Amityville Horror. I honestly had no idea if that was true. I wasn’t there for the ghosts; I was there for the party. People brought generators and enough alcohol and drugs to take care of an entire town.

Not that I would ever partake in the hard shit. I might look rough, but I was not about to catch a charge for a night of fun. Weed was as far as I’d take it.

I threw the joint on the ground and crushed it under my black Doc Martens. Blowing out the last of the smoke into the cold air, I smiled at the raging house party going on in front of me. People were spilling out onto the front yard, stumbling and yelling, some practically fucking through their clothes.

“I heard they’re coming tonight,” Kenna said next to me.

“You think they’re coming all the way on this side of the city just for a shitty little house party?” I raised one dark brow at her and shook my head. “Ei cacat.” Sometimes I just preferred swearing in Romanian. It rolled off my tongue with more of a bite than English did.

She took a drink from her beer and shrugged. “Rumor is they’ve got some business to take care of.”

A little thrill went through me at the thought of what violence that promised. If they had business to take care of, that probably meant they would be beating the ever-living shit out of some poor soul who had crossed them.

“Well, that would definitely make for a fun night.”

Kenna laughed and downed the rest of her beer. “You’re a sick fuck, Scarlet.”

I shrugged. “Growing up the way I did, you get used to that kind of violence.”

She side-eyed me but didn’t ask the questions she was always dying to. Kenna and I had been friends for about a year, but she didn’t know anything about my past other than it wasn’t your regular run-of-the-mill childhood. And I intended to keep it that way. Keep her clueless, keep her safe.

“Look, this is my one night off this week,” I said, slinging my arm around her shoulders. “Can we please go back inside, get absolutely shitfaced, and find some poor unsuspecting men or women to grind on?”

She smiled, and her brown eyes lit up. Her hand grasped mine on her shoulder, making my rings dig into my fingers painfully, but I squeezed back.

We made our way across the lawn, dodging the drunk and disorderly. Kenna’s arm slinked around my waist, and our hips swayed in time with each other as we made our way inside. “Bodies” by Drowning Pool started up as we made our way to what used to be a massive dining room. A mosh pit was quickly forming in the middle of it, and I pulled Kenna along with me right into the center.

One of the perks of being short was that I could usually push my way through the crowds with my lower center of gravity and not be pushed to the floor. When we found our way to the dead center, we were in a tangle of fists, arms, and torsos. I screamed the lyrics, throwing my own body around like I was a doll, my black hair whipping my face.

This was the reason I was wearing jeans and not a dress. You didn’t wear skimpy clothing when you were going to be in the middle of a mosh pit with thirty other people. Kenna’s face was red and hot with exertion when I looked over at her, where she was grinding on some metalhead behind her. Her dark hair fell in wild tangles around her tattooed shoulders. His fingertips dug into her waist as they moved together. I licked my lips.

I grabbed her face and brought my mouth to her ear.

“You beautiful bitch!” I heard her laugh, and I caught it with my mouth, our lips meeting with bruising force. We broke apart, and I screamed the song with the rest of the crowd into the air.

After the song had ended, my voice was raw, and my body was well and truly bruised. I had never felt more alive. Kenna dismissed the guy with a wave of her hand, and I smiled as she pulled me close. Sometimes I was seriously in awe of how lucky I was to have stumbled across her.

“Let’s go get a drink. If I stay in here much longer, I’m going home with broken bones. These assholes are crazy.” I took her hand, and we made our way to the old kitchen. The music was still blasting, but it was a bit quieter on that side of the house. A few people were making out in the dark corners, but mostly everyone was just drinking and talking. Kenna sank to the floor and dug through the bottom shelves. Then half of her body suddenly disappeared under the counter.

“The fuck are you doing?”

“Last time we were here,” she said, her voice muffled, “I broke through one of these to hide a bottle of—” She popped out, bottle in hand. “—whiskey!” She cracked it open and took a long swig before handing it over to me. The familiar burn comforted my already sore body. We both jumped up on the counter, drinking in silence and watching the couple in the corner.

“Think they’ll just fuck right there against the wall?” Kenna licked the drop of alcohol off her bottom lip, and I could feel my stomach tighten at the gesture. I peeled my eyes off her mouth and looked at the couple in the corner. The guy had the girl pressed up against the wall, her legs around his waist. Her dress was completely up around her hips. “I wouldn’t fuck anyone in this house even if you paid me. This place is disgusting.”

“Don’t be such a snob. Sometimes it’s nice to get a little dirty.” I wagged my eyebrows at her, and she just rolled her eyes.

“Scarlet, you fuck anything that moves. I wouldn’t be surprised to find you up against one of these walls one day.” Any other person may have taken offense at Kenna’s words, but she wasn’t wrong. Ever since I was a kid, I knew I thought both boys and girls were cute. And growing up in the type of family I did, you learned to get your rocks off while you still could, with who you could. I never knew what day would be my last. I instinctively reached up and tapped my fingers against the jagged scar along my jaw.

Before I could come back with a snarky remark, a commotion broke out in the front of the house. Kenna’s hand flew to my thigh, and I tried to fight against what that did to my body. This woman was going to be the death of me. Kenna was so straight she might as well have been a ruler. No matter how badly I wanted to convince her into experimenting, I wouldn’t ever push her to do something she wasn’t comfortable with. I was content just being her friend with a few stolen kisses here and there.

But that didn’t mean my body listened.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, Kenna,” I said, taking her hand off my thigh. “Just chill here. I’ll go check it out.”

“You are so not leaving me alone in this dingy-ass kitchen, Scarlet.”

I rolled my eyes as she hopped off the counter and followed me out. The whole place was horribly lit, seeing as the generators could only do so much for a house this big. We snuck through the hallways, pushing up against the walls and out of the way of everyone going the exact opposite way we were. The exact opposite way of where the commotion was.

That was exciting.