Page 27 of Kane

“Well, you succeeded.”

I scoff as I stare at the television screen.

“What’s this one about?” I ask, not wanting to talk about my bad decisions. Or the fact I keep making them.

I pull my knees to my chest. Tori pops a piece of popcorn into her mouth.

“You ever heard of the Red Rose Killer?”

I shake my head. “Nope.”

I glance at the screen, at the footage playing. Some reporter’s video of a cop carrying out a kid from some busted up place in Chicago.

I can’t see the kid’s face, but I’m kind of glad for that.

“When was this?” I ask, noting how the footage looks sort of old.

“Ninety-six,” Tori says calmly.

“What did he do?” I ask, my gaze flashing to her bowl of popcorn. I probably need to take it easy on food right now, but I can’t deny I feel empty. In more ways than one.

Tori sets the bowl down between us, but doesn’t look at me. Instead, she leans back into the cushions and stares at the screen.

“Kidnapped and raped thirteen women,” she says carefully. “Killed twelve of them. Displayed them like Snow White in glass coffins.”

There’s a coldness to her words, to the apathetic way she says them.

But the look on her face as she watches the tv is anything but cold.

Her eyebrows are furrowed, and she looks almost pained. Sad, even.

“That’s awful,” I say as I reach for the popcorn, but it’s too far away. I scoot a little closer to the bowl, but Tori doesn’t seem to notice, so I pull the bowl towards me.

“He said it was art,” she says softly. “Like they were his own personal dolls.”

I look at the screen, then at Tori, wondering if this is it—the moment she actually murders me.

But then she turns to look at me, and I notice her eyes are a deep shade of green that is oddly familiar.

“I get it, you know,” she says, her smooth voice low and soft. Softer than I’ve ever heard it.

“Get what?” I ask as I suck all the butter out of a popcorn piece.

“Wanting to be alone.”

I look at her, mid popcorn haul, and she reaches for some popcorn.

“You think it’s easier.”

I shift on the couch, glancing back at the screen, at the headline. Rose Red Killer Released! And note the same cop and small boy are on the steps of a courthouse as someone delivers a speech, and then I see him. The Red Rose Killer; all tall and dark and handsome, dressed in a suit, being led out of the same courthouse, but it’s a different view, I think.

“Think no one can hurt you if you don’t let anyone in.”

I shift my position again, leaning into the back cushions as Tori shifts next to me.

“I didn’t mean to be a dick,” I say softly. I look up at her deep green eyes, deja vu striking me. Or maybe it’s just the exhaustion, the shame. The guilt.

“To you. Or my sister.”