Page 166 of Shadowface 1979

I glance around the party, through the clusters of people standing around the fire. “Where is Talia, anyway?”

Remy darts his gaze to the trees, just where the firelight captures the darkness. I can tell from the preppy shirt that she’s with Stephen, or should I say, her lips are locked with Stephen’s. I hardly care. If she wants to waste her time with that piece of shit, then she can go ahead.

“What the hell is she doing with him?” I ask.

Remy crosses his arms and arches his brow. He clearly knows something. He always knows what’s going on before I do.

“What is it?”

“Tommy, this isn’t black and white. You might not care about money, but that was our legacy. Talia is doing what she must to get it back. I need to stay out of her way, even if I want to punch his face out, too. You think I haven’t seen the state she’s in when she comes from being with him?”

I’m done with her. I’m done with everything. If we survive tonight, I’m going to find a way out of this town. I swallow the glass in my throat. “Something’s not right, Remy.”

“Nothing has been right since the day I was born, but here we are.”

I sneer at him. “It’s not a joke. Talia’s lost her goddamn mind. We should just go to the police. Someone can help us get out of this. We haven’t done anything too terrible yet, but if we allow Didi to do this, then we are as good as guilty.”

He grabs both my shoulders, and his words come out cutting. “Don’t you dare. They will kill you if you do that. I will kill you myself if you betray us. I don’t like this any more than you do, but this is our life. This is what we were born into, and we took that oath. Didi just took that blood oath. Talia hasn’t lost her mind; they stole it from her when they buried her alive. They started this war years ago, and now we are finishing it.”

I push his arm away and pull the mask I have hidden beneath my clothes, placing it on.

Remy lets out a deep sigh. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Going for a walk in the woods to check on our girl. Wanna come?”

He hesitates, then snatches his mask and puts it on. “You’re such a bastard,” he mutters. Suddenly, ear-splitting screams erupt through the forest. They’re so agonizing, the devil himself can probably hear it in hell. I turn my head, but no one else seems to have heard from the roar of the fire masking them.

Remy and I make eye contact, and we bolt through the trees toward the sound of the screaming. As we get closer, we hear more screams…more agony.

He pushes ahead of me and we race, tripping over each other until he comes to a screeching halt.

The silence that follows is harrowing. The kind of silence that feels like death itself. By the time we make it to a small clearing, what’s left is a sight that brightens my heart.

Didi is still alive, on her knees, with her head drawn down. Blood is everywhere, and she is holding her right eye.

There are three figures lying on the ground in the clearing. Two masked figures stand over her—one carrying a torch. My stomach knots when I see the bloody knife he’s holding.

They turn and face us as we approach, but they don’t flinch as we step toward them. Hidden as we are, they don’t realize we aren’t one of them.

I’m not angry. The scene before me ignites a far more intense emotion.

“What’s going on?” I ask as casually as I can.

“She…she killed them. She killed Cindy, Henry, and Benjamin.”

“How?” I ask carefully.

Didi’s porcelain face is covered in blood, and she’s in shock, but she lifts her head, and that’s when I see the blisters on her right eye. She’s not moving, and I realize it’s not her blood splattered all over her face, but everyone else’s.

She slaughtered them.

“We have to kill her.” I recognize the voice as someone who goes to our school. He’s two years ahead of me, the same age as Talia. Moving with deadly stealth, I approach them and crack my knuckles. Reaching into my shirt, I grab my knife. There’s no way I was coming here tonight unarmed. When you dance with death, you never know when death wants to play, so you must always be ready for it.

I pull off my mask, and Remy does the same. Four of them, two of us…three are already dead. And our instructions were clear…anyone Didi was able to draw out needs to die.

The one holding the knife waves his hand, and he pulls off his mask. He stumbles back when he recognizes me. “Look, Tommy…we have to kill her. She’s messing up this town. She just killed three people.”

“This town is already messed up,” I growl.