Chapter 121 – A Pact Forged in Blood – Silver Brooks

There was activity going on inside my house by the time I made it home. The lights were on in every room and my bedroom window was open. My mother was probably looking for me. Hell, she had probably been calling me too. My cell phone vibrated a few times inside my bag. I was too traumatized to reach for it at the time.

My bag was still covered in dry blood, my hands even more so. The blood trails went all the way up my forearm and it smelled terrible. The blood had such a distinct and powerful scent that every time I closed my eyes I imagined Leigha’s limp body. Watching Officer Morelli hide a corpse gave me pause. This was a million times worse.

In the end I couldn’t even begin to imagine an excuse to tell my mother. Whatever lie I could come up with would never begin to explain my current appearance. If I looked anything like I felt then it would be obvious on my face. I was in no mood to try tangling with her tonight. Yet, I could only imagine that was exactly what awaited me as I approached the house.

I fell off my skateboard while riding into the driveway. I plummeted forward and fell into the grass on the front lawn. This was unusual for me. Although I was far from being a pro, I was an experienced skateboarder. My mind was so scrambled that my motor skills were out of whack.

I didn’t even bother picking up the skateboard or dusting myself off. I simply lumbered over to the front door like a zombie, silently praying no one would be there to confront me.

Of course, tonight wasn’t my lucky night.

My mother was already there waiting for me at the junction between the living room and the entryway. The familiar look of unbridled rage was written all over her face and I knew I was about to get an earful. Somehow I couldn’t even bring myself to care. I leaned back against the door to close it and subsequently slumped down against it.

“Where the hell have you been Sylvie? What time do you think it is? What day do you think it is? You have school in the morning! You can’t be out playing with your friend’s on a school night for heaven’s sakes!”

“I…”

“And what the hell was with that act earlier? Playing sick…? I honestly should’ve expected as much! I can’t believe I was even worried about you! I came up to your room to bring you some medicine only to learn that you lied to my face!” She shouted.

She overdramatically stomped over to where I was sitting and forced me up to my feet. I barely managed to keep myself standing. She glared at me angrily, trying to get some sort of reaction out of me. I looked back at her expressionlessly. There was nothing I could say to defend myself in this situation. She was right. I lied.

“I’m sorry.” I said in a placid whisper.

I didn’t know what else to say. Nothing I could say would help me anyways. My mother didn’t look at all interested in an apology. She put her hands on my head and held me still. I hadn’t even notice I had been swaying until she stopped me.

“You’re sorry…?” She said in disbelief, “You were gone all night without a single word and you’re sorry! Sylvie, we thought something might’ve happened to you! Don’t you understand what you do to other people when you act selfishly like this? Why don’t you think of anyone else, ever? Why…”

She brought her hands down to my shoulders and shook me as she spoke. She gave up when she saw that she wasn’t getting through to me. She shook her head in annoyance, but diverted her attention lower. She brought her hands from my shoulders down to my arms. She pulled my hands up and studied them.

“Oh my god…! What…? Sylvie…! Is this your blood?”

“No…”

“Then who…”

“I saw… I saw…”

I couldn’t say it. Not because Leigha’s death was unspeakable, but because I was partially guilty. I summoned the Killing Cat and the entity came to my aid. That was unspeakable. The chain of events that led me to this moment could’ve been avoided if I had taken things more seriously. It was just like my mother was always saying. That’s why I couldn’t respond to her.

My mother’s facial expression softened and she brought her hands up to my cheeks.

“Sylvie…” She said in a horrified whisper, “You need to tell me what you saw.”

I looked her dead in the eyes and finally stood up straight.

“I saw the Killing Cat. She… She saved me when a girl attacked me, and… I…”

My mother stiffened tightly and leveled a hard look at me. She studied me carefully like she was weighing my words. I could tell that she believed me by the intense look on her face. It was almost like she didn’t want to believe me. Her eyes scanned me over and over again, like she was searching for some other explanation.

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“You didn’t see anything.” My mother said definitively.

“No, I…”

She once again took hold of my shoulders and squeezed them tightly, digging the tips of her nails into my skin.

“If anyone asks you anything, Sylvie, you didn’t see anything.”

I shook my head in confusion.

“Mom, I…”

She shook me.

“Listen to what I’m telling you! Whatever you did tonight, wherever you went, whoever you went with, forget it. Does anyone else know you’re somehow involved with this?”

“No, it happened back in…”

“Then forget it. It never happened.” She said.

She pulled me by the arm painfully, dragging me all the way to the kitchen in her iron grasp. A confused Addison hurriedly skittered out of the way so that our mother didn’t run her over. My mother threw me in front of the kitchen sink and turned on the hot water.

She took hold of my hands and forced them beneath the hot water. The water was scalding hot. I reflexively tried to pull away but she didn’t let up. She doused me with soap all the way up to my elbows and began scrubbing voraciously. It hurt so much that I let out a sharp cry and fought to pull my hands away.

“No daughter of mine is going to be hauled off to jail before she’s even graduated high school.” My mother said. “It seems like I haven’t been hard enough on you. We’re going to do something about your behavior, Sylvie. I swear to god…”

Her voice was no longer filled with anger. It had been replaced by something else. It was fear. I could hear fear and panic seeping through her trembling voice. It was rare that my mother was shook by anything. She wasn’t mad. She was scared. The fact that she was scared about this only made me more so.

She turned off the water and gave me another worried look. She held me by the arm, refusing to let me escape to the comfort of my room. It looked like she didn’t know what to do with me. She knew that the moment she let go of me I’d make a run for it.

She huffed out a long, drawn out sigh.

“Why can’t you just be like normal girls?” She asked. “You don’t even have to be an achiever like Addison. I just want you to be normal.”

I didn’t say anything back in response. I just looked away from her and waited for this awkward moment to be over. She hesitantly let me go and I backed away from her in quick successive steps. Once I was certain that we were done here I turned my back on her and bolted towards my room.

Addison was on the staircase, looking just as frightened as mother was. She opened her mouth to say something but I ran right passed her. I didn’t want to be out here long enough for my father to come asking questions. He usually didn’t get involved with things like this, but with my mother getting upset like this then he might be curious.

I ran into my room and locked the door behind me. I turned out the light and ran across the room to shut the window. Casper probably wasn’t home yet. I’d need to check in on her to ask about the brawl. For now I just wanted some rest.

“Sounds like you got off easy!” A cheery, childlike voice exclaimed.

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of it. I tossed my bag onto the bed and pulled out the Nyx doll. With my hands clean now, this doll was the most concrete reminder I had of this night. As frustrated as I was at the Killing Cat for being so brutal, this was my chance to ask some serious questions.

"Why...?" was my first question, "Why did you have to kill her?"

"What do you mean 'why'?" Nyx asked innocently, "She had you cornered and was about to beat you into a bloody pulp. Do you really need to ask ‘why’?"

"That doesn't mean you had to kill her! You could've toyed with her a little to scare her off! You could've even cut her somewhere non-vital then walked away! You didn't have to-..."

"Of course I had to." Nyx said, wholly unrepentant. "This was about more than you. Don't think that I did something like this in the heat of the moment. This was part of my mission."

"Mission...?" I nearly asked in a laugh.

This doll was speaking nonsense. What sort of mission could she be on that required her to act so ruthlessly?

"The point was to send a message to everyone just like her. To all her friends, to all her enemies, to all the media that will be watching when the body is discovered. The word will spread to everyone. This is what happens to people who hurt the innocent."

My expression wrenched in distaste. I wasn’t sure if the person behind this doll was absolutely mad or some sort of self-righteous zealot.

"Your mission sounds like a mission of terror." I accused.

"You see it as terror. I see it as a warning to those in the risk zone. The warning is simple. There are consequences for actions. That’s the message I want to send.”

“By killing a student…? I’m not defending Leigha’s behavior. I know she was violent herself. I just don’t know if it’s right to respond to violence with even more deadly violence…”

The doll’s smile stopped glowing as it seemed to turn more serious.

“And here I thought you were past that when you called for my help.” Nyx said. “Didn't you say you wanted to see change? The days of getting away with injustice after injustice are gone. That, to me, is change."

I buried my face into my hands and dropped down to my knees. Was she right? Was this really the best way of bringing about the change that I asked for? I criticized the student council for acting so slow. Were the Killing Cat's antics the consequence for moving so fast?

I couldn't decide. Who was I to determine how people should be punished and how they could be brought to justice? For that matter, who the hell was the Killing Cat to decide these things for anyone? Why was she so certain that this was the right way? After witnessing Leigha’s death firsthand I couldn’t be sure. There had to be a better way of doing things.

"Tell me honestly..." I said as I pulled my hands away from my face, "Tell me that you honestly believe this is the way to improve things and I'll stop questioning you about Leigha."

There was a brief pause before the Killing Cat said anything.

"If I didn't wholly believe in the things I've been doing then I wouldn't be doing them. I've never killed anyone who didn't deserve it."

"Aren't you worried about becoming the exact thing that you hate? You've killed people who you say deserved it, but what about you? What do you deserve?"

There was another moment of silence.

"I've always been the thing that I hate." The doll admitted flatly, "Only now, I've come to see the reason of why I'm like this. There’s always been a purpose for me all along."

"And that is...?"

"To keep people like you from being harmed." She said. "There was a girl that once attended Meredith’s School for Troubled Girls. I consider her my friend. She was an innocent girl, much like you. Yet she was slaughtered by a cabal of sociopaths who thought they could get away with it."

"Malorie..." I said.

"There have to be consequences for actions." Nyx said once again. "It's merely a matter of destiny that the blade of justice has landed in my hands. Now, it’s landed in yours as well."

I stood up slowly.

"What...? What do you mean by that?"

Nyx’s smile lit up again.

"We've got a pact now." She said. "You're going to help me."