I watched from my spot in the darkness as Mirage beat the living piss out of Tony Mullins in the center of the clearing.
Tony Mullins.
Sex fiend. Delinquent. 1.2 GPA. Bipolar. Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Single mother. Two siblings, both of whom he abused. Janna, twelve, and Avery, fifteen. Avery he’d put into the hospital. Miscarriage of the baby he forced inside her. He’d beaten her when she’d fought back during his sixth attack on her. He didn’t need Chapel Crest. He needed a hole in the ground.
Mirage’s fist met his face on repeat.
This was more about submission than anything. Tony really was defiant.
“Fuck you,” Tony spat at him. “I ain’t telling you shit.”
Mirage punched him in the face again before letting him drop completely to the ground in a bloody heap. I watched him pull his carrot from his back pocket and take a bite, his face calmer than I’d expect from someone who was near murdering.
The snow was painted red with Tony’s blood, but Tony kept laughing like a maniac.
I sighed from my spot and looked around, making sure we were still alone. That was my job. Be a shadow. Watch. Observe. Report. I was good at what I did. But this was what survival looked like at Chapel Crest.
This time, I wasn’t working with fucking Everett Church. I was working with one of his worst nightmares.
Mirage.
My carrot-wielding, wild rabbit friend.
Well, I figured I could call him a friend. We’d been hanging out a lot more now that Sin was trying to win Sirena over. Mirage had told me this morning that when he got home, all of Sin’s stuff was gone. I already knew Church was home. I’d known before his feet touched the soil here that he was returning. A perk to being a shadow. Mirage assured me Sin had been successful, as he had returned as a watcher and was now part of the group.
It fucked me over because how would there ever be room for me? My idea of loving someone didn’t include sharing her, but I had fallen hard for the silent beauty. I wanted it, and I wanted her to want me. And if I wanted her, she came with them, so I’d have to get used to sharing. It was really that simple.
Disheartening but simple.
A guy like me probably didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell with a girl like Sirena, especially when she already had four guys plus Mirage. Asylum. Or whatever the hell was going on with all that. They’d get in before I would.
Sighing, I focused on the scene in front of me, memorizing everything as was my fashion.
“I’m in a foul mood today,” Mirage said. “And I don’t actually like being violent. It would be a good thing for the both of us if you just tell me what you know about who hurt Sirena Lawrence out here.”
“I’ll tell you that I know you’re a piece of shit,” Tony said through a deranged laugh. “That you work for Church’s old man. That you’re a bigger monster than any of those watcher pricks are. That the black rabbit fucked her sister and realized he wanted the next step up, and it was her. The mute bitch.”
Mirage’s fist met Tony’s face with a loud crack. He released him and stumbled back, his body clearly vibrating with rage.
Tony let out a wheeze of laughter before sitting back up in the snow and wiping at his busted face.
“She’s hot. The mute. Sirena.” He said her name with a growl. “Big tits. Tiny waist. Beautiful. Those eyes. Mmm. I’d have fucked her too. Who knows. Maybe I will. Maybe I’ll get her to scream like the black rabbit did. Bury my dick deep inside her pussy. Fuck her hard. Put another pretty memory inside her head—”
I was nearly coming out of my spot to tear his dick from his body as a means to feed it to him. Hearing anyone talk about Sirena like that put me into a headspace that was not good.
He didn’t get to finish his words, though, and I didn’t get to be the one to silence him.
Mirage stuffed his carrot into Tony’s mouth, making him gag. His arms flailed about as he tried to push Mirage away, but Mirage wasn’t a small guy. He forced the carrot deeper into Tony’s throat before he was on a knee, making it count.
“You don’t talk about my Rinny that way,” Mirage snarled. “You never fucking talk about her like that.”
Tony’s arms fell to his side, but Mirage continued to push the carrot into his mouth until it completely disappeared.
Then he let him fall to the ground.
I watched him stare down at him for a moment before I approached and stood over them, surveying Tony’s dead body.
“He fucking ruined my breakfast,” Mirage muttered. “That was my last carrot.”
“I have cupcakes in my room.”
Mirage grunted. “Do you have a shovel in there?”
I let out a laugh. “You know shovels are more of an Asylum thing.”
He looked up at me, a sour look on his face. “You’re a dick.” He got to his feet and glanced at me again. “And for the record, Asylum likes forks. The shovel was a one-time thing.”
“Can’t dig a grave with a fork,” I said.
“Can’t dig a grave period in this cold.” Mirage adjusted his blood-splattered rabbit mask and let out a sigh. “But I know some friends who are hungry. Take his feet.”
It was my turn to sigh as I grabbed Tony’s feet, and Mirage grabbed his arms.
“When did I become an accessory to murder?” I trudged through the snow, helping to carry Tony’s body.
“What was the date?” Mirage asked with a laugh. “When your world changed?”
“August 5th,” I said easily. “The day I met Sirena.”
“Then that’s your answer, but you already knew that.”
He was right. I did.
I knew everything.
It was just what made me so damn special here at Chapel Crest.
