Stay

Amy just tried to kill you. So did Olivia. It wasn’t a prank. You don’t know what’s going on, but even if she looks pretty beat up, you want to stay close to this police officer.

The others hurry back upstairs, leaving you with Aki, the detective, and Amy. There’s commotion upstairs, and you wish you knew what was going on up there. You wish you knew if everyone was OK, but you have to live with your decisions. The noise is muffled, and down here in the dark it’s almost quiet.

“You’re Jenny’s daughter,” the detective says, gazing at Amy’s back. Amy doesn’t react. “We know why you did it.” The detective glances at Aki, who is still holding that phone. You recognize the case. It’s definitely Amy’s. “Amy, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you can’t afford one, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand the rights you have? You want to talk?”

The detective sounds so pissed.

Amy keeps her mouth shut, facing the wall.

“You want to talk about the missing persons in this house? I’m not talking about tonight,” the detective says, walking up to Amy. She tests the chains, finding them secure. Even so, she kneels and cuffs Amy’s ankle to a pipe with her own handcuffs, so Amy is even more locked down. “What do you know about those girls? What does your mom know? How many times has CCL pulled this scam? Using **** to get headlines? Elevate your profile?”

“Gonna beat it out of me?” Amy asks, looking over her shoulder.

The detective twitches but doesn’t reply. You have a feeling that if you and Aki weren’t there, maybe she would.

“I don’t need to,” the detective says. “Your mother will do whatever it takes to reduce your sentence. In the end, you’ll cut a deal. Maybe you’ll avoid the **** penalty. Just do life in prison.”

“Can’t imprison CCL,” Amy says.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ll see.”

Someone’s coming. It’s Dorothy and Shelby, holding flashlights.

“You OK down here?” Dorothy asks.

“She’s not going anywhere,” the detective says. Beside her, Aki is admiring some of the ropes that are hanging on the walls. She’s damp, like you. She probably just came out of the shower. What happened to this normal, CCL night?

“Oh, hello,” Dorothy says, her light shining on your mostly naked, wet body.

“Whoa, mama,” Shelby adds.

Yeah… Amy is handled. And you don’t want to deal with these two. You need a shirt, and to know what’s going on upstairs. You push past Dorothy and Shelby, making your way through the dark, cold basement.

In the kitchen, you find Bao opening drawers and searching for towels. It sounds like everyone is out in the hallway. You hustle through, not caring about how exposed you are. You push through the small group, coming up beside Ingrid to find Sally and Sun bent over Cynthia.

Sun is stark naked, of course, but it’s Cynthia that’s the center of attention. Blood is everywhere, but they’re holding a towel on her, and… she’s still breathing.

“Is she going to make it?” you ask, suddenly queasy.

“We think so,” Ingrid replies.

“Thank God.”

You take a long, deep breath. Tonight is just… so much. You shake your head and come to your senses. “Where’s Olivia?”

“Olivia?” The others look at you quizzically.

Right. They don’t know about her. She mainly went after you and Nevaeh, and Nevaeh took off with Samantha.

Sally looks up at you sharply, confirming your worst fears: that they forgot about her.

You tear away from the group, sprinting to the front of the house. You rip the curtains aside and peer out into the night, but the rain-washed ground in front of CCL house is… totally clear.

There’s no sign of Olivia.

God. You groan and lean your head against the cold glass. She must have taken off while she had the chance. Fuck! You would not mind if that detective beat the shit out of her at all. Crazy bitch.

Well… she has a gunshot wound. She can’t get far, and she’s not likely to hurt anyone else.

Feeling lightheaded, you step away.

“Guys,” you call out.

“Yeah?” Duni shouts back.

“Keep your eyes open. Olivia was in on it. Sally can tell you,” you call back. “She’s gone. She could be anywhere.”

“She must’ve run,” Sally says.

You head back to rejoin them. Cynthia still looks terrible. This is so messed up.

“Probably. Just… you know. I need a shirt.”

Nobody even comments on your nakedness. That’s a sign that CCL is seriously off-balance tonight. You can’t help but notice that several people are missing, and based on what you’ve seen… that makes you want to puke. This is so bad.

“Wait,” Tracy says, looking at Beth. “So Olivia and Amy were both doing something bad?”

“Looks that way,” you reply.

“I knew someone was watching us,” she says to Beth.

“You saw that too? Someone at the window?” Beth replies.

“Wait, when?” you ask.

“Just a few minutes ago. What? I’m sorry, we didn’t know there was stuff going on, and I like getting fingerbanged by older women,” Beth says defensively.

Tracy gives her a look, but nobody laughs or snickers because they’re all too worried about Cynthia. But you…

“Wait,” you say.

“Wait for what?” Dorothy asks. You turn to see that Dorothy and Shelby have come upstairs.

“Who’s with the cop? And Amy?” you ask them worriedly.

“Oh no,” you say, shoving past them again and running toward the kitchen.

If Amy and Olivia were both up to no good, how would they do it? CCL house is huge, and there are tons of girls in it. It’s dark and chaotic. Nobody has any way of knowing who will be where. Beth was apparently messing around with Tracy? For God’s sake, you got baked and had sex with Nevaeh! Of all people!

The only way that Olivia and Amy would’ve known what to do…

You shoulder through the basement door and hurry down the steps, careening through the basement toward the secret room.

You clap your hands over your mouth, but that’s not enough to stop your scream of horror at what you find.

For Amy and Olivia to pull this off... someone had to be spotting for them.

The detective hangs from a pipe on the ceiling, her hands tied behind her back with silky bondage rope, and her noose tied with the same. The pipe creaks as her corpse swings gently, dust falling like snow from the ceiling.

The manacles and handcuffs are open.

Amy is gone. There’s no sign of Aki.

THE END