She Lies Twisted (15 page)

I sat down on the bricks and let my feet dangle over the edge towards danger. I'd never been a coward. I'd been a lot of other horrible things for sure but I'd never been that. I took a breath, like I was preparing to dive, and leapt down.

There were security cameras all over the front of school but none along the sides where the forest still ran a bit wild and used condoms littered the floor like leaves. I rolled my eyes at my peers and at the adults who thought they could control them but never really did.

I didn't find Jessica in the forest, or behind the gym, or in the quad where the basketball players hung out and practiced at lunch. The saddest part was, I wasn't even really sure where to look for her. We had gone to school together here and yet, I had no idea where she'd liked to hang out. I was about to give up when I crossed by the path that led down a hill, through some trees, and to the football field. Jessica hadn't played any sports but she had always gone to the games. It made sense that she'd be there.

I flipped off the security camera that was blinking its red eye at me from the edge of the art building and started down the pathway. The evening's rain had made the steps slick and difficult to navigate. It was a slow process going down, my heart racing faster by the second. It was like the climax in a good book; the anticipation was killing me.

When I finally reached the field and found nobody there but a flock of crows, I screamed in frustration. The birds took to the air in a series of squawks and feathers and then there was nothing but the moon and me. I cut across the grass towards the ag building and the place where I'd first discovered that Jessica wasn't a virgin anymore. I frowned at the memory.

I could check there. It wasn't like I could go inside but there were some animal pens and a shed. They were probably locked tight but it couldn't hurt to try. I chastised myself for missing out on the obvious. Every time I thought I had checked everywhere, there was somewhere else.
I'm never going to fucking find her. You didn't know her well enough so now you're screwed. You have no idea where she is or why she's there.

I did a half-assed search of the area and came up empty again.

I took a longer but less slippery route back up the hill and was in the process of climbing over a different section of the wall when I heard voices. Well, they more like moans really but I had to check. I wouldn't forgive myself if another grim reaper or summoner or whoever found her while she was fucking because I was too much of a prude to check.

Sure enough, it was her.

My breath caught painfully in my throat and I almost vomited again.

Jessica was wearing my clothes.

She had on my green,”Kiss Me and You're Dead; I'm Not Fucking Irish!” sweater and the black skirt I'd worn to the funeral. Abe's boots were pressed into the mud, spread apart to allow whoever it was to fuck her. I gnawed at my lip and forced myself not to look away. It wasn't easy, the image was burning me in more ways than one. I tucked my hands into the sleeves of my sweatshirt and put them to my mouth to stop myself from screaming. I wanted to stop her, to take her home and tell her she was worth more than that but I didn't know how to do it. I was going to have to wait.

When they were finished, Jessica stood up and brushed herself off, twisting the skirt so that it was back in place and pulling leaves from her hair. When she moved forward, the moonlight caught her face and highlighted the purple earring in her ear. Boyd's earring. My earring. I almost jumped down and tore it from her flesh. Even dying hadn't stopped our sibling rivalry. I glared at the black kohl around her eyes and tried to understand why she would dress like me, pose like me,
fuck
as me.

And I'd been worried about her.

“
Nice to know you're not as cold as you look,” the boy said, zipping up his pants and caressing her arm in a way that made my stomach twist with nausea. It was Jarrod Rhodes, Margaret Cedar's current boyfriend, and Jessica's ex. I hadn't thought she cared about any of the boys she'd fucked but yet, here she was, with a second chance at life and she was spending it in the forest with a boy that thought it was funny to tease people about their dead friends.

I waited in silence. I suddenly didn't want to talk to her anymore. I suddenly wished she were still dead.

Why did you do this?
I thought at her.
Why did you come back and torture me like this? I missed you so much, I loved you so much. You were the last person I had left and you abandoned me in more ways than one?

I felt my heart breaking in two.

“
Come with me, I want to show you something,” she said, taking his hand in hers. I almost left, almost went and tried to find Sydney but my feelings for her ultimately topped my anger. She was my sister and I had to be here for her. I followed them back down to the football field.

“
You know, Tate,” Jarrod said to Jessica as I watched and fumed behind the bleachers. “You were better than your sister was.” I froze but all Jessica did was giggle and flick her hair over her shoulder in a way I would never would. I guess he thought it was a compliment. It made me sick.

“
You're so silly, Jarrod,” she said, reaching into the purse she had picked up from the forest floor and slung over her shoulder. It was white and cream with brown buckles and it definitely wasn't mine. “That's why I wanted to meet you here. I wanted to give you a second chance.” Jarrod scratched his head and glanced over his shoulder like he was looking for a way out. The fun was over, time to go home. Jessica reached up and turned his face towards hers. The glint in her eyes was hard as flint and it gave me the chills. “There is good in you, Jarrod,” she said through her teeth. “I can see it but you have to let it out. I love you, Jarrod. You have to accept that you are I meant to be together.” I blinked in shock at the same time Jarrod took a startled step backwards. It was like watching a scene from
Fatal Attraction
only instead of Glen Close, the stalker woman was played by my twin sister.

“
What the hell?” Jarrod mumbled as he backed up another step. Jessica was opening her purse slowly, the glint of metal inside raising the hairs on my arms. She was going to shoot him?

Apparently, Jarrod thought so, too, because he turned around and started to run. I moved out from behind the bleachers.

“
Jessica!” I shouted. If she shot him, it was all over. For her, for me, for everybody because I would be immortal and I would be rotting in jail and somebody else would come for her and Boyd and James would go on protecting Sydney in a way he shouldn't have. She looked up at me but she didn't seem surprised. She was smiling. She pulled her hand from the purse. In it, was a flute.

The harp pulsed at my hip, making me gasp.

The weapon the harpies had mentioned. It wasn't a sword or an axe or a bow, it was another instrument. That scared the shit out of me. If my harp could wrap souls and transport them to another dimension, if it could make music with just one touch and open my throat and make me sing words I didn't know, what could hers do? Jessica put the metal to her lips.

Jarrod was still running, he hadn't seen the flute, but when he heard the music, low and sweet, he paused and turned back around. His pasty face was red and his eyes rimmed with worry. I watched as that worry transformed back into arrogance. He hadn't seen me yet, just a girl with a flute who had told him she loved him.

“
I don't want to be with you, you fucking psycho,” he growled, using his fear as fuel for his insults. “You death obsessed creep. You were a fuck and nothing more, a nice piece of ass.” Jessica closed her eyes and I felt myself getting angry as I watched pain flash across her face. Did she kill herself because of him? I glared down at Jarrod and hoped not or next time, it might be me with a gun in my purse.

I opened my mouth to say something, to draw his attention to me and let him see that a ghost had crawled from the grave.
Try telling insults to a dead girl.
A whirring noise stopped me from saying anything.

A demon passed over the field in a blur of metallic and crystal. When it came back around, I saw that it was long and thin with eyes like a dragonfly and legs like a spider. Its gossamer wings cast prisms across the grass and turned in into a kaleidoscope.

Jarrod screamed.

Jessica pulled the flute away from her lips and gave Jarrod an ultimatum that chilled even my blood.

“
I'm warning you, Mr. Rhodes,” she said, stalking forward like a suicidal ghost and most definitely not like a fifteen year old, should've been sixteen year old, girl. “This is your last chance. You either choose to be with me or I will
make
you be with me. You have no other choice. I love you. I love you more than air, more than water, more than
life.
” Her voice cracked on the last syllable and brought tears to my eyes. She was crazy but she was also in love. It was ugly but beautiful. I watched the demon circle and found myself unable to move. I didn't know what I was supposed to do.
You could send her on
, I thought but one look at Jessica's face and I knew wasn't ready yet. We needed to talk first. I needed to know that she loved me and know that she believed, without a doubt, that I loved her.

Jarrod wasn't listening. He wasn't even looking at her. He was crouching on the ground and shrieking in terror at the unfamiliar.

I almost joined in when I felt a hand on my arm. I whirled around and came nose to nose with James. He was breathing hard and nibbling the stitches in his lower lip.

“
I followed you but don't be mad,” James blurted in a rush. “I was awake and I heard you leave. I heard your apology and I'm sorry, too.” He paused and took a deep breath, his eyes boring into my soul like nobody else's ever had. I took a nervous step back. “Let's help each other,” he whispered and turned his attention back to the field.

I followed his gaze and saw that Jessica was now leaning over Jarrod and whispering. A knife glinted in her hand, reflecting the moonlight and the single purple earring. I turned to James with a question in my eyes.

I love her and I don't know what to do.

James took my hand and pulled me down the stone steps and onto the field.

The dragonfly demon circled above us, diving occasionally as if it were testing the waters, but it never came within striking distance. Jessica was controlling it as Ehferea had said. The powers of the flute stunned me and I ended up stumbling. James pulled me to my feet and kept going.

“
She can't kill him,” was all he said as he dragged me and my indecision along for the ride.

Jessica rose from her crouch and stepped back, replacing the knife in her purse. When she turned to face us, she was smiling again but it was tinged with sadness and regret and slashed with a bright red splatter of pain. She was hurting and it was twisting her in ways that it hadn't twisted me. It was scary.

James and I paused, not wanting to get too close but unable to move away. Jarrod was a piece of shit but she couldn't kill him. Things wouldn't be right that way. It wouldn't make her right, it wouldn't take away the pain he'd caused her. It could and would only make things worse.

“
Jessica?” I ventured. She glanced away from me.

“
I loved him, Tate,” she said and her voice was soft. It gave me hope. Hope that, when she turned back around, was drowned by the look of desperation in her blue eyes. She would do anything for Jarrod, or to at least she'd do anything to have him. She probably couldn't tell the difference anymore. “I still love him. He's my soul mate and I can't go on without him.” She blinked back tears as James squeezed my hand for comfort. He tangled his fingers in mine and told me without words that he was there now. We were friends. Pain would bind us together tighter than any cord; death had made us equals, the harpies had made us partners, but pain, pain would make us friends forever.

“
I tried to study, Tate. I looked at the books and I saw myself for what I was. Useless. I saw Daddy and Jason and Mom and Abe and I...” She paused and her voice trailed off, drowned by the whirring of the dragonfly's wings. When she spoke again, her tone was firm and strong, like she was declaring a hard truth but a necessary one. “And I saw you. You were the only person that was ever there for me. You were the only person that loved me as me.” Tears burned my eyes and I tried to go to her. James held me back. I had to trust that he was right and stayed where I was. He wasn't thinking clearly with Sydney and I wasn't thinking clearly with Jessica. We needed each other's guidance.

“
I knew that when I found the flute, it was destiny. I could control spirits, demons, ghosts, souls. But you,” she paused again and glanced back at Jarrod. He was lying on the grass in a fetal position. I didn't see blood but he wasn't moving. I exchanged a look with James. “You didn't know I was there. I watched you move on without me, meet Boyd, love Boyd, and I wanted you but I couldn't take you away from that.” She shook her head and tears glittered for a brief moment in the air, like crystals, bits of pain that glimmered like stars. “It was like watching me and Jarrod.” I was shaking my head now, too. I loved Jessica but I loved Boyd just as much. She couldn't compare this to that. I would have never done these things to him.

“
I stayed with you and watched, fed off of your love. It was what kept me alive and safe but then when Boyd,” she cut off again and stared me down, hands shaking. She had loved him, too. I could see it. She had shared moments with us that nobody else knew about. She had been a part of it all and she missed him, too. I buried my face in my hands and sobbed. James pulled me to his chest and let me cry. I barely knew anything about him but it felt good. He understood me, us, this. When Jessica spoke again, her voice was so quiet I could barely hear but her words were loud enough that they pierced me to the soul.