by Mya West
“This should be fun,” he whispers to me before standing. “I didn’t think you had this in you,” he says to Elle with a smile before walking back to the stage.
Another member steps forward, offering Elle a large knife. She tells him to drop it and step back away from us, and he does so.
Elle looks towards Principal Aldridge, who smiles back at her. “The floor is yours, Elle. You can complete The Ritual when ready.” He looks at my father, enjoying his look of defeat.
I look at my father one last time. He cannot say it to me being so far away, but I can almost read his mind.
I love you too, son. I love you too.
I look up at Elle with a thin smile. “Now you get to be me, Elle.”
She smiles. She turns to the wall and grabs a torch, bringing it to my face. She kisses my cheek. “Forgive me.” Using the torch to help guide her, she raises the knife in her hand aiming for my chest. “Forgive me,” she repeats.
Chapter 13
Elle
I raise the knife over my head and look down at Lance.
“Forgive me,” I say with a smile. “Your plan was shit. Mine is way better.”
I throw the torch towards a spot on the floor that I can see is still slick from the gasoline we poured over it before the meeting. The clocktower’s wooden floor erupts in a vicious flame, separating Lance and I from the rest of the members.
I take the knife and cut the rope binding Lance’s hands. When the rope is free, I stand, but Lance looks at me stupidly.
“Can you hurry up!” I demand, and he immediately stands, and we run outside the clock tower.
I look up and see smoke coming from the top of the clocktower’s windows. That was supposed to be the sign.
I almost smile when I see flames shoot across the campus at the entrance of Ryland Academy.
Jaxson did his job! I wish I could watch Ryland Academy burn to the ground in slow motion, but we have no time.
Everything around us is on fire, and The Beasts could get out of the clock tower any moment.
“What now?” Lance asks with a smile.
In the distance, I can see Jaxson running towards us. Danna should have the car started by now and ready for us to leave.
“Now you both die!” Lance and I turn to see Chase pointing a gun at both of us. His smile widens. “Happy ending after all.”
“Stop!” Jaxson yells running close to him. He stops when Chase turns his gun towards him.
“Jax?” Chase looks at Lance with a smile. “I knew you were too much of a pussy to actually kill someone.”
“Stop, Chase!” Jaxson yells at him. “Let them go.”
“Jax,” Chase says, making a tsk sound. “I always wanted a brother, and truth was, I liked you. I am glad you’re not dead. Speaking of murder,” Chase says, turning the gun back towards us.
Jaxson runs towards Chase with enormous speed. Chase points his gun quickly back towards Jaxson, firing until his gun is empty.
Jaxson tackles Chase to the ground but does not move. Blood forms in a pool surrounding Chase with the motionless Jaxson on top of him.
Chase tries to move the enormous body on top of him off but struggles to move himself.
Lance walks over to Chase and kicks the gun out of his hand. Lance looks down at Jaxson’s dead body before walking back towards me.
“Danna is waiting,” I say, and grab Lance’s hand. I take one last look at Jaxson and Chase.
“Okay,” Lance says.
“This isn’t over, Cain!” Chase yells at him. “I’ll find you! I will find your cunt girlfriend too! I will spend every penny I have to find you! You did not win! You will never win!”
Lance looks at me. “Elle, don’t look.” Before I understand what he means, I see him walking up to Chase, who continues to wiggle his way from underneath Jaxson’s body. I turn quickly.
Chase continues to yell at Lance, until his obscenities are replaced with throaty gasps of air. Finally, I hear no noise at all.
Chapter 14
Lance
When Elle and I jump in Danna’s car, she does not even wait for us to close the door before she takes off.
Danna looks in the rear-view mirror at both of us. “He’s dead, isn’t he? Jaxson?”
Elle wipes a tear that is forming slowly in her eye, and I nod my head. Danna looks back out to the road.
“Please tell me you have the keys?” I ask Danna. “The boat. We need to go now. They could shut down the roads pretty quickly, and maybe be set up to catch us on water.”
Danna nods her head. “Yep. And Bryce is already waiting for us there, guarding the boat, just in case.”
“Bryce?” I say raising an eyebrow, looking at Elle.
Elle looks at me softly. “It wasn’t exactly my idea.”
“Yeah, that’s my bad,” Danna says, taking a sharp curve on the road. I bang my head on the door frame and look at Danna.
Elle smiles at me. “You thought I was going to do it, don’t lie.”
“Never thought for a moment,” I say smiling back.
“Bullshit,” Elle says. “You’re going to have to get used to me calling you out on your lies. I’m done with them from now on.”
I nod my head in agreement. “No more secrets. I’m an open book from now on.” She leans in closer, and we kiss.
“Hey!” Danna shouts. “You two can do as much of that as you want when we are on the open waters. Eyes open.”
Danna gets to the docks in record time. We jump out of the car and run to the docks.
When I see the boat, I almost feel a sense of relief. I spot Bryce on the bow of the boat. He waves at us frantically. In his other hand is one of the assault rifles from the weapons cache.
“Do you know how to use that?” I yell at him.
Bryce quickly puts it down and raises his hands. “I was guarding the boat. I figured I we should be ready, right?”
I nod my head in agreement, but I’m not sure if he should be the one wielding it. Danna jumps on the boat first and looks at Bryce’s feet. “What’s this?” she asks picking up a handgun. “How many weapons do you need?”
Bryce shrugs his shoulders. “It could have been like a Scarface final scene moment, for all I know. You can never be too prepared.”
I help Elle onto the boat, and then take the handgun away from Danna. “It would help if this one had bullets in it.”
Bryce looks at me in surprise.
“Don’t worry,” Elle says to him, “I made the same mistake today.”
I look at Elle. “Time to go.” She nods her head, and I look at Bryce and Danna, who each nod as well.
“Where’s Jaxson?” Bryce asks innocently. The shy looks from the three of us give him the answer he needs. “I see.”
I jump out of the boat, and Elle joins me. I kneel down and untie the boat from the docks.
“That’s it,” I say to her. “We’re gone.” I look out into the dark night sky, illuminated from the nearby business of Ryland.
“Are you okay?” Elle asks.
I smile. “I just can’t believe it. It’s so surreal.”
Elle pats me on the shoulder. “I can’t drive this boat without you, so hurry up. We’re ready to go.”
I nod my head with confidence. “Me too.”
I grab Elle’s hand to help her onto the boat when a gunshot makes us jump. Another blasts into the dark sky, and I almost feel a bullet wiz by me.
“Wait!” yells a voice from behind us. I turn, and my father is standing there alone, his arms raised up. “Please wait, son.”
“Don’t try and stop us,” I yell back at him.
“I’m not here for that,” he says in a reassuring voice. “We found Chase. Multiple crews are battling the fire that’s destroying Ryland Academy as we speak.”
I sigh. “Dad, I need to leave. What did you come here for?”
Arthur Cain walks closer to us. I stand in front of Elle.
“I’m not armed, son,” he says, raising his arms
again. He looks at Elle. “I don’t know what to say to you.”
“An apology is a good start,” Elle says with a thin smile.
Arthur Cain nods his head. “I am.” He turns to me. “Lance, I want you to take care of yourself, wherever you go. Make sure you are always paying attention. They won’t stop now. I will do what I can from here to smooth things.”
I nod. “I know, Dad. It’s a risk I have to take.” I grab Elle’s hand. “A risk we have to take.” My father looks at our hands, grasped together in unity, with a thin smile.
“Your mother would have approved,” he says softly.
I look away for a moment, then back at my father. “Say goodbye to mom for me.” My father nods his head. I look at my father one last time. “Goodbye, Dad.”
My father looks at me with a solemn face. I grab Elle’s hand and lead her to the boat.
A strong arm pulls me back, and my father wraps his arms around me. “I love you, son. I love you.”
I smile. “We really need to go, Dad.”
He nods his head and smiles back.
The blast of a gun startles us. Another fire of a gun sounds, and I can almost feel a bullet whizzing by me.
“Thomas!” my father yells, “Stop shooting! Now.”
Thomas Winters walks out onto the dock with a cold smile. “Sorry, sir, didn’t see you there.”
For a moment, my father looks afraid but regains his composure quickly. “It’s all worked out, Thomas. Elle and my son are leaving.” Thomas looks at him, but keeps his gun pointed towards Elle and me. “Don’t worry, Thomas. You will get an exceptionally large bonus this year.”
Thomas Winters smiles. His leather glove stiffens around the gun in his hand. “I need to make a phone call, sir.” He pulls off one of his leather gloves with his teeth and takes out his cell phone from his inner jacket pocket. He dials a number while maintaining a constant stare at the three of us.
“Thomas!” my father yells. “What are you doing? Did you not hear me?”
“I certainly did, sir. I certainly did. This won’t take but one moment.” Thomas puts the cell to his ear. Thomas speaks into the phone. “I have them, sir. Yes, at the boat. Arthur Cain is here now too. What would you like me to do?” Thomas waits a moment, then nods his head with a smile. “I understand.”
Thomas Winters hits the speaker phone button on his cell and stretches out his arm.
“Kill them all!” Principal Aldridge yells through the cell. “All of them!”
Thomas hangs up the phone and puts it back in his pocket. He looks at my father. “Surprisingly, Mr. Aldridge pays a lot better than you.” Thomas points his gun at my father and pulls the trigger.
My father drops to the floor of the wooden dock and falls into the water. I look at the dark water and see his body, motionless, and bobbing with the tide.
I look back at Winters, but he just smiles at me.
Multiple gun shots ring out behind us, firing onto the dock. I push Elle’s head down, and we both cover our heads, dropping to the ground.
Thomas fires back at the boat, hiding behind some crates on the dock.
“Fuck you!” I hear Bryce yell from the boat.
I grab Elle’s hand, and we run and jump onto the boat. When I stand up, Bryce stares at me with a blank face.
“Keep shooting at the bad guy,” I remind him. He nods and keeps firing out towards the dock. Thomas attempts to fire back, but I can hear the clicks of his empty chamber on his gun. I run to the captain’s chair, start the boat, and run full throttle into the dark waters.
I look back at the dock and see a tall dark silhouette waving goodbye.
Chapter 15
Elle
Things are different now.
That is the understatement of the millennium.
Things are really fucked up.
It took us some time, but we managed to get in contact with a guy Lance knew in South America and have almost arrived in Brazil.
After Thomas Winters caught us at the dock, Lance had to change some of his arrangements to ensure we were not caught.
We have been taking our time getting to where we need to go. Lance says once we get there, he has new identities for all of us.
We are still worried about being caught by The Beasts and are extra careful.
Lance has been communicating with Principal Aldridge and other members of The Beasts. He is negotiating our safety as we travel.
Lance believes that The Beasts may be able to forgive, but not forget.
Lance killed Chase, but Thomas killed his father.
There is some equilibrium of violence, Lance tells me. Apparently, The Beasts have a rule about such a thing. They appear to have a rule for everything.
More than that, Lance tells me we have something even more important, leverage.
The tapes I took at the clocktower exposes the inner working of The Beasts. It reveals some of their elite members. It confirms some of the most heinous acts of violence they have been committing for decades.
I told Lance that part of the negation is that there be no more Sacrifices. No more Rituals. I told him that if I read online of any missing persons case in Ryland, I will take the tapes directly to the media.
Danna has come in handy in that department. Leave it up to her to know exactly where to send information to that could not be tainted by The Beasts.
Before we took the canisters of gasoline to Ryland Academy and spread it around the school halls and clock tower, we put some information in a lock box at a local bank, several banks.
I wrote a letter explaining all about The Beasts and what they truly were, and the power they have. To corroborate my information, I interviewed Jaxson, who told more about the inner working of The Beasts as a member.
I sent a copy of the letter and a key to one of the lock boxes to Candice. They would likely not suspect that we set up such an intricate safety net before we escaped. I only hoped Candice had not left the city before she received it.
Danna is gearing up for the worst and is maybe hoping for it.
“This could be the biggest story ever!” she tells anybody who listens. Lance had to agree to only do exclusive interviews with Danna if we do go to the press.
For now, Danna seems content with interviewing Bryce on what it is like having a father who’s a member of a secret society. I am sure they are on part eight of their docuseries, that likely no one will see.
Bryce seems to be struggling on the boat. He had never really been on the open water and didn’t know he was the type to get seasick. He had one incident that Danna said ruined one of their interviews.
Lance did a good job of cheering Bryce up when he mentioned that Rio de Janeiro has one of the higher populations of non-heterosexual people. Lance has been sharing his dreams of what he envisions for us in Brazil.
He even promised Bryce a management position of overseeing entertainment on the resort.
I head to the bow of the ship and look out into the ocean. Sometimes when I come out to this spot, I will see a dolphin or two jumping close to the boat. One time, we even spotted a whale in the distance.
Strong arms wrap around my waist. I turn my head, and Lance kisses the side of my face.
“We’re close,” he says. “I feel like this can work.”
The boat starts to turn on an awkward angle.
“Is that Bryce driving the boat?” I ask with a smile.
Lance sighs and waves his hands out at Bryce behind him. I look back and see Bryce giving us a thumb up, and attempts to get us back on course.
“He has had hours at driving the boat, and he’s still shit,” Lance says, laughing.
I grab his stubbled face closer, and we kiss more sensually.
“I love you,” Lance says to me.
I smile and look out into the ocean. “That is nice, Cain. But you kind of have to love me.” He looks at me strangely. “I’m your Alpha, remember?”
Lance rolls his eyes. He looks out on the deck of the b
oat at Danna, who is now helping Bryce steer the boat. “Let’s go to the cabin,” he says with a devilish smile.
“Why’s that?” I say playfully.
“I have a different Ritual in mind. I’ll show you who the real Alpha is.”
I grab his hand and lead him towards the cabin. “We will see. I think I’ll win that competition too.”
Epilogue
Thomas Winters
It took some time for Thomas Winters to track them down, but he finally did. Some calls to phone companies managed to locate some calls from a cell phone belonging to a Bryce Jamison, made in Mazatlán, Mexico. The call took place last night, and Thomas was on a red eye to Mexico within a few hours.
Mr. Jamison thought it wise to call his mom of all people and leave a message on her cell, a very lengthy message, one that was easily traceable to their probable location.
From his research, he knew their way into many docks in that area and was certain he would know where to find them.
His only hope was that Lance felt some comfort in the beachfront paradise and had not already left.
Thomas did worry about what repercussions he would face when Davis Aldridge found out that Lancelot Cain, Noelle Maven, Bryce Jamison, and Danna Marson were found dead, but he had ways of making himself innocent of any wrong doings.
He could make it appear that they had an altercation with the local cartels. Thomas enjoyed educating himself on how the cartels dealt with people they did not like. He wrote out a plan on what he would do to their bodies after killing them.
Cartels seemed to enjoy beheading people, which was something Thomas never tried. It could get messy, but he was prepared for that.
He was looking forward to seeing them.
Davis Aldridge had told Thomas and all members of The Beasts that Lance, Noelle, and their friends were officially off limits now.
A paper truce of sorts has been made between him and Lance through some negotiations.
Thomas had located a letter that was sent to a Candice Owens. He had taken care of her, and the note.
