The Lost Girls

by Sonia Hartl

  “What did you do to yourself?” I wanted to scream and pound my fists into the pavement until I broke the earth in half, but I couldn’t bring my voice above a whisper as I stared at the girl I loved. The one I’d gone to every extreme to protect. I spread my hands on the concrete, begging the earth and sky and anything that would listen to make this go away, to give Parker back the life she was supposed to live. I’d never felt more lost. “How could you?”

  Her blank eyes roamed over my face. None of the tenderness we shared in the ruined apartment was present. “You don’t know me.”

  Nothing she said could’ve cut deeper.

  “It’s a funny story, really.” Elton stood before me, bringing his polished leather shoe down on my splayed fingers. I didn’t feel the pain as my bones were crushed into the concrete. I couldn’t feel anything at all. “Frankie told you all the ritual had to be done under a full moon, buying me just enough time to convince the lovely Parker here to embrace immortality.”

  “You bastard,” Ida spat at Frankie, and he recoiled from the venom in her voice. “We could’ve done the ritual the night we broke into the vault? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “I’m afraid so.” Elton turned on his heel and kicked me in the face. My cheekbone cracked, the skin around it swelling for an instant, before it corrected itself and smoothed over, the pain nothing more than the echo of a dull throb. “It’s such a shame you put your trust in someone who has been a dear and loyal friend of mine for years.”

  Rose and Ida crouched beside me and grabbed me under my arms, hauling me to my feet. I hung limp between them. My mind refused to accept what had happened. I couldn’t believe after everything we shared, Parker would make this choice.

  “Tell me you didn’t choose this.” I begged, pleading with her to give me an explanation that would make sense. Her expression held no emotion. “Tell me he made you do it.”

  “Stop talking to me.” She turned her gaze from mine.

  “I didn’t make her do anything.” Elton ran a finger along her cheek and tilted her chin. I could’ve sworn she flinched, just an imperceptible amount. Or maybe that’s just what I wanted to see. He pressed a kiss to the side of her mouth and released her. “It took some convincing on my part, no doubt thanks to the poison you’ve been whispering in her ear these last few weeks, but she eventually came around. She finally understood that an immortal life is better than no life at all. We completed the transformation just this morning.”

  “Without an heirloom?” I’d burned the bracelet. There wasn’t anything else.

  “The silver hoops her mother gave her are tucked away.” Elton smirked. “You didn’t really think I’d bring her heirloom to your bonfire, did you?”

  Eyebrows raised, I shot a questioning look at Parker. She turned away from me.

  Gwen clasped her hands together, holding them under her chin. I imagined she had the same look on her face the day her maker found her plucking the heads off of barnyard cats. “Tell them the best part. They’re going to love it.”

  “Ah, yes.” Elton tapped a finger to his lips, with a tight smile cutting into his cheeks. “Just beyond the field we set up four boxes. They’re very nice. Lined with satin.”

  Frankie took a roll of rope out from behind his back and began to unwind it. Cold fear zipped down my spine and curdled in my stomach. The shadowy clouds passed over the moon, throwing the world into even deeper darkness as Gwen let out a terrifying giggle.

  “We spent all day digging the holes,” Gwen said. “Frankie has a soft spot for you girls, for whatever reason, and he wasn’t too thrilled with this idea. But he eventually came around.”

  “Sorry, Frankie.” Elton tipped his head to him in a short bow. “If the three of you had left the heirlooms alone, we could’ve gone our separate ways at the end of this. But you insisted on trying to kill me, so what choice do I have?”

  “Can you just spit it out already?” Ida rolled her eyes. “God. Were you always this long-winded when we dated? I should’ve dumped your sorry ass the moment Amelia turned you.”

  “Since you have no patience for a good story”—he flashed his fangs—“The boxes are for you, ladies. I’m afraid it’s become too much trouble to leave the three of you to wander.”

  No. Even at his absolute worst, I couldn’t imagine Elton to be so cruel.

  “The satin is soft,” Gwen said. As if that were a consolation and more than she would’ve done if given a say in it. “At least you’ll be comfortable when you go mad.”

  They intended to bury us alive and starve us out. Except we wouldn’t die. We’d just wither to paper husks made of tissue-thin skin and brittle bones. We’d go out of our minds, for all of eternity, buried beneath the earth’s surface. Where no one would ever dig.

  “You’re making a pretty big assumption,” Rose said.

  “Oh?” Elton plucked a loose thread from his button-down shirt. “Do tell. What assumption is it that you think I’m making?”

  Ida tightened her stance beside me, and I spread my feet. It wouldn’t end this way. We didn’t come this far to back away now. If we had to go down, we’d go down fighting.

  “You assume we’ll go quietly.” Rose launched herself at Elton, claws flying, a tiny tornado of death he never saw coming.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  This was the moment Gwen had been waiting for. She’d set her sights on me the moment they showed up to the parking lot. Ida and Stacey had already launched themselves at Frankie, who moved slowly but had enough muscle behind him to make up for it.

  Gwen spun toward me, her feathered hair flying around her face, with one leg kicked outward. A spinning top of horrors. Her pointed grin flashed before me like a stop-motion movie. I couldn’t show fear. It would only delight her.

  I jumped out of the way, but she pivoted and caught my side with her powerful leg. A splitting pain burned through my side, and a crack split the air as one of my ribs broke in half. With another sweep of her leg, I went sprawling across the concrete. Asphalt seared my face, peeling away my skin like a cheese grater. I lifted my head from the ground. Rocks and dirt plinked against the concrete as my face healed and pushed out the debris.

  Gwen stood over me with her foot on my throat, laughing. She had the kind of laugh built for faceless dolls and midnight funhouses. She grabbed my hair and lifted me from the ground. “I’ve been wanting to spend a little time with you ever since the graveyard. Such a spunky fighter. You and I are going to have so much fun together.”

  “Define fun.” I kicked my useless legs against her shins. She didn’t even flinch; she just spun me around and snagged my hair into a tighter rope.

  Gwen was too tall and quick, and she dodged my feet with ease. She wrapped her hand around my elbow and pulled until it started to give. Her eyes turned a brilliant shade of emerald green as my bone popped out of my socket. The skin around my shoulder sounded like Velcro as it began to tear. A burning sensation coursed through my body as Gwen finally wrenched my arm clean off. I’d never felt worse pain, including the time Elton ditched me in the Tulsa Quick Stop, but I ground my teeth to dust to keep from crying out. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of an outward reaction.

  “Aren’t you going to scream for me?” Gwen pouted, as if my vocal terror was her reward for a mutilation well done. “Maybe I’m going too easy on you?”

  My arm had grown back, but it would only be a matter of seconds before she ripped it off again. Panic had me flailing about. My hair twisted and tangled in her fingers. Using my body for momentum, I dropped to my knees and caught her square in the gut with my shoulder. She bent forward, and with the wind knocked out of her, she loosened her grip on my hair. I yanked it free, losing half of it in the process. Sadly, it all grew back right away.

  Frankie had Stacey and Ida by the throats, one in each fist. Stacey’s eyes bulged more than usual and her tongue had swollen to twice its normal size. He’d pop her head right off as if she were one of Gwen’s kittens. I jammed
my foot into his kneecap and he crashed to the ground like a towering pile of bricks.

  Gwen caught up to us. She reached for me, but Stacey cut her off. The two of them began taking swings at each other, Stacey landing just as many blows as Gwen, with as much force. Gwen’s neck snapped, her head tilting limply to the side, and I cheered out loud, forgetting for a moment that we were fighting for our lives. I had no memories of Stacey from high school, but I would’ve bet everything I owned she hadn’t been a brawler. Whatever skills she possessed now, she’d picked up from hunting and living in the streets. An odd sense of pride welled up in me as I watched her take on Gwen with matched skill.

  I looked around for Elton and Rose, but they had disappeared. So had Parker. Across the other side of the field, toward the boxes that had been set up for our burial, I could just make out two figures struggling to hold a tiny one between them. My heart shattered. How could I have been so wrong about Parker? Everything that we shared, everything that had felt so fragile and wonderful and real, how could any of that have been one sided?

  I got so distracted by my feelings, I didn’t hear Frankie approach from behind, and he had all the subtlety of a bear at a campsite. He knocked me off my feet from behind. Both of Ida’s legs were missing, and he had one giant foot on her torso, pinning her to the ground. My nails bent backward and snapped off as I dug them into the concrete, scrambling to get away. He hauled me off the ground by my throat.

  “Why?” The word came out as a choked gasp, but he must’ve understood what I was asking. Why had he bothered to help us at the bank at all if he never planned to let us see this through? Why lead us on this wild goose chase when he could’ve left us to flounder without him? If he hadn’t assisted us in getting Rose’s heirloom, we never would’ve gotten this far.

  Frankie’s muddy eyes held a note of regret, but he shook his head. “I thought if things had worked out with Ida, I could’ve gone with you …” He trailed off, and while he couldn’t technically blush, I could’ve sworn the ghost of a rosy tint touched his cheeks. “But you all made it clear you’re a unit, and you weren’t willing to make room for me.”

  “I told you it was never going to happen with us,” Ida spat from the ground. One of her legs had already healed, and she scrambled to get out from under his foot.

  “It’s not just about you.” Frankie refused to look down at her, like he couldn’t stand the sight of what he’d done to her before she’d fully healed. “You all made me choose, and none of you were very nice to me, so what did you expect?”

  “Is that what you wanted?” I clawed at his beefy hand, but no amount of scraping and tearing would get him to release me. “We had to be nice for you to do the right thing?”

  “You think you’re right. Elton thinks he’s right. It’s not the right side just because it’s your side.” He caught one of my flailing legs and pulled it off in one quick motion. That time, I did scream. It echoed back at me, pounding into my ears. Pain like I’d never known stabbed through every nerve. “You should’ve compromised.”

  “We tried compromising.” I bit down on my tongue as the pain numbed and my leg grew back. “Elton wants to keep making vampires. He wants to overrun whole cities with teenage girls that he’s made for his amusement. Because he’s a bored little boy with a death fetish. How can you stand there and act like that’s at all the same as what we want to do?”

  “It’s just hard, okay? I’ve been with him ever since Gwen turned me. I didn’t want to be alone.” He averted his gaze, knowing full well he’d had a part in Elton leaving me by myself in the not-so-distant past. I took the opportunity to tear his hand off at the wrist and free myself.

  The moment I dropped to the ground, I slammed my foot into his ankle. The bone cracked, and he fell over. Good to know his weak spot. Ida rolled out from under him, both of her legs intact, and launched herself at his face. He swung his fists, catching her in the side of the face. Her head whipped to the side, healed, and she kept going. Rage lit her eyes, and she dug her nails into his face and punctured holes in his cheeks.

  I spun around, frantically scanning the parking lot for Gwen and Stacey, but they had disappeared. Across the field, a tall, willowy figure carried what looked like a sack of potatoes. One of Stacey’s arms grew back, and Gwen ripped it off again.

  Parker stood to the side of the parking lot with a horrified expression on her face. Just looking at her made everything inside me hurt worse than having my leg torn from my body. There had to be an explanation for why she’d gone back to Elton. She’d seen through him. That couldn’t have been fake, none of it could’ve been fake. I took a step toward her, not having a clue what I would say, only that I needed to hear why she’d done this. I would’ve accepted any explanation. If she wanted to lie to me, I would’ve accepted that too.

  “Going somewhere?” Elton blocked my path. A cruel grin twisted his handsome features until I barely recognized the boy I used to love. “Did you like my little surprise?”

  “You know I didn’t.” We began circling each other. “How did you convince her?”

  “The same way I convinced all of you.” He was so arrogant. So in love with himself that he truly believed he had Parker’s heart just by floating a few compliments her way. And maybe that was how he’d gotten the rest of us, but Parker didn’t buy his bullshit. She was supposed to end up better than us all. “You almost convinced her not to go through with it though, so maybe I should be giving you kudos. Close, but not quite close enough.”

  “It’s not necessary.” I swung for him, and he dodged. “This isn’t fully over, you know. We can burn Parker’s heirloom next and still finish you.”

  “Good luck finding it once I tire of her.” He wore a bored expression. As if he’d been toying with me, but now had worthier things to do.

  An anger like I’d never known rolled through my veins. Whatever lingering draw I had to him while I still had my memories was gone. I no longer saw the ethereal beauty who had captured my heart at sixteen. Eyes that had once been soft had turned hard. The crooked smile that used to humor me now insulted. He took the love I felt for him and distorted it in his obsession to control.

  I swung for him and missed. “I don’t know what you did to convince Parker to turn, but she deserves so much more than you.”

  “Like who? You?” His eyes lit with malice, and something much darker that turned my stomach. “Holly. Sweetheart. Are you in love with my girlfriend?” He let out a laugh at whatever I hadn’t been able to hide in my expression. “You are! How sad. Are you hoping she’ll call out your name while I fuck her?”

  I was on him in a flash. He didn’t have time to block me as I raked my nails across his face. I wanted to rip out his eyes and chew on them. I wanted the symphony of his screams while I tore into his flesh. The blood dripped down in a steady stream from his open wounds, leaving droplets on the dark concrete.

  But his skin wasn’t knitting together.

  He held his face as the gashes continued to bleed. “What did you do to me?”

  My eyes widened. He wasn’t healing. I spun around to where Parker still stood at the edge of the parking lot, staring intently at Elton as if she were waiting for something.

  The bracelet.

  She’d made her bracelet into an heirloom on her own.

  And gave it to me to burn.

  My mind reeled as I put all the pieces together. She must’ve planned everything. She’d wanted me to turn her, and that night she came to see me, she asked me again. I should’ve known. She gave up way too easily. I didn’t even question it. I should’ve questioned it. I should’ve been able to save her from what she’d become. Now, not only was she stuck in this form forever, but she didn’t have a single memory beyond today. Her gaze met mine across the parking lot. No recognition. No love. Nothing.

  “What the fuck is happening?” Elton clutched his bleeding cheek.

  I punched a hole through his chest and pulled out his still-beating heart. It pulsed in my
hand, cold and black as his soul. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure you’re dying.”

  I threw his heart into the fire. Though it had burned down to mere embers, new flames rose up. They licked the edges of his heart before embracing it completely. Elton let out a scream that split the earth. I’d never heard a sweeter sound in my life. He dropped to his knees, clutching his chest as old blood flowed through his fingers like mud, as if it had congealed in his veins.

  “What’s the problem, sweetheart?” I toed his spine with the tip of my shoe. “You’ve managed to go the last hundred years without a heart. This shouldn’t be anything new.”

  He reached a hand out, his fingers stretching toward the fire as his heart burned to ash before his eyes. He let out a low moan and slumped to the side. Still alive, but barely. I felt like I should’ve had more profound words for him in this moment, but when I reached into my mind, all I felt were those empty spaces.

  Parker watched Elton bleed out with a blank sense of morbid fascination. She caught me staring and gave me a tentative smile. I held my breath. Did she …?

  I took a careful step forward. “Do you remember me?”

  “I …” She rubbed her temples, as if trying to shake out the memories. The ones we’d burned away. “I remember nothing before today.”

  “Parker,” Elton choked out. Blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth now, in a slow crawl, as if it began to dry the moment it exited his body. “I thought you loved me. You told me you loved me.” I wanted to wipe away the guilt clouding her expression. It was just like him to use his last breaths to manipulate. “How could you do this? What about our plans?”

  “Don’t listen to him,” I said. His heart crackled behind me, beyond repair. It would only be a matter of minutes now. “This is what he does. He lives to make you feel bad about yourself, so he can swoop in as the savior and make himself the center of your world.”