Slaughter Daughter by Eve Langlais
32
My mother was dead.So, naturally, I screamed and reeled.
Braedon kept me from fleeing. “Abby!”
“Abby!” the woman parroted, mocking me. I heard it then, the wrongness of her voice.
I frowned and straightened, eyeing the doppelganger more closely. I saw the features that hadn’t aged a day, the hair done differently, the makeup darker than my mom ever wore. And the clothes: tight jeans, crop top, and heels. Mom preferred comfort over style.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Who do you think I am?” she countered.
Braedon was confused. “You’re not who I’m supposed to meet. Where’s Selena?”
Selena snorted. “You’re in the right place, college boy. And thank you for doing my dirty work. Braedon, you have to get Abby away from those kids. They’re dangerous,” she crooned.
Braedon recoiled. “Selena is that you?”
“Do you like the new me?”
“How? What?”
“So pretty. So dumb, the perfect spy to get me close, and so easily to manipulate,” she said, getting close enough to pat his cheek. He froze as if a switch had been turned off. She eyed me next. “You, though, are plain. Boring. Blame that human whore of his. He could have had so much more had he chosen wiser.” She tsked as she finished her strange claim. Her words made no sense.
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course, you don’t. Because he never wanted you to know what he truly was. Would you love a demon, Abigail?” the woman coaxed.
“Demons don’t exist.”
“You are so wrong. And I will prove it.” Fake-mom smiled with sharp teeth and a gaze more suited to a feral animal. “Watch.” She waved her hand, and an image appeared on the back of the white-painted door. Yet I’d seen no projector.
As the video played, I recognized Kalinda in the professor’s kitchen, mixing away while wearing her apron, her makeup and hair perfect. Mary sat at the counter, laptop open.
I smirked. “Wow, look at those demons. Baking and working. Horrifying.”
“Keep watching.”
As if synchronized, both Mary’s and Kalinda’s heads turned at the same time. Kalinda’s mouth opened, and she must have called out, because the professor rushed in, followed by Cashien and Jag. Then, chaos ensued as the windows in the kitchen blew out.
I cried out even as they ducked. Still, the shards flying around like sharp bullets must have hurt. Kalinda rose first, and in my mind, I heard her melodic cursing. As I watched on the strange screen, her elegant face took on a sharper cast. Her eyes began to glow, but she didn’t completely Hulk out of her clothes until the first monster came through the window.
Cat-sized, winged creatures with pointed teeth and claws poured into the professor’s kitchen and attacked. My friends physically changed—not much, but enough for me to see the monsters within. Their faces took on an alien cast, their teeth became sharper, and their fingers elongated into claws. Claws that tore into flesh.
The video disappeared.
I clapped. “Nice special effects.”
“You don’t believe?”
“Come on. I’ve seen how shit can be manipulated. Of course, I don’t believe it. Not when you’ve obviously got some kind of agenda. Getting a face mask to look like my mom. Trying to alienate me from my friends.” Friends I’d ditched on the word of a guy who’d brought me to the real psycho.
“They’re not your friends.”
As she said it, it hit me hard that while they might have lied about some things, in all other respects, they’d been on my side. Giving me an alibi, a place to call home, protection from the shit circumstances trying to bring me down. “I’m done listening to your bullshit. Find someone else to fuck with.”
“There is no one else I’d rather ruin, though,” she cajoled.
It hit me then. “You’re the one making those pentagrams. You killed those people.”
“I did. And I’ll kill many more. Including you, if I don’t get what I want.”
Was this about money? “Exactly what do you think I can give you? I don’t have any money.” Not entirely true, but I wasn’t about to let her think for a second that I’d give in to blackmail.
“You think this is about money? Ha.” Selena snorted. “I want something more invaluable than that. Something that can’t be bought.”
“Get to the fucking point already.” I rolled my eyes.
“Revenge,” she said with a sadistic twist of her lips.
I almost wanted to clap at her performance. “Revenge for what? I’ve never met you before, lady.”
Rather than reply, she twirled away from me. “Did you know I was once enrolled at this school? Stayed in this very room, as a matter of fact. With a woman named Lily Baker.”
The name hit me like a hammer. “You knew my mom?” Not for long, obviously. Mom had told me she dropped out in the first semester.
“Oh, I knew her, all right. As if I’d forget the whore who stole my fiancé!”
