Take the Fall(92)

“Just take it! I’m sorry, Gretchen, please!”

I hold the phone between us like a weapon. Her eyes graze over it, her mouth twitching. And then she lunges, knocking it out of my hand. I manage to get my boots under me before I’m pulled sideways. The world spins, a tree rushes toward my head. A shower of stars erupts across my vision, and then I’m on the ground again. I want to give in, just lie here and let it end, but she shoves me with her foot.

“Come on, Sonia. Run.”

I do what I’m told.

I crash through bushes and trees, unsure how I got to my feet or where I’m headed—I just go. I don’t know if she’s behind me or in front of me or where I’m even going until I realize how loud the water is and that the way I’ve gone was wrong. I stumble back, and she’s on me, and then we’re in the dirt and it’s hands and trees and sky and a rock digs into my side. One of us screams, but it’s lost under the roar, and we’re out on that rock, the water spray like ice, and she’s scratching and I’m shoving and—

“Gretchen!”

Tears stream down my face. I gasp for breath.

It’s a minute before I see anything but the empty darkness where she was.

I can’t bear to look at Marcus.

“I ran home because I’m a coward and I didn’t know what else to do. When my family saw what I looked like, they called the cops, and I panicked—I couldn’t tell them what really happened. The reports came in that Gretchen was missing, then dead. Someone suggested we were both attacked in the woods and I just went with it. I was too scared to do anything else.”

I hold my hands in front of me, staring at them as if they belong to someone else. “But I provoked her—then I pushed her. It was my fault.”

I take the first honest breath I’ve taken in weeks, and raise my head. Marcus’s eyes are deep and black and sad. I wish he’d say something—yell at me, lash out. He has more reason to hate me than anyone else.

“I’ve waited every day for the sheriff to figure it out, for someone to put it together. If it had to be anyone . . . I’m glad it was you.”

Marcus exhales, looks at the ground. He shifts his feet and for a moment it seems like he’s going to reach for me, and I allow myself to breathe . . . but then he turns his head to one side and speaks into the darkness.

“Are you satisfied?”

My head whips around in time to see a second shadowy figure climbing down from the nearest turret of the castle. My blood goes cold, and for a moment, it’s like I’m seeing a ghost all over again. She’s changed out of the feathery purple gown into black leggings and a sweater, but her platinum hair is still piled elaborately on her head. She walks toward us with a big smile, takes the phone out of Marcus’s hand, and replays the last few seconds of me talking.

“That should do nicely.”

I shake my head, looking from Kirsten to Marcus and back. Blood roars through my ears. I scan the rest of the woods in a panic as the setup sinks in. I haven’t just confessed. I’ve been caught.

“You were in my room,” I say slowly. “But the memory card—”

“I figured you probably didn’t get your kicks looking at it every night, so I left you a blank one.” Her eyes are flat. “You know, at first I just wanted you to be guilty. Gretchen treated you more like a sister than she ever did me. I kept the bracelet they found with her body as a kind of memento. But when my mom pulled the matching one out of Gretchen’s jewelry box, I got suspicious. I just never thought he’d actually get you to say it.”

I turn to Marcus, my voice shaking. “You knew?”

He looks away.

“Cut the guy a little slack, I only told him the truth an hour ago.” Kirsten frowns. “I don’t think you broke his heart until you said it yourself.”

My chest feels like it’s caving in. I look at the phone in her hand, the implications of every word I said buzzing through my head. Admitting the truth to Marcus was awful, but it felt safe somehow. It was almost a relief. But if I’d known I was confessing to the sheriff, the town . . . Gretchen’s family. It can’t be like this—I need more time. I plead with my eyes, begging Marcus to look at me, but he stares past me like I’m not even here.

Kirsten folds her arms. “So, do you want to call the sheriff and turn yourself in, or should I?”

I drag my gaze back to her.

“It’ll be such a shock to him.” Her lip curls. “This isn’t going to make him look good in the next election.”

My mouth tastes of metal. “Kirsten, please. I—I can’t do that to my family.”

“You had no trouble doing it to mine.”

I lower my head, my face flooding with shame. “Gretchen tried to kill me.”

“But you killed her first.”

“It was self-defense.”

She holds up her phone and starts dialing. “Why don’t we let the justice system decide.”

I glance at Marcus, but he just turns away, looking broken.

“Kirsten, think about it.” I struggle to breathe. “Gretchen was horrible to you too, just in a different way. She knew what you wanted most in the world and she never let you have it.”

“You don’t know what I wanted,” she says, but her voice hitches.