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The Midtown Strangler got his name by the way most of the victims’ windpipes were crushed. I, personally, would’ve chosen something a bit different, because Ray was never about strangling. If he strangled, he did it to get them quiet.
No, Ray was a bigger fan of knives, preferably the sharper the better. His favorite place to slide a knife into flesh was the abdomen. Girl number sixteen, the one in the basement, had still been alive when she was stabbed, bleeding out before the police got there.
Oh, I’d watched the news perhaps a bit too much back then. My mom thought I was just trying to be more like an adult, aware of what was going on in the world, but I wasn’t. Kelsey must’ve had some idea, for each and every time news of the Midtown Strangler popped up, she’d give me a look that I pretended not to see. I didn’t need her judgment.
I didn’t need anyone’s judgment. I knew I fucked up, and I was ready to face the consequences.
Well…sort of. I sure as hell didn’t want to die here, and that kind of felt more likely as the time wore on, and I sure as shit didn’t want to go to jail. With the way Ray’s trial ended, how his lawyer had gotten him off based on some bullshit excuse of the evidence being tampered with, the police would love to pin the murders of those sixteen girls on someone, anyone.
My DNA was in that cabin. On the sheets in the bedroom, in the basement…who the hell knew where I’d dropped hairs, but I bet I did. I was sure the cops questioned the gas station worker to see if he saw anything, but being a blonde, white girl was a pretty generic description.
The pink in the hair…it was something I researched heavily in after what happened with Ray. I needed a change, and it seemed like the easiest change to make. I could get the dye in tubes for a few bucks, make them last a bit longer by diluting them with conditioner, and dye my own blonde hair. No salon necessary.
Mom liked the new hair, as did Kelsey, although Kelsey always side-eyed me, wordlessly asking me what happened. She’d seen the blood, so she knew I got into some serious shit, but she had no idea what really happened, and there was no way I could tell her. Making her drive all the way out there to pick me up was enough. Oh, and making her run into the nearest store for some cheap new clothes, too. Without Kelsey, I knew I never would’ve gotten out of that situation.
With what I did, I’d probably be girl number seventeen.
Hell, maybe I wouldn’t have. Ray liked me too much. He thought I was just like him in the most awful of ways. A monster finding someone else they thought was another monster—but hence the issue with me. I liked the dangerous one, but I didn’t like actual danger. There was a huge difference between falling for the bad boy and telling them to go kill a few people before dinner.
Ray.
As I headed back to campus, I still was in shock. For some stupid, idiotic reason, I never thought my two lives would collide like this. I was…well, it would be a lie to say I was having fun dealing with Declan, Sawyer and Travis, but it wouldn’t be a complete lie. It was kind of fun, being caught in the middle, pulled in multiple different directions. And then Will’s addition to the fray was something to consider, too. I was all about the dick and the men they were attached to, but the dick and the men were now two things I couldn’t think about.
For their safety, and mine.
My body ached something fierce by the time I made it back to the dorm, and I collapsed on my bed, inhaling the smell of my own sheets. My own scent, my own soft blankets. Even the university’s mattress. All of it was better than what I’d lived with at the hospital for the last day and a half.
Declan wasn’t here, and I was too tired to glance at my phone or the clock in the kitchenette to see what time it was. Depending on the time, he’d either be in class or at the hospital. I doubted he’d spend much time here while Will was recovering. It was good, I supposed, because the more time I spent around him, the less I wanted to push him away. And I had to keep pushing him back, lest Ray make an appearance just to teach me a lesson.
God.
Fuck.
What was with guys and lessons? Ray and his lesson that I was his and no one else’s. Travis’s punishment for me going out with Sawyer. Were any of the guys around here normal, or were they all fucked up in their own different ways? There was only so much fucked-up-ness I could handle, you know? Like, I’d prefer to keep my sanity intact.
An impossible wish, at Hillcrest, especially with my past.
I rolled over and undid my shoes, feeling the ache deep within my bones. I wriggled out of my shirt as I got up, double and triple-checking the dorm door to make sure it was locked before heading in the bathroom, closing and locking that door as well. I stripped out of all of my clothes, starting to run the faucet.
I think, for the first time in years, I was going to take a bath. My weary, bruised bones needed a good soak, as much relaxation as I could get, given the state of my life.
As the tub filled with warm water, I reached for a hairbrush, running it through my hair slowly, meeting my grey eyes in the mirror. I stood before myself, utterly naked. My body was nice enough, I supposed. Thin and limber, pale, even with the bruising rising to the surface. The right side of my face was bruised pretty badly; I’d have to use some makeup to cover that shit up for class. It was the side that got hit by the car, the side that had fallen first to the pavement.
Getting hit? Not as glamorous as you might think. Not glamorous at all, really. Definitely not Instagram-worthy.
Once the tub was full, I shut the water off, getting in. Now would be the time for a bubble bath or…what are those other things called? The things that have color and fizz and turn the water into different colors? Oh, right. Bath bombs. Yeah, I could use one of those.
This bath wasn’t about getting clean. It was about sinking as deep as I could in the tub—which was relatively easy enough, considering I was a shorter than average person—and pretending I didn’t exist. As if I could crawl back into my mom’s womb, when everything was hunky-dory and just peachy.
Hey, back in the womb, I still had a dad. Really, things only got better the more you rewound the clock.
Alas, rewinding time wasn’t possible, and I was stuck here, sitting in my own warm bathwater, wondering just why I had to be the one to get this unlucky life. Seriously. I couldn’t have been given any other life but this one, eh? How shitty of you, God. Thanks for nothing.
I sunk in the water, holding my breath as I submerged my entire face beneath it. I tried blanking, spacing out so my mind wouldn’t be caught in the trap that was Ray Ruiz, but no matter what I did, I just couldn’t get him off my mind.
I was caught in his trap, a helpless insect in his web. It was only a matter of time before he crawled to me, wound me up and sucked me dry, making me his for all eternity. No one ever really got away from Ray Ruiz.
When the water got cold, I drained some of it and refilled the tub. I wanted to be a prune when I got out. I’d already missed the morning classes, so Monday was fucked anyway. Why not spend the rest of it in the bath? It wasn’t like I was doing anything else. No rich boys to get back at, no sexual tension between two cute brothers to deal with. It was just me and my own problems right now.
