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“Christy?” Kate questions, and that pain is quickly replaced with a cold, hard stare as the future version of myself strides across the courtyard, transforming with every step. She glides across the cobblestones, her feet encased in gold ballet slippers that match the ribbons woven into her long hair and the gold dress that’s encrusted with diamonds. She has an ethereal kind of beauty, otherworldly almost. Her birthmark is a stark red against the gold mask that covers the other side of her face. Like some fairytale creature, her dress floats about her body as she moves, but it’s the look in her eyes that catches my breath. The intention to hurt glints just as much as the knife she’s clutching tightly in her fist.
Kate steps back, glancing at the man with the dirty blonde hair. “Give her room, Ford,” she says.
He gives Kate a quick nod before retreating. It’s only then that I realise who he is. Kate’s brother, mine. He’s handsome, and I see the resemblance to Kate around his eyes and mouth even though I don’t see any of me in him.
“Just let us shoot the fuckers and be done with it, Christy. It’s time to go home,” Beast says, rolling his head on his shoulders.
“We deserve to die,” Konrad says, his voice gravelly, hoarse with pain. “I won’t try to stop you.”
“Dipshit, you’re handcuffed to a tree,” Beast retorts. “You couldn’t stop us even if you wanted to.”
Leon laughs, baring his bloodstained teeth as he does. “He’s got a point, Kon.”
Konrad ignores him, canting a look at Jakub before speaking. “If we wanted to stop you, we would’ve by now. We were expecting you.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you don’t deserve to die just because you ‘allowed’ us to beat the shit out of you,” Beast says, making quote marks with his fingers, “Is that it? Cuz as far as I’m concerned, you three pricks couldn’t fight your way out of a paper bag.”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Konrad replies firmly, flicking his gaze back to the future me who seems to be having some kind of internal struggle given the way her features keep morphing from empathy to anger and back again.
“Then what? Because I dunno about everyone else here, but I’m over this shitstain of a night already. I wanna go home to my daughter with my family intact, knowing that you scum-buckets have been wiped off the face of the earth.”
Konrad heaves out a shaky breath. “It was inevitable that men like us wouldn’t survive in this world for long. I don’t blame any of you for coming here tonight for Christy. I get it,” he stresses, glancing at Leon then at Jakub, who begins to stir, before resting his eyes back on me. “But the only person here that has the right to kill us is you, Christy, the person we hurt the most. The woman we love.”
“Love?” Kate spits the word out, her eyes narrowing. “You don’t know the meaning of the word, you fucking psychopath.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Leon says, smiling despite the blood dripping into his mouth. “Christy taught us.”
Beast, Kate and Ford all turn their attention to future me. But she doesn’t acknowledge them, her focus remains on The Masks. “Stop talking,” she whispers, her voice steady even though her hands are shaking.
Jakub stirs, his head lifting, puffy eyelids opening as he tries to focus. “End this,” he mutters.
My future self sucks in a ragged breath, her expression faltering, the anger slipping. She wobbles on her feet, her body leaning forward as though pulled towards them. Kate notices, her brows pulling together in a frown.
“This is emotional warfare, Christy. They’re trying to fuck with you. You don’t need to do a damn thing.”
“No. I’m the one who should do it. Me,” my future self replies fiercely. “Jakub’s right, I need to end this once and for all.”
“Atta girl,” Beast says, a grin pulling up his lips. “You’re more like your sister than I’ve given you credit for.”
Stepping towards the three of them, the future me holds the blade out in front of her. Without saying a word, she silently unbuttons Konrad’s shirt and presses the blade against his skin. He groans, never once taking his eyes off her as she carves our name into his chest. Stepping back she looks at her handiwork then nods, before moving to Jakub. I suck in a shocked breath at the criss-cross of scars and scabs already decorating his chest as she carves more on top of them. When she reaches Leon, her expression falters as she traces her fingers over the scar already there.
“Do it,” Leon urges.
She leans in close, and for a moment I think she’s going to slide the blade up to the hilt into Leon’s chest, instead she stills and I whilst I see his mouth moving I can’t make out the words.
Eventually she pulls back, and placing the knife over the healed scars, my future self cuts into his skin until fresh blood drops from the parted flesh.
When she’s finished, she steps back then says: “You told me that your hearts belong to me, that I brought them back to life. Well, I claim those hearts now. They’re mine.”
“Yours,” all three respond as a blast of wind passes through the courtyard like a storm in a bottle.
“Look, Christy, as much as I love your flair for the dramatic and all that, these fuckers need to die. If you want their hearts, I’d gladly cut them out for you. It’s a messy fucking job, but it’s not like I ain’t done it before,” Beast says, looking about the courtyard as though he can’t wait to get out of there.
“But they will die,” future me replies softly, dropping the blade to the ground. It clatters to the cobblestones, The Masks combined blood splattering over the stone at her feet and across her gold ballet slippers. “This blade is laced with poison…”
“Christy? Fuck, are you alright?”Leon exclaims, leaning over me. His face only inches from mine, his thumb gently rubbing my cheek as he holds me in his arms. I blink up at him, the lingering after effects of the vision stealing my breath momentarily. Seeing him covered up in his mask, when only moments before he wasn’t wearing one is even more disconcerting. “What happened?”
“I fainted,” I reply quickly.
