Holly glanced at her classmates, dropping her gaze to each of them. Cece couldn’t stop blinking. Jackie’s mouth was open wide enough to look almost cartoonish. She wondered if her tongue would roll out onto the table at any moment.
‘What are you talking about?’ Zoe asked in a small voice.
Poor Zoe. Her punishment was on hold until another piece fell into place. Mr. Curtis. He’d fought Holly every step of the way, but she’d expected him to. She wanted him to crash and burn for the disgusting deed, but she also liked playing with him. She enjoyed playing with all of them. Much more than she ever expected to.
‘You’re not making any sense,’ Teddy said.
‘Did you do this?’ Q asked, standing up from his chair. ‘Did you burn my hands, Holly?’
‘Yes,’ Holly said. ‘I did.’
Q rushed at the table, moving it a good two feet from its spot before Jackie and Teddy grabbed both of his arms. ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’
Holly smirked and clicked her tongue. She held a cell phone in her hand. The one she’d hidden under the table after she’d set up the library late last night. It was the key to all of the consequences she’d established for them. ‘If you attempt to hurt me, all of your secrets go public.’
‘What else can you do to ruin us?’ Q asked, coming around to her side of the table.
Teddy stood up and tried to block him, but Q shoved him out of the way.
Holly stood and held the phone in front of her. ‘I dare you to test me.’
‘Stop!’ Zoe said at the same time Jackie said, ‘Q, don’t.’
Q held his hands at his sides. He winced as they tried to curl into fists. ‘Look what she did to us.’
‘My mom can’t know,’ Teddy said.
Holly glanced at Zoe who was practically vibrating. While the rest of them had terrible secrets, hers was just as bad, possibly worse.
‘Fine,’ Q said. ‘I don’t have to listen, though.’
‘Yes, you do,’ Holly said. ‘You will all sit down and listen to me. This is part of you consequences.’
Those who were standing sat down. Eventually, Q did as well. Even if they wanted to hurt her, they’d never get the chance. She’d spent too much time planning to allow any of them to leave unscathed. Even poor Zoe.
‘You’re Jacob?’ Cece asked. ‘I don’t get it.’
Holly gave her a look. ‘I’m doing this for Jacob. Jacob Hollis.’
Confused expressions looked back at her, which made her angrier than when she decided to start this elaborate game. ‘Of course you wouldn’t remember him. That’s the point of all this. You lived your lives every day oblivious to what you did. My real name is Megan Hollis. Jacob was my brother. Well, foster brother. And you all played a part in his death,’ she said.
‘I’ve never killed anyone,’ Cece said.
‘I don’t even know a Jacob Hollis,’ Teddy said.
‘He didn’t die by any of your hands,’ Megan said. ‘But each of your deep, dark secrets formed a finger on the hand that caused his death.’
‘That’s bull,’ Q said. ‘I’m going to call the police.’ He pulled out his phone and placed it on the table. He stared at it, unable to use his burned fingers to key in numbers. Q’s consequence was her masterpiece. She’d imagined it in her dreams, but when she saw the stage light up under him, she couldn’t help but feel awestruck.
‘Go ahead,’ Megan said. ‘See what happens when they ask how you got burned. Or how you broke out in that terrible rash, Jackie. Or how a nude picture of Cece appeared on the internet, and why Teddy’s drug money was stolen.’
‘So you’re blaming us for some kid’s death?’ Q asked. ‘Looks like you’re fishing for someone to blame. Where were you when it happened?’
‘I’ve already paid my dues,’ Megan said, thinking of the day she put her brother in the ground when she could have tried harder to prevent that night from happening. Reliving that day for the last year had been her punishment. Now justice would be served, and she hoped that she could be redeemed.
‘How are we all connected?’ Zoe asked. ‘I never met Jacob, but I do remember seeing his face in the paper. It happened a few towns over from here.’
Megan glanced at Zoe. She didn’t think Jacob had affected anyone but herself and her dad. She wondered how many details Zoe remembered. Probably not much. Since no one dared to come forward with information, she knew that Jacob’s death was quickly forgotten.
‘Don’t fall for this, Zoe,’ Q said. ‘There isn’t anything left to reveal. Her brother died, and she’s looking for someone to blame. I won’t be that person. I’ve never met him—’
‘Oh, but you have,’ Megan said sharply. ‘All of you had the opportunity to save him, and you didn’t. I pieced together everything from that night. I’ve done my research.’
Q moved, and Megan held out her cell phone, warning him. His face pinched with pent-up frustration, but he didn’t make another move.
‘The night he died, there was a party,’ Megan started. ‘A few of you might remember it. I heard it was a rager.’
‘It was Greg Winter’s party,’ Jackie said. ‘It was at his father’s house on the town line.’
Megan snapped her fingers. ‘I knew there was a brain in there somewhere.’
Jackie flipped Megan off.
‘Jackie, we come to you first,’ Megan continued. ‘You might not remember his name, but you should remember meeting my brother.’
‘I don’t,’ Jackie said, her eyes darting to each member of the group.
This girl was daft. ‘What is a nickname for someone named Jacob?’
It took the cheerleader a minute, but Megan noted the exact moment where it clicked for her.
Jackie’s mouth fell open. ‘Jake.’
‘Jake,’ Megan said slowly, dragging the name over her tongue—ever since they’d met, he’d always been Jacob to her—‘as his new friends called him, was invited by two football players at our school. As a joke. My brother wanted desperately to fit in, so he went.’
Jackie covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes welled with tears.
Good.
Megan didn’t need to try to keep her tears at bay. She’d cried enough. While planning all of this, anger was the stronger emotion. Now she ripped open the gaping wound in her heart as she relived it for them.
‘I didn’t know he was serious about going so when he asked me for a ride, I refused,’ Megan said. ‘Instead, he took the bus across town and walked to the house. When he arrived, that’s when he met Jackie.’
Megan held onto Jackie’s gaze. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done to go to school with this girl every day for six months. And to make it worse, she’d had to research Jackie’s life to find the one thing that would teach her a lesson.
Megan had been content to ruin Jackie’s face. Jackie was the first on her list. Initially, the knife had been the only option. As she’d planned the rest of the consequences, she’d come up with the temporary option to give Jackie false hope. Every opportunity for Jackie to ruin someone’s life had two choices, the easy one and the hard one. She was surprised that Jackie took the hard way out, but even though the clock almost ran out, she still suffered her consequence.
Megan knew Jackie was a virgin, she heard that from Logan directly, but that wasn’t her biggest secret. Even after watching each of her classmates fall, she still resisted her own truth. She thrived on lies, and those lies had deathly consequences.
Megan had been on the edge of her seat while everyone searched for the letters. Little did they know, Megan was going to suggest opening the second envelope at the last minute, wanting to have the deciding vote in Jackie’s fate. Jackie’s quick thinking about that exact plan somewhat backfired on Megan, giving Jackie the win. Megan hoped every painful inch of Jackie’s face helped remind her of what she’d done to ‘Jake’.
‘Do you remember the encounter?’ Megan asked. ‘I only have the gossip. But Jacob was gay, so what you made up couldn’t have possibly been true.’
The others looked at Jackie, something that Megan hoped for. Peer pressure wasn’t a bad motivator. And now that their secrets were shared, there was no reason for anyone to hold back.
‘I thought he was cute,’ Jackie said. ‘Logan and I were on the outs again, and I wanted to make him jealous. So I figured this kid would do the trick and then I’d never see him again. We went into Greg’s mom’s room. And, um, once we were inside, we started fooling around.’
‘That’s a lie,’ Megan said.
Jackie nodded. ‘I tried to fool around with him. He refused. For Logan to be jealous, I needed Jake to tell the story as I wanted. And to be honest, Jake not wanting me hurt my ego a bit. So I told him that he had to tell everyone we had sex or else I’d say he was unable to get it up.’
Megan was the only one in their family that knew he was gay. And since Jacob wanted to fit in—something she never understood—he would have done it, no matter how wrong it felt to him.
‘I bet that felt nice,’ Megan said.
‘Screw you,’ Jackie said. ‘I didn’t mean to—’
‘You didn’t mean to embarrass him? You were going to do it anyway. I hope every time you look into the mirror, you think of him.’
Jackie’s shoulders shook with repressed sobs.
Speaking of tears…
‘Let’s move on to Cece,’ Megan said.
‘I didn’t try to sleep with him,’ Cece said.
‘No,’ Megan said. ‘But you make him vulnerable.’
‘How?’ Cece asked, her eyes narrowing to slits.
‘By taking his only means to get a safe ride home,’ Megan said.
Cece’s eyes teared up, and her voice shook. ‘I don’t understand.’
Megan reached into her bag and pulled out a red debit card. The one that her dad gave both her and Jacob in case of emergencies. ‘This is what Jacob would have used to get a ride home. But for some reason, it showed up in your bedroom. Tell me, how is that?’
Cece wrung her hands in her lap and mumbled something.
‘Please speak up!’ Megan snapped.
‘I stole his wallet,’ Cece said flatly.
‘You took his wallet,’ Megan repeated, letting it sink in. ‘Do you still claim not to be involved?’
‘Why would you steal his wallet?’ Jackie asked. ‘You have a ton of money.’
‘I can’t help it sometimes,’ Cece said. ‘It’s something I need to do to feel right about myself. And no one knew him, so it didn’t seem like a big deal.’
‘That’s messed up,’ Q said.
‘Shut up,’ Cece said. ‘None of you is perfect.’
Megan waited until they stopped bickering before continuing her story. ‘Jacob didn’t know about his missing wallet until he got to the ATM,’ Megan said. ‘When he tried to get onto the bus, the driver refused him a ride. And at that point, he was too far away from the party and needed to be home in time for curfew. Do you remember the temperature that night?’
Jackie mumbled something.
‘What was that?’ Megan demanded.
‘It was cold,’ Jackie said, narrowing her eyes.
‘It was thirty-five degrees that night, give or take. Teddy, that’s where you come in.’
Teddy’s eyes were wide as if he knew he wasn’t involved. He was so wrong.
‘If you need help remembering,’ Megan said, ‘I spoke with your cousin, Declan. He remembered a “young kid” asking for money from the both of you. But do you recall what you said to Jacob?’
‘No,’ Teddy said, shaking his head.
‘Exactly. You said no. You refused someone who needed help. He only needed a couple of dollars for the bus. You couldn’t even spare that,’ Megan said.
Teddy hung his head. ‘I barely remember him at all.’
Cece gasped, now fully sobbing even though her part of the tale was over. Megan was on a roll now, and there was no stopping her.
‘That’s when we come to you, Q,’ Megan said. She couldn’t linger on the fine details any longer. She was done with them and wanted to move onto the finale. ‘Jacob saw your garbage can. The one you soaked with gasoline and lit up. Did you even see him? Did you see the way his hands moved over the flames because he was freezing? And how the fire exploded shortly after, throwing my brother to the ground? At that point, the coroner mentioned that Jacob suffered from second-degree burns on his hands. And the flames burned his eyes. Enough for him to not see the car coming straight at him as he stumbled into the road.’
Q cursed then said, ‘This is all circumstantial. You’re crazy, Holly—Megan, whoever the hell you are!’
‘I have proof of every instance,’ Megan said. ‘I did my homework months before coming to this school. It makes me sick to see people like you go on living your lives when you could have been nicer to someone who needed help. One act of kindness and my brother would be with me today. I wouldn’t be here and neither would all of you.’
‘Did you set us up to come to detention?’ Jackie asked.
‘Of course,’ Megan said. ‘It was easy enough to get into your locker, Teddy.’ Megan was unable to hide her smile. Getting them all into detention the same week had been her favorite part of all this. ‘I tipped Principal Killian about Cece skipping school. During the fake fire alarm fiasco that Q took the blame for, it was incredibly simple to swap your test for one that looked like you cheated, Jackie.’
‘I could get kicked out of school!’ Jackie exclaimed.
‘You didn’t set off the fire alarm?’ Cece said to Q.
Q didn’t defend himself. Megan knew he’d take the blame for it, especially when it had to do with fire.
‘What did you do to Zoe?’ Teddy asked.
Zoe’s eyes widened with fear.
Megan looked at Zoe. ‘We’re getting there. The driver of the car is up next. I never blamed him for hitting Jacob. It was dark, and Jacob fell into the street after being burned and blinded. At least that’s what the coroner said.’ She shot a look in Q’s direction. ‘The running away is what gets me. What motivates someone to fatally injure someone else and then flee the scene? You must be thinking alcohol, but you’re wrong. It’s much worse than that.’
Megan smirked and lifted her chin, indicating the doorway. ‘And here comes lucky number five, right on time.’