Thana: Before killing Justice
Payback tastes sweet until you get a feel of the aftermath. That’s what I should’ve hammered into my head that day in the washroom after Skylar, Ava, and I discussed faux-killing Justice. It felt good to plan it, amazing to imagine it even, but afterwards, all I was left with was fear, guilt and shame. It wasn’t worth it. I would give anything to see Justice alive and walking down the corridors of Arden Academy like a shiny bullet soaring through the air. I don’t know how the others tell it—that Friday morning or afternoon Justice did something to hurt us. But she’s been making me bleed ever since Kieran made my family move to The Circle last year in September.
I was new that year. Fresh meat, Justice said. I thought she meant it as a joke and it’s weird how happy I was that she had noticed me, that she had even spoken to me. I’m used to being invisible to my dad a
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Killing Justice Chapter 15
Thana: After killing JusticeDeath is inevitable and comes in many forms. The first being my mother’s, Mary—that’s what I call her now, not Mum like Nabil and I used to—died from pulmonary embolism, that’s what my dad told me a few hours after he got an out of the blue call at a quarter past midnight. Then came Kayla’s death. A hit-and-run that left her broken, her stomach sliced open, blood oozing from the wound. Another form was Jasmine. The fall didn’t kill her, apparently; it was a blood clot that shot straight into her brain.And now Justice but no one knows this, but all the same, by Monday morning, news of Justice’s disappearance has spread throughout the school like wildfire, seeping into every chat room, creating new hashtag posts every minute someone clueless gets a whiff of the gossip circulating.Normalcy has become a thing of the past. Chaos and fear have desce
Killing Justice Chapter 16
Thana: After killing JusticeMiss Spellings must sense I’m uncomfortable with the way the conversation has steered toward me because she says, “I think that’s enough questions for today. Wouldn’t you agree?”The detective’s face remains expressionless. “One more thing.” His eyes slide to mine. “When was the last time you saw Justice?”This time I don’t lie. “Friday,” I say simply.He sighs, disappointed in my answer. His partner, who I’m trying to devise a name for in my head, notes it down. I feel oddly queasy about being evaluated this way. “Did she behave out of the ordinary?”From Miss Spellings expression, I know he’s already asked this before. “Normal, she seemed normal.”“Can you elaborate?”“I mean as
Killing Justice Chapter 17
Anonymous: BeforeToday I decided to pay a visit to my therapist. A robust man in his early fifties with neatly cropped black hair, dressed articulately in a dress shirt that smells too much of starch and straightened black trousers. His office is small yet stretched wide with a variety of books. From Charles Dickens to Ernest Hemingway, my eyes skim each cover. His taste bores me.A small picture of his family—three girls all alike, tall and as slim as their mother—sits on his polished desk facing me. He fingers the frame every time he gets up to see me out the door. Nothing goes unnoticed by me.Footsteps resonate through the door behind me. It is pushed open, and he steps into the room with enough hauteur to make me scowl. “I didn’t know you were coming in today.” As though to prove a point, his eyes spy the calendar perched on his desk. It reads October 20th, which is a Tuesday, but I&rs
Killing Justice Chapter 18
Ava: After killing JusticeWe all lie at some point in our lives. Some lies are bone-deep and no matter how much we try to escape them, they keep breeding faster than pigs. That’s the kind of lie I sense spilling out of Skylar’s mouth when she tells me she’s at Sean Dabrah’s house. “I’m on my way,” she says over the phone, her voice sounding frantic like she’s been caught robbing a bank.“Sure. Thana and I will just wait at your house,” I reply and wait for a beat. It becomes radio silent on the other end. And then she hangs up. There’s got to be some reasonable explanation as to why a hairy-chested, foul-mouthed man was doing on Skylar’s doorstep. In her house. In our unfortunate situation, it’s dangerous to have someone you can’t trust around you and I don’t care if it’s just a house address. Little things spark up fires, grow bigger into explos
Killing Justice Chapter 19
Ava: After killing JusticeShe’s right, it’s none of our business and definitely not a big deal, but I’m still squeamish about something as little as that. It’s like ever since we found Justice I’ve been scrutinizing everything through a magnifying glass, trying to dissect every information I get my hands on like a toad under a scalpel. As the car bellies out of Silver Rose Street, my mind finally succumbs to the ‘what if’ and ‘maybe’ scenarios that have been keeping me up at night. The only way Justice could’ve afforded to spend time at Circe Creek Hotel was if she had hit the jackpot by winning a lottery or landed her dream job at The Lounge, which wouldn’t happen not in a million years. Justice literally lived to breathe the nonsense spewed by the saleswoman at her favourite shop at the mall, Cherry-on-Top. But there’s a policy all the shops in the estate must follow- never hire a minor e
Killing Justice Chapter 20
Ava: After killing Justice My brain is a murky pool of confusion, riddled with one fat, bold question: What the hell is a box doing in the wall? Whoever preemptively carved a square-sized hole in the wall, took out a brick and replaced it with cardboard, didn’t want anyone to know. Not even the hotel staff who I’m sure is oblivious to the incongruous box in the room. We huddle around the box, our short shadows shrouding it. Now it’s more of a small jewelry box with the telltale signs of someone else’s prying, shown by the silvery long scratches on the latch. “Do you think Justice was trying to open it?” My voice is quiet, tremulous, and unsure. “Maybe.” Skylar sits back on her calves. “The scratches are probably from fixing on the latch.” And because we have no clue what she’s alluding to, she taps her finger on the base where a molten piece is staggered from the rest of the lock’s body. “It most likely broke off a
Killing Justice Chapter 21
Ava: Before killing JusticeAt home, Cece got it into her head that she can somehow convince Justice to come back home by using her YouTube channel. She’s adamant about the idea of Justice leaving home because of Patience, but I’m not quick to point out that Patience and Justice have been at each other’s throats since their benefactor, Grandma Ortega, threatened to cut her aunt from her will.Unfortunately, I’m added into the equation of this new profound video on her channel where she smacks me secretly behind the camera when I don’t quite get enough emotion into the words I’m spewing. “You’ve got to say it like you mean it,” she urges on.Annoyance leaches out of my pores, and I almost snatch her iPad off my bed and hurl it at the wall. Cece is lovable. I’ve always known, but a duo seemed to be the perfect thing for me when Justice was alive. Until Justice bro
Killing Justice Chapter 22
Ava: Before killing Justice The next morning, Victor finally texts me. It’s the kind of morning where the sky is still painted dark-blue, no hint of it shedding its cloak to give way to light and the trees lined underneath are as straight and catatonic as soldiers in alignment. Over the last few hours, I’ve lain awake to the sound of Cece sleeping. For someone so pretty, her snore isn’t. I’ve tried not to think of Dad and Justice stashed in my pile of clothes, faces inches from each other, sun blotting out their secret. So Victor’s text is a candle in the dark. My only hope of solace right now. Are you awake? I note the time it was sent. It’s an hour ago, and dread shoots through me so fast I’m contemplating if he’s awake or not. Yeah, I am. Wanna talk? His response is immediate, as though he’s had trouble peeling his eyes away from his phone, hop