Thana: After killing Justice
The next day, I wake up with panic blossoming in my chest. It’s Monday, I realise, but it takes a while for my brain to remember school is out till they tell us it’s not. I moan into my pillow. All the crying I did last night takes its toll on me. My head is pounding. Kieran comes in seconds later, making me know she must have had her ears plastered to my bedroom door. I scootch to make room for her. “How are you feeling?” she asks, pressing her cold icy hand to my temple. A shiver racks through me and I whimper.
“Oh dear, you have a fever.” I kind of figured it out when everything, including my bed, felt like a block of ice.
She orders me into the bathroom while I strip my pyjamas and wrap a towel around myself, collapsing on the tiled floor. She returns with a bucket teeming with hot water and readies a bath for me while I wail about how much they must hate me now. “Who hates you?” Sh
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Killing Justice Chapter 1
Skylar: Before killing JusticeWe’re good girls, I promise. Thana, Ava and I. We didn’t mean for this to happen; for Justice to die. It was meant to be a joke, some form of payback for terrorizing Thana all year, for being a bitch to me and for backstabbing Ava. You’d think being Justice Ortega’s best friend will make you untouchable. But when fire catches, everything and everyone burns.I can’t grasp everything that happened. The events slip through my fingers like sand. Here’s what I know: Our plan went south the minute I lost my temper. I’m the reason everything went wrong.Ava was supposed to lure Justice to Fox Park. They were to get cozy with the chips and beverages Thana and I laid out for them. Hell, I even brought along The Sound Of Music because, in year ten, I overheard Justice telling Ava she secretly loved it. That she lied to Victor Asante, her kind-of-maybe boyfrie
Killing Justice Chapter 2
Ava: After killing JusticeIf memory serves, killing Justice wasn’t part of our plan, well mine actually since I contrived everything up. It was supposed to be simple, deceptively so.An effervescent charge darts through me as I recall how I manically orchestrated it. It was my job to get her to Fox Park, to a place secluded by witch-looking trees that dip low to kiss the ground as if a giant appeared from the clouds and stomped on them. A place our gated community called the junk room but Justice dubbed it The Crimson Hideaway.It was easy to get her there because I’d used celebrating as an excuse. Justice got the Head Girl position I had been longing for, but I wasn’t angry. How could I when I was going to get even?“It’s been a long time since we came down this dump, huh?” she said when I guided her to the broken and battered building we’d tu
Killing Justice Chapter 3
Skylar: Before killing JusticeWhen people know you’ve taken a life before, there’s a certain way they look at you. I see it in their eyes. Pure fear like a knife slowly twisted in their gut. They think I’m going to snap at any minute and when I don’t, the brave ones pluck up the courage to tell it to my face: killer, murderer, psycho. For some time, you’d think I’ve gotten used to it, that there’s no other colorful way they can break my spirit till they find a way to penetrate each space in my soul with the daggers in their eyes and the pitchforks in their words.You’d think I’ve gotten used to the way they look at me even as my body surges forward, my arms are straight as a ruler as they cut through the water but even this deep in Arden Academy’s swimming pool, I can feel their eyes on me. Hot like a heated knife on cold butter. They can’t touch me any other wa
Killing Justice Chapter 4
Thana: After killing JusticeWe all duck at the same time, knees knocking against the hard floor, our next breath catching in our throats refusing to give us some solace. The light darts over my face, two sharp orbs penetrate through my vision. From the intensity of the light rays, I know it’s only a matter of time before whoever is out there discovers the abandoned junk room.“Nobody should move a muscle,” Skylar hisses from underneath remnants of a window sill. It’s akin to hiding behind a sieve, hoping no one sees through the holes.She doesn’t need to repeat herself. Everything inside me is frozen solid, the blood in my veins, the oxygen in my lungs. I can’t feel anything besides the terror hammering at my chest like a feral animal locked up in a cage. Ava, however, slides from my left, moving out of my view. It takes a while for my brain to register her movement, that she’s
Killing Justice Chapter 5
Anonymous: Before Justice gets killedThe minute she enters the Choco&Cream shop, I know she’s The One. Not that I haven’t had an inkling for a while now but today, looking at her cross one leg over the other on a rattan-style white chair, I know she’s the perfect fit. The perfect girl. I don’t just choose anyone because like I said, everything must be perfect.Every day after school is done for the day, she comes to this little shop no matter how expensive their menu is, she still goes there every day. I know this because I’ve been there myself. I admire her, really I do. One waitress—a pixie sized woman with an upturned nose from what I can see—hands her the note I dropped a while ago. My imperfect scrawl is what her eyes are perusing before she hands it over to the girl I’m watching from afar. Nosy little bitch. The thought eggs me as I watch the little midget saunter off.<
Killing Justice Chapter 6
Thana: After killing JusticeIronically, it’s the sickly loud silence that wakes me up the next morning. I don’t know how I manage to pry my eyelids open because last night I squeezed them painfully shut to blackout all images of Justice’s half milky white eyeball looking up at me. I learnt a valuable thing from the surreal night. That fear was my stalker. It followed me from Fox Park all the way home. It crawled up on me like a creeping living thing till I woke up in between hours with a strangled cry only I could hear.Events from last night come rushing to me. I remember peeling off my blood-stained clothes thankful that I had dressed in black and dumped them on my bathroom floor. It wasn’t easy getting back into my room because every time I so much as moved a muscle on that old rickety ladder behind my window, I feared I would wake someone up. My dad and Nabil are heavy sleepers but not Kieran. My st
Killing Justice Chapter 7
Thana: After killing JusticeBy lunchtime, I’m able to talk Kieran out of a salon date with me and I’m left alone with Gladys. Nabil left right after breakfast was over and Dad retreated to his study to work. Once Gladys leaves the kitchen, I pull out my phone to text on the group chat. Justice’s aunt was here asking questions about her.Holy shit is Skylar’s only response but Ava confirms what Miss Ortega said that she’d been to Ava’s house.What did you say? This from Ava.I didn’t get a chance to say anything. Which I’m still grateful never happened. My thoughts drift to the mention of shovels earlier and I feel disconcerted because there’s no way I’ll be able to balance that on my bike when going back to Fox Park tonight. On the kitchen counter, Kieran’s messy scrawl catches my eye and I see that it’s a shopping list. She&rsq
Killing Justice Chapter 8
Anonymous: Before Justice gets killedThe hotel room is medium-sized and definitely not shabby at all. Everything is decorated with calming hues of beige. The gauzy brown curtains are on every side of me. There’s a long glass cane table at the centre of the room, chairs that are positioned facing each other giving me the intimacy I crave. I avoid the windows in the room because they are too enormous, too wide and disobey discretion to the fullest. The roman wall clock directly above the four-inch telly tells me she’s late. She’s always late, as though she hasn’t the care or regret for being so. As if I’m not someone she needs to rush over to. I stifle a sigh as I wait for her arrival and the minutes tick by till there’s a notification on my phone.At best, she’s apologetic and at worst, she’s an hour late. Moving over to the door, I unlock it and return to my seat. She prefers to sit on the bed