𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐋 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑 - kiara carrera¹

𝒊𝒙. 𝒈𝒖𝒏𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒆

"WE FOUND OUT WHO THE BOAT BELONGED TO."

Tatum rolled her eyes at the boy in front of her. She couldn't listen to another word about that stupid fucking boat or the money that came out of it. She looked a mess tonight - not like herself. She wasn't wearing any concealer to cover up the marks of her sleepless nights, she wasn't wearing foundation to cover up the stress of her skin, she wasn't wearing a grin to show off her buzz. And she was always buzzed at a party - especially one that was thrown for her brother.

"It was Scooter Grubbs'," he went on anyway, trying to catch her attention. "He was found dead at the marsh."

She shrugged and took a long sip of her alcoholic drink. "Sucks to be him, I guess."

"You're missing the point," he said frustratedly. "How the hell did a guy like Scooter get that kind of money?"

Tatum shrugged again. She honestly couldn't care less about this man. "Drug runs, prostitution, pornography, assassin -"

"Okay, okay, I get it." He sighed, searching the girl's face for any hint of the mischief, that she usually wore as her signature look. There was nothing. Just plain, old nothing. "Hey, you okay?"

She shook her head and plastered on a show-stopping smile. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm perfect. Everything is good. Good, good, good. Fun, fun, fun."

John B rose a single brow at her response. "You know, if this is about Kie being mad at you about the gun, you know she's probably already forgiven you."

Tatum shook her head once again. "Nope, everything is good." She looked around over the crowds of people. "I'm gonna find a touron to fuck."

She eyed the groups of people curiously. She seen her father in the corner of the beach, talking to a friend and slapping his oldest son over the back proudly. How were they all so okay with this? Tatum knew she'd have to deal with it one day, but it was so unexpected. It was nothing new for a Quinn to murder another Quinn, but she couldn't believe the reason. Not one of the four siblings were even close to being straight, but Leroy took his little brother's life like it didn't matter. Would he do it to her one day? Or Thomas? Or the fetus growing in Gary-the-cop's wife? Her father turned around from his conversation and watched his daughter stroll over to a group of strangers.

Impulsively deciding her life was worth more than her choice of pussy, Tatum grabbed the first touron she seen checking her out. It was a boy. She giggled seductively as his hand snaked around her waist. She was suddenly shot back into her closeted, middle school days, where she would screw any guy that looked at her, just to convince herself her mind was wrong. It made her sick. The way they kissed her, the way she allowed them, the hardness in their trousers, the tight grip they held on her - it reminded her too much of her father. And now she was letting this boy do it all over again, because she knew her dad was watching over them.

From a distance, her friends watched in shock. At this time, Tatum was usually doing all she could to prove to Kiara that she was good. She was always doing everything for Kiara. But now she was with a guy. JJ glared at the scene, John B furrowed his brows, Pope's mouth was wide open, Kie's stomach was bubbling with burning liquid. What the fuck was going on?

Tatum's breath hitched, but not in the good way. She felt sick. He moved his fingertips over the waistband of her shorts. She leaned her head on his shoulder, making eye contact with her father from the other side of the beach. He was smiling with his thumbs up, egging her on. She wasn't sure how much longer she could go on for.

"Hey, what d'you think you're doing with my girlfriend?!"

The boy's hands froze over Tatum's pubic bone. She sighed in relief at the sound of Pope Heyward. The guy gulped and ran away without a thought, shouting the word, "Slut!" as he fled. She looked up to face her friend with a grateful smile, tears threatening the corners of her eyes. Nobody knew why Tatum was so off tonight, and her being emotional only made Pope worry more. It just wasn't her.

But unfortunately, he couldn't ask a single question about her strange behaviour tonight, because when they turned to their friends, John B and Topper were fist-fighting. Topper Thornton came from one of the longest lines of rich, snobby kooks, and Joseph Quinn had roughed him up more times than Tatum could count on her two hands. Ironically, his girlfriend was kook princess, Sarah Cameron, who Kiara was currently glaring at. The moment they seen the fight, Pope and Tatum rushed towards it. Pope tried holding JJ back from jumping in, and Tatum stood beside Kie with a blank look on her face.

Everything was suddenly fading away. She wasn't in her own mind anymore. She wasn't in control of her body.
She was dizzy. She was sick. And she was tired. Nothing was real. The world was nothing more than a VR headset.

Tatum Quinn was suddenly standing in the sea, a fierce look on her face, her twin brother's gun in her hand. She dug the weapon into the side of Topper's head threateningly. The whole beach fell silent. She was finally becoming her family.

At some point in the fight, Topper had begun drowning John B. Tatum lost her mind. She went crazy. Because she was the crazy Quinn. It was who she was. It was who she would always be. And there was nothing she, or anyone else, could to change that.

John B stared up at her from the ground, a desperate look in his eye. She took a look around the beach. Everyone was terrified. Her best friends were scared of her. JJ, Pope - even Kiara.

"You psycho!" cried Sarah Cameron, fearing for her boyfriend's life.

Nobody else dared to say anything.

Tatum froze. The kooks and the tourons ran away. Even some of the pouges did. She could see her father, watching her every move, with an impatient look on his face. She could see Leroy, a smirk playing on his lips as he waited for his little sister to pull the trigger. She could see Thomas, slowly shaking his head - he didn't want another murderer for a sibling, especially not his twin. She could see Pope, his mouth open and too scared to say anything. She could see JJ, staring at her in awe, silently praying that she wouldn't go through with this.

But Kiara - Kiara was what made her stop. She looked at Tatum like she couldn't recognise the girl holding the gun. The girl who gave her a bracelet only hours ago. No matter how hard Tatum tried to be a Quinn, Kie knew that deep down, all that girl ever wanted was somebody to love her. But this changed everything. She had lost her mind. Maybe she was just like the rest of her family...

Tatum raised the gun in the air and took a shot. "All right, everyone listen up!" she screamed over the silence. But in her mind, everything was so loud. It was like there was a concert full of people inside, all shouting over the top of each other. She just wanted them to be quiet. She just wanted to quiet the noise. She shot again, as everybody that remained began scurrying away. "Get the hell off our side of the island!" Pope was the first of her friends to run. Then JJ. Then John B. Kiara looked at her one final time - disgust and fear written all over her face - and she ran.

Sarah Cameron helped pick her terrified boyfriend up from the wet ground. She shook her head, fearlessly looking up at the girl with the gun. "You know, I've heard a lot about your family, but I prefer to wait until I meet someone before judging. But you really are crazy, Tatum Quinn, and not in the good way."

Tatum clenched her jaw and glared at the couple. They ran, too. They were almost in the distance. Tatum wasn't in control. She couldn't help what she did next. She really couldn't.

Gunfire.

She shot Topper Thornton in the arm.

All that remained on the beach was the small but deadly Quinn family. Leroy Quinn, the psychopahtic one. Thomas Quinn, the scary on. Tatum Quinn, the crazy one. And their father, Nathan Quinn, the evil one. Joseph was dead now, but that was okay. Because the Quinn family would always be feared in OBX, small numbers or large. And there was one last spawn brewing in the tummy of some random woman he knocked up.

A/n: idk how i feel about this chapter