SEDUCTIVE PREY

TOO SOON

Gasping for air, I sit up. Ramrod straight. Allowing my last moments of consciousness to come back to me. With the last thing I remember being someone using me like a ventriloquist dummy to kill Lucas, and Lucas taking me against my will.

The room I'm in is dark, and I can't see anything. But neither my hands nor feet are tied. So, I'm assuming I'm free to go. Well... until I climb to my feet to search for a light switch and walk face first into what feels like a glass wall.

A light flicks on above me, revealing the room I'm in for what it is.

A glass cell.

And sitting just outside the cell, observing me, is none other than my best friend, turned best big brother ever, turned frenemy.

Lucas.

"Really?" I scoff. Folding my arms across my chest. "A cell."

"It's the only way to prevent you from sticking another knife in my back." Lucas replies.

Which... whatever.

"Technically it was your front. And you could've stopped me, you jackass. Besides... it wasn't me."

Staring incredulously at me, Lucas places his palm to the glass of my cell and replays the moment I killed him with the word of Michael. Which... yeah... I can see where he's coming from. Only... he's wrong.

"It sure as hell looks like you to me... backstabbing bestie."

"Backstabbing bitch is more like it." Victor adds his two cents.

They're both clearly angry with me.

"What I mean is yes that's me, but someone else took over. Someone forced me to kill you." I explain.

"Right," skepticism laces Lucas' tone. "Just like someone else forced me to put you in this cell."

"Yeah," Victor adds two more cents. "You."

"Lucas, if I wanted you dead... you would be. So, the fact that you're standing here right now should be more than enough to prove my innocence."

"Tsk-tsk-tsk Ali-Cat," Lucas wags his fingers at me. "You'll have to be a bit more convincing than that, I'm afraid."

"Fine," I sigh. Disappearing from inside the cell and reappearing right in front of him.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Lucas says over his shoulder to Victor, "How many times do I have to tell you to follow my directions to the T."

"I did." Victor glowers at him.

"If you did, she wouldn't be standing on the outside of her cell."

"Don't get mad at Vicky," I tell Lucas. "Whatever you had dreamed up, it wouldn't have worked anyway."

Lucas takes a noticeable step away from me.

He still doesn't trust me.

And you know what... the feeling is mutual.

"Where's Trudy, Lucas?" I ask him.

"Safe."

"And therein lies the problem. I'm one thousand percent sure she needs to be dead. At my hands, preferably."

"I owed Viv a favor, Alison." He explains himself.

"And you owed me your loyalty," I glower at him.