A Descent into Darkness

A High Price

"I swear, I will kill him!" Ronnie yells from the other side of the Skype Video chat.

"You should," I reply, entirely seriously.

"And not only was he cheating, but with Connor Hawke? That guy's not even a six!"

"You should kill both of them."

"I don't know what I ever saw in him! He was never around, he never cleaned, and, let's be honest, subpar in bed. I just hope he's even worse with Connor.

"I'll come out there and kill both of them if you like."

Ronnie pauses his rant and looks at me, curiously. "You should be an actor, Erin. You would nail a character like that psycho in Killing Eve. I would swear, based on that look in your eye, that you were serious right now."

"What makes you think I'm kidding?"

Ronnie laughs, as I knew he would. "Come on, Erin, I know you. You never even hurt a fly back in school."

Because it's no fun killing a fly. They don't moan in pain.

"Okay, you got me. Still though, sucks what Luke did." As I'm talking to Ronnie in the chat window, I open up Facebook and search up Luke's profile, the link still in Ronnie's relationship status. I copy the image into an encrypted folder of people to kill should I ever encounter them while hunting. Some of the people are jokes whom I would obviously never get the chance to, like Liam Hemsworth or Mel Gibson. Others are a bit more serious, like Lucy Damar, a member of Chloe's posse in high school. Now Ronnie's ex-boyfriend is on the list.

Some would say it's risky having photos of potential victims on my computer, but I'm feeling pretty confident with my failsafes. If anyone uses the incorrect password to try and open the folder, all documents on my entire computer will be instantly shredded. With all my school work backed up to Onedrive, I can afford to take such chances.

"I'm tired of being angry," Ronnie moans. "Tell me something about your life to distract me. Give me the juicy deets."

"Well, let's see." Normally I would tell Ronnie the story of how I'm planning to orchestrate an epic breakup between two of my friends, but I feel like that would be insensitive, given what he's just gone through. He's the only one to whom I give such consideration.

"Ooh, Veronica just set Nate up with his childhood bully at her birthday party!"

"Wait, what?" his jaw drops. "What, on God's green Earth, possessed her to think that was a good idea?"

"Well, they actually hit it off," I shrug. "Turns out they're both huge fans of this misogynistic Australian comedian."

"Are you talking about Jim Jefferies?" Ronnie makes a fake in love face. "I adore him."

"You are?" That genuinely shocks me. Which is rare when it comes to Ronnie. I thought he was the one person I actually understood pretty well. "I thought you hated anything even remotely politically incorrect."

"What can I say? I have a soft spot for accents like that."

I shake my head. "Why am I friends with you?"

"Because I came to sit with you at lunch in Grade 1 when no one else would, despite your attempts to drive me away at first?" he asks, innocently.

I'm about to come up with a witty remark when my phone buzzes. The notification icon, a small spider, indicates that my monkey loving hacker wants me to log on.

"I'll call you back," I close the chat before his face can register any surprise.

I head to the chatroom and find him online, waiting for me. I watch as the chat indicates him starting to type.