The Eruption of Mountgomery

Chapter 39

Her lips smacked together; the noise quieted when her tongue slowly darted out of her parted lips to moisten them. I stiffened as her words shattered the tense silence as I hovered over the threshold of the bathroom. My heart collapsed to the floor. I felt my eyes clamp shut; my fists tightened at my sides. No. Why her? Why now? When my eyes finally reopened, that foreboding sizzling within my veins only grew in intensity, demanding I leave. It commanded I do not say here, yet I refused it. My gaze remained on the bloodied form of Hannah Williams. The amount of blood that shrouded her like a macabre snow angel seemed illogical. I could hear her footsteps against the floor, could hear the screams that tore from the form on the floor's throat. My mind was rattled by the mental crack of the weapon. I could not hear the shifting weight of the killer's clothes. My tormentor was indeed smug—I knew that.  I would not give her the contentment of the knowledge that she managed to successfully get under my skin again.

I had become the victor of our first encounter. It took every ounce of my self-control to not completely lose it again. Could I win again? Would she push me that far? Could she push me over that precarious gorge that had been my past? Could I glare my past down and slaughter it? I turned my head, away from Hannah, away from the figure in the corner as my heart rose in the back of my throat, thrumming there. When she finally spoke, her words oozed complex, raw satisfaction.

"Hello, Vesuvius, this is a welcomed surprise. I would have you anticipated you to be afraid of being caught? You are, after all, directly responsible for the death of Hannah Williams."

I raised an eyebrow, the voice dripped manipulative confidence. Her words were icy, yet there was a layer of toxic heat to them. I could feel those words caress me, tempt me to agree. No! I was indirectly responsible, yes, but I was not the one to pull the trigger. With a small frown, I intoned, "No. No, I am not responsible." Denial. It softened my voice, making it sound as though I was a frightened child. The next words were barely recognizable as my—there was not that level of darkness during our first true encounter. "You are. You wield so much hatred for somebody you barely knew. You have no reason to hate Hannah—"

She cut me off with a dry chortle. "Don't I? You would have killed her as well if she published the truth. Of whom you truly are."

"No. You wouldn't. You couldn't. I am a dead woman walking, Skyler, you know that."

Her smirk grew as the next words held the toxicity. "I do, Vesuvius, but how interesting would it truly be if I were to step forward and ensure that the 'auburn-haired successful prosecuting attorney' was nothing more than a deceitful woman who had constructed her career on nothing more than complex deceptions? I highly doubt Nero would come to save you."

I inhaled sharply. I could feel her presence within the atmosphere. It pressed down on me, like prison guards were attempting to keep me in place. My back was still to Hannah; I knew my tormentor was moving. I could hear the subtle rustle of her dress. Low in the back of my throat, I snarled out, wanting nothing more than to lunge forward, feeling the air that she manipulates leave her. "Leave him out of this! He's innocent."

"Tsk, tsk. I thought you knew me better than that, Blaise. I wouldn't kill—however you simply underestimate me. As for Nero's innocence—"

It was unspoken. I knew that and I hung my head in shame. I could have stopped him from killing Caleb. I should have stopped him. The air pressed down on me, just as the room chilled abruptly. That foreboding crackle which swirled like magma increased, the dark chortle within my veins turning into frightful high-pitched squeals. "In your sloppy murders, you have become arrogant. You have become the very thing I did not train you—"

"Words are not coming to you as easily as they usually do, am I correct in that assessment, Blaise? Tell me," She rose from the chair and faced me. "Would you have truly killed Hannah if she had published who you truly are?"