Mirrors ✔️

Chapter 21: Kassidy

VAL VAL VAL VAL VAL VAL VAL VAL VAL VAL-

Valarie

Kassidy backs further into the cell as they shove me in. Her teeth are bared angrily, and I snarl right back at her. The guards are quick to slam the door again.

"How could you!" She shrieks, the words echoing, echoing, echoing. "It's your FAULT!"

I hiss. "I know. Why do you think I'm here?"

She doesn't pay attention to this, clutching her arms to her chest and retreating to the bench in the corner, goosebumps all over her body. I stay away, and I realize it is because I am afraid. Of her. And what she will do.

Because Kassidy is just like me, now.

"Leave me alone, Princess. Or do you want to kill me too?" Kassidy throws the words out like a challenge, but they mean nothing to me anymore.

"I killed him, Kassie-Bear." I say flatly. "Thank me."

"Never." She whispers, still caught on the nickname Eva gave her. "Val."

That cuts deep.

"You don't get to use than name. Only Eva."

"Eva is dead."

"And only she can use it."

"Wake up, Princess Pretty Words. She's not coming back."

I sob, my voice catching. "ONLY SHE GETS TO USE IT! I KILLED HIM AND NOTHING HAPPENED AND I DIDN'T FIND HER AND SHE ISN'T COMING BACK I NEED HER TO COME BACK AND NOW I'M HERE BUT I HAVE TO TRY AGAIN AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME!" I scream and kick the bench so it tumbles over with Kassidy on it. Now more than ever, I just feel like a child throwing a temper tantrum. I'm only fourteen, after all, just like Eva is. Was.

"Don't you use that with me." Kassidy stands up slowly, murder in her eyes. "You didn't care about her, little Princess. You never did. How did it feel when she fell right into your trap? Did you enjoy it when they cut off her-" She pauses, tears streaming down her face. "-Her h-head and the blood ran at your feet?"

Each word is a punch in the gut. "You don't know anything. I killed him. I killed the King, or I tried. I stabbed him right in the back, and now I need to escape and finish it."

Kassidy glares at me. "Really?"

"Really."

"Fine, then."

"Fine what? You can't do anything."

"I can do more than you think I can. Watch."

She doesn't move at all except for her hand, which creeps along the stone and finds one part that looks no different than the others. She presses down on it, and a scraping noise begins to sound from where she presses. As her fingers turn white with the effort, the wall swings open.

"How lucky." I deadpan. "Another passageway."

"It's not luck at all." She grins as she pushes me though it, letting me scrape my knees on the rougeat the other side. I glare at the floor. "Its them."

She nods at five people, slowly making their way towards us.

One of them is Renee.