Chapter Twenty-two

My cell phone pings with a text from an app I don't remember installing on my phone.

It's a clock. Like a countdown to something but its set for my next birthday.

What the hell is this?

F. M. K. I turn the letters over in my mind. Fuck. Marry. Kill.

"You're my three," Kyson's words play over in my mind as I clean up the cupcakes from the floor. I slip, going down on my ass, banging my head hard against the edge of the counter.

I blink dazed by the impact and wince as I touch the side of my head. My vision blurs and I try to focus but can't. Static rings in my ears and I close my eyes.

"I have to," I hear my father's voice in my head. A memory I've tried so hard to forget. I can see it all so clearly now as if I'm there now.

I woke up in the middle of the night because I heard loud voices. He was fighting with my mother. His hands were around her throat. It was my birthday. I know this because there were cupcakes on the counter. He killed her. I saw him kill my mother on my birthday.

I touch my fingers to the base of my throat.

"To win the game you have to sacrifice the person you love most," a voice says softly behind me.

"I'm going to play with you like your father did with your mother and my mother played with my father."

I stare at the heart-shaped ring on my finger. My father knew this was going to happen.

"It's our legacy and our curse," Helen whispers, appearing next to me. She places her hand over mine and I see she's wearing the same ring as me. I never noticed it before.

"What's going on?"

"Didn't your father explain the rules of the game?"

"No." I pull away from her.

"I don't understand any of this. What game?"

"The one you're playing, silly," Lauren tells me, and I blink wondering where she came from.

I rub at my eyes and sit up in my bed having no idea what's real and what isn't.

The door to my room opens and Lauren enters. "Are you feeling better?"

"What do you mean? How did I get in my bed?"

"I came by like I said I was going to and found you on the kitchen floor crying over your ruined cupcakes. You'd slipped on the icing after you dropped them and bumped your head on the counter. You don't remember any of this?"

"No."

"Maybe you have a concussion."

"How long have you been here? Where's Kyson?" I glance around my bedroom.

Lauren sits on the edge of my bed. "Like maybe half an hour. My dad came and got my siblings, and you said you were going to take a shower. I cleaned up the mess in the kitchen and came up here just now to check on you. You were home alone when I got here."

"Where's my phone?"

Lauren picks it up off my nightstand and hands it to me. "Here. Are you sure you don't want to go get your head checked?"

I swipe a thumb across the screen of my phone and see I have a new message from Gauge. It's a photo of Kyson and me in the kitchen from earlier.

"Do you know what F.M.K. is?"

"Like the game?"

"Yeah. Do you know what it is?"

"Yeah. It's this urban legend. I guess you haven't heard it since you've not lived here very long but the story goes that there's this secret society. I know, right? "She rolls her eyes but continues. "Anyway, this secret club or whatever. You have to be born into one of the elite families or be chosen or something. But supposedly you have a partner. I know it sounds crazy, but it's not like it's real. And you play through the three stages of the game. Fuck. Mary. And Kill. Kind of self-explanatory, but if you win you get anything you want. Your dream job. A nice house. Anything you desire basically."

"How do you win?"

"That's the kicker and true downside. You're supposed to sacrifice the person you love most. Your partner in the game. That's where the kill part comes from."

"Why would anyone want to play?"

"Well, it's just a story but apparently the game or the curse, however you want to look at it is triggered by lust. When the two people destined to play give into their lust and fuck before marriage."

Bile hits the back of my throat, but I swallow it down. My father made me promise I wouldn't have sex until I was married. Is that why he gave me the purity ring? To protect me from the curse?

"Why are you asking about this anyway?"

I lift my shoulder. "I don't know. I must have heard Kyson talking about it or something."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Just a little groggy but I'll be okay."

"Cool. I doubt you feel like going out. Not that anything is going on with most of the guys gone on that camping trip or whatever it was they were doing." She rolls her eyes. "But good news is I can hang out."

My phone buzzes with a new message. This one is from an unknow number.

First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes the funeral.

I delete the message and turn my attention back to Lauren. I'm sure it's Kyson being stupid and trying to fuck with me since he probably knows the same lore as Lauren. "You didn't tell me what happens if they don't kill them."

"Oh, still stuck on that are you. I don't know. I guess they'd both die or something."

"Maybe they break the curse or find a way to beat the game," I tell her, twisting the ring on my finger as my mind flashes back to being in the kitchen with Kyson and how he wouldn't pull out when I told him to. Like he was driven by lust.

My phone sounds again. Another unknown number but this time there's a link.

I click it and hope it's not spam from a hacker. It goes to a notification to download a zip folder labeled F.M.K.

I drop my phone and run into the bathroom to throw up.

This isn't real.

It's just a stupid urban legend.

Or is it?

To be continued in His Dolly coming soon…ish