Rule 50 - Domino

Icouldn"t stop screaming, and I couldn"t stop staring at the bodies side by side.

Lights turned on in the house and the front door flew open. Someone called my name and rushed down the stairs. Fabian grabbed my shoulders and my eyes rolled into the back of my head as my vision went black.

I awoke sometime later to a circle of people around me and the yard.

"Domino! She"s awake. Let"s get her up and inside," Fabian ordered. Hands were under my back and legs, and I was lifted off the ground and brought into the house.

"They"re dead," I gasped.

"Ssshh, yes, we know. We're... handling it." Mattias told me. A washcloth was placed on my forehead. I sat up and looked at him. He'd been crying, and so had Marisol and Fabian. Everyone else in the room looked more shocked than sad.

"What do you mean, handling it?"

"Well, we can"t really call the cops right now, can we?" Marisol snapped. "If we report them, then they"ll start asking more questions. Blane might not have had family, and Ruth"s family was bought out, but Chitra's we won"t get so lucky. She's close with her family. They'll want answers." She stood, her body shaking with rage.

"Marisol, shut the fuck up," Mattias snapped. He put his hands up. "Everything is fine. We"re… we"re handling it. We can't act with our emotions." His lips trembled. Sympathy crept into me. My siblings had just lost their mother. As awful as she was to me, she"d loved them.

"Whoever did that acted with their emotions, clearly," Marisol argued. "Did you see Uncle Carlos"s..." She swallowed and spun to point at the room. "Who did it? Who cut his balls out of the sack and shoved them into his mouth?"

All of us looked from one to the other, sizing each other up.

Beth, Andrew, Mitchell, and Grace shook their heads in confusion and fear.

"From what I"ve been told, the bastard deserved it," Koi said, stepping into the room. "Did he not?"

"That doesn"t really matter, does it?" Mattias snapped. He flicked his gaze to Marisol. "It was you, just admit it. You did it, didn"t you?" He rushed over, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her furiously. "This was some sort of sick revenge plan, wasn"t it? And you took Mom too, you fucking bitch!"

Everyone reacted to Mattias"s blowup. Andrew, Mitchell, and Fabian launched at them, pulling the twins apart. They fell to the floor in heaps and an instant later jumped up and back at it, clawing at each other.

Koi cleared his throat. "Fabian, we doing this?"

Fabian nodded. "Yeah. Andrew, come on. We need another large body to carry them." His head hung as he followed Koi out.

"Where are they going?" I asked.

Beth shrugged and wiped her misty eyes. "Probably going to bury the bodies. This is insane. I just want to leave."

"You leave, then we"ll pin it all on you," Grace warned.

Beth stood. "Prison for life is still alive. If I stay here, I"m dead in a few days." She stormed off, and soon, it was just me, Grace, Mitchell, and the twins fighting in the middle of the room.

"Let"s go to the kitchen," Mitchell suggested, and we followed numbly, leaving the twins. He found a bottle of rum and poured us all generous glasses.

"So it was Marisol, then. She did it all. Ruth, Blane, all of them?" Grace asked.

"No, she couldn"t have. She was with us when Ruth was stabbed." Mitchell shook his head.

"And Blane," Beth pointed out.

"Yeah, but it was a trap set for him," I blurted. I covered my mouth quickly. Everyone"s eyes shot to me. I took a long drink of my rum. It burned my throat and belly, but it was a good diversion. I drained the cup and he poured me more.

"What?" Mitchell asked.

The weight of their gazes broke me.

"I went to the woods where Blane died. There were dozens of traps pre-set. All he had to do was step on one to activate it.."

"So it was her!" Grace grew excited. "Good. Now we can end this. Let"s call the police and get out of here. I"m not dying here like my brother." She pulled out her phone and frowned. "I have no signal."

In fact, none of us did.

"Shit," Mitchell muttered. "She couldn"t have. Why would she ask us to kill Domino if she was going to do it instead? Sorry, I know, it"s awkward, we wanted to kill you, but we don"t now so let"s move on." He said to me. I finished another glass and poured another.

"None of us were really going to do it." Beth laughed nervously. I didn"t believe them for a moment, but Mitchell was right, we needed to move on.

"I"m going to go look for my dog. You do whatever. For what it"s worth, I don"t think it was her." I left the house and took a golf cart. I reached the park gates when the alcohol kicked in. I was dizzy and my vision blurred. Those glasses had been large. How many shots was that? Twelve? I abandoned the cart and went into the park on foot, calling for Georgie.

"I"m a terrible dog mom, Georgie!" I called loudly. "Come back, please!"

My screaming drew attention. I was standing at the Gallows, the attraction in which Dennis drowned seven years ago when I heard heavy boots coming toward me.

"What are you doing?" Swayze demanded. "Domino, don"t move."

I grinned and stepped toward the edge. I stared down at the dark water.

"Why are you doing this?" I put my foot forward, running my shoe on the edge."I know it was you."

"We"re taking care of your monsters, Blessing," Koi said.

"See what we"ll do for you. To keep you safe," Swayze said.

I looked up, my vision still blurry. "That"s not what I wanted. You"re sick. You?—"

It was then that I saw the knife in Swayze"s hand. His shirt was soaked in blood. Was that Uncle Carlos"s, Monica"s, or someone else"s entirely?

"Domino, please step away from the edge. This ride isn"t safe," Koi pressed.

"Why? Because your friend died here? That"s one in thousands. What are the odds I"ll die if I fall?" I leaned further over. "It"s real dark down there."

"Domino, please." Swayze stepped forward, and I stiffened.

"Don"t come near me!" I screamed. "I never asked for any of this. I didn"t need you to save me. Fuck you."

Swayze stormed over, grabbing me and pulling me away from the ledge. I kicked and screamed and fought as we fell onto the hard platform.

"I"m not letting you go!" he bellowed as he wrapped his arms around me. I managed to slip out of his grasp and spin my body. I saw his face and brought my foot back and shoved it into his teeth. His head flew back as he yelled out.

"You bitch!"

I went to stomp him again, but he caught my shoe. I pulled and my foot slipped out of my shoe. He tossed it aside and tried to grab for me again, but I scrambled up and limped away as fast as I could, heading to the edge of the platform.

"Domino! You need your shoe!"

I stared at my legs.

"Not anymore. I think it"s time I end all of this. I die, and everyone else will live." I closed my eyes, braced myself for the cold, and tilted forward.

"No!" they screamed and lunged for me, but it was too late. I didn't want to keep fighting the inevitable. I could save the people who were left if I just sacrificed myself. My body tumbled over the edge, and when I collided with water, it was like hitting ice-cold glass, and everything went black.