35. Jaxcen

Chapter thirty-five

Jaxcen

A drenalin courses through my veins as I hold on to the back of Devon’s red Santa pants, trying to match his long strides as we sink into the woods.

I never in a million years would have thought I’d have the guts to do this, and I can only assume it’s from the high I’m already on from surviving the whole bomb thing.

That was the scariest thing I’ve ever had to face.

And now, I’m heading into danger again, my eyes trying to adjust to the dark woods as Devon and his men go hunting for the man that knocked me out and strapped me to a chair with a bomb.

I want to kill him myself.

Snapping twigs are loud as Devon’s men creep through the trees, some of them wearing some sort of goggles that remind me of those night vision things I’ve seen in movies.

Words are whispered and hand signals are used, all of which I don’t understand, except for the one where Miles holds his hand up.

That’s a clear stop.

Ha! I do know stuff.

Everyone halts immediately, and they are so still and silent, I wonder if they can hear their blood rushing past their ears too.

I’d ask in other circumstances, but this isn’t one of them.

I told Devon I’d behave, and since I don’t want to cheat death for a second time today, I do exactly what I’m told.

Miles does another hand signal, a swirl and points in one direction and then the other before straight ahead, doing nothing but confusing me, yet the men understand clearly, and start fanning out. Some to the left. Some to the right, while Devon stays with Miles and Finn, and we start moving forward.

We creep further into the woods, the moonlight filtering through the canopy of trees every so often, helping to light the way, and soon, I hear yelling.

A man yelling.

He sounds scared.

Devon chuckles quietly, which makes me smile. I bet he likes the sound of the man he’s hunting being scared.

Hell, I do too.

As we draw closer to the yelling, it becomes clearer to hear, and Devon reaches back to where I’m latched onto his pants, giving my wrist a reassuring squeeze.

“Where the fuck are you?!” the male voice yells. “I’m going to kill you!”

Twigs snap up ahead, and that’s when my eyes catch on a shadow. A man, alone, spinning back and forth with something in his hand.

“Knife,” Miles whispers, and I see Devon nod as we draw closer.

The moment a feminine laugh floats through the air, we all stop in our tracks, and I swear, the sound of it is so sinister that I can’t fight the chill that runs up my spine.

Frankie.

Then, as if that wasn’t freaky enough, a hauntingly beautiful voice starts to sing.

“Ding dong, I know you can hear me.”

“What the fuck,” Devon whispers, and another chill ripples up my spine, as the song, so familiar, turns my blood to ice.

“Open up the door. I only want to play a little.”

“Is that her?” Miles whispers, turning back to Finn who shrugs as I croak out.

“Yes.”

Fuck yes, that’s her.

“Ding dong, you can’t keep me waiting. It’s already too late for you to try and run away.”

Another ripple runs through me, yet my feet move, and I step around Devon as my voice joins Frankie’s.

“I see you through the window.” I step forward again, ignoring Devon as he hisses at me to stop. “Our eyes are locked together.”

“Stop, Jaxcen,” he snaps again, reaching for me, but I move forward, revelling in the fearful steps of the man up ahead as he spins again at hearing a second voice join in.

My voice.

“I can sense your horror. Though I’d like to see it closer.”

“Stop. Baby.” Devon wraps his arms around me from behind, his hoarse voice against my ear, and I don’t fight him, but I keep singing the song that was played over the loudspeakers every time one of the patients at Holly River tried to hide or escape.

“Ding dong, here I come to find you. Hurry up and run. Let’s play a little game and have fun.”

“Fuck,” Devon whispers again as the man yells at the top of his lungs.

“Stop! You crazy fucking bitches!”

“Ding dong, where is it you’ve gone to? Do you think you’ve won? Our game of hide and seek has just begun.”

It’s then that we see her.

Frankie.

She’s across the other side, staring back at us, or perhaps at the terrified man who is now practically surrounded by Devon’s men, and two very crazy bitches.

I smirk.

For the first time ever, I embrace my crazy. Embrace the way this world has made me, letting my voice grow louder with Frankie’s as we both stare the prey down.

“I hear your footsteps, thumping loudly through the hallways.” I take a breath and continue, remembering the terror this song used to bring. “I can hear your sharp breaths. You’re not very good at hiding.”

“Stop!” he yells, and Frankie steps closer, letting him see her, and giving us a better view of her monster.

My words falter, but her haunting voice continues, her dark hair long, and tangled in waves on each side of her face, falling down past her hips.

“Just wait, you can’t hide from me,” she sings and I say the two words that were in the background of the song at this point.

“I’m coming.”

And she repeats, stepping closer again. “Just wait, you can’t hide from me.”

“I’m coming,” I sing, and the man stiffens, his eyes catching on her.

“Just wait, you can’t hide from me.” She steps closer and he backs up, closer to us.

“I’m coming.” At my words he spins, facing us and starts backing closer to Frankie.

“Just wait, you can’t hide from me.” Frankie sings and again he spins to face her, waving the knife in his hand.

“Don’t come any closer!”

“Knock knock, I’m at your door now.” We sing in unison, and he starts spinning back and forth again.

“I am coming in. No need for me to ask permission.”

I can see Devon’s men drawing closer to the man, none of them concerned with Frankie, who could totally be unhinged enough to attack anyone at this point.

“Knock knock, I’m inside your room now.”

“STOP!!” he cries, pressing his hands to his ears as he drops the knife.

Miles lurches forward, as do another two men, taking the man down to the ground, and our singing cuts off.

With my eyes trained on Frankie, I can see disappointment rush over her expression, and I know it’s because Devon’s men interrupted her.

She was on the hunt .

“Stay down, motherfucker!” one of Devon’s men yells, and Frankie’s eyes dart from them to the knife laying forgotten on the leafy floor of the woods.

It feels like it happens in slow motion, Frankie leaping from the shadows, her eyes trained on the glint of the blade, the men too preoccupied to notice the threat to their lives is still very real.

“No!” I try to tug away from Devon, whose arms are like talons holding me in place, but at my scream, everyone stills.

“Frankie,” Finn hisses, stepping forward and catching her attention.

It’s not good attention though. Her eyes are dark. Fierce. Deranged.

“Put it down!” Finn orders, and a slow sinister smirk spreads her lips as her chilling laugh meets our ears again.

“No,” she sneers, taking a step closer to Devon’s men, who now have the man kneeling.

“Why?” Finn asks. “Do you know this man?”

She slowly shakes her head, flashing her teeth as she sets her sights on the man again.

“Then why do you want to kill him?”

Her head snaps in Finn’s direction again, and it looks like she wants to kill him as well, so I’m surprised she answers.

“He was chasing the girl. He hit her. I didn’t like it.”

I grin.

She’s seen it before I bet. Inside that place we both have in common.

I wonder how many times she tried to kill Dr Xavier or his men.

I think I like her.

“Where’s Melissa? The other girl?” Finn asks, and a small voice calls to us through the dark woods.

“I’m here!”

Sighs of relief rush through all of the men, and Lenny and another man veer off into the dark in the direction of Melissa’s voice .

When Frankie takes another step forward, Miles raises his gun at her, and this time when I pull against Devon’s hold, he releases me.

“Wait!” I yell, stepping closer, my eyes darting between Frankie and Miles. “Don’t shoot her.”

“Jaxcen,” Devon sneers, and the twig snapping behind me tells me he’s coming closer but I move quickly so Frankie can see my face.

“You want to kill this man?” I ask, and she gives me a single nod.

“What about these other men? Do you want to kill them?”

She tilts her head at me like she’s studying me, her gaze running down to my toes and back up again as she nods and points.

All eyes turn to Finn.

“Why do you want to kill him?”

“He lied,” she hisses through clenched teeth and a curled lip.

“The drugs?” I put everything I’ve overheard together from earlier, and her surprised glare shoots back to me.

“He said he wouldn’t.”

I nod. “I know. He didn’t want to. He was ordered to.”

“Why?” she snaps.

“Because the king of this town can be a bit of a dick.”

Devon curses behind me as his men chuckle, and her eyes find him.

“But, he has people to protect. Women and children. He saves them from bad people and brings them here. His men guard them from men like this.” I point to the arsehole that wanted me dead just to hurt Devon. “You’re new here, and please excuse me for being blunt, but you’re a little cray cray right now. It’ll take you a while to adjust to living outside of Holly River Estate, and Finn knows that, but he also has a duty to keep everyone in this town safe.”

Her eyes narrow. “I saw you.”

I nod. “Yes. I saw you too.”

“It wasn’ t your first time there?” she states more than asks, but I shake my head anyway. “How long ago?”

I know what she’s asking.

“Eleven years ago. Then two years of outpatient visits.”

She nods. “I need to kill something. Someone.”

Glancing back over my shoulder, I take in Devon, and then Finn, who are all watching on quietly, allowing this conversation instead of just killing Frankie and washing their hands of her.

“You can kill him...” I point to the man that strapped a bomb to me, and when he starts to protest, Miles hits him across the back of his head, shutting him up. “If you promise not to kill anyone else here. They only want to help.”

Again her eyes narrow at me, before she glances back at Finn.

“Is maiming that one out of the question?” She points to Finn and I glance at him in time to see him baulk.

“Not totally out of the question as long as he doesn’t lose any body parts or die. Oh, and leave his pretty face alone.”

“Fuck’s sake,” Finn mutters behind me, even as Frankie nods.

“You got yourself a deal.”

“Seriously?” Finn protests, and Devon responds.

“Yes, for now.”

“You were the one that fucking ordered me to drug her.”

“And every time she hurts you, you can swing your fists at me,” Devon declares.

“I’ll be bringing more than my fucking fists,” Finn sneers, and Frankie smiles.

It’s still creepy as hell, but I can tell she’s happy with this outcome.

Twigs snapping off to the side draw our attention to Lenny, who’s carrying a slightly battered Melissa cradled to his chest.

“You fucking bitch! My brother died because of you!” the man bellows at Melissa, who is sobbing quietly in Lenny’s arms .

“Wrong.” Devon steps forward, lowering to his haunches so the man can see him better. “Fit Nick got what he deserved, Vincent.”

At the use of his name, the man, Vincent, flinches.

“You really think we weren’t going to find out who you really were?” Devon chuckles, although there’s no humour to it. “Vinny, Vinny, Vinny. Have you forgotten who I am?”

Leaning closer, Devon gets in his face.

“I’m the fucking devil.”

Vincent tries to lurch forward, but Devon’s men hold him in place before Devon’s fist shoots out, punching him in the nose.

“That was for strapping a fucking bomb to my girl!”

For a second I can’t breathe.

It could be because he called me his girl.

It could be from the change in his voice, the beast lurking beneath the surface, ready to snap.

Or it could be both.

It doesn’t matter, because neither of them scare me.

Nope.

They make me want to run to him.

I don’t, of course, staying rooted on the spot as Devon stands and turns to Frankie.

“No one else. Just him. The moment you threaten anyone else here, you’ll have a bullet between your eyes. Got it?”

She nods, her eyes flaring with excitement, and Devon turns back to Miles. “Hold him still for her.”

“No,” Frankie protests. “Let him go. It’s better when they run.”

I’m not sure why, or what sort of person this makes me, but I’m in awe of Frankie’s courage right now.

Yes, I know she’s not exactly sane, but there’s a power behind her craziness that I know. I’ve experienced it before when I was ten.

At Sunday school.

When I slaughtered Brother Eric .

Slowly, Devon nods, giving his men the all clear to release Vincent, and the moment they step away, he tries to run.

He makes it three steps before Frankie takes off after him, and only six before her war cry rips through the air as she dives, leaping on his back, the glint of the blade high before she plunges it between his shoulder blades.

He crashes to the ground, and Frankie swings the knife over and over as we watch on, listening to Vincent’s pleas for help, before they turn to gurgles.

Devon wraps his arms around me from behind, his deep rasp against my ear as we watch. “You okay with this? You don’t have to watch.”

I nod, wrapping my arms over his, holding him as he holds me, watching the most brutally monstrous scene unfold before our eyes.

Frankie, in her frenzy, rolls Vincent to his back, forcing him to look in her eyes as his body fights to live.

“Ding dong, looks like I have found you.” Frankie sings, finishing the end of the song, “Ding dong, pay the consequence.”

She slices the knife slowly across his throat, and it’s then that I have to close my eyes, not able to stomach the rest.

I can hear his gurgles, like he is drowning in his own blood, and then when he falls quiet, Frankie’s laugh fills the air.

“Fuck,” Devon whispers against my ear, and I hear Finn next to me.

“Well, looks like I’m about to find out what maiming feels like.”

Frankie’s eyes dart over her shoulder, her head shaking as she stands to face us.

My gasp gets lodged in my throat, and Devon must feel me stiffen because he gives me a squeeze.

Frankie is painted in red. Her face. Her hands. Her hair dripping.

“You’ll keep,” Frankie murmurs to Finn, tossing the knife to the ground before walking past and bumping his shoulder with hers .

“Fuck, man. You wanna stay at mine?” Miles asks, and I can see by Finn’s expression that he’s considering it, but he shakes his head.

“No. I was the one that wanted to save her. I’ll pay the consequences.”