Cindy fumed. It took all her willpower not to strike Zack. “What are you accusing me of, Zack? Are you saying I’m a liar?”
Zack flinched. “No. I’m just…well, not exactly.”
“What!?”
Zack swallowed a lump in his throat. Cindy thought she saw fear in his eyes. A part of her, she was stunned to discover, enjoyed seeing it. It made her feel powerful again. It was particularly gratifying that the man in question was Rockville High’s king stud. She wondered how he’d react to a backhand across the face. The thought stunned her-but only for a moment.
And Zack sensed the hostility. He let go of her hands and scooted backward on the bed, putting some distance between them. “Jesus, Cin, relax. Obviously I’m not calling you a liar.” He shrugged, and looked at her with a helpless expression. “Maybe…I’m sorry, I know I’m not saying this right. But maybe you offended her in some way you don’t know about. Some offhanded comment she took to heart, maybe.”
Cindy sneered. “Are you fucking serious? You dick. You’re calling me thoughtless.”
“No, I’m not.” Zack seemed to become a little more sure of himself. “And I’m really about done talking about this. You’re in some weird kind of denial, Cin. I think you did say something to that girl, maybe something really out of character for you, something mean. And maybe you feel so guilty about it you can’t acknowledge the truth. Christ, Cindy, girls like you don’t get suspended without a really good reason. And now this crazy talk about wanting to kill Myra. It scares me.” His voice had grown solemn. “I think we shouldn’t see each other for a few days. Just until you’ve had some time to really think and deal with all this.”
Cindy gaped at him, unable to believe what she’d just heard. Sudden tears welled in her eyes. “Zack, no…”
He looked away from her. “I’m sorry, Cindy. But it has to be this way. Please leave. Now.”
Cindy’s anger surged back to the surface, burning through her tears and setting her hand in motion before she knew what she was doing. Her palm smacked hard across Zack’s jaw, snapping his head to the side and leaving him dazed long enough for her to continue the assault. She picked up the magazine he’d discarded, rolled it up tight, and battered him about the head with it until he at last managed to snatch it away from her and seize her by the wrists.
“What’s wrong with you!?” he screamed.
Cindy struggled in his grip. She ached to strike him again. Slapping him had felt good, but it hadn’t been enough. Swatting him around with the magazine had felt even better, but even that had fallen short of completely satisfying. The terror and confusion in his bugged-out eyes sent a pleas ur able shudder through her. This new urge to do violence was intoxicating.
No…that wasn’t quite the real truth of it.
Hell, she thought, it turned me on.
Her nipples had stiffened. And she was wet down there.
She recognized this reaction as wrong and probably crazy, but she didn’t care.
She loved it.
She thrashed against Zack and eventually managed to wrest one hand free. Her thumb and middle finger went to his eyes and began to press. Zack yelped and leaped away from her. He picked up one of his athletic trophies and brandished it like a club. “You stay away from me, you crazy bitch!”
Cindy got off the bed, clasped her hands behind her back, and began to move toward him, rolling her hips and arching her back so that her breasts jutted. “Come on, Zacky baby. You’re not afraid of little ol’ me?” She laughed. “Are you?”
Zack’s expression was grim. “Don’t take another step. I’ll bash your brains in, I swear to God.”
Cindy shook her head in mock disappointment. “Look at you. A big, strong boy like you waving that trophy thingy at me. Don’t you bench-press two or three times my weight, Zack? What could I do to you?”
Zack took a step backward. His back met the wall. “You’re a fucking psycho. What an actress you are, Cindy. I can’t believe I never saw how completely fucking nuts you are.” His voice grew hoarse with emotion. “I loved you. Please…don’t make me hurt you. Please stay back.”
Cindy eyed the trophy. She smiled. “I don’t think you could do it. You’re too much of a good guy to really hit a girl with that thing. Oh, you’d want to, if I really came at you, but you wouldn’t. You’d hesitate.” Her smile broadened. “Yes, you’d hesitate, and I’d be digging your eyes out before you could do anything.”
Zack was shaking now. His grip on the trophy was slipping. He looked defeated, like a beaten, broken thing. Big, bad Zack. King stud.
King pussy, more like.
Cindy giggled at the thought.
Zack scooted sideways down the wall, getting into position to bolt toward the door. But his gaze never wavered from Cindy. “Stay away from me.”
Cindy licked her lips. “You really are pitiful. But you don’t need to run, baby. I’m leaving. I’m gonna go find a more challenging foe. Myra Lewis. And I’m really gonna do it, Zack. I’m gonna kill the cunt.”
Zack’s horrified expression almost made her laugh again. She shrugged. “C’est la vie, baby. I’m leaving now.” Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll meet again. Soon.”
Then she left his room and descended the stairs to the first floor. Zack’s mother, a pleasant-looking woman with short, permed hair, greeted her with a smile in the foyer. “Leaving so soon, dear?”
Cindy’s own smile was just as pleasant.
So Lizzie Bishop was likely shocked when her favorite son’s golden goddess of a girlfriend slugged her hard in the stomach. The blow expelled the air from her lungs and made her double over. Cindy pounded a fist against the crown of the woman’s skull, sending her to her knees. She lingered over the woman a moment, contemplating ways to inflict further damage.
Then the logical part of her mind reasserted itself for a moment. The fragile thing that had masqueraded as her conscience was gone forever, utterly destroyed. But her self-preservation instinct remained intact. She shouldn’t have assaulted Zack’s mother. Not because there was anything wrong with what she’d done (Cindy was quickly reassessing all her previously held notions of right and wrong), but because the woman might call the police to report the attack.
Cindy heard footsteps behind her.
Then a horrified screech.
“Oh my God! What have you done?”
Zack brushed by her and knelt next to his stricken mother. The woman was sobbing. She was curled up in a ball on the floor, hugging herself and shaking.
“Mom? Mom, are you okay?”
Cindy cast her gaze about the foyer. She spied something that might be useful, then glanced down at mother and son.
Zack glared up at her. “You crazy bitch! You were wrong, Cindy. I will fight back. You’ve gone too far.”
He started to rise.
Cindy drove the toe of a high-heeled shoe into his stomach, sending him back to the floor. Then she swept past Zack and his mother, grabbed the pruning shears Lizzie Bishop had set aside upon returning from her garden, and pounced on Zack. She buried the blades in his throat and felt a more intense ripple of the same pleasure she’d experienced in Zack’s room moments ago.
She punched the blades into his body again and again, dozens of times.
On and on, ripping his body to shreds long after he had died.
Then she turned her attention to Lizzie Bishop, who hadn’t moved.
The woman was smiling through her tears.
“My sacrifice.” She palmed some tears away and kept smiling. “I’m so happy.”