The Blackout Girl ✔️

chapter seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Lexi came to her senses in a bar thirty minutes from her house, holding a whiskey on the rocks in one hand and her cell phone in the other. She blinked, frowning as she surveyed her surroundings.

A TV was on, playing some late-night talk show. A few stragglers surrounded her, spread out across the expanse of the pub. The establishment was close to dead, on the verge of vacancy as the drunks began to find their way back home.

Lexi knew she was in trouble. She had no recollection of getting here in the first place.

"Last call," the bartender told her. "Want another?"

She looked at the glass she was loosely cradling and frowned. "I don't... where am I?"

The man pointed at the sign above his head. "O'Malley's. You've been here for an hour and you don't know where you are?"

She scowled, searching her mind for an explanation. "I'm sorry. It's been a long week."

"You and me both, babe. Is that a no on the whiskey?"

"It's a no," she confirmed.

She left in a daze. It took her a few minutes to find her car, parked back behind the building. She climbed into it and locked herself inside, searching her mind for memories. The blackout had taken all of them. Lexi was lost.

She started the car but didn't switch the gear into drive. She needed a moment to collect herself, to assess the situation.

She couldn't remember charging her phone, but suddenly, it was lighting up, buzzing madly with a call from an unknown number. She wondered if it was her brother, coming from a friend's phone to check on her or something. Lexi didn't have a bad feeling or a stroke of fear. She didn't think anything was wrong.

"Hello?" she said.

A voice, scrambled and modulated on the other end of the line, spoke. "You tried to take my credit."

The sound of the other person made her blood run cold. "What?"

"They wanted to pin my successes on you. I won't let you take anything from me. I don't share."

"I don't know who you are," Lexi said, digging her nails into the flesh of her palm. "I don't know who you are, but you better not call me again. I swear to God—"

"What are you going to do, Lex? Kill me? We all know you can't do a goddamn thing for yourself."

"What do you want?" Lex demanded.

"I want you to choose. Who's next, Lexi? Who's next to die?"

"You killed those men," Lexi realized. "It's you."

"No shit, you stupid bitch. Now choose. A good man, or a bad boy? An innocent father or a juvenile delinquent?"

"I'm not going to pick someone's death," she cried. "Leave me alone!"

Her eyes began to swim with hot tears of desperation. She didn't know who to contact, who to tell about this strange caller and the threats. She wasn't sure why she was even being targeted in the first place. What had she done wrong? What had she done to deserve this?

"Do you believe good people deserve good fates?"

"Yes!" Lexi spat, her words breaking. "Why are you doing this? What is wrong with you?"

"Thank you for your cooperation, Lexington. You've been a great help."

That was the last thing the caller said before hanging up.