XANNY ▹ Harry Bingham

CONFESSIONS, CONFESSIONS

mention of alcohol, mental illness, drugs, and abuse. this is a trigger warning. please do not read ahead if you'll be negatively affected.

chapter fifteen

"until the lion learns to write, the story will always glorify the hunter"
_

Eden sat on a kitchen chair next to Harry. Together they waited on Allie and Gordie, who'd both requested to talk to Eden. She'd been labelled a witness to both the cafeteria shooting and Cassandra's— the girl just couldn't get a break. Eden squeezed Harry's hand under the table, staring anxiously at the cream wall holding up the cabinets of plates and cups.

She flinched at the sound of footsteps coming from down the stairwell, and removed her hands from Harry's, laying them in the center of the table instead. The two emerged: Allie and Gordie, taking seats in front of their guests.

There was an awkward moment of silence before Allie decided to speak first, "You both know that I've taken over Cassandra's role of keeping everyone safe. But to do this, I need your help. There's a killer still out there, and right now, we don't know if they're going to come after anyone else. You were there when it happened. You can help us by telling us what you saw."

Eden's eyes shifted to the ground, and Allie rested her hands on top of her friend's in sympathy. She felt Eden shake under her grip, so she tried to lower the levels of tension in the room. "The guns are being collected. You're safe, I promise. But I need to know if you saw anything out of the ordinary."

Eden shook her head, so Allie turned to Harry. He also shook his head, "She saw more than I did."

Allie looked back to Eden, who still refused to meet her gaze. "Do you know anyone who you think... could be capable?" Eden's shaking stopped, and she slowly lifted her eyes to Allie's. There was a new sorrow being held behind them, basking in the fluorescent kitchen lights.

•

"Tell them what you told me," Allie took a seat next to Eden, after gathering everyone from inside the house. Eden took note of everyone that surrounded her: Grizz, Sam, Becca, Gordie, Will, and Bean, all scattered around the room, all people she'd recognized from high school. She acknowledged it as Allie's inner circle, plus Harry, who was there as emotional support.

"There's a reason Wren and I never had any pets growing up. We had the cops called to our house, once, just a few weeks before the summer break. The neighbours had seen Wren out on the street that night; she was with a stray. It was the neighbourhood cat. Everyone had seen it wandering around for months, wondering who was feeding it enough to keep it alive. That night, they'd watched her from their window, witnessing her trap it in a makeshift, cardboard cage," Eden was welcomed with nausea as she revisited the memory, and she paused as if for dramatic effect, "before lighting the cage on fire."

There was a shuffle of discomfort from around the room, and for some reason, a few eyes even laid to rest on Sam, as if waiting for his response.

Eden continued, "Apparently, she'd used a magnifying glass to sear the cat's fur numerous times, but would always let it out disfigured. I think she was the one feeding it to keep it alive... just so she could continue torturing it at another point. You need to understand-- Wren isn't a psychopath. She rarely acts on her thoughts. But she's dangerously manipulative. She feels no remorse or empathy for others, and that's what makes her the scariest of us all. I don't think she pulled the trigger on Cassandra, but if she decided she wanted her dead, she did something about it. She's a sociopath-- a monster. And we're trapped in a room with her."

•

hi it's the author— don't mind me, just wanted to insert a cute moodboard here :)

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credits to the lovely @anxiousackles