I Walk the Line ♤ (gxg)

chapter 27: monster

"Stop the car."

"What? Why?" Willow asked in confusion, looking over at the girl who stared at her phone with her mouth slightly ajar, an unreadable expression on her face.

"I said stop the fucking car!" August screamed, her breath becoming heavy. She felt so many things at once, so many thoughts flooding her mind.

Willow widened her eyes at the girl's tone, never having heard her scream at her like that. She didn't know what was wrong, but she knew whatever it was was horrible by the inexplicable queasiness in her stomach. She slowed the mustang down and pulled over to the side of the road, putting the car in park and looking over at the girl with expectant eyes.

August swallowed, her eyes reading the text over and over again. Feelings of betrayal danced with feelings of anguish in the pit of her stomach, the rabbit in her chest going a hundred miles an hour. Suddenly, fear rose in her stomach. Willow was planning on killing her?

"August...?" Willow mumbled as the girl looked over at her with eyes so wide she thought they'd pop right out of her skull. She reached for her phone, taking it from August's limp hand that stayed frozen in the air. She read the text on the screen, her heart dropping in her stomach. She never told Darragh that she had changed her mind about killing August, as she had originally planned several days ago when she abducted her.

"So when were you gonna fucking kill me, huh?" August snapped, feeling tears well up in her eyes. She wanted to run away and cry, but the anger inside her begged her to find the answers it was so vehemently searching for. "Last night in my sleep? Were you gonna poison my hot chocolate this morning? Does the necklace have some sort of bomb in it, huh?" She angrily spoke through gritted teeth, salty tears finding their way down her beet-red face.

"August," Willow shakily began, turning towards the girl with her hands up. "I need you to please listen to me."

"Listen to you what, exactly? Lie to me? More than you already have?" She looked into Willow's green eyes that she no longer found comfort in.

"No, baby, I can exp—"

"Don't fucking call me that. I'm not your fucking baby," August spit, her features laced with anger.

Willow could feel her heart inside her chest shatter to a million pieces as she stared at the expression on August's face that she had never seen before. "August, listen to me. Literally, the whole reason I was taking you back to Ithaca today was to surprise you by letting you get the spade tattoo."

"Spade tattoo?" August asked with gritted teeth, not wanting to listen to a word Willow was saying.

"Yes. The spade tattoo." She slipped her hand behind her neck and lifted her hair, turning around to show August the tattoo on the back of her neck that read Blue Porcelain and had a black spade under it. August remembered seeing it first on the rooftop then at the party.

"How the fuck is this even relevant, Willow?!" August yelled, getting angrier each second.

"Because," Willow tried to hurriedly speak so August would hear her out before making any irrational decisions. "If you have the spade tattoo, that means you are a trusted and protected member of the gang. Not an active member like me or Darragh or Ronnie, but a protected member. Like Ronnie and Cornelia's wives. They both have the tattoo." She searched August's eyes for signs of believing her, and she felt relief when she did see August's face soften a little.

"But wait, how does that fucking explain Darragh asking if you had killed me yet?" August asked, her defensive walls that had gone down for a moment rising back up again.