Ultraviolet ✔️

22.2

Chapter Twenty-Two, Part Two

When I wake up, the first thing I do is roll over and vomit what little I have left in my stomach from lunch. Judging by the horrible pain in my head and the agony of my leg, I have a concussion and a terrible gunshot wound. I'm most certainly going to bleed out.

For now, there's a tourniquet tied around my thigh, just above the knee, and it's slowed the bleeding considerably. If I don't get help, it won't save me. At this rate, it may be for the best, even if it's a slow, awful way to pass on.

From where I am, I notice I'm in an abandoned house, handcuffed to some pipes. My eyes flutter open, blinking through the haze in my vision. My temple is pounding, and it'll probably only get worse as time goes on. I'm having trouble staying awake, but I push past the disorientation and scan my surroundings with the little light I have.

The place is dusty, the carpet half-ripped up to reveal the floor paneling. The windows are broken, sheeted in plastic and hastily boarded up, casting an eerie glow from the moon. My leg is pulsing, but with all the pain I'm experiencing, it's less prominent than it was initially.

"That's disgusting." Stan grimaces when I'm done emptying my guts out. "I suppose I should've expected you would vomit. Between the blood loss and the head injury, it's no surprise."

I can't concentrate on anything. I'm nauseous, trying desperately not to puke again. I'm shaking too, and my skin is so cold and clammy and pale.

"You look like you're having fun," he muses, chuckling.

It's so bizarre seeing him this way. It's still Stan; he's still got the same face, just less worn out by time. His eyes are the same but they're crueler, and his hair is brown, not grey. Young Stan is menacing, nothing like the man I knew.

"Reed is coming for you. The police should follow. I put a tracker on his phone. I thought I'd give you two some time to think you were one step ahead of me, so I didn't come after you right away." He kneels down so that our faces are level.

I want to spit at him, but I barely have the energy to keep my head up.

"I'm not the only one involved in all this, in case you were wondering, though I did the heavy lifting. I think it's so funny how easy it was to unravel your life with the help of all the people in it. I tricked your roommate into letting me in your apartment and bugged your computer. Stupid girl."

I remember Betsy mentioning that Stan stopped by. I didn't question it. I never had a motive to do so. She was as trusting as I had been, and it cost us both a hell of a lot.

"Now, Chief was innocent and had no idea what was going on behind his back. But the big hack? The thing that started this? Without it, I never would have known you were just like me. And it came from your little boyfriend."

His grin only grows wider at the shock and hurt in my eyes.

"Reed didn't know, of course, what I was looking for, but he was so easy to manipulate. I told him that I needed him to slip my flash drive into the computer for a few seconds so I could copy Chief's files for a 'case' I was working. To this day, he probably believes that's what I was doing. I told Reed that Chief was a suspect, but that he was found innocent after the drive got returned. And you know what? He was so naive that he kept it between us."

I want to tell him that he's a liar and that Joel would never do such a thing, but I know that it's true. Even I would've done it. No one had any reason not to believe in Stan. He made friends with everyone, and his charisma made him easy to befriend.

It was an act. It was bullshit.

My friend is gone. All I feel now for this man is burning hatred.