Chapter 13
Jessica broke first. She turned toward the window and screamed for help at the top of her lungs.
Madison lunged.
There was a cry.
Then chaos.
I grabbed at Reilly desperately. “Help me hold her down!”
But Reilly just stood there staring at Madison, whispering under her breath, “No. No, that’s not possible. No.”
I did not understand what was wrong with her.
I dodged sideways as Madison came at me again, fast and unnervingly graceful, nothing like the dazed, wandering sleepwalker we had known before.
In the nightmare blur that followed, I truly thought we were going to die.
Madison advanced on Reilly last.
Reilly finally seemed to come back to herself. She pulled something from her pocket and held it up.
It was a silver pendant with a round disk hanging from it, the kind people in old movies used for hypnosis.
She started swinging it in front of Madison.
“Look here,” she ordered, her voice trembling but forceful. “Look right here. Put the knife down. Put it down.”
Madison paused.
But she did not drop it.
Reilly’s panic flared into anger. “I said put it down. Listen to me. Why aren’t you listening to me?”
“Because she never was.”
My voice cut through the room.
Reilly spun around so violently the pendant almost flew from her hand.
Jessica and I were standing behind her.
Alive.
Our clothes were streaked with blood, but our faces were calm.
Reilly stared at us like she was looking at ghosts.
I reached down, wiped a smear from my shirt, and held up my fingers.
“Paint,” I said.
Then I took the knife from Madison’s hand and pressed the tip with my thumb.
It collapsed inward.
“Prop knife.”
Reilly’s expression changed.
First confusion.
Then realization.
She looked at Madison.
Madison’s eyes were no longer glazed. They were wide open now, horrified, fixed on Reilly.
“So it was you,” Madison whispered. “You were controlling everything, weren’t you?”