Tell Me More Lies

Chapter 10: Sierra

I twist and turn, unable to sleep with the faint, yet abhorrent screeching of a piano playing in the background. 

Ironic since the melody of the instrument was meant for soothing calmness and not crooked painful notes of a frustrated pianist who took it all out on the keys. All it did was play on my fragile nerves. 

Last I checked, Charlie didn't have a piano lying around the house. I’m assuming Ayla was back since our rooms were right beside each other. 

Throwing the duvet off, I make a beeline for her room. I’m just gonna talk to her. Maybe refrain from telling her to eat s**t like last time.

I rap my knuckles on her door and twist the knob. “Can you lower your music? I can’t sleep.”

However, when I enter the room darkness engulfed the space. The empty bed stayed cold. She wasn’t back yet?

I try listening for the piano tune again but I don’t hear it anymore. It stopped. Good.

Ayla's room looked similar to mine with the exemption of polaroid photos hanging on the wall above her bed. But the walls were bare, devoid of color. No other personal touch, either, apart from the photos.

It almost felt like another guest room. Living here for more than two years and you would think she’d make herself at home.

I don’t give it another thought and leave the room.

Padding through the hallway, I felt a chill, goosebumps covering my bare arms at the sudden gust of wind. The cold breeze had gotten stronger when I entered my room.

Weird. I thought I closed my window before heading to bed.

I make a move to shut the double-hung windows but before I could lay a hand on the hard wood, I felt a something covering my mouth.

My senses went into hyperdrive.

With a frim grip over my arms, I was roughly thrown to the bed, momentarily placing their palm back on my mouth. I thrash, trying to call out for someone, but their gloves muffled my screams. 

Burly shoulder, lean figure, this was a man.

Oh, God. I’m going to die. Someone had broken inside the house and I’m going to die.

I try calling out for Charlie but his calloused palms still muffled my voice. Like the last attempts worked perfectly. s**t. This was not how I wanted to die. 

With his free hand, he forced my arms behind my back, pinning me from thrashing any further. My night shirt had ridden up my torso but he doesn't pay it no mind. His knee was right on top of my abdomen preventing me from squirming.

"I'm going to take my hand from your mouth so don't you dare scream. Don't want that pretty little face to scar," he taunts.

Oh, hell. I feel like vomiting.

Reluctantly, I nod my head. 

He does as he says and for a moment I'm tempted scream, call bloody murder to alert Charlie.

But in an odd way, there's some familiarity with his movements. I can't tell how, but it was enough to decide against taking advantage of my voice. My arms were still pinned behind my back and his weight was still something to fear. He could crush me if he wanted to.

"W-who are you?" I ask, my voice shaking like the rest of my body.

He doesn't answer. My fear multiplied when he pulls out a knife from the back of his jeans. I whimpered and started thrashing again. "Stop moving, b***h," he snarls. 

Aiming the pointy tip right against my forehead, I stilled. The knife traces a straight line from my temple to my cheek, eventually nestling down to my neck not hard enough to cause pain. 

He was taunting the prospect of hurting me. 

I grind my teeth so hard I could hear the gears scraping together. Oh, God, please help me.

He clicks his tongue. I want to scream but my voice is caught in my throat. Please, make this stop.

"Please stop," I whisper, the shake in my voice evident. 

“But we’re having so much fun,” he leers.

“What do you want?” 

His grip tightens around the handle but doesn't put much force into digging the damn thing into my skin. “Get the hell out of Ridgewood Bay and never come back,” he whispers but with such intimidation that it crawls up spine.

I frown. No way was I doing that. "If I don't want to?"

He growls. The knife's edge was beginning to cut the skin from my collar bone but before I could feel a drop of blood, he pulls back. I hiss. "I guess, Julian wasn't clear in his text."

Julian's text. The text that warned me not to go back to Ridgewood Bay. How would he know about that?

"Well, Julian doesn't get to tell me what to do," I spat.

He hums. "Everyone is always a pawn in someone's game. You know that better than anyone. Now let's see if you can make it to the end long enough to witness who calls checkmate first. And I assure you, baby doll, that sure as hell not gonna be you."

His grip around my wrists breaks loose and the weight on my stomach finally lifts. I scramble toward the edge of my bed away from where he was standing. Tumbling against the tiled floor, I press my back against the wall, taunting the idea of bolting for the door. "How did you get into my room?"

The mystery man pulls out a hairpin and holds it up to a lit area in the room. "I should thank you for that little trick you taught my brother."

I furrowed my brows. In one fluid motion, he takes off the ski mask and my breath hitched.

Even in the dark room, the moon lit up his impressive facial features well. 

Anger started bubbling up inside me for the second time today. I stood up, adrenaline coursing through me. 

"What the hell are you doing, Elio?" Despite my indignation, my voice came out as a whisper at the shock of Julian's little brother standing before me. Of course Julian would teach his younger brother how to pick locks. The two were always up to no good. 

I take a step towards him but the movement only made him grip the knife harder, so I stay rooted to my place. This wasn't the scrawny kid I used to tease. No, he was bigger, tougher.

And angrier.

His snarl was mean. Meaner than any animal I could think of. Someone hurt him deeply. And I think that someone was me.

"Elio, I—" I struggle to find words. What do you exactly say in situations like these? "I'm sorry for what I did."

Even his laugh was mean. "Yeah? What did you do exactly?" I stay silent not wanting to admit it out loud just yet. "You're done with this town. Get out while you still can."

"I know nothing is going to fix what I did but let me try. Let me talk to Julian he'll un—"

In a flash, he pushed me against the wall, pinning me once more with a thud. The knife was back again on my cheek. s**t. Blood drains from my face.

"f**k, after everything, you still think he'll want you back? Couldn't you be more pathetic?"

Tears sprung my eyes. No, he will. Julian will, he just has to listen to me.

"You know what I've always liked about you? You used to be spineless. Always so quiet in school, hiding behind a false wall of innocence. No one would even think to suspect a little thirteen-year-old girl."

And they didn't. Not until a few days later when my face was all over the newspapers that Charlie fought so hard to take down, claiming I was a lead suspect in the case. The building had no cameras but I didn't think about the ones on the buildings nearby. I was so sure the police would stop by our house in Michigan that I was always at the edge of my seat.

But that never happened. They ruled me off as a suspect the next day. Julian didn't tell them it was me. That gave me hope that he and I could still repair what I had broken.

"You planned it all along. Enticed my brother and let our guard down to get us to trust you? Then you went and f****d us right in the ass," he finished.

He sounded so sure with his hypothesis that I don't think he'd believe anything that would come out of my mouth. Not tonight, at least.

Like him, I was just a kid back then. His accusation didn't make sense since I wouldn't have the guts to plan such a big feat let alone successfully pulling it off. Even I wasn't that cruel.

My face hardened. If that's what he thinks, then I'll let him sleep tonight with something to think about. 

"And I would do it again in a heartbeat."

This was something so much deeper than he thought, underground crevices and cave systems deep. I had my reasons for burning that building, but I don't think I'm ready to tell him yet.

"Good." He pulls back. "Because then it would be easier for Julian to finally cut you off from his life."

I shake my head, refusing to believe Julian would. I was foolish to think that but at the moment, I didn't have much to hold onto. "He wouldn't." Elio tilts my chin up with his knife.

"And why is that? Because he made you feel special when you were kids? Don't kid yourself. You're nothing to him than just a reserved f**k. You were nothing to him then, you're nothing to him now." He spat every word with malice that I flinch at the end of every sentence.

That's a lie. What we have—had—was real. It was all real.

"Do us all a favor and skip town. You've hurt Julian enough."

I shrink at the last part. I know I did, that's why I want to make it up to him and his brothers. Make him understand why I did it, not to justify, but to explain. If he's done with me by the time I finished explaining, so be it. I'll never turn a single hair out of place in his head ever again. 

Telling him might be worse than not knowing but I have to. He deserved this. Still, a part of me was terrified to let him know the truth. 

I was an expert at running and hiding. But this time, I'm planting my feet on the soil and I'm standing tall. They will not break me. No amount of words could ever fix the mess I created but running away wouldn't prove anything. The least I could do is tell Julian my truth.

Leaning his body into me, he lightly skimmed the shell of my earlobe. I squirm, but the knife wasn't doing anything to ease my discomfort. 

Elio spoke, voice hushed but still held authority and no hesitation. "Stay away from us. Stay away from Julian. Don't so much as fuckin' glance our way," he paused, "because Julian's going to have fun hurting you more than you had fun hurting us."

He backs away from me and leaves through the open window without another word, his silhouette disappearing down  the fresh cut grass in Charlie's backyard

I rushed to the windowsill quickly sliding the lock and sink to the floor. Reality descended down on me. This, this was the repercussions of what I did.

The melodic tune was back and instead of the agitation I felt before, I welcome its screeching comfort as I let the tears fall to my cheeks, the piano lulling me to sleep.