The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky (ebook reader for manga TXT) 📕

now who I was. I might have done a monstrous thing once, but that did not make me a monster. I was a survivor. And that was much stronger.

Freddie closed the gap between us until there was nothing but me and him. He raised the knife, but as he brought it down, the blade was wrenched out of his hand.

Bram, risen from what I had thought was death, had the knife. He plunged the blade into Freddie’s back.

The two of them fell to the ground.

 53

I WOKE UP screaming. No nightmare this time, just blackness. I swallowed in air, reaching for the switch on my bedside lamp, but I was all nerves and my arm bolted out like a live wire, hitting the lamp. It teetered, but my mom’s hand caught it before it could fall to the floor.

“Shh, here,” she whispered and turned the lamp on. The light immediately bathed everything in a warm glow. Mom sat on the edge of my bed and smoothed back my hair.

I almost broke down and cried just seeing her. She told me she’d spend the whole night in my room, even after I pointed out that the only chair, perpetually piled with my worn clothes, was creaky old wood. I was so glad she hadn’t listened to me.

“I’m sorry about the lamp. I’m such a mess. You shouldn’t have to stay up with me like I’m a child.”

“Rachel, the lamp is fine. It’s okay to be a little on edge right now. You just went through something … unbelievable.”

She sighed, a crease forming between her eyebrows. I knew my mom’s tells as well as she knew mine. The way she looked down at her hands because she didn’t want me to see her tears. The way her lips settled into a tight, straight line, mustering up resolve, strength. I recognized her tells because they were the same as mine.

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

She looked at me, exasperated. “You didn’t even break the damn lamp.”

“Not for that.”

Mom sighed. “Jamonada. You don’t have anything to be sorry about. I’m sorry that these bad things keep happening to you. I was really hoping the city would be a fresh start.”

I didn’t deserve her pity. I’d brought this on myself. I’d practically knocked on trouble’s door and begged to be let in. And now my mom was blaming herself.

“So what happened?” she asked. She’d waited until now to broach the subject. She’d given me room to breathe when she’d gotten a call from the police, come to get me, sat with me in the back of the cab as the night blinked into day.

The police had given her the facts—the pieces they’d found scattered in the little corner of Central Park where my nightmare had come to life. They’d found Freddie dead, with a rubber mask on his face, which they used to connect him to Lux’s accident. They were also going to reopen their investigation into Saundra’s death. They’d found both Bram and Thayer alive, Thayer barely breathing. Felicity hadn’t turned up, though, and I didn’t mention that she’d been there.

And then there was me, curiously without any major bodily harm. They seemed suspicious, which meant they obviously weren’t horror fans. There was always someone left standing at the end. A F inal Girl.

I told my mom a version of what I’d told the police. Freddie attacked me. He attacked Bram. And Bram did what he did because Freddie was about to kill me.

I hated upsetting my mom, but she deserved to know what happened. It was the truth, which was something I had fought hard to tell.

“I can’t believe it,” Mom said finally. “Freddie Martinez. He was such a good kid in all of my classes. I never would’ve guessed that he could be so violent.”

Neither could I. But “violent” wasn’t the word I’d use. Freddie was evil. It was difficult enough facing your monsters when you knew what they were, but that was nothing compared to inviting them in and not having a single clue. Freddie had pulled the wool over my eyes since the first moment I’d looked at him. I felt like such an idiot, thinking about how his smiles had made me swoon, when really they were meant to blind me.

Freddie’s death had only left me with more questions. That time he told me his deepest, darkest secrets, was he saying that all in a grand plot to deceive me? Every time we kissed, did he hate it? Did he want me to fall for him just so he could stab me in the back on the way down?

The only answer that felt honest was yes. To all of it.

Mom put her arms around me and let me cry on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” I told her again.

“None of that,” my mom said. “You’re safe now. You don’t have to be scared anymore. But I’ll stay in your room for as long as you need.”

“Go to bed, Mom.”

“You sure?”

Mom pinched my cheek as she searched my face, seeming to go over every freckle. Normally, if anyone looked this closely at me, I’d freak. I was sure they could see me for what I really was, the horrible person I’d become the night of the attack. But I knew better now. I wasn’t a monster.

I was the one who’d defeated the monster.

“I’m beat,” I said, meaning it. “I should get back to sleep.”

Mom hesitated, like she was afraid to leave me alone. But eventually she pulled the blanket all the way up to my chin, tucking me in.

“You’ve got a guardian angel,” she said. “I’m so grateful Bram was there.”

The last I’d heard, Bram was in surgery, but it seemed like he was going to pull through.

He had to. Because we needed to talk.

 54

THE LAST TIME I’d seen Bram, my hands were covered in his blood. I’d used his phone to call for help in the park and stayed with him until it arrived. I’d tried