Chapter 25: Karma's a bitch

After Mara locked herself inside our room, she wouldn't say a word to me. I tried to get in and talk to her, but she wouldn't let me.

This was all because of Jerome.

How could he do this to Mara? And me?

"Mara, please! Let me explain!" I pounded on the door. Unfortunately, I'd left my key inside.

"You already did!" Mara yelled. "And it's all lies! Just go away!"

I sighed. "Fine." I walked down the stairs, heading back to Eddie's room. I needed to talk to someone.

I was about to knock on the door, but I heard someone talking.

"I know, ok? I get it. Just get rid of it. I don't ever want to see it again."

I knocked on the door quietly.

"Eddie?"

Eddie looked up from his phone, his face red with tears.

"I have to go." He hung up and glanced at me.

"Is everything ok?" I sat down next to him.

"No, actually. It's not." Eddie glared.

"Wh- What's wrong?"

"What do you think?"

"I- I don't know."

"Really?" Eddie got his phone out.

"Yes, really. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Then what's this, Patricia?"

Eddie opened a text message and shoved it in my face.

It was a picture.

Of Jerome and I.

Kissing.

I gasped.

"Who sent this to you?" I felt like I was choking on the air.

"Does that really matter?" A few more tears formed in Eddie's eyes.

"Eddie, I can explain. I swear, it's not what it looks like."

"Really? 'Cause it looks a lot like you kissing Jerome to me."

"Ok, maybe it looks like that." I started. "But there's more to it, I swear."

"How long has this been going on?"

"Nothing is going on, Eddie. I promise."

Eddie's expression transformed from sadness to anger.

"So, now you're just going to sit here and lie to me? How many more lies do you have to tell, Patricia!? Why am I not good enough for you!? First it's Mick, then it's Jerome!"

"Eddie, please..."

"You know what, Patricia? Just save it." Eddie got up. "We're over."

"What?" I felt tears form in my own eyes. "But, Eddie..."

"Just leave." Eddie pointed at the door, but I just gaped, dazed.

"Eddie, I-"

"I said leave!"

The tone of Eddie's voice surprised me, making me jump. I stood up and Eddie immediately pushed me out the door.

"Eddie!" I said as he slammed the door in my face.

At first, I just leaned against the door, feeling the tears well up in my eyes.

Then, I burst into tears, running toward my room so that Eddie wouldn't hear or see me. I covered my eyes with my hands for a moment to wipe away the tears and ended up running into somebody.

"Patricia!" They squealed. It was Joy. I uncovered my eyes and looked up at her, the tears still streaming down my face as I made horrible noises. "Patricia... What's wrong?"

Instead of saying anything, I just wailed.

"Come here, Patricia." Joy sat down next to me against the wall, holding me so that I could put my head on her shoulder. "It's ok." She pet my hair, shushing me. "Everything is going to be ok."

After I stopped crying and told Joy exactly what had happened, she took me to our room, and the door was strangely unlocked. Mara must have left, or at least realized I was gone and decided it was safe to unlock it.

When we went inside, Mara was asleep in her bed.

"Poor girl." Joy muttered.

I wanted to glare at her, but she was right. I could only imagine how terrible it must have been to find your boyfriend kissing another girl: A girl who's supposed to be your friend.

"Maybe I should just stay in Nina and Lindsey's room, tonight." I whispered.

"Do you really want to do that?" Joy arched an eyebrow. "Do you know how many nightmares Nina has in that room, just because of Amber?"

"You're right." I looked down. I guess it was better to face Mara than to have nightmares about Amber's death.

I couldn't tell where I was. Everything was blurry. Probably because I was running as fast as I could. I just kept running.

"Come on, girls! We don't bite!" Two voices said. I turned around. There was the ghost of Senkhara and Rufus. Their knife glittered from the little light that peered through the trees.

"Amber!" I heard myself yell. "Are you ok?" I peered over to look at the innocent blonde figure running beside me.

Suddenly, I knew exactly where I was.

I was back to the night the ghost and whoever was ordering them around tried to kill Amber, at least for the first time.

"Yeah. "Amber replied. "But we need to keep running as fast as we can. If they get to us, we're goners."

We ran a few seconds more.

The ghost behind us sighed.

"I guess we're going to have to do this the hard way."

The ghost suddenly transported itself in front of us. Amber screamed. I tried to run backwards, and tripped. I heard myself squeal as I fell backwards and my head hit a sharp rock. My hand got stuck to something, too, cutting it.

"Patricia!" Amber called from a distance.

"Go, Amber! Run!" I replied weakly.

"I won't leave you!"

"You have to!" I felt myself slowly drift away. "It's too late for me."

Amber finally ran, and the ghost faced me, a sick expression on its face.

It was about to lunge for me, when...

I woke up suddenly.

I'd suppressed the memory for such a long time. I couldn't even think about it that night. Mainly because I didn't remember.

I looked in front of me and Mara was sneering.

I jumped.

"Good morning, Patricia." Mara said nastily, even though I'd looked at the clock and it was only 3 am. "Did you enjoy your sleep?"

"Um, Mara. What are you doing?" I replied.

"I just wondered how you were feeling after Eddie dumped you." Mara smirked. My lips tightened.

The only person that knew about our breakup was Joy, and she wasn't going to tell anyone about it until I did: She promised.

"You're the one that sent him that picture." I tried not to gasp or cry. Mara's face twisted into a sick smile.

"Karma's a bitch."

That's not karma, I wanted to say. That's payback: Revenge.

"How did you get a picture?"

"It was actually an accident." Mara shrugged. "I took it when I saw you two out of anger. I didn't even realize until I looked through my phone." Mara got closer to me, and her hand slid down my arm and grabbed my hand, squeezing it hard enough to make it pop. "At first, I was surprised." She looked up and glared at me, squeezing harder, and making me wince. "Then, I realized... This was the perfect way to get back at you. I could ruin your life, just like you ruined mine. Just with one, quick photo."

"Mara..."

"How does it feel, Patricia!?" Mara's eyes were crazed. "What does it feel like to lose everything you care about!?"

"Stop!" I tried to pry Mara off of me. "Mara, stop it!"

Mara finally let go of me and walked over to her bed. I glanced suspiciously at her.

"There's a game called love, Patricia." She said in a low voice. "It's never real, even when you think it is." I just sat there and stared. What was I supposed to say? "I was about to win, but you got luck and pulled one step ahead of me."

"I-"

"But what you didn't know was that I was actually two steps ahead of you." Mara looked up from the string on her shirt she was playing with. "In the end, neither of us won."

There was a long silence.

"Mara, you know that-"

"Now, we're going to play another round." Mara's eyes narrowed and her eyebrows arched. "And I'm going to murder you."

Author's note: I just want all you Peddie fans out there to know not to worry. You're supposed to be a little upset about this, but please don't stop reading. I promise you, there's a reason this happened, and maybe, in the end, it will be a huge makeover of Peddie. So, just hang tight. Also, I want to know who you think the killer is. I have a few people I thought of at one point, but now I'm set on one, and if anyone can guess it, I will do something huge for them. ~L