Paper Dolls (27 page)

My heart pounded at an increasing pace as I neared Clay’s apartment door. Was I really doing this?

I couldn’t hear anything through the door. No laughter, no moans, no talking.

That didn’t mean they weren’t in there.

As quietly as I could I slipped the key into the lock, bit by bit before turning it. The lock opened with a loud click, making me flinch. I twisted the handle, pushed open the door and stuck my head in. The kitchen and living room were both empty. The TV was off. So was the radio.

I slipped inside and shut the door behind me before any of the neighbours could spot me. The state of the place hit me. There were unwashed dishes in his sink, dishes on the counter, papers scattered across his dining room table and some fallen on the floor.

I crept as quietly as I could to his bedroom but it, too, was empty, just clothes strewn about the room. My eye fell upon the drawer he had given me.

My drawer. How ridiculous was I being? Of course Clay loved me. He had given me a drawer and clothes…

The cherry print pyjamas. They weren’t brand new. They had been
Olivia’s
. Of course they fit me. Salem and I were the same size.

I shook my head, fighting back an angry sob, as I stormed over to his side of the bed. There must be something here in his things that would prove his lies. Or exonerate him. I yanked open the top drawer a little too hard, causing the drawers to shake. Inside were cords, coins, receipts…

But there was a piece of paper underneath everything. I moved everything aside and picked it up. It was a familiar drawing. A comic.

It was the Aria comic, exactly like the partly drawn one I spotted on his table the other day,
Adventures of Aria
written across the top in bright yellow font.

My eyes found the date in the corner.

21 July.

Five months ago.

But Clay hadn’t met me until early August. How could he have drawn this comic based on me in July?

What the fuck?

“Hello, sister dear.” A voice came from behind me.

I leapt to my feet, my heart cramming into my throat. Salem stood at the door to Clay’s bedroom, leaning against the doorframe. Was she following me? Or…had she been watching Clay’s place?

“How did you get in?”

She gave me an amused look that managed to look not amused at all. “Through the front door.”

“But…I locked it.” Didn’t I? I thought I did. I mustn’t have. Or maybe Clay gave her a key.

“When were you going to tell me about this?” Salem held up a small rectangular piece of card.

Shit. It was the card that Flick gave me. “I don’t know what that is.”

“Don’t lie to me. I found it in your bag.”

“You went through my things.” When had she done that?

“And you’re telling me you didn’t go through
my
things?”

I opened my mouth, then shut it again. How did she know that I read her journal?

She shook her head, flicking the card to the floor. “You were going to have me locked up.”

“No.”

“After everything I’ve done for you.”

“I was just worried about you. I was just thinking about whether it’d be good for you. I hadn’t decided to use it.”

“I’m not crazy.”

“You tried to run Clay off the goddamn road. You could have killed him.”

“I’m not fucking crazy,” she screamed as she pushed off the doorframe and walked into the room. That’s when I saw the flash of metal in her hand that had been hidden behind her back until now. She was holding a gun, a glinting metal contraption of death.

“Salem, what are you doing with a gun?”

“Did you ever stop to think that perhaps it’s
you
who is crazy?” She strode farther into the room, her gun punching the air to punctuate her sentences. “That you’re the one who needs help?”

I stumbled back towards the head of the bed.

She’s dangerous.

She’s not dangerous, she’s your sister.

Doesn’t mean she’s stable. She’s holding a fucking gun.

I glanced over to the ensuite door, slightly ajar. It was my only other way out. But there was no way I was getting past her. Not when she had a gun in her hand.

She’d never shoot me.

Would you bet your life on that?

“Hellingly Country Hospital − Psychiatric Facility. Who put this into your head?” She pointed the gun at me as if it were her finger. My throat closed up at sight of the winking black eye of the barrel now being turned on me. “Clay? Or that nosy boss of yours, Flick? What kind of name is Flick anyway?”

If I told her, would she try and hurt Flick too? “No one put it in my head.”

“Liar.”

“
I’m
the liar?” Anger trickled out through the fear. “You lied to
me
. I found your journal. You and Clay had a relationship before me. I know
you’re
Olivia.”

“Olivia,” she spat out. “That name is cursed.”

“What happened that night? What happened to break you two up?”

“There are some things that should stay buried. Some secrets that should never come out in the open. They can’t.” Her face softened. “Let’s just forget about it. We can just leave. You and me, Aria.”

“I won’t forget about it. I need to know the truth.”

“The truth… You don’t want the truth.”

“I do.”

“You don’t know what you’re fucking talking about.”

But I did.

I wanted the truth.

The truth.

Even if it killed me.

Did I?
Did
I?

I gripped at my hair, shaking my head, trying to dislodge all these jumbled thoughts, trying to let these puzzle pieces settle in where they belonged. But they just rattled away.

Salem snarled. “Goddamn it, I knew I should have gotten rid of him sooner.” She scratched her head with the barrel of her gun. “Think, Salem, think.”

She wanted Clay.

She wanted Clay dead.

What the hell was the truth?

I jumped when my phone rang in my bag, buzzing against my leg through the leather. There was only one person who could be calling.

Salem’s eyes snapped to the bag. “Give me your phone.”

“What?”

“Your phone. Give it to me.”

“W-Why?”

“I’m the one with the gun. Give me your phone.”

I slowly pulled it from my bag and handed her the phone, praying that he’d just hang up. She snatched it from my hand and answered it, her eyes boring into mine.

“Clay Jagger,” she said into my phone. My heart almost stopped. “No, it’s not Aria. Yes, that’s right.” I flinched towards her, desperate to grab the phone off her but I could barely move. The gun she thrust at me, keeping me back, kept me feeling like I was a mere ghost with no power to affect anything.

“Meet me at the place we first met. You do remember where we first met, don’t you, Clay, darling?” An unnerving smile lifted the corner of her mouth. “You took Aria there when you first told her you loved her. Good. Twenty minutes. Tick tock.”

Salem hung up the phone.

Her words remained ringing in my ears.
You took Aria there when you first told her you loved her.
“How did you know? I never told you about that.” The realisation dawned on me. “You…you were following me. No…you were following
him
.”

She didn’t answer as she approached. She grabbed me by the arm and spun me towards the door, shoving the gun into my back. “Move.”

She forced me out of Clay’s apartment and down the hallway to the stairs. I prayed with every shaking step that someone would appear so I could alert them to get help. My sister needed help, serious help. She was unstable. Delusional. But nobody was around. Why was nobody around?

When we got to the lobby she led me to my car, shoving me into the driver’s seat before she got into the passenger’s side.

“Drive,” she said, the black eye of the barrel still pointed straight at me.

“What are you doing?” My voice trembled as it escaped out between my teeth. For the first time in my life I was terrified of her. It was like I didn’t know her.

“We’re going to end this. Once and for all.”

16

We were the first ones to arrive at Mirage Gorge.

Salem walked behind me as I trudged a solemn march from the car to the bridge. Clogging my nose was the smell of wet earth and rotting leaves, and the moisture from the waterfall felt like cobwebs on my skin. All sunlight was hidden behind thick sooty clouds, making the misty bridge across the gorge seem like a walkway across to some kind of mystical hell.

“That’s far enough.”

I stopped in the centre of the bridge and turned slowly around to face Salem. Her features were firm with determination and finality. She looked so normal for someone so insane. She eyed the side of the bridge and ran a finger tenderly across the railing. Her voice sounded faraway, “It all started here.”

Oh my God.

She was the angel that Clay had seen on this bridge. It hadn’t been a hallucination. She had been the one to save Clay’s life.

And now she would be the one to take it.

I bit my bottom lip with my teeth and tasted blood. “You don’t have to do this.”

She lifted her stormy eyes to me. They no longer glistened with anger but were muted and matte, painted with a deep sadness that caused a knot to rise in my throat. “Yes, I do.”

I prayed that Clay wouldn’t come. I prayed that he would figure out that this was a trap and call the police. I prayed for any number of things. For the moment that Clay stepped onto this bridge, he was as good as dead.

My heart began to race as I heard the hurried crush of dirt from behind me. As I turned I prayed in vain,
please don’t be Clay.

My heart sank, hope fleeing from the house of my soul as his familiar figure appeared through the mist from the other side of the bridge. I had never seen him look so unsure. That
he
would lose his confidence too…had we no hope left?

“Aria?” Even his voice had become thin and pallid.

“Clay, please go back,” I cried.

“Shut up,” Salem snapped behind me. “Come on, Clay, come a little closer so we can talk.”

Turn around. Go back! Can’t you see she’s crazy?

But he wouldn’t listen. He walked onto the bridge, his footsteps slow and uneven, and my heart thudded louder and harder at his proximity. He stopped only metres from me, his eyes focused over my shoulder. “Salem,” his voice shuddered around her name. “Put the gun down. You don’t want to hurt anyone.” He took another small step towards me.

“Stop!” Salem yelled from behind me and I jumped at the sound, my nerves strung so tightly I was on the verge of snapping apart. “You come any closer and I’ll shoot, I swear to motherfucking God!”

He froze, his palms going up as if to try and placate her. “Okay, okay. I’ve stopped moving.”

“Why did you come, Clay?” I gasped, my chest squeezing out of helplessness. How the hell were we going to get out of this mess? “Why did you come alone?”

He didn’t answer me.

I hated that I couldn’t see Salem. I felt half-blind with my back to her. I hated that I could only see Clay while all he saw was
her.
He had barely glanced at me.

My stomach curdled. Was it true then? Did Clay love Salem? Olivia? Whatever fucking name she went by?

Or was he pretending not to pay me any attention to let her think that he didn’t care for me as much as he did?

“Now show me your hands,” Salem said. “Show them to me!”

Please Clay
, I begged in my head,
just do as she says.

“Okay, okay.” He raised his hands, palms towards me, up to his chest height, his biceps tightening against his grey cotton shirt. “Don’t do anything drastic.”

“Drastic. Me?” Salem let out a sharp laugh. “Drastic is my middle name, don’t you know?”

“Why are you doing this?” I dared to ask. “Do you want him back? Is that it?”

She laughed. “No, you stupid girl. This has all been for
you
. I know the truth about Clay, the truth he tried so hard to bury. I’ve been trying to protect you from him. To scare him off. But he won’t leave us alone. Only one thing left to do.”

My stomach tightened at her implication.
Only one thing left to do.
“You don’t have to… We can run away. Just you and me, Salem.”

“It’s not enough. He’ll come after us. He’ll find us.”

I shook my head. “There’s been some mistake. Let’s just talk about this.”

She snorted. “Clay, tell Aria about how you’ve been trying to get rid of me. Go on, tell her.”

Clay flinched. I studied his face, mouth pinched and a darkness clouding his eyes.

Oh my God. “Is it true? Are you trying to get rid of Salem?”

But he wouldn’t look at me. He just stared at Salem, his eyes narrowing. “Aria, maybe once upon a time Salem was exactly what you needed. But now she’s just holding you back. She’ll never let you move on.”

My head spun. My sister and my boyfriend, each trying to get rid of the other. The diary entries of Salem’s I had read were all one-sided. What pieces was I missing? What had Clay been doing to try and get rid of Salem?

My vision shuddered and I felt something cracking inside me, like the tentative edge of a cliff finally buckling under the elements. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to shake off the incoming headache. “This doesn’t make sense. Both of you, just stop.”

“Salem,” Clay’s voice echoed out across the gorge. “We need to tell her. We need to tell her the truth.”

My eyes snapped open. “Tell me what?”

“No!” Salem cried.

“She’s stronger than you give her credit for.”

Salem growled. “Don’t you remember what happened that−?”

“That night. That night. You keep talking about
that night.
But that was then. This is now.”

Once again I felt like an outsider. Watching this argument play out between them, stuck in the middle of them.
That night. What happened that night?

“Aria,” he called. “You’re stronger than you know.”