Demon (34 page)

“Oh,
I’m
the cruel one? It’s
your
fault we’re in this predicament. If you hadn’t let her get away the first time, we wouldn’t be here now.”

“That wasn’t my fault!” Professor Carter exclaimed. “I tried to tell you it would never work. She isn’t my type. You can’t expect just any girl to—”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Livy interrupted. “Yes, I know you have a thing for blondes, Daddy. But,
really
, would it have killed you to use your imagination just once?”

Rebecca suddenly snapped to attention. As dreadful as it was, Rebecca was almost grateful for the insane banter. It was buying her more time to think. She had hardly been listening to what they were saying, because she was desperately trying to find some kind of weapon or weakness she could take advantage of. But there was one word that caught her attention. The music was blaring so loudly, at first she thought maybe she had misheard.

“He’s … he’s your
f-father
?” Rebecca stuttered.

Livy turned away from her argument with Professor Carter and looked at Rebecca as though she had forgotten she was there. “Why, yes, Becca,” she said sarcastically. “Meet Daddy dearest.”

“Oh my God.” Rebecca said, appalled. So that was how this deranged duo had formed. Apparently, insanity was hereditary. “And you
knew
. You knew he was hurting all those girls, and you just … just let him get away with it?”

Livy snorted. “Don’t you dare get all righteous with me, you pathetic little nit! I had my reasons for keeping my mouth shut. I needed him around. He made sure I got a scholarship and gave me the lead in every play. If I had turned him in, all of that would have just gone away. Besides, it turned out that Daddy’s little hobby was the perfect way to help me get Justyn all to myself.”

“And no one at the school realized….”

“The college has no idea that Livinia is my daughter, Miss Hope,” Professor Carter explained. “No one does.”

“That’s right, Becca. It’s a big secret. Shhhh! We wouldn’t want any scandalous bastard child to impede the reputation of the
great
professor. ” Livy’s voice dripped with obvious disdain, and the way she glared at her father revealed there was no love lost between them. “You see, Daddy has always had a taste for pretty little blondes, even twenty years ago when
he
was the one in college. The problem is, not many pretty ladies could get past the pock-marked cheeks and the uptight attitude. It doesn’t exactly scream Prince Charming.”

Professor Carter shut his eyes. “Livinia, please … don’t do this. Not again.”

“What’s the matter, Daddy? Does the truth hurt? I bet it doesn’t hurt as much as those scars you give to all those pretty girls. You just have to make them as ugly as you are, don’t you?” Livy spat. When Professor Carter only shook his head in defeat, she smiled and turned back to Rebecca. “Back when they were in college together, my mother wanted nothing to do with him. But he wouldn’t take no for an answer—thus, my less–than-immaculate conception. My mother, being the devout little churchgoer she was, gave birth to me despite the fact that I was a reminder of everything she hated. Oh, trust me, she tried her best to cut the evil out of me.” She lifted her scarred arms, but still seemed almost detached from the story. “When that didn’t work, she settled for cutting herself. I wound up with her sister, who hated me even more than she did. Luckily though, my mother left behind a little note telling me who my daddy was. I found him just in time to cash-in on his position at the college.”

“God, Livinia, you know I would have taken you away from all that had I known you existed! You must believe that!”

Professor Carter sounded almost desperate to convince her. In any other circumstances, Rebecca might have pitied him, because there was only hatred in her eyes when Livy looked at her father.

“Oh, save me the fatherly pep talks!” Livy spat. “It’s a little late for that now. I know how you really feel about me! Having your long-lost daughter show up on your doorstep was so terrible, it sent you right back to your old ways. It’s what the cops call a stressor, Becca. That’s me, Daddy’s little stressor. Right after I told him who I was, he went out and started attacking those girls!”

“If I didn’t love you, do you think I’d be here right now?” Professor Carter pleaded.

“You’re here to save your own sorry ass!” Livy told him through clenched teeth. “Now, shut up and hold her down while I get out my …
props
, for lack of a better word.”

Professor Carter obliged by pushing Rebecca forward. He slid behind her and pinned her arms to her side, making it nearly impossible for her to move. Whenever she tried to fight him or cry out, he pricked her side with his blade. Already, blood was sneaking through her sweater, though as of yet, the cuts were superficial. She had no idea when or if he would decide to finish her off. It would have been easy enough, but he didn’t seem interested in killing her. Apparently, that was Livy’s job. One she was looking forward to. Professor Carter just seemed nervous and out of his element.

“This is insanity!” he mumbled as he shifted his weight on the bed. “We’re going to get caught!”

“Oh,
now
you’re worried about getting caught?” Livy huffed. “You weren’t worried when you let Becca escape. You weren’t worried when you crashed the frat party because you just
had
to have pretty little Megan. Even after I arranged for you to have the perfect scapegoat for your crimes, you
still
couldn’t control yourself. The cops were ready to close the case and declare Scott the culprit, but
nooooo
. You just had to have
another
girl and ruin my plans
again
! You’re always ruining
everything
!”

“Oh God, you … you
killed
Scott?” Rebecca cried.

Listening to them was getting to be a little too much to take. She wished the loud music would drown out their voices, but it didn’t. Rebecca couldn’t help herself anymore. She started to sob. Any small speck of hope she had that the pair of them might not be able to cross the line to murder was diminished. They had already crossed that line. One more body wasn’t going to make any difference. Yet Professor Carter still seemed ill at ease, and Rebecca couldn’t help but hope there was some way she could use that to her advantage.

“Scott didn’t give me any choice!” Livy declared, turning her rage onto Rebecca. “He overheard us talking and figured out Crater Face was my father. He wanted to blackmail us into giving him all the leads. I knew if he kept poking his nose around my business, he would eventually figure out the rest. We couldn’t have that, could we? Daddy has access to all the lockers in the theater, so I snuck in and laced his coke with a little something … extra. It’s not like that stuff wasn’t going to kill him eventually anyway.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “Since he was dead already and not worried about his reputation, I planted the confession. Of course, Daddy’s master key is
also
how he managed to
betray
me and leave that little warming for Justyn on opening night!”

“Dear God, Livinia, what do you expect from me?” Professor Carter declared. “It’s been hard enough having that boy’s death on my conscience. I thought if I could scare her away, it wouldn’t have to come to this! I’m not a murderer, for Christ’s sake.”

“Not a murderer?” Rebecca scoffed. She wished she could turn just so she could spit in his face. “No, you’re just a filthy rapist! Do you really think you’re any better than your twisted daughter, you demented bas—”

Livy silenced Rebecca’s outrage with a quick backhand across her cheek. It made her eyes water, but she refused to cry out. Instead, she returned Livy’s heated gaze with the same intensity for all that she was trapped and helpless. It didn’t seem to make any difference. Livy smiled as she admired the handprint she’d left on Rebecca’s check.

“I have wanted to do that for
so
long,” Livy admitted. “But enough with the preliminaries. Our real-life play has been going on long enough. It’s about time for the big finale. So, what do you say, Becca?” She pulled a bottle of pills from the pocket of Justyn’s sweatpants and shook it like a maraca. “Are you ready to play Lucy one last time?”

“Wh-what are you going to do to me?” Rebecca asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Livy shook the pill bottle again. “Sleeping pills,” she explained. “Of course, in the play, Lucy screws-up her suicide attempt. I don’t doubt that you’d find some way to mess things up too. I mean, after all, the two of you have
so
much in common. But that’s why
we’re
here. We’ll make sure there are no mishaps.”

“You’re crazy!” Rebecca shouted. She tried again to pull free from Professor Carter, but his grip was firm and unbreakable. “You’ll never get me to swallow those pills! Never!”

Livy grinned at her as she unscrewed the cap. “Oh, yes, I will, Becca. Like I said before, no one is going to ruin
my
show. This is my best and most stunning performance to date—a real modern-day version of
Demon Barber
. It didn’t start out that way, of course. It’s kind of a funny story, actually. The first time I snuck in here, that damn bird just wouldn’t shut up. It just kept tweeting and twittering and calling out, ‘Becca, Becca’. So
annoying
! So I broke its stupid little neck.”

Rebecca flinched. Poor little Gizmo. He hadn’t died of natural causes after all. He had been murdered, by the same hand and in just the same way his mistress was about to be murdered.

“The next day,” Livy continued nonchalantly, “Scott was onstage, pretending to break an imaginary bird’s neck, and I thought it was a funny coincidence. Even the thing with the pizzas wasn’t originally intended to mimic the play. We just happened to order pizza because that was what everyone agreed on. It wouldn’t have mattered to me
what
kind of food it was. I just made sure to grab it from the delivery guy first and fixed it so Justyn would be … indisposed for a while. I hated to have to hurt him like that, but he didn’t really leave me any other choice. Sometimes he’s just too damn chivalrous for his own good.”

“You poisoned the entire cast just to get to me!” Rebecca demanded. “That is so twisted!”

“Well, it was the only way, Becca! You have Justyn wound so tightly around your little finger he would never have let you out of his sight long enough for Daddy to get to you if I didn’t do
something
extreme. But if I just poisoned
him
, someone might have gotten suspicious. So I spiked all the pizzas while Daddy kept you occupied, telling you how terrible of an actress you are. Justyn almost screwed everything up by saving you a piece of the pizza, though. If you had gotten sick too, the whole thing would have been for nothing. I was just about to ‘accidentally’ knock the dish onto the floor when Scott grabbed it and saved me the trouble. Poor Scott.” She snickered. “He was more helpful than he ever realized.”

Rebecca shook her head. The cops had thought there was a copycat rapist, but it had all been Livy’s convoluted way of getting to Justyn. They had known her attack was a setup, but no one, not even the police, had ever considered the food poisoning had been a part of the plan. Livy poisoned the cast, trashed her bike, memorized her schedule, and then sent Professor Carter to attack Rebecca when she knew she would be alone and defenseless. It was sick and twisted, but at the same time, almost brilliant in a convoluted sort of way. Rebecca was glad Livy had no idea how close her plan had actually come to succeeding. How close Rebecca had come to packing her bags and leaving the college.

“I didn’t even make the connection to
Demon Barber
until everyone was complaining about how terrible the pizza was and Justyn started singing
The Worst Pies in the City
. Livy continued with a small laugh. “It was then that I realized I was bringing
Demon Barber
to life, right here in the twenty-first century. Even Daddy tracking you down was just like what Judge Turpin did to Lucy, and seemed to fit the score. Of course, he screwed up my whole plan when he let you get away … but I forgive him. You were such a pathetic basket-case afterward, it will still help to make my backup plan believable.”

“Justyn will never believe I’d take my own life! Never, Livy! He knows me better than that.”

Rebecca kicked out with her feet as Livy came closer with the open bottle of sleeping pills. Not that it did any good. She wasn’t close enough to strike her, and Rebecca couldn’t break the hold the professor had on her arms. Livy looked at Rebecca with an almost compassionate expression as she took a few pills from the bottle and laid the rest on the nightstand by the still-blasting stereo.

“Oh, but he will, Becca. He’ll have no choice.”

The deranged look was back in her eyes as Livy climbed on top of the bed, pinning Rebecca’s legs down with her full body weight. She leaned in so close Rebecca could feel her hot breath against her skin. Despite the pounding in her heart, she refused to look away. She met Livy’s eyes and held them, even as the other girl grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back as hard as she could.

“Let me tell you just how this story is going to play out,” Livy said as she held the first little white pill up in front of Rebecca’s eyes. “Everyone thought that poor Becca was getting better after her traumatic experience. But she was a better actress than any of us ever imagined.
Poor thing
.” Livy yanked Rebecca’s hair so hard it brought tears to her eyes before going on with her narration. “She was really just too weak and pathetic to cope. So she came home one day and swallowed a whole bottle of pills. Not unlike poor Lucy. Only the poor thing really
does
die. When it’s all over, Justyn will need a shoulder to cry on, and I’ll be there to make everything better. Before you know it, he’ll have a brand new angel of music. One with a much better fashion sense.” She smiled humorlessly. “So there you have it. A happy ending all around. Well, except maybe for you, you
poor thing
.”