Never trust your friends.

~^~

I parked the car and limped towards to entrance of the house as quickly as possible. To my surprise, I noticed the door was left slightly ajar.

"James?" I called faintly.

There was no response as I made my way inside. The lights were off as well so I stumbled towards the switch to turn them back on. No one seemed to be home. It was odd. The atmosphere was chilly and unusual, not like it was the last time I had been here. Walking to the kitchen, I turned on the tap and splashed some water over my face, grabbing a glass from the side to fill it with water. As I swallowed, I heard a faint groaning sound coming from another room.

"James?" I called again suddenly covered with an icy sensation, "Marc?"

In that second, I heard the sound of glass shattering from the room afar. Rushing there, my heart dropped at the image before me.

Marc lay there in a pool of what looked to be his blood, fidgeting slightly. My body felt numb and I for a second couldn't move.

"Marc..." I breathed, shocked.

Rushing and stumbling up to him, I brought my trembling hands over his body. "Marc, please-"

"K-Kid." he forced himself to say, "You- you have to go- get-"

"We have to get you help!" I panicked until he grabbed my wrist, keeping me back.

"No. You have to-get out of here-go,"

"I'm not leaving without you." I firmly stated.

"Becky, I want to go. She's- waiting for me."

"Please Marc, please- you have a son." I sobbed begging him.

"Get- out of here, tell James-" He was bleeding profusely and I knew if I didn't help him now it would be too late.

"I'm getting help," I stated in a tremble about to stand when I heard a familiar voice behind me. It suddenly partially made sense to me. What Archer was repeating to me suddenly all made sense.

Don't trust her.

Stay away from her.

Don't trust Rebecca.

Rebecca Banks stood before me, holding no expression on her face.

"Rebecca," I frowned.

"Beck," she suddenly switched to a worried expression, "Thank God I found you! I was looking everywhere. We have to get out of here."

Holding out her hand for me to take, I scowled, She didn't think I was that dumb now, did she? I was shocked nonetheless. Part of me died because I trusted her so much and she lied to me. How much of it was real?

"Why are you doing this?"

"Becky, I don't know what you're talking about. We have to go now. Let's go."

"Answer my question." I firmed.

"Oh Beck, you don't look so good." She said as she neared me about to touch my face when I held her hand and pushed her back.

Chuckling, she flipped her hair casually and wickedly smiled at me, "So, Archer got to you, didn't he?"

I didn't respond, just held a disapproving look as she continued.

"Oh my, I must admit though he is handsome." She sighed with a laugh, "Smart man, unlike you. How does it feel, Becky?"

"How does what feel?"

"To be so stupid?"

"What do you want, Rebecca? Why are you doing this? Everything that happened, it was a setup wasn't it?"

"Beck, let me explain something to you." She began and we both circled the kitchen table, "I don't like you. Never did. I hated being your friend,"

"Well okay then," I scoffed, *I have other friends. Don't you?"

Ignoring that she scowled, "You ever asked yourself why our parents hated each other? They were business partners, worked for Gianmarco Vincilli, but your daddy was a lil bitch and wanted to pull out hence leaving my father in

debt."

"Vincilli? No, you're lying. Not in the mafia."

"Well of course not, dumbass. They just did business with Gian."

"Then that's between them, I don't understand how this affects you."

"Unlike you, I don't like living off my father. Gian made a better offer. He was the best opportunity Cost."

"Oh, look at you." I mentally applauded her, "Talking about

opportunity cost, did Vitaly teach you a new word or did you google it before coming here?"

"You're a bitch, you know that?"

"I'm aware." I smiled.

"Vitaly is such a waste along with his dumb sister."

Part of me was still processing that she knew all this time.

"So Gianmarco what? Paid you all for what? To be his puppets? What's the motive? What does he want with me?"

"He recruited us. Gave us respect. Purpose. Me, Vitaly, Rosalie," she smiled and paused, "I believe James did mention to you about a lovely young woman named Violet. Don't worry, poor James doesn't know."

My heart sank upon hearing that. All these years he had been looking for her. Haunting for her. Getting accused. And she was betraying him. He didn't deserve this. This for some reason upset me more than everything I've had against me.

"This is madness." I breathed.

"It's the best reality, darling."

My heart tugged at Marc bleeding to death on the floor. I had to do something. "So why are you here then? What

does Vincilli want with me?"

"Honestly, I don't know and I don't care. I'm just following instructions." Rebecca said rolling her eyes, "So how's your man going?"

She couldn't be serious.

"We're on a break." I finished as I angrily pushed the table vigorously slamming it into her stomach.

"Now we're talking." She smugly laughed and picked up one of

the chairs, throwing it at me. My previous injuries didn't help

the situation. I wanted it to be over soon. Grabbing a lamp I slashed it across her face, breaking it into a million pieces as she yanked me up by the hair and slammed my head into the door multiple times. Elbowing her in the stomach, I kicked her ankles as she yelped, falling to the ground yet grabbed me by the neck trying in an attempt to choke me. She flung me aside as I hit my stomach on the coffee table and groaned in pain.

"You wanted to play dirty-" she venomed at me as she stood and limped towards Marc while grabbing a knife on the table, "Fine."

"No." I breathed as I tried to get up but she quickly and mercilessly plunged it into his heart over and Over and over.

"NO!" I screamed, "No!"

I never screamed so loudly. It pained me, what she did wounded me more than I could have imagined. At that moment I felt a sudden rage wash over me. It was so intense. I felt almost murderous. I rushed towards her with hell behind my heels as I grabbed her by her hair and smashed her head into the glass table, twisting her arms back as she cried.

"You fking b*tch!" I yelled, "I'll fucking kill you!" She tried to claw me from behind but I spun her around, grabbed a broken piece of glass, and slapped her across the face with it as blood melted off her cheeks. She kicked me off and rushed into the bathroom but I held her back from shutting the door.

"I trusted you!" I screamed as I pushed her into the tube filled with water, "You were like a sister to me!"

As she scrambled herself up, she pulled me in with her and punched me across the face. I could feel the metallic taste of blood on my lips as her ring dug into my lips. Grabbing her by the hair, I pushed her head beneath the water as I shrugged myself out of the tube and limped my way out of the house towards the garage where she followed me out and pushed me on the dirt ground at the side. The sun hadn't woken up yet but our screams should have been the alarm as we rolled around strangling each other. I dragged myself away as I grabbed an iron rod and swung it at her with such a heavy force.

"You!" I swung at her.

"Killed!" I swung again.

"Marc!" I cried as I hit her again.

This time she grabbed a hammer on the ground and pounded it on my left hand where I held the rod, causing it to drop to the ground. I held my aching hand as she tackled

me to the ground and was about to blow the claw of the hammer into her face but before she could I swiftly seized a screwdriver on the side and thrust it into her left eye where she screamed and fell back.

"Wench." I finished as I looked at her scrambled away and rushed into her parked car in an attempt to run away.

I could have finished her, but I wasn't going to stoop to her level.

I wasn't an animal like her.