[039] dark thoughts

                                                           Suki felt a strange mixture of emotions as she sat outside of Victoria's house with Courtney right next to her. Most of it was anger, some of it was sorrow, and a little bit of betrayal mixed in. But there was an added layer of nervousness. She could see it in Courtney's eyes - the woman was itching for retribution in blood. Suki had no doubt in her mind that someone was about to get hurt. And Courtney would be more than happy to get it done in the name of avenging Suki (as well as eliminating anyone who could get in between her and Suki).

                                                        But it was too late for either of them to turn back now. They were here and neither of them were leaving until they figured out the truth.

                                                       "You're quieter than usual. What's the deal?" Courtney questioned.

                                                       "Besides the fact that we're parked outside the house of my last hookup who may or may not have been trying to investigate me just to interrogate her, I'm fine," Suki shrugged.

                                                       "I know this is probably a really shitty time to say I told you so but -," Courtney began.

                                                       "Don't," Suki warns her.

                                                       "Give me the benefit of the doubt, Suki. I wasn't gonna actually say it now. I just want to let you know that I have your best interests at heart. I always have. I'm sorry you had to find out this way but... At least you know that no matter what, you'll always have me in your corner," Courtney continued.

                                                     Suki's features soften as she looks at Courtney, saying, "I really hate you."

                                                    "Yeah, I know," Courtney nods with a small smile.

                                                    Headlights momentarily blind their vision and the two women look to see Victoria pulling up to her driveway. Courtney instantly perks up, digging through her purse until she pulled out a small gun which made Suki instantly freeze out of panic.

                                                   "You brought a gun?!" she shouts, glaring at Courtney who was as calm as ever.

                                                   "Yes, I brought a gun. But don't worry, it's not even real. It's just for show, I promise," Courtney assured her as she rushes out of the car to go and chase after Victoria.

                                                  "Jesus fucking Christ," Suki rolls her eyes, rushing out of the car shortly after that.

                                                 Courtney made her move in an instant, rushing after Victoria as she made her way to her front door. She sneaks up on Victoria from behind, pressing the end of the gun to the woman's back. Victoria tenses up in an instant, pretty horrified as to what was going on.

                                                 "Who are you?" Victoria questioned, trying to look behind her. But it was really hard to see anything in the dark.

                                                 "Doesn't matter. Hurry up and get inside the house. Now," Courtney ordered.

                                                 Victoria quickly unlocks the door, her hands shaking as she pushes the door open. Courtney practically shoves Victoria inside of the house, motioning for Suki to follow behind her. Suki looks around to make sure that no one could see them before she rushed inside of the house and made sure to lock the door behind them. Courtney led Victoria into the living room where she shoved her onto the couch, still pointing a gun at Victoria while Suki flipped on the light.

                                                 A stunned and horrified Victoria looks even more horrified when she sees Suki alongside her attacker, glancing between the two of them as she tried to speak. "Suki? What... what are you doing? What's going on? Why are you doing this to me?"

                                                "Don't act so innocent. We know all about you working with Jessica to try and investigate us," Courtney scoffed.

                                                "I'm not working with Jessica," Victoria quickly denied.

                                                "So you running into Suki at the bar that night was an absolute coincidence?" Courtney questioned, raising a brow.

                                                 Victoria goes silent, looking over at Suki who glared at her as she waited for a response. But Victoria's silence was already pretty damning.

                                                  "Well, was it?" Suki inquired, desperate to hear the truth from her own lips.

                                                  "Okay, alright. I heard about what Jessica was doing with you all. That's as far as it went. The meeting at the bar was coincidence but obviously, I recognized you from articles and Jessica's own words," Victoria explained.

                                                  "So the plan was to hook up with Suki, earn her trust, and then expect her to spill the beans about what happened in the wilderness over some romantic pillow talk? You couldn't be that desperate for your next big story," Courtney shakes her head, scoffing.

                                                 "What?" Victoria frowned. But she didn't really look upset. She just looked confused.

                                                 "We did the research on you. We know you were a journalist but you haven't had a big story in years. Even making one article about one Yellowjacket would've given you the fame you always wanted. You could've been honest from the beginning, you know," Suki continued.

                                                "Is that what you think this is all about? You think I did all of this and I'm working with Jessica to get dirt on you guys?" Victoria questioned, disbelief written all oer her face.

                                                Suki scoffed. "Isn't it?"

                                               "I didn't talk to you that night in the bar to try and get information from you. And I definitely didn't sleep with you to purposely get close to you and use you for dirt. I did it because I like you," Victoria insists, making Suki falter.

                                              Courtney looks over at Suki, frowning. "Don't listen to her, Suki. She's lying."

                                              "I'm not. Look, I heard about what happened to you and your team out there. I don't know what happened and I'm sure it was horrible. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like and what you went through. But I'd never steal your story from you and then sell it online for fame. If you took the chance to actually get to know me, you'd figure that out," Victoria reasoned.

                                               "And yet you lied about your job. You didn't exactly give me a chance to know you, especially since you knew a lot more about me," Suki argued.

                                               "I was scared about how you'd react. And I guess I was right to be," Victoria replied, motioning towards Courtney who was still holding onto the gun.

                                               "She's just trying to get in your head and make you think we're the crazy ones. Come on, it's not a coincidence that she knows the woman that's trying to dig dirt on you," Courtney argued.

                                              Victoria scoffs. "Oh my God, Jessica's not actually a journalist. That's me. She was hired to act like one this entire time."

                                              "What?" Courtney blinked.

                                              "You probably tried to look her up and found nothing, right? She's not a real journalist. It's all fake. She was hired by one of your own just to make sure that none of you would talk," Victoria explained.

                                              "Yeah, right. Who is it then?" Suki asked.

                                              "Taissa Turner," Victoria answered. "She hired Jessica."

                                              "No fucking way. Taissa wouldn't do something that ridiculous, not during the election," Courtney shakes her head.

                                              "It's the truth. Jessica told me about it. She got paid handsomely for it too," Victoria insisted. She sounded so sincere that it was enough to make even Courtney wonder if she was telling the truth or not.

                                               Suki looks over in the corner of the room, seeing the antler queen standing there. She sucks in a sharp breath as she takes a step back, wondering why she was seeing her now. Courtney faltered, turning to look at Suki who now looked terrified.

                                             "Suki, what happened?" Courtney questioned.

                                              Before Suki could answer, Victoria decided to take advantage of the vulnerable moment by running away.

                                              "Shit!" Courtney exclaimed, chasing after her.

                                              She'd quickly grab a hold of Victoria before she could reach the front door, the two women fighting as they make their way into the kitchen. Suki only jumps into action when she hears a banging sound, running into the kitchen only to find that the gun Courtny had been holding was now on the ground. Suki begins to reach out and grab it, only for Victoria to shove Courtney away from her and she was able to snatch the gun away first.

                                            Victoria points the gun directly at the two of them now, taking a couple steps back as she tried to maintain keeping the upper hand. "You're both fucking insane!"

                                            "Oh, you have no idea," Courtney responded.

                                            "Don't come any closer or else I'll start shooting," Victoria warned.

                                            "Go ahead. You don't have the guts to pull the trigger," Courtney taunted with a grin, making Suki turn pale.

                                            Victoria hesitates for just a moment, seemingly going back and forth between shooting Courtney and just making a run for it. But Victoria ultimately pulls the trigger, shocked when no bullet comes out. What comes out instead is a little flag with the words GOT YA! written on it.

                                             "You weren't lying," Suki chuckled.

                                             "I told you. It was just meant to scare her," Courtney replied before yanking Victoria back to her.

                                             Victoria screams as Courtney holds onto her, making Suki panic. If she kept on screaming, she'd eventually attract the wrong attenton for them. Courtney gets the same idea because she covers Victoria's mouth in an instant.

                                              "What do you think we shoud do? Good ol' fashioned torture? I'm sure there's some weapons around here somewhere," Courtney replied and Suki couldn't quite tell if she was joking or not.

                                               "Court, that's enough. I think we should go," Suki argued.

                                               "Go and risk having her go to the polcie? We can't have that," Courtney says as she glares down to meet Victoria's fearful glare.

                                               "Victoria, you won't go to the cops, will you?" Suki inquired.

                                                Victoria's response is muffled but either way, she could definitely hear a no followed by a shake of her head.

                                                "See? Let's just go and we can forget that all of this even happened," Suki insisted.

                                                "Boo, you're no fun," Courtney pouts. But she was slowly leaning towards Suki's plan.

                                                Victoria started gagging, causing both Courtney and Suki to pause as they tried to figure out what was wrong with them. Courtney soon pulled away from Victoria in disgust. Victoria rushes over to where the sink was, pretending to puke. And then, she rushed over to the knife block where she grabbed the nearest knife for her to take. Holding up the knife, she pointed it at the two in an effort to try and protect themselves.

                                              "Don't be an idiot, Vicky. Put down the knife and we can just pretend like none of this ever happened," Courtney replied, holding up her hands as she tentatively took a step closer to Victoria again.

                                              "Are you serious? The both of you broke into my home and tried to assault me," Victoria scoffed. "Do you seriously think we can just... move on from this?"

                                              "You're being totally dramatic. We weren't gonna hurt you. I mean, not unless you forced us to," Courtney responded with a roll of her eyes.

                                              "Courtney," Suki hissed.

                                              "I'm serious. You better stay back or else you'll give me no other choice," Victoria warned.

                                              Courtney frowns, quickly losing her patience with Victoria. "Give me the fucking knife, Victoria."

                                              "Fuck you!" Victoria shouts as she lunged after Courtney, preparing to stab her in defense.

                                              "No!" Suki shouts, stepping in to defend Courtney.

                                              She pushed Victoria back and the woman slipped on her own feet, the back of her head knocking into the sharp end of the counter with a sickening crack. With a loud thud, Victoria's body falls onto the ground and the two women watch as blood started to leak from the back of her head. Victoria was no longer moving, her eyes stuck open and staring back at them both. 

                                             "You saved me," Courtney says, a small smile beginning to grace her lips.

                                             "Yeah. But... she's dead. Holy shit, she's dead," Suki gasped, unable to take her eyes off of Victoria and all of the blood that was already staining the floor.

                                             "At least we won't have to worry about her going to the cops anymore," Courtney shrugged, glancing around the kitchen. "We're going to have to clean this up. Take her body. Bury it as soon as possible. I have an idea as to where we can get rid of her."

                                             Suki bends down to look at Victoria, feeling instantly apologetic for what she had done. And worst of all, she was growing more and more convinced that Victoria had been telling the truth all along. Suki sees the shadow of the antler queen close to the blood and Suki realizes that she had once again done exactly what It had wanted.

                                               It had required a sacrifice. And instead of Courtney, Suki had given Victoria  in her place. It was the same vicious cycle.

                                              "Suki? Suki, we have to get moving. Come on," Courtney ordered.

                                               Suki forces herself to look away, standing up to her feet so they could get to work on cleaning up. She didn't even have time to process everything was happening, her thoughts a total blur as they cleaned up all the blood and cleared the house of their prints over the few things they had managed to touch. And then they rolled Victoria's body up inside of the rug, carrying her out to the car.

                                                They had to be quick, given that there were a lot of people home and able to see them. But it was dark so maybe they'd have that on their side. Nonetheless, Courtney took the lead - super focused while Suki was barely there. Courtney drove them all the way to the woods on the outskirts of town, the very same woods where they'd have their big party right before leaving for Nationals.

                                                  Suki and Courtney carried the body into the woods (which was far from easy) before they found a good enough spot to start digging. Courtney had brought a shovel with her, making Suki wonder if she had planned to get rid of Victoria all along (the answer was obviously yes). She'd start digging while Suki just sat there, watching the hole slowly grow deeper and deeper.

                                                    When she had finished, she and Suki rolled the body into the hole and they'd place all of the dirt right back on top of it. The sun was slowly beginning to rise by the time they were finished and so, they hurried back to the car and drove all the way back to Suki's house. Courtney was entirely calm, leading Suki to the shower and even helping her to get undressed. Courtney followed after her and at first, the two of them were cleaning off the dirt and blood off of them.

                                                       But then Suki would make the first move by kissing her, craving some sort of comfort after what had just happened. And Courtney was more than happy to give her that.

( 🌲🔪🦌 )

word count: 2552
notes: nothing brings two exes back together like murder and covering it up