Ashley nodded. If there was any way out of this, it was by doing what Rita had told them to do. They needed to bury the locket. “You find some stone. I’ll deal with Lily.”
To her own astonishment, Ashley took herself towards Lily. The vicious bully was now a shambling zombie – or a human slug – and there was no way she could still be alive. Rose had corrupted and reanimated her corpse. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person, but Ashley still pitied her former tormentor. There was no intelligence in Lily’s glowing red eyes, and her twisted body looked like it had been forged from agony itself.
“Always thought it would be me that killed you,” said Ashley. “Guess I’ll have to satisfy myself with killing you the second time.”
Lily jerked towards her, quicker than expected. She made no sound except a strangled moaning noise. She reached out for Ashley, but Ashley ducked beneath her outstretched hands. Then she turned and threw a punch, striking Lily in the centre of the chest and sending her ghoulish body stumbling backwards. Ashley grimaced as her fist returned to her caked in gore. She wiped herself on her T-shirt and spat in disgust.
It’s literally like hitting a corpse.
Ashley glanced over her shoulder to see Jude scurrying around near the bushes. He needed to hurry the hell up and find some stone.
Does it need to be a big stone? Or will any do?
This is so fucked up.
Lily came at Ashley again. This time, she moved even more quickly. She caught Ashley across the cheek with a clawed hand, and Ashley sensed blood on her face for the second time that day. Familiar rage bubbled up inside of her, and she clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Without thinking, she lashed out and kicked Lily in the stomach. Lily doubled over. She quickly straightened up, but her torso was distorted, broken and damaged where her foot had landed. Lily’s body was barely held together, but she appeared to feel no pain. She struck Ashley again, this time on the other cheek. Blood poured down her face.
“You. Fucking. Bitch!” Ashley bellowed in rage. Lily had terrorised her for the best part of three years, and she was still doing it now after she was dead. She was tired of people pushing her around and making her feel bad just for being who she was. Why didn’t the world just fuck off? What was so bad about just being Ashley?
Lily raised a hand to strike again, but before she did, her head came apart like a dandelion. Scraps of flesh and bone floated away on the wind, and her headless corpse toppled backwards to rejoin the earth. Ashley gasped. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the locket, knowing it had just made her wishes come true.
No, not my wishes. My anger. It made my anger come true. I can feel Rose’s hatred inside it.
Ashley turned to check on Jude but found Rose standing directly in front of her. She raised her hands, which had turned into sharpened claws. She hissed, a narrow tongue like a strip of beef jerky flicking out between her bleeding lips. “Give me what is mine.”
Ashley cowered, too terrified to move.
Jude raced to her side and quickly got Rose’s attention before she swiped a claw at Ashley’s exposed throat. “Hey, bitch, you’ve got something behind your ear.” He reached out and punched Rose right in the side of the head. Then he pulled his arm back to reveal his gold plastic coin. “You’re a real treasure.”
Ashley broke out of her terror enough to groan. “I always knew you were made of money. Seriously, Jude, we went over this.”
Jude groaned. “Damn it!”
Rose’s head snapped back into place, and she grabbed Jude around the throat so quickly that he never even made a move. His eyes bulged in his head and he started to gag. The gold coin fell from his hand and landed in the mud.
Rose scowled. “Men made this world, but it is for women to inherit. We must give birth to our power and make manifest our rage. We shall not be servants and whores any longer.”
“What do you want?” Ashley cried. “Please, just leave him alone.”
Rose tossed Jude to the ground, where he lay choking. She whirled on Ashley, her green eyes pulsing. “I want it all. I want everything the world can give me. Power. It is intoxicating. Return what is mine and I shall reward you, girl. You feel powerless, but I can change that. Give me the locket and see your hopes and dreams realised.”
Ashley looked at the piece of jewellery that was threaded between her fingers. It was open, and inside she could see the photographs of Rose’s dead children. Rita had made the locket to punish Rose, to keep her trapped forever, but Ashley realised now that it had also benefited the child murderer. “You can never die if you’re wearing this, can you? That’s why you want it back.”
“Yessss. Rita’s curse is a gift. Now that I am no longer bound by Gaia’s triangle, I am free to leave this place. But without the locket, my time is short. Give it to me, girl, and I shall see all your wishes come true. I shall share my power with you and help you harness that burning oil searing your veins. We are women; we are powerful. Be my daughter in this.”
Ashley imagined what it would be like to be powerful. Rose had torn Lily Barnes apart like a child pulled apart a spider. To have such power, to be so unafraid… it seemed impossible.
Can Rose really give me power? Could I be like her? Could I tear apart my tormentors without breaking a sweat? No more beatings from bullies like Lily Barnes.
Or my dad.
I could be powerful. I could be strong.
Rose was grinning, her broken teeth glinting in the strangled moonlight. She reached out a skeletal hand to
