Nikki Aldridge hates the world. Her friends are irritating, her teachers are aggravating and she finds society in itself the most ridiculous thing on the face of the planet. Everyone is too concerned about how they look, how they act, how they speak. Nikki is more than ready to move on with her life.
When she hears the news that a pair of mysterious, stunning twins, Jesse and William Evans, have transferred into her sophomore history class at G-A High, Nikki doesn't even bat an eyelash. She views the Evans' as superficial jerks, though blonde, handsome Jesse has done nothing but offer her kindness since the moment they met. William, meanwhile, does nothing but glare at her as if she were a particularly disgusting bug. Though the rest of the school is drooling over the good looking new arrivals, Nikki just shakes her head and walks away.
There's one problem with her plan. Jesse Evans refuses to leave her alone. He appears at her lunch table, at her locker, at her seat in world history, though William has done nothing but ignore her. Nikki repeatedly tries to shoo Jesse away to no avail and William begins to lose patience. He becomes angrier and angrier by the day, yelling at his brother on a regular basis. Nikki begins to realize something's wrong, but the clock has already started ticking...
...and when William Evans tries to kill her, Nikki finally realizes how twisted her world really is.
EXCERPT
Poison.
The word rolled in my head like a rogue boulder in a rockslide. I collapsed onto my knees, my entire body lurching as I vomited again. My mouth tasted acidic and coppery. Through squinted, tear-blurred vision I could see that the ground was stained with a brown-red combination of stomach matter and blood.
"Feeling sick, Nikki Aldridge?" Her voice sounded as if it were right in my ear, though I knew that that was impossible. Her voice echoed and rang in my already buzzing ears like she had hooked a megaphone to my eardrum. "In pain?"
A fire ripped through my ribcage, a thousand tiny needles stabbing through my skin. I coughed and choked, biting hard on my bottom lip, my limbs shaking as I struggled not to collapse. I could feel Carly's tiny hand on my back as she murmured unintelligible words of reassurance. My mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood. It ran from my mouth like water from a fountain. The air was becoming more shallow.
"Death would be simple, Nikki Aldridge." The woman's voice was louder now, drowning all other sounds, turning the trembling in my arms to violent, uncontrollable shaking. I felt my body collide with the earth as my muscles gave way, my face hitting the pool of blood and vomit hard. I sucked in a sharp breath, choking on the steady trickle of blood that continued to rise in my throat. "Death would be painless," she continued. "You would welcome it. You would leave them, leave the Evans'. It's their fault you're in such pain, is it not?"
"No!" The word seemed to explode from my mouth. "It's not ---"
My words were cut short by a shrieking, high pitched scream. Something solid and thick had struck the side of my head like a sledgehammer. Stars blossomed behind my eyelids like bloody roses, swallowing me, wrapping their twisted, thorny vines around my neck, cutting off my air. I couldn't breathe, couldn't feel the oxygen piercing my lungs. My skull was on fire. Pains like hornet stings erupted up and down my arms, my legs, each more powerful than the last.
"You will become a shell, an untouchable. No one will want you." The woman's previous words filled my burning brain. "You will be alone, sick, losing control of your mind and body."
I could no longer feel Carly's hand on me, could no longer hear her voice. She had probably flinched away from me, sick, appalled at the writhing creature in the pool of brown and red. How they would stare at me in my final moments! Dying, coughing, spewing bright red and earthy brown, crying metallic tears that ran down my cheeks in rivers, raven black hair clinging to my face, hanging in my eyes.
"Oh, yes," the woman whispered. Her voice was soft, gentle. "Everything is because of the Evans', Nikki, love."
