Knot The One They Want

Astrid Pov

Minutes drag by in tense silence before Jade stumbles back around the side of the house, dragging a yellow garden hose and clutching two red plastic buckets. Her mascara is smeared, her hands shaking. "I did it," she whispers, her voice trembling. "I turned the knob on the side of the house... I think I hear hissing inside. Is that bad?"

"It’s perfect," Lorali replies with a chilling smile. Before I can protest, she snatches the hose and marches straight toward my brand-new sports car. My heart lurches. She unscrews the fuel cap without hesitation.

"Hey! Hey, what are you doing?!" I shriek, lunging forward, panic rising in my chest. "That’s a customized tank! Do not mess with my car!"

Ignoring me completely, Lorali shoves one end of the hose deep into the fuel compartment, presses her mouth to the other end, and sucks gently before dropping the hose into the red bucket. A steady, golden stream of gasoline begins to siphon rapidly into the container.

Win gasps, her jaw dropping. "Holy shit, Lorali! Where on earth did you learn to siphon gas like a professional criminal?"

"Alma," Lorali replies smoothly, her eyes fixed on the filling bucket.

"Isn’t an Omega Academy? Aren’t they supposed to teach you how plants grow?" I yell, gripping my hair in disbelief. "Lorali, stop! That’s my gas!"

"There’s enough left for us to get away," she says simply, pulling the hose out and sloshing fuel across my pristine tires. She hands the tube to Win with calm authority. "Win, take this. Go to your car and fill up another bucket. We need total coverage."

"Uh... okay," Win mutters, completely hypnotized by Lorali’s bizarre dominance. She trots off toward her own vehicle without another word. I grab the heavy bucket of gasoline from Lorali, my hands trembling violently. "Lorali, listen to me! This is a felony! A literal, federal felony You are an Omega, you won’t go to jail but my beta self will!"

"Oh, Astrid," Lorali says, patting my cheek with a cold hand, her smile sharp as glass. "Live a little." My mouth falls open. She did not just say that. I’m the one who tells her to live a little, not the other way around.

Within minutes, the four of us are circling the perimeter of Gabriel’s sleek, two-story house. Win and I are reluctantly splashing gasoline across the wooden porch, the side panels, and the front steps. Jade is crying quietly, her tears dripping into the flowerbeds as she splashes a pitiful amount of fuel onto the soil.

"To cheating men," Win laughs nervously, her voice cracking as she empties the last of her bucket. "May their houses rot."=

"Yeah... cheating men," I echo, but the words taste like ash in my mouth.

Suddenly, a heavy, pungent stench hits us all at once. The sharp reek of leaking natural gas pouring from the vents collides with the thick fumes of gasoline outside. It is overpowering, burning the inside of my nose, clawing at my throat.

My breath hitches. The reality of the situation crashes through my drunk haze like a tidal wave.

"Wait," Win stammers, stumbling backward, her eyes wide with sudden terror. "Guys... the smell... if there’s gas inside and gas outside... if this sparks, won’t it blow the whole place up? Won’t it kill Gabriel?"

"We’re going to jail," Jade squeaks, dropping her empty bucket with a hollow thud. Her hands fly to her face, trembling. "I don’t want to go to jail! I just wanted him to apologize!"

"Lorali, stop! We’re leaving!" I command, my voice cracking as I reach out to grab her shoulder. "Everyone back in the car, right now!" Even Jade—the one we came here to avenge—is backing away, waving her hands in absolute panic. "Lorali, please, let’s just leave this."

Lorali doesn’t listen. Her movements are sharp, precise, terrifyingly fast. She reaches into my coat pocket with lightning speed and pulls out my silver flip-lighter. "Lorali, NO!" I scream, my voice splitting the night.

She flicks the wheel. A tiny, bright flame dances in the darkness, fragile yet deadly. Without hesitation, she drops the flickering lighter directly onto the gasoline-soaked porch.

FWOOSH!

The night sky erupts into orange. A violent wall of fire roars to life, racing along the perimeter of the house in an instant. The gas inside catches immediately, shattering the second-story glass windows outward in a rain of burning shards. A deep, thundering boom shakes the ground beneath our feet, and thick, suffocating black smoke billows upward, clawing toward the stars.

From deep within the burning structure, a blood-curdling scream echoes out.

"Move! Move!" I shriek, grabbing Lorali by the arm and yanking her backward as the intense heat blasts against our faces. Win and Jade are already sprinting toward the car, their screams slicing through the chaos.

Lorali doesn’t run. She lets me drag her, but her face is tilted toward the inferno, her eyes wide, glowing with awe. The firelight dances in her irises, painting her expression with a twisted kind of beauty. She holds out my lighter—which she somehow retrieved—and presses it back into my trembling hand with eerie calm.

"Here’s your lighter back, Ash," she whispers softly, her voice almost tender.

I stare at the lighter, then at the roaring blaze, then at the girl beside me. Cold dread floods through the haze of alcohol. In that fraction of a second, the truth slams into me. She is not okay. She is completely out of her mind. She didn’t want revenge, she wanted a body.

AARRGGHH!

A figure bursts through the front French doors, engulfed in flames. It’s Gabriel. His screams rip through the night as he sprints blindly across the lawn, his body a living torch. With a desperate, agonized cry, he hurls himself into the property’s man-made pond. The water swallows him with a massive splash, steam rising aggressively as fire meets liquid.

Lorali sighs heavily, her shoulders slumping in deep disappointment. She turns to me, shaking her head, her voice sharp with disdain. "Tsk. He lived." Her gaze shifts to Jade, who is frozen on the grass, sobbing uncontrollably. "I’m so sorry, Jade. I failed to kill him. Next time, we’ll definitely get him. Perhaps rat poison?"

Win and I exchange a horrified, wide-eyed look over Lorali’s head. Neither of us speaks. We just stand there, bathed in the flickering light of the burning mansion, realizing with sickening certainty that we are in the presence of a genuine lunatic.

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