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“Heroine And you should thank o But don’t you die on et you up on this throne I think it’s the perfect spot for your final farewell Don’t you?”
Ivy hauled her up and wrapped an arh Sylvie knew she desperately needed to get as far away fro any move without her tormentor’s aid was beyond the realm of possibility
Every shuffle forward took all the energy she could ed her, and at last Sylvie sank onto the throne Her head lolled back against the metal and her eyelids fluttered doard She sether in slow motion, but the move did little to alleviate the desert in her mouth
“Da them find you like this when they unveil the Throne of Hope to all the fund-raiser attendees in an hour But I’ll be off discovering the new one”
Sylvie rolled her neck so she faced her would-be killer and fought to keep her eyes open She had to keep fighting or she’d die Even in her drugged state, the dire state of things reverberated through the foggy high “Don’t underst—” Her tongue thickened and she couldn’t finish the thought out loud
“Of course you don’t understand, you stupid bitch” Ivy cracked her palm across Sylvie’s cheek “Did you know that rehab is a lot like prison? They tell you what to wear, where to go, what to eat, and how to live, every fucking second of every fucking day I was ready to snap into a ed pieces I’d survived it once, but you, you greedy bitch, forced me back a second time”
She scraped a long fingernail down Sylvie’s cheekbone and across her bottoainst the unyielding coins of the throne’s high back
Ivy leaned in, her mouth so close to Sylvie’s ear that the humidity of her hot breath tickled her sensitive skin, even through the growing nuh those days when the withdraas sawingfor h Sylvie’s hair and yanked her head to the side, exposing the lethargic pulse in her throat “Planning to kill you, the bitch who stole it all from me That’s what”
Adrenaline and pain should have spurred Sylvie into action Instead, everything in her body lay mired in cold molasses She couldn’t raise her head Drool pooled at the corner of her oing to die, but she was too high to be terrified
A lingering regret threaded its way through the haze as thick as woven fabric
Tony
She’d hoped there’d be time For more More what exactly, she didn’t know But time for more with him Wasn’t that the ultimate irony? Here she was on the Throne of Hope without any hope left at all
“I was the one who introduced you to Drea— to lose it “I invited you to join our blogging group I helped you work out the security kinks and set everything up so your real identity was hidden away And how did you repay ht You stole my closest friend” She started to pace “Catwalk Style was supposed to be my reinvention I’d failed as a ain htful place in the industry” She spun, and her voice rose as she gestured erratically at her “The blog was going to get me back on top Instead, you tossedPeople stopped feedingit your way Advertisers told ets Funny, they always found a little extra ton refused my call, it was an insult only cocaine could nuon You pushedhands You!”
Ivy reached into her handbag and pulled out a thin rectangular box, pinched the clasp, and withdrew another hypodermic needle and a blue ribbon “Oops, looks like you won’t match” She tied the ribbon around Sylvie’s bicep “After threeto do Frighten you Expose you Kill you And that’s exactly what I’ve done Well, alh This second dose is ill finish you off”
She lowered the needle to Sylvie’s ared vein in the crook of Sylvie’s elbow “This will only hurt for a minute Trust me”