You Are Fatally Invited

by Ande Pliego

The kitchen knives were gone, and I wasn’t about to grab a frying pan as a weapon, no matter what that Rapunzel movie said.

“I braided a serial killer’s hair.”

I’ve always had an obsession with anything remotely related to puzzles.

Me too <3

And naturally, if all else fails, set the room on fire. It does wonders for motivation.

Alastor’s last game was that one of us would have to stay behind.

“Stupid girl,” Cassandra Hutchinson murmured. “Why didn’t you just go?”

I did what I hoped someone would do for Jacqueline. My daughter.”

And where the hell had a wheelchair come from, anyway?

I must’ve blacked out like the biggest idiot in a thriller,

“Because no mother should ever have to bury her child.”

OH MY GOD.JACK AS IN JACKELINEEEEEE

“Now, here’s a plot twist I honestly didn’t expect.” She stepped into the booth I’d just left, swung the door shut. Turned the lock. Stared at me through the serrated glass window. “Perhaps this wasn’t a test for you, Mila. Perhaps it was one for me.”

Ya callate que lloro

Investigators have established there is no evidence of arson.

Violet fought for you hardest, that week. Didn’t let desperation make her into an animal.”

So they must’ve brainstormed a murder for her book, but then Olivia actually tested it out, like, on a real human.”

desperation makes allies of enemies.

“I’m an event coordinator,” she said, eyes rolling. But I didn’t miss the tinge of pink in her cheeks, or the way her arm stayed against mine, warm. “Piecing things together is my job.” “Actually,” Violet murmured, cocking an eyebrow, “you’re a writer.”

And Another Thing: A Brief Afterword

My last advice is not to run from pain, nor the people who have caused it. In fact, I highly recommend you keep a little anti-acknowledgments list, as it were, of people you’d love to thank for making life difficult. For making you who you are, whether by spite, defamation, negligence, or indiscretion. What better way to give life to your words, than drawing on your experience? And who knows? Maybe you’ll have a chance to set things right, someday.

I hope I’ve aided you on your journey through fear, or if I could not be your guide, I at least hel...

Yours fatally, J. R. Alastor

Vengeance is a poison you consume alongside your victim; the only antidote is reconciliation.

Lastly, I’m grateful that my Heavenly Father, the great Author of stories both dark and light, saw fit to share that love of story with me. Soli Deo gloria.