California was interesting. Way different than Kentucky, that's for sure.

The five of us were immediately escorted from the private plane that they owned into a different car.

I tried to sleep on the flight, I really did. Except it was hard to do with my fear of being on planes. I never went on a plane before, and though Jake tried to reassure me that I'd be alright and it'd be fun but I couldn't calm down.

I stayed quiet, my hands shaking until well after we landed.

"I thought we were going to Texas first?" I questioned in the backseat of the car. The windows were popped open, making it harder for them to hear me.

"In the case that you would have gotten away, which is unlikely, it was easier to lie to you," Sam explained, peeking over his sunglasses to make eye contact with me.

With that statement, Colby looked at me through the rearview mirror. As I thought before, he probably didn't tell the others about me trying to escape, and if he did then it wasn't around me.

I'm still waiting for the moment where he snaps, worse than usual, and holds the gun to my face again. There will be a time when he accidentally pulls the trigger and then puts me out of my misery.

"How long is the car ride?" I asked, figuring starting a conversation with them would be the best way to earn their trust.

If I was cold and closed off then it wouldn't be such a surprise that I would leave and they would be harsh if I got recaught.

"Like, ten minutes," Corey answered, "Colby's a nascar driver,"

I glanced over at Colby, who had the closest thing to a small smile on his face. He loved compliments, that's for sure.

But it was gone a moment later when Sam began talking, "Colby what are you going to do with the girls? We can't tell them we kidnapped her,"

"Easy," He stated coldly, "She's a fuck buddy. It's happened before, and they're not the brightest,"

I didn't know who the girls were, but I didn't like the idea of being anybody's "fuck buddy" even if it was fake.

"That's not happening. I'm not going to pretend to be anything," I crossed my arms.

"You will do what I say. I'm in charge here, remember?" Colby said through gritted teeth.

Rather quietly, Sam questioned him, "What about Ava?"

"Ava won't be a problem," He said with a smirk, "She's leaving tonight,"

"Ava knows too much," Corey whined, "We can't let her go,"

"I never said she was getting set free" Colby's eyebrows furrowed as he talked with an obvious tone.

"But you just said- Oh," Jake caught on with slight disappointment in his tone.

I didn't understand why all of a sudden the mood in the car was depressing. Maybe they would miss Ava, they'd be sad to see her go.

I would figure out that's not the case, as soon as we pulled up to a house guarded by gates. Colby leaned out of the car window, punching in the code so the gate would slide open.

The house was massive, with multiple cars in the driveway. I got out on Corey's side of the vehicle since it was closer to the house, but I didn't get time to take in its looks as they all rushed inside.

"Go ahead, make yourself at home. This is where you're staying. Introduce yourself to everyone and then I'll show you your room," Colby said, sounding the most polite I've ever heard.

Jake and Sam mainly took care of that, calling girls names that I didn't quite catch.

They nearly took my breath away. There were five of them, one with beautiful light blue hair, one that was unnaturally blonde, and the last three were varied shades of brown.

"Hello!" The blue haired girl giggled, shaking my hand excitedly, "I'm Katrina. This is Devyn, Tara, Gabby and Carrington,"

The other four exclaimed various words of greeting, and I actually got a hug from all of them except for Gabby, who chose to shake my hand like Katrina.

Tara was short, but beautiful with a snappy personality that was like a friendlier version of Colby's. I could clearly see Gabby's unhappy expression anytime Tara was talked about, and it made me wonder what was going on between the two of them though it was surely none of my business.

Carrington and Katrina immediately started complimenting me along with eachother, asking me a variety of questions that I wasn't expecting to be answering.

"So Sam said you were Colby's new hookup-girl!" Katrina exclaimed, and Carrington elbowed her.

"Not a hookup-girl. Ava's still here, clearly," She said, which got Colby's attention.

"Speaking of her," He walked up to us, grabbing my arm. His hands were warm, the rings not necessarily matching in temperature. The coldness of them gave me chills all over my body as he spoke, "Let me go introduce you to her,"

With that, he led me up the stairs rather quickly. The house was beautiful, the floors clean with paintings hung on the walls and decorative plants and rugs that matched the curtains hung by the windows.

Colby stopped when we got to the third room down the hall, knocking twice before entering.

"Who is it- Oh, Colby baby. Welcome home!" Her voice sounded deep and mature compared to how she looked. She couldn't have been over the age of twenty three, with beautiful red hair and a beautiful smile.

"Ava, meet Kiara. Kiara, meet Ava. Ava this is your replacement," He said, waving back and forth with one hand between the two of us.

Ava shot him a confused look, and Colby shot her in return.

With a real gun. He shot her, with a real fucking gun.

I let out a scream as her body fell to the floor, her life already gone. The bullet hit her forehead, there was no surviving that.

"Welcome to your new room," Colby said to me with a smile, showing me the room with his hands.

All I could focus on was the corpse now laying on my bedroom floor.

"You killed her!" I pointed to her, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"Yeah," He crossed his arms, staring down at Ava, "We'll have that cleaned up. It really doesn't match the aesthetic of the room. That's what all the girls are into downstairs. The "aesthetic" and the "vibe","

"What?!" I shouted, "You just shot her and all your concerned about is the fucking aesthetic? Your sick," I dug my fingers into my head, wanting to rip my hair off.

"It slipped," He blinked innocently, motioning towards the gun, but it was clearly a lie.

He knew what he was doing

"Get the hell out of my room!" I shouted, pointing to the door.

His once happy face changed into a look of annoyance and rage within seconds.

But Colby didn't say anything to me, instead walked right past me and obeyed. "I'll let you get settled in. Take a look around, get comfortable. You'll be staying a while,"

And with those words hanging in the air, he shut the door. Leaving me alone with Ava, well, the body that once belonged to Ava.

She was free now, I'm jealous.

I wish it was me on the floor and not her.

Because I wouldn't be suffering anymore.

Or stuck in a house full of psychos.