Page 61 of The Road to Ruined

Bone Saw's posture stiffens, and as he goes to adjust the mask, I slice his shoulder and grab the phone.

"Teagan!" he yells.

"Is it you?" I shout into the phone.

The person on the other end doesn't answer, but I can hear him there, breathing. I backpedal until I hit a wall and hold my knife out in front of me.

"I know you're there!" I cry. "I can hear you. You can pick up afuckingphone?"

I wait, but still, nothing. "Say something!"

Bone Saw stops in front of me, his arms crossed in front of his chest, but he doesn't make a move to take it from me. I don't think it's because he's worried about me and my knife.

"I hate you." I choke on a sob. "You lied to me. You said you'd never leave me. You said you loved me and that we were the same and I would never be alone and then you left me. I havenothing, and I'm in pain all the time. They won't leave me alone, andhe'shurting me. Do you even care at all?"

Nothing.

A few seconds later, the line cuts off. I pull the phone away from my ear and stare at it for a minute before letting it fall to the ground.

Then, I slide down the wall and let myself fall to the ground, too.

"I'm sorry, Teagan," Bone Saw says.

"No, you're not."

"But it's good that you're mad," he adds. "You should be mad."

"Fuck you."

I peel myself off of the floor and head for the door.

"Teagan, there's nowhere to go," he calls after me.

"I don't care. I can't be here—I can't be around you anymore."

Just like last time, the garage opens on its own once I reach the bottom of the stairs. I try the door to the Aston Martin just in case, but, of course, it's locked. I walk out into the night and start down the dirt road.

"What are you doing?" Bone Saw asks, not far behind me. "You're in the middle of nowhere, you're half-naked, and you don't even have shoes on. Nothing good is going to happen out here like this. Stop pouting and come back to the house."

"This is exactly why I can't be around you! You don't get it because you're not human anymore! I'm not pouting, I'm fucking suffering, and the only bad thing that could possiblyhappen to me out here isyou.I'm amonster,remember? What do I have to be afraid of?"

"That's a compliment."

Furious, I stop in my tracks and turn back toward him. "It is not a fucking compliment!" I scream. I pick up a rock and throw it at him, but he ducks before it hits him. "Telling someone they can't exist anywhere—that no one will ever want them and you wish you could kill them is not a fucking compliment! And you're talking tohim…aboutme. You lied, and I am so fucking sick of liars! I wish I could kill you, too. Just leave me alone."

I turn back down the path, but a sharp pain in the bottom of my foot knocks me off balance.

"Fuck!"

Just as quickly as I shift my weight onto my left foot, I slip and find myself tumbling down the side of the mountain with nothing to stop me. I know I should let go of the knife and try to find something to grab onto, but I can't. I tighten my grip on the handle, squeeze my eyes shut, and just wait for it to be over.

It ends a few seconds later when I'm stopped hard by a tree, curling around it and gasping for air.

"Teagan?!" Bone Saw calls. Dirt shifts around me, and when I look up, he's there, a few feet away. "Teagan!?" he screams again. "Where are you?"

Maybe if I don't answer, he'll go away. He'll think I'm dead, and they'll all leave me alone.

"Don't fuck with me, Teagan!" he yells. "There is no running away, and you're only going to piss me off! You better be fucking dead or unconscious, or I'm going to kill you!"

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