Page 54 of Clouded by Envy

Something changed in Bray’s expression, like she had discovered something. “You know, I think the bodies are coming back to life because of this. But they are dangerous. One attacked me at the park and another… Another bit off the ear of a man down the street,” she seethed.

Cringing, Brenik nodded because he knew what was happening. “I didn’t know that would happen when I first started. But when I found out, I still couldn’t bring myself to stop.”

“So, you decided to choose homeless people, Brenik?” Bray grimaced. He opened his mouth to respond, but she stopped him. “Let me guess, you thought by killing people in the park that don’t really have a life, you were some sort of savior? Is that it? How do you know those people wouldn’t have had a turnaround? Kyle’s dad could have died because of the crazy attacker.Icould have died. Doesn’t that bother you?”

“Of course it does, Bray! You don’t understand. You aren’t in my head. You never have been. I couldn’t—can’t—control what goes on in this messed up place of mine,” he spat. He sure didn’t think he was anyone’s savior.

“You shouldn’t have struck a deal with the Stone, and you should have come to me right away.” There was nothing Bray could have done. He still would have been in the same miserable position, but now he would give anything to go back into the past.

“You’re one to talk, you chose to have a gift without knowing what it was,” he pointed out.

“Brenik, I was ten. I would have trusted any Disney villain offering me something.” She sighed. “But if I was in your position, who knows what I would have accepted.” Bray changed the subject. “Has she woken yet?”

“What? She’sdead.” Bitterness laced his words.

Bray frowned at him. “I know, but eventually she will awaken like the others did, right?”

“I’m not sure.” He didn’t know if she would, but after what Bray told him had happened to his victims, he was afraid of what might occur if Rana did.

“We’ll take her to the Stone and see if we can fix all this together, all right?” Bray insisted.

Brenik nodded, even though he didn’t want to see that fucker again.

Their walk to the forest was accompanied by silence, until they got there. “You have actually been staying here?” Bray asked, staring at his cabin.

“Yes.” He was already sick of her questions.

“What did you plan to do when the owner came back?” That was actually a good question that he had no answer to.

“I didn’t think that far ahead, Bray.”

“You never do.” And she was right, but he didn’t say anything as they approached the front porch. Brenik held the door open for Bray and led her to his room.

His jaw tightened when he saw Rana sprawled across the bed—for a second he thought she would have been gone, or maybe even awakened into one of those things. But she lay there just the same, except her skin was more pale than brown. He shut his eyes and held them as tight as he could to not let any tears slip out, before opening them back up.

Bray covered her mouth with her hand, but he knew she tried to stay strong as she was faced with Rana’s dead body. They had seen dead things all the time when they were younger in Laith, so they had to grow a thicker skin.

“You didn’t say the painting was a portrait of yourself,” Bray said as she lowered her hand from her mouth and toed the edge of the canvas.

He shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“It’s very Dorian Grayish—don’t you think?” She rubbed her lower lip with her index and middle finger, staring back and forth between him and the portrait.

His eyebrows furrowed as he studied the painting. “I don’t know what that is.”

“That’s because you never read books.”

“That’s because Ican’tread books,” he growled with frustration. She already knew that.

Bray held her hands up in front of herself. “I know you can’t. I’m only stating the fact, little brother.”

Slumping his shoulders, Brenik murmured, “Let’s just hurry and see if the Stone will awaken to help us.”

Carefully, he gathered Rana’s stiff body in his arms and held her like a piece of fragile glass. Brenik was worried she would wake up like the others, yet happy if she woke up at all.

Carrying a dead body couldn’t be labeled as anything other than suspicious, so Brenik and Bray hurried through the forest as far away from sight as they could.

His head filled with images he wanted to hammer away. Maybe he could ask the Stone to reverse time, and he would never leave the tree hole again—then Rana and the others would still be alive.

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