Page 79 of Stone Seduction
Where was the wail of pain?
Ugh.
“Yes…” she said with hints of gratification. “Oh, yes…”
“What—”
Searing pain shut me up, unpleasant heat rolling in my skull.
“Get off me!” I bit out, shoving my fingers into a wider crack in her leg.
“Yes…” she whispered. “This is golden.”
What the hell was she seeing?
A big chunk of barbequed flesh broke away, steaming blood pouring over my jeans. It burned through the denim, sizzling my skin. I yelped, smacking at it, blisters springing to life.
I struggled to escape, getting nowhere. She groaned in pleasure, her grip a vice. Any minute now, she’d pop my head like a watermelon.
This wasn’t fair. I wasn’t supposed to die here, our big showdown reserved for a later date outside of this mental battlefield.
She’s better than you,pessimistic voices said through my mind.
A blend of my parents’ voices.You’re so disappointing.
Their favorite saying, the barb they loved to stick to me. Always the son to shame them, to disappoint them, to bring them so much misery.
I fell into the past, standing in the living room of our family home in Bedford. I’d gone back there to speak with my parents after Finn’s accident, walking right into a maelstrom of drama.
Mum cursing me out, spittle flying from her mouth as Dad held her. Both faces purple with anger, emotions catastrophic. Blaming me for Finn.
“You took him away from me!” Mum bellowed. “You made him move to that town!”
Not true. Finn dreamed of a fresh start as much as me, desperate to cut the apron strings our mum wielded as chains to bind him to her. Dad, too. The pair of them wrapped him in cotton wool, wanting the best for him, often telling him not to be like his big brother. To make them proud, sucking the fun out of his life.
Suffocating him.
When he finally plucked up the courage, with my support, to fly the nest, of course I got accused of corrupting him. Yet they let him leave for Brinecrest with me because he’d stood his ground.
I didn’t need this stroll down memory lane, to witness their heartbreak and loathing once again.
“I hate you!” Mum wailed on. “I hate you so much!”
“How could you make him cry and let him leave?” Dad threw in.
Finn had stormed out over a silly disagreement. I’d gone after him, begging him to stop, to come back inside because we were better than this.
I saw him running down the peninsula, always faster than me. He turned left at the end, picking up his pace along the seafront until he reached Crab Cove.
“Why here?” I called breathlessly.
“Back off, Luke! Just fucking back off!”
“No! You need to listen! You never listen! You…”
He slipped on the slope leading to the crescent-shaped beach, but quickly righted himself. I almost caught up to him.
Almost.
