Page 23 of Borrowed
The door rammed into my head, making everything out of focus.
Unable to see, I tried to wipe my eyes.
Blood.
There was so much blood…
It was streaming down from my head into my eyes.
She was too fast, all the doors locked from the outside of our home.And now it was shut.My heart sank when I heard the lock sliding into the metal grate.The slow sound of that metal scraping into the groove was the loudest thing I’d ever heard.
I banged my fists against it.Screamed.I pounded so hard I saw stars.The blood in my eyes burned.
“Tabby!”My voice was raw.It was pleading, breaking.I didn’t even recognize myself.“Get out of there!You fucking run, and you don’t come back!Get out now!”
But I knew she wouldn’t listen.She never did.She thought I lied to her to take all of our family’s love.She didn’t know it was abuse.It was pain and filth.
The fire was spreading…crawling like the house had been waiting for it.The smoke flooded under the crack of the door, and it filled my lungs as I cried harder for Tabby to run.It filled my mind, thick and suffocating, like a black curtain being drawn over everything.
I collapsed to the floor, gasping.I was still clawing at the door until my fingers bled from the cracking wood.
“Tabby, please.Don’t you see?”I said to the grate, knowing it went right to her room.
“She’s going to kill us!Run!”
I could hear the flames crackling, roaring louder now.Like a living thing, eating everything in its path.
I couldn’t breathe anymore.My chest was tight, and my throat was on fire.
But I had to keep going.I had to make sure Tabitha was safe.
I crawled to the window.It was too high to reach, and the smoke blurred the area.The clouds were thick and burning, but I didn’t stop.I punched and scraped.My skin tore against the glass, radiating through my broken body.
I could hear her now…Tabby, my twin sister.Her voice.She was so quiet.But I heard her on the other side of the door.
“Toby…Toby…Toby.”
I screamed, bolting to the door and pounding again on the splintered wood.I could see her through the small cracks lying by the door.“Get out!Get down!Leave the house, Tabitha, like the bunnies.Go through the holes under the house.”
I wanted to reach her.I wanted to save her so badly it hurt.
But I couldn’t.
“Mother is gone.Is she loving you in there?Is that why I’m alone?”
I could feel the heat through the walls, pressing against me like a thousand knives.My body was shutting down.
“No Tabby.Please, you have to get out of here.Can you unlock the door?We can go together.hurry!”
I kept fighting.
“It’s hot, Toby.It’s orange.”
Fuck!She couldn’t open the door.I couldn’t fit through the window, and the smoke was nearly suffocating me.
I was…
I kept thinking of her.
