Page 157 of Endless Anger
Tiernan fists my hair, and I hiss against the pain as the roots struggle to stay in my scalp, but I still try to go after the others.
“Foxe!Please, stop! Leave him out of this!” My screams shred my throat, useless as the masked person ignores me, still dragging Foxe along. “You can’t leave me!”
Tiernan lifts his foot, swinging it into my stomach. I double over, clutching the area as a wave of nausea and agony rolls through me. The last I see of Foxe is him shoving the masked figure into a wall, but he’s in such bad shape that all the other guy does is push back, and I swear when he wrenches his arm behind him, I watch his shoulder dislocate.
My stomach flips over and over, bile burning my throat.
Everything gets really silent for a long time.
I stare at the ground, dropping my palm and digging my nails into the rocky dirt. “What are they going to do to him?”
Beckett doesn’t reply.
Tiernan walks away, toward the back exit he came in from. “Whatever he feels like, I guess. Not his first rodeo, if you catch my drift there, Wolfe.”
When the screaming begins, I don’t register it at first. My mind is elsewhere, trying to protect me from the noise I guess, even though this is all my fault and I should be forced to listen.
The first notes of Foxe’s despair reverberate in my chest.
How will I ever face Asher after this?
A bubble of twisted amusement pops. I won’t be seeing him anyway.
Still, the horrific wailing persists, growing in volume. Anguish wafts through the cave tunnels, clouding the one we’re in, and I reach up to cover my ears, but it’s not enough. His agony is persistent.
I’m stuck. Paralyzed by the echoes of his misery, the choking sounds, and the pleas for it all to stop.
The pleas are the worst.
I’ve never heard Foxe James beg for anything except for attention. Certainly not mercy.
Tears stream down my face as I continue sitting on my hands and knees, staring at the ground. Images of everything from this semester—Celeste’s gang rape and murder in the forest, the corpses in my dorm room, the blood in the Obeliskos. Seeing Willa shot right before me, and nowFoxegoing through unimaginable horrors…
Asher’s going to come down here and die too.
My fault.
I put everyone’s life in danger, all because I thought this school was worth it.
The tears splatter onto the ground beneath me. A single sob,something inaudible, pulses through my chest, but then my entire body is shaking, my own pain mixing with Foxe’s terror and making mesick.
“Please,” I sputter, my vision blurring. “Please, I can’t… I don’t want to listen to this.”
Tiernan snorts, having reappeared at my side. “Aw, that’s too bad. I don’t give a shit. We’ll call this a little parting gift.”
Foxe’s wailing continues. He yells for his mom, his dad.
Me.
I bite my lip until it slices open, and the coppery taste mixes with the salt of my tears. Sadness, deep and ceaseless, settles in the very pit of my soul. So deep I don’t think I’ll ever be able to reach it or clean it out.
Not that it appears that will be an issue after tonight.
“Please,” I say once more, whispering it. “Let him go. I’ll do?—”
Tiernan kicks me again, and this time, I choke on a cocktail of blood and vomit. His foot lifts in my peripheral for a repeat, but I don’t have the energy to dodge.
At least the pain distracts me from Foxe, if only for a second.
