Page 73 of Fragmented Illusions
“What do we do? I can’t—”
“We wait.”
“What the fuck do you mean we wait?” I bark out. I try to yank my hand from his, but he holds tighter. So tight I can feel my bones grind together underneath my skin.
“We. Wait.” He punctuates each word. He sounds angry. Worried.
I fucking relate.
Finally, Fallon chokes on her cries and stares up at the sky. Snow falls all around her, surrounding her in a blanket of white. She looks so pure with her fiery red hair contrasting with the white. I find a smile pulling at my lips.
She’s so fucking beautiful, and so, so…Ours.
Fallon jumps to her feet out of nowhere and takes off down the road, forcing her tiny legs through the thick snow. Solomon and I are so surprised by her precipitancy, it takes a few moments to get our wits together and follow her.
“Where do you think she’s going?” I puff out as Solomon and I chase her a few blocks to the edge of town.
“She’s chasing her freedom.” He sounds surprised. Happy, even. And that’s when I figure it out.
She’s running to the cabin.
Solomon
My heart beats wildly in my chest as I watch Fallon dart into the woods. Spencer and I make sure to keep our distance so she doesn’t notice our presence but so we can still follow her without difficulty.
By the time Spencer and I reach the tree line, Fallon is barely visible between the tall, skinny trees and the snow blowing in every direction. It is becoming a full-on storm out here. We need to get to the cabin before we become trapped out here, lost in a suffocating blanket of white.
“Do you think she will be able to find it out here?” Spencer asks as we job side by side.
“Yes.” I know she will. She’s drawn to it—exactly like us. It was why she found it on Halloween night when no one else in the last four years has been able to.
It’s a beacon to the darkest minds.
A safe haven for our darkest desires.
Ours.
“Okay…” he drawls, and my head snaps in his direction. I glare at him as we jog, effortlessly weaving through the trees. I don’t even need to see to know where I’m going—and it seems Fallon doesn’t either.
“All right, all right. You can quit looking at me like that. I’m just worried.” He shakes his head. “But it seems like she’s headed the right way.”
“She is,” I say with finality.
After heading east for about ten minutes, I watch as Fallon slows her pace when she comes to the break in the trees. Once she breaches the tree line, she halts entirely, forcing Spencer and I to stop as well, a good twenty feet back and partially hidden behind a few of the trees—just in case.
Not that I particularly care if she were to see us. It’s not as if she fears us anymore, but it’s more along the lines of; I’m scared she will flake out if she sees us. As if our presence will spook her and she’ll fall back into her disgusting old pattern filled with self-loathing and suffocation. Suffocation of her brilliant mind and deepest desires.
It’s almost sad; how deprived she has been of her own self.
But I understand. I don’t think Spencer and I would have ever known if Mother didn’t put us through the things she did.
Fallon has merely had a slow start—but I’m hoping this is the moment she breaks free from the confines of her own mind.
With one, unsure and unsteady step at a time, Fallon traipses up to the cabin, then up the rickety stairs. They moan and crack under her weight and I flinch, worried this is the time they will finally collapse. But thankfully, she moves up them with no issues and then shuffles across the snow-covered porch. Her shoes and legs are completely white from the snow, and I know she must be freezing.
I want to wrap my arms around her and give her every ounce of my body heat. Then have Spencer on her other side, giving her his as well. She would be completely enveloped in us—like that night in the bathroom, where I touched her and Spencer…
Fuck.
