Page 99 of Keepsake
It was true, and it gave me an idea. “Maybe it’s time to introduce Chastity toStar Wars. Why wait, you know?”
Chastity sat up straighter. “A whole movie? That’s something I’ve never done.”
Isaac grabbed the remote off the TV table. “All right,” he said. “Chastity, welcome to the free world, where we are allowed to rot our brains any way we see fit.”
“You have no idea how happy that makes me,” she said.
“What else is on your bucket list?” I asked her.
She ticked a few things off on her fingers. “Beer. Dancing. Television. Chocolate. Coke.”
“All the finer things in life,” Isaac said with a grin. “We can have soda right now, too.”
“I’ll get it,” I said, standing up.
Isaac shook his head. “Nope. Just take a load off for once and let someone else run the errands.” He handed me the clicker. “Find the movie. I’ll get the sodas.”
I made myself comfortable on the couch and tried to relax.
28
Lark
I’m there again. Same shack. Same dust motes hanging in the only beam of light in the room where they’re holding me.
Oscar is angry tonight. That’s new. We’re standing toe to toe, which is unusual. He’s speaking rapid-fire Spanish, but in my dream I can understand him perfectly. He’s upset at me for being mean to Zach. “That’s just like you,” he says. “You’re doing it again.”
“Which way is it?” I demand. “Are you angry that I had Zach? Or are you angry that I don’t anymore! How do I satisfy you so you’ll go away? Just tell me and I’ll do it!”
As I shout at him, his eyes go dim. And then I feel something wet at my feet.
I look down. His blood is pooling around my bare toes. He’s bleeding out on the floor. I look up again in horror, but now his eyes are lifeless.
While I stood there arguing with him, he bled to death. And it’s all my fault.
I scream, and I scramble backward, away from the blood. But it runs toward me. And the other men are coming. They grab my shoulders, and they push me down in the dirt.
“That’s not what happened!” I yell. But they don’t listen. A hand clamps down on each of my shoulders and I scream with everything I’ve got.
Astrong hand squeezed mine. “Shh, baby. You’re dreaming.”
But the touch didn’t comfort me the way it was supposed to. Something was still wrong—the voice. It was all wrong. Still panicking, I struggled against this unfamiliar hand. I screamed again. “Let go!”
He released me immediately. “Calm down, Wild Child. You’re okay.” The big hand pushed hair out of my face.
I sat up with a sudden violence, and the darkened Vermont bedroom came into focus. I whipped my head around to find Griffin sitting on the bed beside me. But the look on his face scared me even more. He watched me with the caution you’d reserve for unexploded ordnance. And behind him, Kyle and Kieran stood framed in the bedroom doorway, their mouths hanging open.
I needed to get a grip. I needed… Shit. “Where’s Zach?” I whispered.
Griffin looked, if possible, even more uneasy. “At Isaac and Leah’s, I guess. He didn’t come home tonight.”
My brain caught up for a second, and I remembered. I’d sent him away.
And that was the moment when all hope died. I was all alone with my awful memories, and I would be for the rest of my life.
Unshed tears collected at the back of my throat while three sleepy men stared back at me. I’d come to Vermont to get better, and failed. This pain would never go away. While I tried to sleep, I was always going to see that room—and Oscar’s face—for the rest of my life.
A big sob shuddered my chest as the certainty descended on me like a cold mist, bringing goosebumps to my arms and the back of my neck. Another sob followed the first one. And then another, like swells in the ocean.
