Page 120 of Muse (Fighting Fate)

“I have homework to do.”

“It can wait. This is more important.” He zipped up the bag, and walked over to the stairs to stand in front of me, shoving a piece of paper into my hand. “Here’s the address you’ll be going to. You’ll have to catch the four o five to First and West, then go the rest of the way on foot.”

“What? Why can’t I just drive?”

“You just can’t! Tell them Ken sent you – that Tom OD’d, and you’re his replacement.”

Alarm bells were ringing in my head. “Who OD’d? What are you talking about?”

“Just shut up and do as you’re told, you stupid bitch! If you fuck this up for me, I swear to God, you’ll regret it!” He thrust the bag at me, knocking me back a fraction.

This was crazy. “This doesn’t feel right. I don’t want to do it.”

Ken’s eyes flashed with murderous rage. “You’ll do it alright, you little bitch, because if you don’t, your mother will be the one to pay for your mistake, and it’ll be a lot worse than what happened the other day!”

I felt the blood drain from my face. Oh God.

As if reading my mind, he smirked.

I felt sick. Every part of me screamed that this was bad. I so badly wanted to say no, but the thought of Mom cowering next to the bed was still so fresh in my mind, I just couldn’t. I swallowed hard.

He shoved the bag hard against my chest. “Now get going or you’ll miss the bus!”

When I didn’t move, he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me towards the door. Once it was open, he thrust me out onto the porch and slammed it shut behind me.

I started to shake as I stood there. I didn’t know what to do. I knew Ken’s threats weren’t idle. He’d definitely follow through with it and Mom would pay the price, but my head was screaming at me, telling me if I did this, it would be the biggest mistake of my life.

Seeing no choice before me but doing what Ken wanted, I shakily checked I still had my phone on me and started down the street. As I walked, I kept reminding myself I was doing it for Mom, not Ken. Every time the anxiousness started to creep back in again, I placed a firm picture of Mom smiling on the screen of my mind to help me.

The bus pulled up to the stop almost the exact time I arrived. Trying to ignore the warning bells that were still ringing, I forced myself to step on and find a seat.

Twenty minutes later, I got off where Ken had instructed and called up the address using my phone’s GPS. When I saw where I needed to go, I frowned. What the hell?! It was like six blocks away. Why didn’t he just tell me to get off a few stops down?

Swearing under my breath, I tightened my grip on the bag’s handle and set off down the back street. The unease that had hit me back at the house still sat heavily in my gut. Something was seriously wrong about the whole thing. The fact that Aaron hadn’t wanted to come was a major bell ringer. I knew Ken would’ve offered him money to do it. He had to bribe the idiot to do everything - even take the freaking rubbish out. And then there was the whole thing about this Tom person OD-ing. I had no idea what the hell that was about, but any sentence that included the phrase OD’d, couldn’t be about anything good.

A bag. A delivery. A Tom that had OD’d. A person would have to be pretty stupid to think it had nothing to do with drugs. My breathing sped up. Could Ken be a drug dealer? He was definitely a lot of things that weren’t good, but a dealer? I wasn’t sure I could fit the image of him in that category, but what did I know of those underworld kind of things?

It just seemed too obvious to be anything else. I shook my head as I crossed the street and started down the next block. I wasn’t sure how I felt about my stepfather being a supposed drug dealer. I guessed no different to how it felt with him being a wife beater. He was a douche either way. God I hated him.

Looking at my phone, I turned down the next street, grumbling even more when I had to start navigating decaying piles of rubbish and what looked like dried up puddles of vomit. If he was thinking I’d ever do this for him again, he could forget it.

The image of my mom lying crumpled on her bedroom floor flashed at me like a neon sign, and my heart instantly sank. Realization came to me quickly. Ken knew my Achilles heel. Of course I’d do it again. He knew I had no other option.

Stupid, stinking, disgusting man!

I kicked a rock that was lying on the footpath, watching it sail through the air before it smacked into a metal rubbish bin with a loud clang. I looked around, hoping I hadn’t drawn too much attention to myself and, spotting a large 1425 stuck to the front of a house, found I was a lot closer to the house number than I realized.

I looked down at the piece of paper in my hand, checking for the number. It read 1431. My anger quickly drained away, replaced by a fear I couldn’t control. My heart pounded, blood pumping in my ears as I stopped out the front of the house I assumed was the one I was looking for. There was no number, but seeing as it was wedged between 1429 and 1433, I had no doubt it was the right one.

It looked just like any other house in the street, but somehow I knew something was terribly wrong inside of it.

Noah

My blood pulsed in time with the thumping music playing through the stereo in the lounge room. I leaned back on the lounge and sucked in a hard drag of a joint, hoping it would help repress the urge to shove off the girl who’d climbed onto my lap. She took my non refusal as acceptance and straddled me, slowly rocking her hips, rubbing her crotch against my jeans clad one. If she hadn’t slept with every other guy in TJ’s gang, I might actually have found it a turn on.

I took another long draw on the joint and watched her with amusement. Her hands slipped under my shirt, gliding over my stomach and chest as she continued to squirm on my lap. When her fingers started manipulating the button on my fly, I snatched up her wrist with my hand, holding it away from the zipper with a firm grip.

She froze, her eyes snapping up to mine, fear and confusion flashing brilliantly in their depths. “Don’t,” I said darkly.

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