“We can’t go yet!”
“Bunny!” I snap, throwing our shit on the bed. “We’re going!” No if, ands, or fucking buts! We’re getting the fuck out of here. I’m about to scream it at the top of my lungs when she roars, “I willnotbe hunted again!”
I’ve heard pain, and I’ve heard fear, but this… It’s a different kind of broken.
Agony, and it ripples across her features until tears stream and pool at her feet. I turn to give her my full focus, watching them scorch lines down her face.Bunny, I want to call out to her… to offer her… something—anything to take away her pain.
I’ll do anything.
“I will not fucking go without finding them first…”
Anything?“Who?” I ask, already knowing. “Who do you need to find?”
“All of them.”
Would you really do anything, Cade?My conscience asks, aware of what Bunny’s asking me to do.You could be free, it continues.You could leave her here and find yourself a whole new life—away from the nightmares, away from the pain.
You’ve sacrificed enough.
I didn’t sacrifice a fucking thing.
He took it. Marone took everything from me. He took everything from Bunny.
He took Clara, Max, the twins, Axel, Oliver, and Jeremiah, and all the other nameless, faceless boys and girls. He took and took and took and fucking destroyed us.
Would you really do anything?
Yes. I think I can. I guess all it took was Bunny asking. “Tell me what you want. I’ll make sure to give it to you.”
Finally, a smile.
Taking me by the hand, Bunny drags me away, racing us through the halls until we’re approaching the front desk. There, together, we slither around the corner. She eyes the counter while I study the outside, watching for any suspicious movement. While I do, Bunny dips into a connecting room, emerging with a thick yellow booklet tucked beneath her arm.
“Come on.” I follow her out the back door onto a cute, quaint little patio with metal chairs and a matching table. The air is icy and brisk, stinging painfully when I step barefoot onto the concrete. For a moment, all I can register is that little pinpricks are sticking to the soles of my feet, but then there’s the warmth. Angling my head upward, I stare directly in the direction of the sun.
“It’s been so long…” You don’t realize it, how overlooked the sun is, how often you take it for granted. I haven’t seen the sun for over two years. It’s been somewhere over seven hundred and fifty-five days, and I forgot that the feeling tastes like fresh honey, that it holds the memories of summer days. I soak it in, knowing I’ll never take it for granted again so long as I live.
Basking in the vitamin D, I’m once again reminded that I would have none of this without her. To show my appreciation, I bend to press my lips against the crown of her head, lingering until she feels as warm as the sun. When we break apart, we take our seats, immediately consumed by all the names and places.
“Who are you looking for?” I ask as she rapidly sorts through the directory.
Bunny spits something, but it’s indecipherable because of her clenched teeth. Instead of distracting her, I just let her go, smirking while Bunny tears at the pages as she flips throughthem. I find some sort of entertainment in watching her scowl deepen, but then a flash startles us, breaking my moment.
Feeling my own grimace form, I ask Susie as she lowers the camera. “Why did you do that?”
Flashing us the shaken photo, she calmly says with a smirk, “Something told me I’d never want to forget your faces.”
She walks away, studying that image, that smile never leaving. The sight turns my stomach, so look away, suddenly reminded of my Mom.“I just want to capture these moments forever,”she’d say after capturing another happy moment. She knew that’s all we’d get, just a few moments stuck in time.
I’m so lost in my thoughts that I’ve mentally abandoned Bunny, but when her head flies up, I’m with her again, staring deep into her eyes when she says, “I found one.”
“Really?” I ask, somewhat shocked it was this easy. “Who is it?”
Bunny sits back against her seat, eyes once full of fire dulled to ash. I can see the life die in the delicate blue hue, and I want to take it back—whatever I said, whatever she thought—I want to take it all away to bring her light back to the surface.
“Bun?”
“He,” she starts, gazing off somewhere behind me, “is someone who hurt me more than most.”
