They were well past on edge and so alert they both looked like they were strung out on something.
None of us had slept or even attempted to sleep the night before. We hadn’t even talked to each other. We’d hung around pretending to watch meaningless television while they took turns on watch outside.
I’d wanted to tell them it was pointless. We were going to meet up with the man and he’d agreed to it already. It wasn’t like he was going to pop out of the shadows and attack us now.
Why would he do that here when he knew he’d get his chance to at the park?
I wasn’t nervous. Not in the slightest.
I was ready to get this shit over with and tear this man apart with my bare hands if I had to.
If he’d messed around with my mind and played with my memories what was to say he hadn’t done something similar to other children? Kids should always be off limits. It didn’t matter to me what Vivian had held over his head. She was a horrible human being, I had come to terms with that a long time ago. But it always bothered me for some reason when I came across people who were just as horrible as she had been.
People who’d known what she’d done to me and this one had willingly taken part in it. Even if this one claimed to have not been a happily willing participant, but I didn’t care about that.
He’d been inside my brain and taken memories from me.
I wanted them back.
Kind of.
Mostly I was afraid of getting my hopes up just to have this dickhole turn out to be a lying, scheming piece of shit even bigger than he’d already claimed to be.
And I was afraid because my dad was on his way and I didn’t want to break his heart any more.
I didn’t want to be on this adventure anymore because I was also worried about having my own heart broken even more. That bitch was already held together by duct tape. I knew the shit was durable but eventually it would wear thin.
I was worried this might be the thing that finally broke me.
And there were too many people who depended on me and needed me now. I didn’t have time for a complete mental breakdown.
I plaited my hair in a completed braid that Damien had taught me. My ashy blonde hair had grown out and I hadn’t bothered with cutting it in a very long time.
I applied my makeup with a heavy hand and it was darker than I usually wore it and topped it off with lipstick the color of blood.
I dressed in all black. There was no shirt with a witty saying on the front today. I dressed in a skin tight black t-shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans that looked like they had been painted onto my body. I put my trusty black combat boots on my feet and topped the outfit off with a vintage leather biker jacket that Damien would have hated.
The makeup didn’t hide the scar on my face. If anything it made it stand out even more.
I looked like a badass.
I felt like a fraud.
I took one last look at myself in the mirror before leaving the bathroom.
In that moment when I locked eyes with myself I got my shit together. I had faced scarier things head on and I always survived. I might have always come out worse for the wear but I survived every god damn time.
I’d survive this.
Because that’s what survivors did.
14
Feeding The Ducks
Trenton
The park was dead at this tine in the morning. Just like the man said ir would be.
