A drop of rain splatters on my cheekbone, followed closely by another, trying to falter my intention. I don’t shove them away. I let them crawl down my face.
My father’s hand is quick when he wraps it around Jade’s jaw, yanking her closer to him with a force that makes my entire scalp prickle.
“Did you hear me? Or do I have to make it a little clearer, my princess?” he spits the last word out like it’s something bitter and poisonous, pinning her with a look of unbridled hatred.
Silence crawls, then, “Why do you always hurt us?” Jade asks so quietly I barely hear it. A tear rolls down her cheek and when our father tightens his grip, they only fall harder and quicker.
Her chest jolts as she tries to stop them.
I take a step closer when he begins to whisper, “You are just like your mother, a useless?—”
Then, I dive.
My arms coil around my father’s core, taking him to the ground. The earth beneath our bodies cracks and I scurry until I’m perched directly over his torso. Both of my hands wrap around his throat and as I start to squeeze, he does the same to me.
His dark eyes latch onto mine and the challenge in them is nothing but sinister.
His smile, malevolent.
The picture staring back at me is pure evil, and the chill that breaks out across the base of my neck is something I haven’t felt for years, not since…no.
I squeeze my eyes closed, try to blink the memory away and when I open them, he spits in my face. That move surprises me enough that I don’t register he’s crunched upward, cracking his forehead to mine.
Stars burst in front of my eyes, darkness crawling across the corners. The thud that echoes off all four walls of my skull sends me off-kilter.
A tug on my arm brings me back, and I find my mother’s eyes in the distance. She’s walking around the side of the house, herhand curled in Kristen’s as they watch my uncle peel me off my father; as if I’m the monster.
I shove him off me, spitting on the ground, wiping the back of my hand over my mouth, fixing my T-shirt on my shoulders as I turn to look at him.
“Let it go, hmmm,” I seethe toward Nick, and he stays silent, running a collected palm down the length of his face.
I’d told him about our father—his brother—a couple of years ago when I thought I could trust him, when I thought someone could be there for us. He’d brushed it off, and told me to let it go.I wouldn’t let it go, not ever.
I throw my hands out. “You just gonna let that go…”
A pause, then nothing else but silence.
I shake my head in disgust. “Fucking coward.”
And Uncle Nick looks straight through me.
I scoff, work my jaw, turn back around, my breath like fire in my lungs. I want to scratch our shared blood from my veins.
My father’s weak ass is still on the ground. He is laughing, and I step forward, reeling my leg back, kicking a cloud of loose dirt into his face before taking my foot to the center of his stomach, making sure he chokes on it.
“Fucking trash,” I rasp, and he chokes on another laugh, curling over, cradling the ribs I hopefully snapped.
I move toward Jade, my arm trembling when I wrap it around her, pulling her into my side and guiding us to my old red beat-up truck parked in the front.
“You're gonna regret that, boy!” my father shouts, laughing harder as if he’s thoroughly enjoying every minute of this familial quarrel.
And I don’t reply, hauling the passenger door open with a little too much force, the steel almost falling off the hinges, springing back, a clean attempt to take me out. I stop it with my back and jerk my head toward the old fabric seat. Jade climbs in,and I slam it shut, before doing the same, then shoving my key into the ignition.
The engine roars to life, along with “Already Dead” by I Prevail.
I shiver, throwing my arm over the back of the passenger seat and ripping out of the driveway. I hammer the gas, spin the steering wheel roughly in the palm of my hand and whisper on a growl,“I never should have missed.”
“Look at me.”
