“Mom will help me.”
“Mom left you because you wouldn’t shut the fuck up and take it. She killed herself because of you!”
“Noooo.”
“Yes. It’s all your fault, you useless idiot.”
“W-what about Dad?”
“He doesn’t even like you. No one does, you fuckup.No one.”
A tear slides down his cheek, but he stops thrashing, stops moving as the figure shrouded in black moves on top of him.
“What aboutyou?” the boy whispers, the black smoke nearly swallowing him whole. “Can’t you save us?”
A loud creak crashes in the silence, and I jolt up and grab the black figure by the throat.
“Die!” I scream. “Fucking die!”
It’s writhing beneath me, but today, I’ll get rid of it once and for all. There will never be darkness again, no nightmares, no constant fucking static?—
“P-Preston, it’s me…” A hand taps on my arm, and I flinch when the familiar voice registers.
My limbs go slack as the world clears up around me.
Instead of my room in Mom’s house, I find myself in a small room with gray bedsheets. Instead of lying down, I’m straddling Marcus, both my hands wrapped around his throat.
His face is red, the veins bulging from his neck from the force of my choking.
I let him go, my hands trembling, and jerk away so fast, I fall backward. Marcus catches my arm and pulls me forward before I hit my head on the floor.
“Let me go!” I slap his hand away, my skin crawling.
Not because of his touch, but mine.
My hands are covered with black smudges from that dark figure in the nightmare.
Marcus doesn’t see them, but I do. They’re sticky and smell of suffocating cigarettes and mint.
And I don’t want to touch Marcus with this filth.
I slide into the corner until my back slams against the wall, then pull my knees to my chest.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Breathe,I tell myself.Just fucking breathe.
Stop being such a fucking mess.
Marcus remains at the edge of the bed, watching me closely. “Do you need anything?”
“Why the fuck am I here?” I stare at him as if I’m in a parallel universe.
When did I come to meet Marcus? I was in Mom’s house.
My jittery brain is assaulted by all sorts of images, and none of them explain this.
