I couldn’t tell anymore who was dying in this hut. Him or me.
Memories flooded me, like a tsunami hitting the shore with full force. My mom brushing chocolate smears off my cheek with her thumb. The way she warmed my clothes with her hairdryer in the winter. All those times she checked if I was breathing when she thought I was asleep. The warmth of her arms around me whenever I needed a hug. I could almost feel its warmth again, sitting here on this cold, nasty floor.
My mother was so full of love. Always had my back. No matter what. She was superwoman.
Not a monster.
“Then after she was done with him, she suddenly charged at me,” Myers whimpered. “I stumbled backward and fell, and she cut me with the knife right here on my forehead.”
“Stop,” I ordered.
My eyes were fixed on the dirty floor in front of me. Its empty beer cans suddenly merged with the memory of my mom and Zach fighting in the bowling parking lot. I saw it now right in front of me. At first, the flashback felt distant. Fuzzy. Their words blurred together.
Then something shifted. And the scene sharpened.
“That guy was already dead,” Myers continued somewhere in the background. “But she just kept stabbing him.”
“I said stop,” I warned Myers as the conversation between Mom and Zach in my flashback now became crystal clear:
“You can’t force her to come with you!” my mom yelled at Zach. “This isn’t the 1500s. Amanda wants to stay with the kids. My family needs her. Brian won’t be able to keep it together, and my mom has heart problems. My death will kill her. Please, just wait with the move for a few years. I’m freaking dying. Please.”
“That’s not my problem,” Zach shot back, shrugging like it meant nothing. “We’re moving to California. She’s my wife. She’s coming with me, or I’ll divorce her and sue her into financial ruin. And after I’m done with her, I’ll come for your family. I’ll drag your useless husband and mother through the courts for years. Tie them up in hearings and motions until every last penny they have is wasted on lawyers.”
“If you hurt them, I’ll kill you!” my mom threatened.
“Just die faster, you stupid bitch!” Zach yelled back.
The flashback stopped abruptly, and I was back in the hut with Myers.
“I was able to grab a rock and hit her on the head,” Myers continued, now sobbing uncontrollably. “She fell, and I took the knife and ran. It wasn’t me who gutted that dude. I didn’t kill him. It was your m—”
“I saidSTOOOOOP!”
My scream ripped out of me like another bullet. It came from somewhere deep and dark. It was so loud, it hurt my ears.
Myers flinched and curled up on the floor.
Silence fell after that. Except for his quiet whimpers.
We sat there. Him bleeding and crying. Me staring at nothing.
I didn’t know how much time had passed.
Seconds. Maybe minutes.
But he finally spoke again.
“You have to believe me. Please. I didn’t kill him.”
“Why should I believe a filthy liar who tried to kill my grandma?” I shot back.
Something inside me pushed against his story. Myers was nothing but filthy scum. A rapist and liar. And my mother was so innocent and sweet.Had always been there for me. Unconditionally loving me. How could that person have done such a thing?
“If what you’re saying is true,” I asked slowly, “why did you attack my grandma?”
He flinched.
“I … I didn’t mean to hurt her,” he said. “I just wanted to scare her. Make her stop looking for me. The police had no idea who I was and that I was at the crime scene, and your grandma was changing all that.”
