All Our Ghosts by Jessica Norton

Author:Jessica Norton [Norton, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-12-13T00:00:00+00:00

KADENCE

Cold. So cold.

Hands, warm–no cold hands.

Water rushing, screams. My screams?

Blue eyes. Tears.

Sunflower.

Because it’s us–against the world.

My eyes open as I suck in a breath forcing a searing pain to shoot up my side, causing me to gasp and tense.

"Fuck," I breathe tentatively and feel how sore my throat is.

My entire body feels like it's been hit by a freight train and my arms feel like lead weights as I try to push myself up. The room is still dark minus the small stream of light that pours through the crack in the curtains.

I roll my head to the side and give up on moving. Soft snores come from next to me, but the bed I’m in is empty. I take a pained breath in and slide my elbows up to my shoulders beneath me, doing everything I can to push myself up. Stopping every few moments as the fire shoots through me. When I’m finally lifted enough I carefully peer over the edge of the bed, only making out half of his face.

“Holden?” I whisper but he doesn’t move.

He’s tucked under another blanket, a pillow behind his head. He’s been sleeping on the floor? My brows furrow as I do everything I can to roll onto my side, letting out a low whimper as my arm presses against my ribcage.

Suddenly he’s up, staring at me. His hair is matted and stuck to his forehead, and his beard has grown thicker since I last saw him. The day in the clubhouse? No. Moon. He had come to Moon and found me. My head throbs as the memories start to flood back in. The storm, the creaking on the bridge.

My eyes meet his, the blue becoming glossy.

“Kadence,” he rasps, moving to the edge of the bed and helping me lay back down. “Don’t move too much,” he says, pushing back my hair as another wave of pain rolls deep within my muscles. His tongue rolls over his bottom lip, bringing it between his teeth. His eyes are overwhelmed with sadness.

“I’m okay.” I know I’m not, but I can’t bear to see the pity on his face. I’ve seen enough of it over the past week.

He shakes his head. “No you aren’t.”

“Holden,” I whisper, “what happened wasn’t your fault.”

I move to sit up but he stops me, his hands come to rest on my thighs gently and almost tentatively, as if he were to put any more pressure on me, I would break. Little does he know I already feel broken. There isn’t anything he can do to me that would make me feel otherwise.

“Let me sit up, please.”

His eyes search mine for a moment before he leans over the edge of the bed, grabbing the pillow he was using and sets it behind me. He helps me sit up against the headboard, adjusting the pillow. He’s unusually quiet as if he’s debating his words.

I reach for him as he sits down on the edge of the bed next to me, his body turned towards me, and his knee curled under him.

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