Apothecary Tea by Autumn Key

Author:Autumn Key [Key, Autumn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Creativi•Tea House
Published: 2020-05-06T18:30:00+00:00

EMBER

The short drive home is torture, but not as much as when we walk into the silent house. It is painfully empty and all three of us feel it. My mother reaches the living room before collapsing to her knees wailing, “My baby boy is dead!”

Dad is instantly on his knees pulling her close. “Don’t cry, Emma.”

“He’s gone! Evan is dead!”

Dad begins to weep with her before gathering her up into his arms, and they cradle each other on the floor.

I can’t explain the fear that creeps up my body and wraps its tendrils around my throat. My feet back me up to the front door. The need to run is making my heart gallop. Quietly I open the door and slip back outside. I feel lost and not sure where to go. I only know that I don’t belong here. This house, this place, this world—it feels foreign, painful, and intolerable. Cold air dives into my lungs, and my body backs up to one of the porch columns. Snow blows around me and clings to my hair and coat. The cold air whips up my legs and chills me to the bone. The weight of everything crushes my chest.

I’m going to die! I need Drake!

Out of nowhere a door slams. I whip around and see Decker rushing to me. “Emmy, what are you doing out here?” He engulfs me in his arms, moving me back a few steps. I push him away, and he takes a step down the porch stairs. His hands slide under my elbows. “What’s wrong?”

“I…I need to get out of here.”

“Why?”

“I can’t go back in there.” I look over my shoulder.

“Where do you want me to take you? I can take you to my place.”

I stare at him and furrow my brow. “No! I have to leave all of you.”

“Em, I honestly thought you knew,” Decker blurts out. “I’m sorry.”

“How could I?”

“We dated…we kissed. Of course I wanted to be with you. How could you not know? Everyone knows I have feelings for you.”

“But that was all for them!” I point to the door. “It was to make them happy.”

“Not for me,” he confesses.

I stare at him, bewildered and horrified. I thought he was a victim of their manipulation just like I was. “All this time?”

He touches my cheek. “Yes. God forgive me, but yes.” He blushes and there is a spark in his eyes that I have never seen. The air around us changes and I see his desire.

I take a couple of steps back. I feel sick. The world feels diseased, and it’s beginning to infect me. “I was sixteen!”

“I know.” Decker closes his eyes.

“Why? What did I say? What did I do?”

Decker turns away and leans back against the railing. He stares off into the distance as if looking into the past. “I don’t know, really. From the moment I met you, you were so different. When you explained to me why you were looking for images of naked men…it was so…not what I expected.

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