Breathless by Jessica Warman

Author:Jessica Warman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

Will gives up the loaded gun to the police, who put him in handcuffs so tight that he yelps. As they’re taking him out of the house, I run past him toward my father and put my arms around my daddy and sob into his beating chest while he holds me, then my mother with her arms around both of us, holding on to each other, Will staring as all the neighbors venture onto their porches to watch—four state police cars and two ambulances with lights all ablaze at ten o’clock at night—while Mazzie stays in the backseat of our car, staring at my family, taking it all in.

They don’t take him right away. Once he’s in handcuffs, my parents go to him. They try to speak to him, but he refuses to look at them.

“Katie!” he screams. I’m standing near the car, close to Mazzie, glaring at our neighbors. I want to scream at them to get back inside their shitty houses and just leave us alone. There are dozens of them now, porch lights on, standing on the street with their dumb mouths hanging open like they’re watching a parade.

“Katie, come here,” Will pleads. “Come here, Katie. Please come over here.”

His pupils are big, flashing like an animal’s beneath all the lights, no discernable color to his eyes but black and white and lightning bolts of red. Sweat drips from his face like he’s just run a marathon. “I’ll call you, Katie. Okay? I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

I shake my head. “Don’t you ever call me again.”

“Katie—Katie, no! That’s what they want, Katie.”

“I don’t care.” I’m crying again. I try to hit him and kick him; I want to hit him so hard that I kill him, but the Ghost and my mom and two of the policemen grab me and hold me back as soon as I begin to move. “I wish you would die,” I say. The words come out with spit. “I hope you die in jail.”

“Katie—don’t you understand? That’s what they want, you’re doing just what they want you to do. They sent you away to tear us apart, they want you to stop loving me. Katie it’s me—it’s me, Katie. I love you. You’re my sister, Katie. Please, you’re all I’ve got.” He stares at me, breathless. “Please. Don’t you understand that someone has to stop him?”

“No.” I shake my head. I struggle in the grip of my parents and the cops. “He’s not doing anything. You’re doing it. You did all of it.” I relax a little bit. “They love us. Everything would have been fine, but you got sick and you ruined everything,” I say. And then I turn to our neighbors and raise my voice and scream, “It’s your fault too! You did this to him too—just leave us alone!”

“Katie,” the Ghost says, still holding me tightly, “shhh. It’s okay, baby. Calm down. Go on inside now.”

But before I go, I turn to look at Will one last time.

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