Leaping by J Bennett

Author:J Bennett [Bennett, J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-06-27T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

I walk the dark, quiet streets of Grand Junction, sucking in the frigid night air, glad to have escaped the stifling motel room. I already know I’ve made a mistake about Rain. I knew before the words even came out of my mouth, but I said it anyway. My heart doesn’t know what to do. It wobbles. It aches. It wants to hug a pillow and sob.

I can’t keep waiting for Rain to be killed. It’s like hanging above a lake of fire by a fraying rope. You know the plummet is coming, but until it does you hang…you wait…you envision the coming devastation.

My stupid brain kicks in an opinion: But aren’t you doing the same thing with your brothers?

That’s different, I think back…to myself…because that’s totally normal. I tuck my hands deep into the pockets of my coat as I plod through lonely pools of light from the overhead streetlamps. The town feels almost abandoned at this time of night. My brothers are trained. They’re safe. Smart…well, smart when it comes to mission stuff.

A truck rolls by, its engine a menacing purr. I step out of the light and wait for it to pass.

That didn’t save Tammy, my thoughts whisper.

Tammy.

That name does all sorts of damage inside me. She is the ghost that haunts us all. Even though I never met her in life, I feel like I know her through Gabe’s stories, the bright flicks of color in his aura when he describes his sister’s long black hair, flashing brown eyes, and her laugh that could get so loud it seemed to rock the house on its hinges. Tammy was loud about everything she did, playing jokes, tantalizing men, fighting the mission. If Gabe’s stories are to be believed, she was a mixture of brave and reckless, crude and tender, loyal and ferocious. So unlike Tarren, yet he practically worshipped his twin sister.

I think about the makeshift cemetery my brothers have created in a small grove in the woods a mile away from their house. Three distinct piles of stone sit in the cemetery. Carved on the top stone in each pile is a name: Canton Fox, Diana Fox…Tammy Fox. No body lays beneath Tammy’s grave, but Gabe still places handfuls of wildflowers on it when they bloom. Tammy loved bright colors, wild oranges, yellows, and reds, and these are the flowers Gabe tries to find for her.

I stop and lean against a brick wall while my thoughts tumble and rotate. Every time Gabe and I walk out to the cemetery, I feel grateful that Tarren didn’t tell him the full story about Tammy’s death. Four years ago, she got a lead on Grand, the angel who killed her father and raped her mother, planting the seed of me inside of Diana. After an epic fight with Gabe, Tammy snuck out at night to go after him, Tarren sulking at her heels. She had that power over him.

I remember Gabe’s exact words when he told me this story for the first time.

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