The Stone Series by Dakota Willink

Author:Dakota Willink [Willink, Dakota]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragonfly Ink Publishing

8

alexander

I could still smell it even after all this time – the metallic scent of blood mixed with urine. I fought back the bile welling in the back of my throat.

“Oh my god!” Krystina exclaimed. Her hand clasped over her mouth and she wore a look of complete horror. “You found him?”

I closed my eyes, hoping and praying the truth would present itself – the truth I had been in search of for as long as I could remember. But as usual, I came up blank. I grappled with trying to find the right words to explain the events from that day.

“He was laying on the family room rug. Shot in the abdomen. The blood,” I said, seeing it like it was yesterday. “It was everywhere. Justine was there. I found her hiding behind the sofa. She didn't go to school that day. Sick with a head cold as I recall. But she has no memory of how he was shot.”

I squeezed my eyes shut tight and tried to will away the images of Justine sitting on the floor, her tattered pink shirt splattered with blood. She had been crying and holding our father’s Glock pistol in her hand.

Fuck, I wish I could just forget about this.

But no matter how hard I tried to forget, those few moments in time would never be erased from my mind.

"Justine! What happened?"

"I don't know," she says through her sobs.

"Why do you have dad's gun?"

"Mommy's going to be so mad. I ruined my shirt!"

I shake her.

"How did this happen?" I ask her again.

Her face goes blank and she looks strangely at me through vacant eyes.

"Alex, do you know where my blue dress is? The pretty one with the flowers. Mommy likes when I wear it."

"Justine!"

I shake her again, but it's like she can't hear me. I follow her to the bedroom we share and listen to her hum as she changes her clothes. I shout at her again, but she doesn't respond.

Fear spreads through my veins. I feel like I am suffocating.

I walk back out to the family room and pick up the gun.

A warm hand covered mine, ripping me away from a dark time and back to the present. I looked down at the slender fingers, up the arm, until my sight landed on the face of an angel. Krystina stared back with eyes full of concern.

“Alexander, it was a long time ago,” she said softly.

My throat clogged with emotion and I tore my gaze from hers.

God, I feel like shit.

I felt unsettled and vulnerable – like every protective barrier I built to protect the past had violently come crashing down.

I pulled my hand from hers and looked out the boat cabin window. The sky was dark and bleak, matching my current mood. A part of me couldn't believe I was actually speaking about my past out loud. It has always been private. Even Justine and I never spoke specifics to each other anymore. It was better off buried. But now that I’d started, I knew I had to finish.

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