The Cliffhangers by Naomi Jessica Rose

Author:Naomi Jessica Rose [Rose, Naomi Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2021-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

9: Brothers and Sisters

My skill makes me remember and forget. Remember some things, some huge things, and forget others, because I can’t keep all of it in my head at once; there isn’t enough room. My skill does that. But sometimes I forget and remember things just anyway.

​Skinner.

​I didn’t notice time passing. I don’t remember sleeping, or waking up, but time has passed. The sky has gone milky. I’m sitting in the truck in the alley, leaning against the driver hatch, the one that will stay shut. I’m not cold; I’m numb.

​Something terrible happened. The jondarms took Skinner. The sudden return of that memory sends a bolt of electricity right though me.

​But these people are not my friends, these Cliffhangers. I don’t need friends. I need to make my sister tell me the truth. I need to find my mum and dad. These people are not my friends. I blink my bleary eyes and I seem to see tall people dressed in black with masks on their faces. I see them towering over Skinner and taking him away. And we can’t do anything but stand and watch, we can’t, even though we know we’ll never see him again. I can feel the panic rising, my own and everyone else’s as well. I know exactly how all these people are feeling because that’s my cursed skill.

​I clamber through the truck’s cab, squeeze out of the hatch. I have to. Now I’m cold. My teeth are chattering. I stumble-clump the rest of the way to the Cliffhangers’ yard and through the kitchen door as well.

​Walking into the Cliffhangers is like coming home, and that feeling grinds me to a halt because it’s the last thing I expected.

​They are all sleeping. Rellian and Hazel have the sofa, one at each end. River and Cushion lie together on a futon, and CT has one to himself. That’s all there is. No other princes, no Yuuto, no Sister. I sit down at the table and wait for them to wake up.

​CT is first. He pulls himself up and stretches. He’s worn his clothes to sleep in, that same suit. It doesn’t fit because it isn’t really his, you can tell, but now he’s been wearing it for however many days it is, it seems to have become part of him. He looks at me. “Hello,” he says.

​I don’t know what to say. I’ve never in my life been shy before. CT’s war-like, battered face is too much to look at, even under all that crazy hair. He springs to his feet and stalks past me into the kitchen like a tangle-maned lion.

​“Pride! You came back.” Rellian is next. “Did you bring any food with you?”

​Oh God, Rellian. He staggers over to the table half asleep and rubbing his eyes, crashes into a chair. I only met him a few days ago, my brain knows that, or it thinks it does, but somehow…

​“I’m starving,” he says.

​“You’re always starving.” Cushion is awake now too. She stands up neatly, leaving her brother behind under a pile of blankets.

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