Ending Forever by Nicholas Conley

Author:Nicholas Conley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, thriller, suspense, death, life
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Published: 2022-05-10T00:00:00+00:00

AFTER THE DOLLHOUSE game started repeating itself over and over, Axel said he was tired—“Oh man, Gwen, I think I need to lay down and get some sleep, what about you?”—and while Gwendolyn seemed dubious of this, she did go to her mother. After some a brief protest, Brooklyn brought her down the hall to her bedroom to read her a bedtime book.

“Bye, Axel!” Gwendolyn cried out from the hallway.

Right before she disappeared, Axel waved back to her. “See ya, kid. Thanks for the fun game.”

Axel spotted his reflection in the TV screen across the room—sitting crisscrossed on the living room floor, smiling like a fool, eyes puffy with tears—and he promptly stood up. He chuckled. So ridiculous. He took a moment to walk around Brooklyn’s trailer, hoping to get a better sense of who she was. The worn-out, ancient furniture either came from a thrift store or was passed down by somebody’s grandparents. Fifteen-year-old concert tickets were tacked to a corkboard in the hallway, alongside other young adult memorabilia such as a bottle opener from a local brewery, a high school hall pass covered in signatures, and a yellowed postcard from the Bahamas.

There were a number of cheap multi-picture frames tacked up on the walls of the living room, and it was pretty easy to pick out Daniel. Even if his beaming, extraverted grin hadn’t been the spitting image of Gwendolyn’s, the fact that the guy appeared in at least half the photos made it obvious. Looks like a good dude, though. I can believe he treated her well. One particular photograph of a far younger-looking Brooklyn and Daniel kissing on top of a mountain had fingerprints on the glass. Brooklyn never moved on from him, Axel thought. Definitely can understand that. Truth is, I probably never will, either.

Clearing his throat, and wiping any residual tears from his cheeks, he stepped into the narrow kitchen. He filled a glass with tap water. Gwendolyn and Aaron would’ve really liked hanging out with each other, he realized, feeling weirdly comforted at the thought. With how shy Aaron was, and how bold Gwen is. Would’ve clicked well.

“You’re good with kids,” Brooklyn’s sister said.

Axel jumped. Forgot she was here. “Uh. Thanks.”

Outside the window, the neighbors were shouting violently again. The sister glanced outside, frowned, and then redirected her attention to Axel. “I’m Cindy,” she said, and Axel couldn’t help but notice how much older Cindy looked than Brooklyn. The lines on her face pulled downward, and her eyes were harder—but no less intense. “If you walked Brooklyn home, you must have signed up for that same sleep study thing that she’s doing this week?”

Axel paused before speaking. Weird. Guess Brooklyn is giving people the same bullshit excuse that I told Malik. “Yeah. Name’s Axel Rivers.”

She shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Axel.” Her palms were callused and cracked, with bruises under her nails—clearly, the hands of someone who did manual labor for a living. “I’m guessing,” she said, “that you must be the guy Brooklyn talked about last night.

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