Screams You Hear by James Morris

Author:James Morris [Morris, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: James Morris

17

Two Days Ago

* * *

After they’d killed Sasha—not just killed—ripped, slaughtered; after I begged my brother to leave; after the adults simply stopped, leaving a heap of what used to be Sasha, Sasha-in-pieces, Sasha deconstructed, (those are the only ways to think of it for the reality of seeing, the horror of what she’d become); the adults walked away as if nothing had happened.

Mel, the ferryboat operator, wiped his bloody hands on the ground and then picked up his fallen cigarette; the teachers went back to eating their brown bag lunches; the gas station attendant faced the sun, his eyes closed, enjoying the warmth.

My God, I thought.

We backtracked the way we’d come, moving and hiding from one car to the next, not speaking until Theo stopped and vomited.

I looked away until he finished. He whispered something I didn’t hear and I asked, “What?”

“I could’ve done something. I should’ve done something.”

We stared at him and even Renzo knew not to argue.

“No,” I said. “You’ve couldn’t have. You wouldn’t have made it.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered….”

“It does,” I said. “To me.”

I don’t know how I was able to stay so calm. Maybe it was a skill I’d learned growing up in a chaotic home, the ability to withdraw deeper and deeper, finding safety in the only place I could: within myself.

We’d all watched her die. We’d all done nothing. We were powerless, not believing what we were seeing.

She’d been my friend, lost and then found. My friend, forever.

I would’ve cried. I wanted to cry. But I couldn’t. Not here. Not now. Her death cauterized me and made me hard. I had no time to feel. Feelings were a liability. A luxury.

Theo needed to understand. His sadness might overwhelm him. Make him weak.

“You going back there isn’t gonna solve anything,” I said.

“I’ll kill as many as I can. That’ll mean something.”

“And then what? You’ll be dead. Is that what you want?”

Theo hesitated for far too long.

Max approached him. He opened his mouth to speak, only to place his hand on Theo’s shoulder, seemingly communicating through touch.

Theo knew Max’s history. A brother dead. Unable to help. Theo trembled before my eyes, an earthquake wrapped in skin.

“It hurts so much, Ruthie. Make it stop. Please, make it stop.”

I wish I could’ve. I wish I could’ve taken the pain right out of his body and put it into mine. His body continued to tense and then he let loose a soul-shaking scream. I knew it would bring them—and it did—yet none of us scolded him. He needed to expel what he could. Maybe he did it for all of us.

Then suddenly, there they were. The adults. They were fast. Faster than I imagined. They didn’t straggle; they bolted, and we were their bull’s-eye.

The forest was still too far away. The adults would overtake us before we got there. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. No weapons and outnumbered. I was paralyzed.

Max shouted, “This way!”

I followed as he ran toward the cliffs. The damned cliffs. He knew it was too high to dive or jump into the ocean.

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