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If this was a trick, it was the cruelest kind.
“Shit,” I choked out, suddenly remembering, “Darren!” I dove for the burning house once more. “My brother’s still in there.”
“No, he’s at my house, too,” he said in my ear as he heaved my back against his chest and dragged me away from the flames lapping at us. “They’re all there. I swear to God, lad, all of your brothers and Shannon are at my place right now.” He tightened his hold on me, and I was fairly sure he was taking the weight for both of us when he whispered in my ear, “They’re safe.”
They’re safe.
They’re safe.
They’re safe.
“You both need to get out of here,” someone commanded. “It’s not safe.”
“We’re going,” Kav replied, carting me away from the house. “Come on, lad.”
His words broke off when two body bags were wheeled onto the back of an ambulance.
Mam.
She didn’t make it.
Flinching, Kav spun us around, but it was too late for me.
I’d already seen it.
I’d seen them.
Him and her.
My parents.
Lying side by side.
Even in death.
“This is my fault.”
“No.” Hauling us both under the tape that was cordoning off my childhood home, Kav pulled me along toward a familiar Mercedes. “This is his fault, Joey. His.”
“I was high,” I confessed, feeling like my mind was slipping on me as I struggled to take everything in. As I checked the fuck out. “I lost my head and walked out on them.”
“And if you’d stayed, you’d have been passed out in your bed. Darren wouldn’t have been out looking for you, Shannon wouldn’t have been awake to call me, and you all would have burned to death in your sleep.”
He was saying the words, but they weren’t helping.
Nothing was helping.
“Jesus Christ.” Another horrific visual of her hand flashed in my eyes. “My mother.”
“This is not on you. So, don’t you dare let that bastard get in your head,” he commanded, as he pushed me into what I thought might be the back of a car.
I couldn’t tell anymore.
“You didn’t do this,” I heard my sister’s boyfriend say from somewhere nearby. “He did this.”
Everything was slipping on me.
It was as if my mind had reached its limit and decided to shut down.
