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Was it self-preservation?
Was it a mental breakdown?
Had I jumped off the bridge?
Was I in hell now?
It felt like I was in hell.
I was trapped in a nightmare.
Wake up.
Wake up, Joey.
“Joey, you’re going to come home with us now, okay?” a familiar voice was saying, but I didn’t know where it was coming from. My heart was beating so hard that it was making my eyes blur. Or maybe that was the tears? “We’re going to take care of you, and that’s not me asking you, son. That’s me telling you.”
You jumped.
Don’t worry, you jumped.
None of this is real.
It’s not happening.
“I should have been here,” I heard myself say—to who, I wasn’t sure. But I said it. “It’s my job to keep them safe.”
“They are safe.” Someone was holding me. There was an arm around my shoulder and a big hand covering mine. “And so are you.”
Was it God?
Was it the Devil?
Where the fuck was I?
“No,” I mumbled drowsily as I felt the last strand of my sanity snap. “It was my job to keep her safe.”
110
High Time
AOIFE
The smell was the first thing that hit me when I jumped out of Dad’s van at the bottom of the road and ran toward the crowds gathering on the street outside 95 Elk’s Terrace.
Huge plumes of black smoke continued to rise into the sky as the fire brigade battled to extinguish the blaze that was devouring my boyfriend’s house.
“Aoife!” Casey called out. “Oh my god, Aoife!” Slipping around a group of pajama-clad women, she ran straight for me. “You have no idea how good it is to see you.” Breathless and panting, she threw her arms around me when she reached me. “I heard the sirens, and then I saw all the flames, and everyone started coming out of their houses. Jesus, I tried to call you, but your phone’s going straight to voicemail. I was terrified you might be in there. When I saw Joey losing his shit—”
“You saw him?” I demanded, chest heaving, as I struggled to make sense of what I was seeing. “When? Where? Is he okay? Was he—”
“Yeah, I saw him. He’s okay… Well, clearly, he wasn’t okay. I mean, he was understandably losing his shit, trying to go back into the house, but Johnny Kavanagh showed up and hauled him away.”
And that was all it took.
He’s okay.
Two words.
