His eyes widened, but he said nothing.
This made no sense. “I mean, for you to know that nickname, you would have had to overhear her or have spoken to her?—”
I sharply sucked in air and awareness, remembering back when Noma was sick. Hallucinations sometimes were at a peak. “Is he at the window?”
My stomach soured. Ah shit. She was communicating with Uncle Styx, but the librarian told me he was dead! Right? My eyes squeezed shut while I tried to remember any time she actually spoke those words. Had I just assumed?
Searching for the car’s door handle, I felt like I was going to puke all the bacon I had forced down. “No… No…” This isn’t happening. “No. No!” I got out of the car and screamed, “She fucking knew you were alive!” Feeling so damn betrayed by the librarian’s lies, I started kicking the car. All the while, my thoughts kept rolling, revealing more facts. Tauntingly so. “You knew I was without her!” So, so betrayed. “You never came for me!”
Wait…
If it hadn’t been medicines playing games with Noma’s mind, then what the hell did she mean by, “Your grandfather wishes he could be your grandfather.”
“I don’t fucking believe this shit!” I slipped on my knuckles and punched the hood, over and over. “A bunch of fucking goddamn liars!” I swung in fury. “Were you ever dead?”
My mom’s dad was dead before I was old enough to remember him. Uncle Styx died on my tenth birthday.
Heart thundering, I demanded, “Tell me! For real!”
Styx’s wide eyes now softened as if something I said?—
For real.
Oh. My. God.
“You’re not my mother’s dad.”
I could see the truth clearly now. My tenth Life Date. Us in trouble. Uncle Styx silently apologizing to his president who was truly his… son.
“You’re paternal.”
My body set fire. A whole new emotion erupted inside me. It was one thing for an ‘uncle’ to not save me from going to a foster home, but it was a whole different thing for a grandpa to surrender me. I was now a Blue, with a father figure who didn’t care.
I went ballistic on the car. Outraged about the deep cut to my soul.
From behind me, Uncle—Grandpa—Styx grabbed me around the waist and dragged me, swinging mad, down a dirt driveway past a car that felt familiar, just as a man stepped out of his trailer shouting at us to leave his property.
Styx swung me so hard I spun, lost my footing, hit the ground, and rolled toward the front porch.
Back on my feet, I roared at Styx, “Why did you do that?”
“So you’d be that much closer to who killed your friend!” He pointed behind me.
As if becoming possessed by a cruel and deadly entity, my head swiveled to see the stranger. I had two dead friends. Which one was I getting the chance to avenge? I had studied the pastor’s daily routines. They never brought me to this house.
Then I eyed the taillights of the car, putting it all together. Caleb.
There was no delay in my charge. And a tirade that would change who I was forever.
The man didn’t have a chance. I had been set free to finally have a taste of much-warranted and much-craved revenge. My first kill was laced with so many years of having no say; loved ones and moments stolen from me. My first kill was going to be merciless and bloody. Every strike to his face with brass and bare skin was me taking back an ounce of control. This drunk driver would never kill an innocent again. He wouldn’t even see the light of day. Only the flames of the hell I sent him to.
Coming back to the present moment, the sun had all but set. I rose from the body now, still, blood all around him dripping between the wood porch slats. “Oh shit.” I gasped for air. What have I done?
It felt foreign to be back inside my body again. Its shell was now a true sinner.
As if I hadn’t just committed murder, Styx waltzed past me with a bleach spray bottle. As he doused the body and all surfaces I’d been even close to, he mentioned, “Just in case anyone feels the need to investigate and collect DNA.” He shook his head at the dead man. “You piece of shit.” He explained, “Quite the rap sheet this one has.” He chuckled. “Had.”
As I stumbled backward, breathless, and down the steps, I watched Styx following me, spraying everywhere I touched or stepped. “This old remedy can cause havoc for and in any expert lab.” He motioned for me to expose the bottom of my shoes. “Up. Up.”
