Page 2 of Shattered In Darkness

Brody’s jaw ticks. His knuckles turn white around my wrist. “Your house isn’t her home.”

“Funny,” Marcus murmurs. “You’re not her family. You’re just a distraction she’ll forget in a year.”

It hurts. Worse than I expect. Like he’s already dumping dirt on the coffin. Like I’m the dead one. I don’t move. I don’t breathe.

Brody stands. The energy in him is violent, caged, like a dog waiting to snap the collar. I hold my breath, fearing he’s going to hit Marcus. Right here. Right now.

Instead, he releases my hand and steps back.

“If you ever hurt her.” Brody’s voice shakes, not with fear, but with something wrecked. “If you touch her, if you make her cry, you’ll pay for it. I don’t care if you’re her fucking step-dad. I don’t care what you are.”

“We’ll see about that.”

All the warmth leaks out of the room.

Marcus makes me stand, his hand never leaving my skin. Like a leash. Like everyone should see who owns the prize. “Come along, sweetheart. Let’s say goodbye to your mother properly.”

I do as I’m told because obedience is all I have left. I follow Marcus, and Brody stalks behind us. I don’t look back. I don’t want to see the look in his eyes. I’m afraid it would ruin me for good.

The funeral is a blur. Cold wind slithers around me. Wet leaves clinging to my shoes. Women hugging me with nails that dig into my spine. Marcus with his hand on the small of my back, anchoring me for all the world to see.

Brody stands across the dirt, staring, his eyes fixed on me and nothing else. I want to run to him, jump into his arms, and let the sadness fall out of my body and never touch the ground.

I stay rooted to the fake grass. Damp leaves cling to my ankles. All these stares. All these greedy hands, waiting to claim whatever’s left of me. The little girl whose mother screamed and then disappeared.

Marcus fills up my world. He stands behind me, a hand pressed to my back, heavy and false-gentle, squeezing until my bones flex. His mouth is next to my ear. His mask is for the crowd, swooping and sad; only I can feel the knife twisting underneath.

Only I can see his empty eyes. There’s nothing behind his expression. No soul. No life. Only a darkness that engulfs me.

He whispers that I’m brave. He calls me darling, sweetheart, little bug. The eyes of distant family, neighbors, men from Marcus’s business look through me.

They don’t see the truth: I am a void wearing a pretty dress, painted up to look alive for strangers.

My breath keeps getting stuck. My arms and legs are stuffed with cement.

Brody stands at the fringe, watching everything. I want to run to him. I want to bury myself in him and never come out. But that would be weak, and weak girls get eaten alive.So I look at the coffin. Cool, perfect wood. It doesn’t look anything like my mom. It doesn’t look like anything except maybe a warning.

I clench my fists. All I want is out.

They shovel dirt on her before the sun even starts to set, each thud is louder than the last. Everything in my chest caves in, over and over, until I’m sure there’s nothing left.

Come back, come back, come back.

Marcus holds me tighter through the whole thing. His grip leaves marks. Just on the inside, where no one can see.

Afterward, when the last mourner sniffs off to the cars, Marcus guides me to the car to bring me home, his hand never letting go. Not once. Not even when Brody tries to block his path and demands to take me himself, just this once, just for tonight.

Marcus says, “That wouldn’t be appropriate.”

He pushes the front door open once we arrive, shoves me through, and locks it behind us.

“Don’t look back, Lola,” he says, his voice is soft.

At home, Marcus makes me sit at the kitchen table. He pours me a glass of something strong and sits across from me, legs splayed, watching so close it pricks my skin. He pats my hand. “We have to stick together now. The world is full of users, liars, little monsters.”

Like I don’t know that already. Like I don’t live with one.

His thumb rolls over my wrist. I stare at his hands. I don’t want them anywhere near me.