Page 17 of I’m The Worst

Doesn’t answer.

Doesn’t even try.

Something inside me snaps.

I shove the tray off the bed. It clatters to the floor. The sound is too loud. Everything is too loud.

“How long?” I shout toward the hallway. “How long were you looking for me?”

Silence.

I stagger toward the door, gripping the wall when the room tilts sideways.

“Was he told right away?” I press, my throat burning through my emotion. “Did my dad know? Did he send you the second I went missing?”

My heart is racing too fast. My thoughts feel foggy.

“Or did he wait? Was he…embarrassed of me?”

“What about Gage?” My words tumble over each other. “Why didn’t my brother come? Why didn’t he rescue me? He would’ve—” I gasp for a breath as my chest clenches. “Why you?” I demand, stepping into the hall. “Why the fuck was it you?”

My vision blurs.

Eleven weeks… Eleven fucking weeks chained to a bed and kept in a cage.

“Were you even looking?” I whisper. “Or did you just…get there when it was convenient?”

The floor feels unstable as my legs tremble violently.

Did he watch footage first? Did he see me before he came? Did he see what they were doing to me?

I press a hand to my mouth, trying not to vomit again.

“You took so long. You took so…fucking long.”

The silence in the house feels suffocating. Every shadow looks like him. Every sound feels like a door unlocking. Giving up, I stumble back into the bedroom and shove the door shut. I can still feel hands on me. Still hear them. Still smell it.

I crawl under the bed, dragging the blanket with me. My teeth chatter as I curl into myself so tight my ribs ache.

I need to forget.

I need it quiet.

I need something to slow this down.

Anything.

We’ve been at the safehouse for seven fucking days, and AJ is deteriorating.

She doesn’t eat. Hardly sleeps. Doesn’t stop shaking. She lives under the bed now—curled up like some dying animal. Withdrawals leave her sobbing, clawing at the floorboards. When we dragged her in here, she was barely conscious. The first night, her body locked up so violently, Savva and I had to pin her down just to get the IV in. She fought like we were killing her.

We stabilized her.

That’s it.

Stabilized.

She’s still nowhere near strong enough to move.