Page 106 of The Unravelings

“He’s worked hard to remove everything that was destroyed up there. He’s scheming on how to buy back everything and replace it with exact matches. He didn’t want it to change. It was almost a shrine,” JJ says, looking up toward the treehouse with furrowed brows.

“Who?” I clear my throat, taking myself away from the memories that always swirl in the back of my head, reminding me of what I once had, and what can’t be anymore.

No matter how much my heart aches while standing here before JJ and the one place we all found peace in.

“Mack,” he whispers his name so softly. Almost as if he is afraid he’ll summon him here. His dark eyes dart around the woods, and he heaves a breath. “Losing you hit him the hardest. He’s become reckless, putting his life in danger. He really misses you, Spitfire. He…” He rolls his lips together. “He sits at your grave every morning after he runs and tells you stories, like you’re listening to him.”

Like we used to.

“Buttercup,” Mack whines, pulling me close as we sit together near the back of the treehouse. His head leans against the pink pillows. The same ones he complained about a few days ago.

“Hmm?” I hum, laying my head on his shoulder and soaking up the warmth and comfort he gives me.

“I had a bad day,” he whispers. “Sometimes I don’t think this life is for me. But I don’t really have a choice.” He goes on to say more, confiding in me while JJ and Hux are off running errands for Franco.

Gently, I take his hand in mine and squeeze as he finishes speaking. “The sunshine will always erase away the darkness,” I murmur, trying to offer him solace from the shit he’s going through.

He gently squeezes my hand in his with a heavy sigh. “It always does, Buttercup.” The warmth of his lips connects with my temple as he sucks in a calming breath and blows it out. “Even if the sunshine doesn’t erase all this bleary shit, I have you. You are my sunshine at the end of a shitty day.”

I swallow down the memories. Again. It’s always happening around these parts. In this goddamn, infected town. Every corner I turn, our memories are there, ready to pull me under and drown me in them.

But I want to breathe. I want to remember. Yet, I want to forget. I want to walk through these woods without our ghosts peeking around the corner and reminding me of everything that was lost.

I turn my head in the direction of my old home. The one Wade insisted was still there. It’s out there. In shambles. Ashes. And I’ll see it one day.

Whenever I’m ready.

I have to stay smart and vigilant if I want to figure out what the fuck happened five years ago and, most importantly, what’s happening now to all the people who are showing up dead with their hearts and livers missing.

“Is this why you brought me out into the middle of the woods? To tell me stories?” I ask, attempting to change the subject and focus on the people dying. Thinking about Mack sitting at my grave does funny things to my head. It makes me think…

I squeeze my eyes shut, turning away from JJ completely. Memories of the first night I was in Greenwood come to mind. A rock. A lighthouse charm. They sat on top of my grave until I threw them into the woods behind my marker.

“No,” he says softly, sounding closer than before. “Maybe,” he huffs. “I wanted another chance to talk to you alone.”

I swallow the lump forming in my throat. “Did you visit my grave?” I whisper without thinking.

JJ makes a noise in the back of his throat. When I peer over my shoulder, he nods. “Not as much as him. But it doesn’t mean I didn’t miss you any less. I found other ways to deal with my grief.” He nods a few times. “Other ways to heal, knowing you were gone. We all did. We all had to.”

“And Mack?” I stupidly ask.

“Every morning, he runs for five miles with Waffles, and at the end of every run, he sits beside your headstone and talks to you like he used to. Confides in you and tells you about his day. The good and the bad. It’s a ritual for him. Something that helps him to heal.”

“Just talks?” My face twists with confusion. “Why…” I don’t understand why he’s telling me this. I don’t want to hear it.

My heart aches in my chest, pounding when he steps even closer to my back. It’s me and JJ standing alone in the woods; no one else would dare to come here. I’ve heard the stories they tell the other students about how haunted this area is because of the graveyard.

The warmth of JJ’s breath hits the back of my neck, and he shudders, attempting to control whatever is going through his mind. “Because you were the one he went to when he needed an ear to bend, Spitfire. Not me. Not Hux. You meant a lot to us, and you still do. He talks with you to help him feel human. You continue to ground him even if he thinks you’re six feet deep. I want you to know that, because every time you look at me, I see the doubt in the back of your eyes. You still think…” He trails off, his voice choking up with emotion.

“Yeah, I do,” I mutter with no heat behind my words.

I’m lost. Confused. Not fully convinced that whatever happened, happened. Was it them who walked through fire and left me there to rot in my own pool of blood? Or were they in Vegas, doing business for Franco?

Everyone in my life has let me down at some point. My mom. My father, if you can even call him that. My boyfriends. Every person who was supposed to protect me and keep me alive led me straight to slaughter.

The walls around my heart slam back into place, sturdier than before. I can’t let JJ through my defenses. None of them. But I can pretend, right? I can pretend that I’m loosening the reins on the betrayal and seeing past it so I can get the answers I deserve.

“Did you leave me things? At my grave?” I stare at the tree in front of me, refusing to turn back around and look JJ in the eyes.