Page 6 of Graves | AllFreeNovel

“Tomorrow, Aran.” Fox shakes me until I turn away from Ben. He cradles my face with both hands, dead serious. “We’ll go tomorrow. I promise. Let the doctors do their job.”

I nod, but I know there’s no way I’ll calm down.

Leslie and Pete leave with the concierge. Fox sits on the couch, trying to keep me company, but nothing he says penetrates the fog in my head. All I see is Ben lying motionless on the floor, and my eyes keep drifting back to the bloodstain he left behind.

When Fox falls asleep next to me, the crushing silence hits me. I turn on CNN so I don’t lose my mind.

Only in the early morning hours do I find any kind of calm—probably thanks to all the whiskey. I lie on the couch, dazed, watching the sun rise over Warsaw. The sky glows an almost unreal shade of pink, the first rays of sunlight illuminating the Palace of Culture tower.

“Ben Jenkins, lead singer of the famous punk rock band Razor Honey, died last night at the age of twenty-three.”

The words rip me out of my stupor, and I’m wide awake in a heartbeat.

“The musician was rushed to the hospital the previous evening with a head injury but succumbed to his severe injuries later.”

Ice floods my body as I stare at the photos of Ben flashing across the screen.

Ben is dead.

Ben. Is. Dead.

He’s never coming back.

And I killed him.

My stomach clenches. I’m not ready for the avalanche of chaos that crashes over me.

While the TV starts speculating and mentions the joint tour with Razor Honey and Grave Sinner, I walk to the bathroom like a robot and lock the door behind me.

With my thoughts on Ben and the fact that I’m the one who killed him, there’s only one thing left to do. I open Ben’s toiletry bag and find what I need.

Plenty of benzos.

With Ben’s death, my fate is sealed.

My life is over.

I fill a glass with water and swallow one pill after another.