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Dev starts pushing Lindy away, practically carrying her as she screams for me. She screams for Marcus. She screams for help that doesn’t come.
Music grows louder, the sounds permeating the air with no concern for the screams they’re trying to drown out.
“Now, where were we?” Kyle drawls. “Whose turn is it?”
Kyle did silence her. He didn’t just silence her; he ruined her. Lindy suffered a loss trying to save me, but puts flowers on my grave every year. She talks to that grave, saying she’s sorry she failed me.
She goes back to that hell to speak to a dead girl who she thinks she let down.
She’s a true angel.
It’s fate that she’s so close by. Fate tells me Laurel would forever be loved and cared for by Lindy. And I’m sure no one would take a homeless child away from a loving home after what this kid has suffered.
Leaving Laurel here though? Knowing this will tie Kenneth to the killer I am? It’s a huge mistake. But I can’t leave this kid just anywhere.
I pull into the driveway, and I see a set of eyes immediately peer through a crack in the blinds. All these years later, she still feels jumpy. She likely has a gun in her hand right now.
I know the feeling.
She suffered one monster. I suffered a town full of them.
As I get out, the crack in the blinds disappears, and I gently open the door, stirring Laurel awake.
“Are we here?” she asks, her voice still scratchy.
Shit. I should have at least gotten her some water.
This is why I can’t take care of her myself. Well, that and I’m sure it’s not wise for a monster to raise a child.
Lindy will make her loving. I’ll turn her into a knife-throwing killer.
“Yes,” I tell her gently, reaching down and taking her frail, light body into my arms.
She wraps her arms around me without hesitation, adorning me with trust she shouldn’t give so freely after what she’s suffered.
She’ll survive.
She’ll overcome this.
I know that now more than ever, because only the strong could handle touch after what she’s suffered.
Lindy opens the door, peering out as I carry the child toward her.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“It’s me, Lindy. And I’m here to see if you’re still as good as I remember.”
Just the sound of my voice has her stumbling through the door, her eyes widening in shock. She clutches the doorframe, trying to keep from sinking to the ground as her body shakes.
“You’re—”
“I know. I know. I’m dead,” I say, tired of hearing that line.
“You really are an angel,” Laurel says weakly, her head against my chest.
Lindy’s eyes swing to the child as she flips a light on, and the color drains from her face as she sees the torn clothing, the dirty skin, and the matted hair.
“This little girl has suffered too much. I told her she’d be safe here,” I say to Lindy, watching as her eyes slowly come back up to mine. “Don’t make me a liar.”
