AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There is a dried brown stain on his shirt, and I remember what Fergus told me about him. However, I force my surge of fear aside. “I need your help.”
Roy frowns. “Why would you be looking for me?”
“It’s about Bryan.”
Roy’s eyes harden. “Forget it, Sarah. I can’t help you.”
Desperation pushes me towards him, and I grasp his jacket as he turns to leave. “Please, Roy! I know you know where he is!”
He pulls away from me and glares at me. “Are you fucking stupid? He’s as good as dead!”
My eyes fill with tears. “He’s my brother, Roy. Don’t say that.”
I know Fergus described him as a monster, but right now as I look at him, I see a hint of the boy who cried in my arms after his mother died at such a young age. I see the boy who let me take care of him when he was at his loneliest. I see his expression softening reluctantly.
“Look, Sarah. Bryan did something stupid. He fucked with the boss. There’s no coming back from that. I can’t help you.”
I wrap my arms around myself. “What if I take him away from here? We’ll move somewhere far away. Just tell me where he is, and nobody from Street Serpents will ever see us again. I have savings. We can start over somewhere else.”
Roy growls at me. “You don’t get it, do you? As far as anything matters, Bryan’s dead. He might be alive right now, but not for long. I just came here looking for you to tell you to stop asking about me. I got word that you were making inquiries at Ritters about me. I’m not going to help you.”
My heart sinks, and bitterness seeps in. “Did your friends complain to you before or after they put a date rape drug in my drink?”
Roy’s face turns white. “They did what?”
I glare at him. “Yeah. They drugged me, and when I was going home, they cornered me. It was the bartender who helped me out.”
Roy doesn't say anything for a few moments. Then, he shakes his head. “You’re a good person, Sarah. That’s why I’m here. I don’t want to have to hurt you. But if you don’t stop looking for Bryan, things will get ugly.”
After delivering his threat, he walks away, and I stare after him. My body numb. My mind in shambles.
I don’t know when I walked into my apartment or how I got in.
After locking the door, I lean against it and my body crumples to the ground as I break down, hopelessness sur
rounding me.
If Roy refuses to help me, I have no other way to find out where Bryan is.
I sit by the door for a long time, even after my tears dry up.
There is no one I can turn to for help.
No one who could help me find Bryan. No one who has those sort of resources.
It is quite late when I finally drag myself to bed, leaving my belongings on the floor, not caring.
Shutting off all the lights, I let myself be surrounded by the darkness, waiting for sleep to make me forget.
At some point, long after I lay in bed, I hear the phone ringing, but I stare listlessly at nothing in particular. I have no desire to answer it.
The next few days pass like this.
I don't eat or drink, just stay in bed, my heart broken in a way that even thinking hurts. I hear Seth’s muffled voice reaching through my closed door.
I just huddle under my blanket, tired of the world, wanting some form of peace, not wanting to think of the baby brother I nurtured over the years, trying not to think of when he would nag at me, or hug me, or cuddle with me, trying to be extra clingy to annoy me.
I am never going to hear his voice again. I am never going to hear him pester me with that tone that he has just for me. I will never wake up in the middle of the night and have hot cocoa in the kitchen with him and talk about the most random of things and laugh with him.
