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“It was the last wall and I thought it was going to be the hardest one I’d have to tear down. I don’t know exactly when it happened, but I discovered the wall wasn’t there anymore when I was getting stitched up at Micah’s shop.”
“I was surprised when Alaric asked you about your scars and you were so forthcoming on how you got them,” Colt said.
“I think that wall went down because I needed it to,” I said, and then let out a humorless huff of a laugh. “Which really shows how hard I’ve been making this whole facing-my-past crap for myself.”
“Why did you need the wall to go down?” Knox asked.
I met his eyes. “Because I needed to be able to look back at that night and learn anything I could from it, so I won’t make the same mistakes again.” I took my feet off of Colt’s lap and put them on the floor. Resting my elbows on my knees, I ran my finger over my scar again. “Keeping us safe is more important than my fear of the past.”
Knox put his cards on the table and got up to sit on the loveseat across the room on the other side of the coffee table. He locked his eyes with mine. “How did you get that scar?”
My finger stilled over the middle of it. Taking a second, I emotionally prepared myself for what I was about to do. I knew it was time and the best part was that I was finally ready to tell them. “If I’m going to tell you that, I should probably start from where I left off.”
“You were hiding in your father’s office with Shayla,” Colt said.
I nodded.
* * *
That Night
Part 2
When Shayla opened the door, light from the TV in the living room poured into the dark office. Very slowly, she peeked out.
“It’s clear,” she whispered and took my hand.
I followed her out. She squeezed my hand as we passed our dad on the couch. Tears silently rolled down my cheeks and off my chin when we had to step over our mom’s body.
We were headed for the front door. As soon as it was in sight, I noticed that the foyer light was on. If Shayla noticed, she didn’t seem to care. She began to walk faster.
As soon as we stepped into the bright foyer, Mr. X stepped out of our mom’s darkened office directly across the room from us. Seeing him, Shayla stopped in her tracks so suddenly that I ran into her.
A terrifying smile stretched across his face as his eyes landed on me. “There you are.”
With where he was standing, there was no way we’d get to the door without him catching us.
Coming to a decision before I could, Shayla yanked me toward the stairs, which were just to our left. We climbed up as fast as we could and just as we reached the top, I glanced back to see Mr. X taking his time coming up the stairs behind us.
The upstairs hall light was on. It had been off when I’d gotten home.
Shayla didn’t let go of my hand as she ran ahead of me down the hall. We passed her room. Then mine. The lights in our rooms were off. She led us into our parents’ room and let go of my hand just as we got inside. One of the lamps on our parents’ nightstands was on. Why did I feel like we’d been led here with light?
Shayla slammed the door closed, but it bounced open. “Oh my God,” she gasped when she reached for the doorknob and there wasn’t one. Just an open hole where it should have been.
I looked around for any idea of what to do and ran to our parents’ dresser. “Help me.”
Using all the strength I had, I started pushing the heavy wooden dresser toward the door. Shayla quickly joined me, and we both got the dresser up against the door.
Shayla pointed across the room. “The window.”
We both rushed to it. Shayla got there before me and pushed it open. We eyed the far, straight drop to the ground. “We can make it,” she said and started to put her legs out the window.
I grabbed her arm. “No, we won’t. That drop guarantees broken bones and we won’t get far if we can’t walk.”
“We’ll try to lower ourselves down as far as we can before we drop,” Shayla said frantically.
“Oooh, Shiii…loooh,” Mr. X sang from just outside the bedroom door.
