I hand it to him without a fight. I want the light to go away, it doesn’t seem necessarily bad, but it isn’t good either.
Chaotic neutral.
“Youaretrusting us…”
I cannot ignore the unfiltered happiness that lathers his words. “I am. I think, at least in this timeline, I have always trusted you. I just wasn’t surewhat the feeling was and so it made me apprehensive. But you all make me comfortable, safe, happy.”
Shame hits me now, out of nowhere, shortly followed by grief.
“To you all, Auggie and Tripp have been dead for years.” Their lack of reaction at the memorial makes more sense now. And in some ways it feels as if years have passed since their death to me too, but that doesn’t dispel the guilt I feel. As if I am substituting Tripp.
Except even as that thought whips through me, I know with certainty Tripp will never be replaced. He will always hold a spot within me. My first love, first kiss, first broken heart.
“They have,” Axel confirms. “It still hurts, but nowhere as much as watching you die over and over again. Unable to stop it.”
“Except you have stopped it. I’m alive. And I am putting my trust in both of you. But…But I need you both to do the same.” The plan swims to the forefront of my mind. It started in that closet with Grayson, it grew on the walk back, and it expands now in this hospital room.
This town makes a cycle of victims, of pain, and suffering.
Julia. Tripp. Auggie. They all pointlessly died because of it.
And who knows how many more will.
Darius was taken from us by the evil behind it all.
And who knows what will happen to him.
Unless we stop it.
Axel always calls me his Little Lamb.
Perhaps it’s time I start playing the part.
“I will be the bait.”
10
September 23rd
The trip back to their house was a muted affair. At least from the two brothers.
However, as soon as I tried to leave the hospital, reporters ambushed us. And not just local ones, there were channels from all over the country. Shoving their microphones into my face, their cameras focused on me, asking questions I wanted to answer.
Part of me wanted to scream how evil this town is, shout it until my face turned red, but then what would happen to Darius?
Instead, I remained silent until the hospital security was able to successfully escort us to their vehicle.
To Darius’s truck.
But even once we were settled inside, the brothers didn’t speak. The statement I made left a cloud of thick tension in the cab. Stuck between the two brothers, it was easy to see their anger. In the clenching of Axel’s jaw, the wrinkle etched between Grayson’s brows.
I want to regret telling them my plans, but I don’t. Uneasiness is a snake that coils tightly in my gut, but I ignore it.
I have to convince them. For Darius’s sake.
And now we sit in the garage. Grayson’s knuckles white from gripping the wheel.
“They can’t hurt him now. Not now that they publicly showed he is a Thorne. They’ll keep him safe,” Grayson mutters. The words are what breaks our endless quiet.
