Page 100 of Ruled By Fate

The telephone pole on the opposite side of the parking lot made a strange, moaning sound and cracked in half where the heavenly scythe had touched it. It crashed neatly onto an entire row of cars.

Broken glass showered around them like rain as a dozen car alarms went off, filling the air with sirens of protest and a dizzying explosion of flashing lights.

The door to the bar burst open, and about twenty police officers from the soccer game flooded into the parking lot. Mike was among the first, followed quickly by Sherry.

“My Lord! What the heck happened?” he cried, surveying the damage. “Are you alright?”

Brie nodded in silence. Cameron got up and offered a hand. She took it but couldn’t seem to make it past a sitting position. His palm glowed discreetly, removing the nausea and clearing the alcohol from her blood.

“I think she’s in shock,” he said.

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Sherry replied in a strangely flat tone. Brie locked eyes with her for a moment before turning away, cheeks burning in shame.

Did I yell at her before I came out here?

“Thank God we parked on the other side of the lot.” With that, Sherry knelt down and gave her a quick examination. “Follow my finger.” She held up her middle finger and moved it back and forth in front of Brie’s face, monitoring her pupil dilation and her ability to track it, while making her feelings known. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Sher. It’s just… I got a little drunk. It’s been a long day.”

Satisfied that she didn’t have a concussion, Sherry sat back on her heels. “You’ve been having a lot of those lately.” Her eyes drifted over the wreckage strewn about the parking lot. “What happened here?”

“I don’t know.”

Sherry looked at her with an expression Brie had never received. Not from Sherry. Not ever.

Suspicion.

“I saw from the window, Brie. Cam tackled you before the pole fell.”

All the blood drained from Brie’s face. “The sound,” she said faintly. “He heard a sound, and I guess he just…” She trailed off, unable to think of a convincing lie in the moment.

Sherry stared a moment, then shook her head. “It’s like Rashida said earlier. You always seem to be in the middle of something these days.” She cocked her head and gazed intensely. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”

Yes. There is something that I very much want to tell you.

Then in a flash, she remembered Sherry’s face all those years ago, right after the accident, when Brie told her what had really happened to her mother. When she stretched her arms wide to show her the size of the shard of glass that had impaled her. When she uttered the word shadow-monster for the first time. When she told her about the angel. Sherry hadn’t said anything. She’d just tried to calm her down. She’d tried for days to be supportive, to nod and stroke her hair and affirm Brie’s feelings without confirming what she saw as the delusions of a traumatized mind. Brie could tell she didn’t believe her and couldn’t begin to blame her. She wouldn’t have believed such a thing herself. After the funeral, she broke down and moved into the bathtub. Sherry was there for her then, too.

She couldn’t put her through that again.

I want to tell you. But I can’t. It would break your heart.

“Yes.” Her heart caught in her throat. “I’m so sorry I snapped at you before. I don’t know why I did that. It’s been such a terrible day, Sherry. You should have seen that kid.”

Sherry’s face softened, and she sighed. “Oh, honey. What in the world am I going to do with you? You must be the unluckiest… Well, never mind all that. Let’s just get you home.”

The rest of the police force was jotting down license plate numbers and trying to match the customers with their ruined cars. Someone was already on the phone with the electric company to get the power to the felled line turned off. Rashida and her handsome goalie were staring out over the parking lot, thunderstruck.

That’s a hell of a first date.

Cameron quietly followed the girls to Sherry’s car and slipped into the back seat. He wouldn’t meet Brie’s eyes. He wouldn’t even look at her. He didn’t say a word the entire way home. He just opened the door for her when they arrived and stepped back, ever the gentleman.

The second the door shut behind them, Brie ran to her room and threw herself on the bed. She needed to cry, but she couldn’t. She heaved a dry, broken sob, and then another, praying that the tears would just fall already to give her some relief. But there was nothing. Nothing but that familiar ache behind her eyes. The feeling of being completely hollow and utterly alone.

For what felt like hours, she buried her face in her pillow, counting her breaths until she finally fell asleep. For what felt like hours, Cameron stood on the other side of the door, his face turned up to the heavens, dying with each passing second, counting those breaths himself.

Chapter Twenty-One: One of the Seven

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