Page 50 of The Infinite Light of Dust

He turned to me, wiping his brow with the bottom of his T-shirt. It wasn’t remotely hot outside to me, but I hadn’t been working on a deck for hours.

“Yeah, but she’s upset with me, so she didn’t talk to me.”

“Why would Elodie be upset with you?” I asked. Elodie had a soft spot for Kael, taking his side even over mine sometimes.

Kael looked away from me and stood. “Are you sure you want to know?”

“Do you know me?” I asked, wondering what on earth they could be fighting about.

“I gave your brother a hard time over something, and was wrong about it.”

“Don’t be cryptic. What did you give him a hard time over?”

Kael sighed and sat down at the beginning of my sidewalk. The grass was still wet from the on-and-off rain, but the sun had dried the concrete. “I heard him talking on the phone with someone about money and I accused him of using.”

My scalp prickled. “Why did you assume he’s using just because he was talking about money?”

I knew why, and couldn’t say I wouldn’t think the same, but Kael had always been so hard on my brother and quick to accuse him of being on drugs. Whether he was right sometimes or not, it pissed me off. My dad once told me that if my brother murdered someone, I would make the best defense for him even if I caught him with the gun in his hand. I liked to think he was wrong, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Because of his history, I guess. I feel like shit over it and am going to apologize. I haven’t seen him, though.”

“Where is he? It’s not like he has many places to go these days,” I said, pulling my phone out to text Austin.

“Not sure. Maybe he’s at mine.” As he finished the sentence, his eyes went wide and his nostrils flared.

He reached for his phone as it vibrated in his pocket. Gloria’s name and photo popped up on the screen. He answered instantaneously. Less than thirty seconds later, we were in his truck, driving way over the speed limit to get to Kael’s place. I kept asking Kael what was going on but he was dead silent, intent on getting there as fast as possible. I was panicking. Was my brother really on drugs? Did he overdose with Mendoza there? Was Mendoza drunk and out of control and had Austin called Gloria? None of the scenarios made much sense, and each one made me more nauseated than the last.

“I know you won’t, but I really wish you would stay in the truck,” Kael told me as we pulled up, his voice tight.

Like always, I climbed out of the truck, and noted Mendoza’s van parked on the street. Was Gloria here? I was about to text her when I heard shouting coming from inside. Kael moved faster than my eyes or feet could follow. When I got to the front door, it was locked.

That bastard.

My brother’s voice mixed with another man’s, which I didn’t recognize. I made my way to the back of the duplex, hoping to god that the back door was unlocked. It wasn’t. I began to feel helpless, which sent me into rage. I hated feeling helpless more than any other emotion. Kael was doing what he thought was right, but so was I. I pounded on the door as the not-familiar voice clicked in my brain. Phillips. A line of ice water trickled through my veins. I pounded harder.

“Let me in!” I screamed.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that me being there wasn’t going to help a single bit, that it would distract Kael and my brother from whatever the hell was happening inside the house, but I couldn’t help it. I was that idiot in films who never listened and kept adding fuel to the fire. Before I could change my mind and go back to Kael’s truck and hope for the best, the door flew open and Phillips met me eye to eye. He looked like a madman, his front teeth covered in blood. I looked past him to see my brother, panting and holding his waist. Mendoza was propping him up and Kael was standing in the middle of the room with his hands spread out like wings, keeping distance between them.

“Oh, look who joined us. Now the party can really begin,” Phillips said, bloody smile gazing down at me.

A sharp pain ran through my body and I yelped, not realizing that he had grabbed a fistful of my hair and was yanking me farther into the room. Kael’s expression turned murderous, and he flew toward Phillips. I was tossed to the ground, and staggered backward on my hands to get out of the eye of the storm.

“Karina, leave!” my brother spat.

I could barely register what I was seeing—a piece of blue plastic was dangling from his side, and his T-shirt was lifted and covered in blood. A screwdriver. There was a screwdriver hanging out of his side. I could taste bile in my throat as I tried to move closer to him without Kael stopping me or Phillip noticing.

“What the fuck happened? You said you were going to stop this!” Kael shouted, grabbing Phillips by the shirt and lifting his body like he was a rag doll.

“You should have kept him away from me! I was going to leave today to go to my parents’, but he fucking came here to taunt me!”

“I didn’t come to taunt you. I didn’t know you were fucking here!” my brother coughed out.

As I pulled my phone out to call the MPs, Mendoza noticed and silently shook his head at me. So I put my phone away. I crawled closer to where my brother was and stood up. His skin was turning slightly yellow and the area around the puncture was already purple. Dark-red blood seeped down his torso onto the top of his jeans. I swallowed, trying not to vomit.

“You all think you’re so much better than me. You think you can get away with fucking my life up. And you—” Phillips turned his chin toward my brother as Kael slammed him against the wall. “I’m going to fucking kill you. I don’t have anything to lose now,” he threatened.

My brother lunged at him before Mendoza or I could stop him. The room was spinning. I felt like I was having an out of body experience. Things like this didn’t happen in reality; blood and death threats were only on the screen.

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