Page 69 of Corrupting Ivy

Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery ate their breakfast, speaking low while she eyed me.

I shook off the uncomfortable look she kept giving me, then walked towards the door.

“He was her therapist. It’s just so sad. You never know with people these days,” said Mrs. Johnson, a widower who has nothing better to do than gossip with her Bingo friends.

“This is why we don’t trust anyone, especially newcomers,” said Ms. Wheeler. I glanced at her and narrowed my eyes.

I did nothing to these women, yet because I wasn’t born and raised here, that meant I’d never have a place among them. I could be the sweetest thing, and they’d still never accept me. Hanging my head, I walked past them, not in the mood to do battle with another human being, then headed upstairs, back to my room. My side ached as I climbed the steps, the wonderful smell of pancakes and bacon urging me to fight through it.

Just a few more steps, and I’ll be sitting on my couch, stuffing my face with fluffy gluten, and drowning my sorrows in juice. I walked inside, and a brief sadness swept over me as I noted the drop of blood on my destroyed sheets. So it wasn’t just a dream that I’d conjured up from a starving mind. He really hurt me.

Why couldn’t he have stayed here and talked about it? Why does he need to run away every time something gets too uncomfortable? Where did he go? What happened in his life that caused him to react with violence immediately from waking?

So many questions I’d never get answers to.

I reached out to place the food on the counter when a hand wrapped around my waist, lifting me off my feet. Another hand clamped over my mouth, cutting off my panicked scream. Pancakes and hash browns splattered all over the floor, causing a slippery mess.

My heart stopped in my chest, then took off like wild horses being chased by wolves as I kicked my feet and fought like hell to escape whoever held me. It had to be a man. Judging by the strength and size of his hand on my mouth, that was the conclusion I’d come up with. He took me to the ground, wrapped his legs around my thighs, holding me in place, then released my waist. A sharp stabbing pain hit my thigh through my pants. I cried out a muffled sob as an uncomfortable numbness settled in my bones. My muscles tired, and my eyelids felt heavy as the fight in my body died out.

I gave it one last go to escape from him, slamming my elbow back towards his ribs, but my reward was a grunt for my effort and a dark tunnel closing around my vision until it took over. I sagged against the body that held me tight.

“Night, night.”

Dammit.

What have I done?

I shouldn’t have slept with it under my pillow.

But it never crossed my mind that she might wake me up or disturbed me while I slept. All I wanted was to be beside her when she woke, and that clouded my mind. I never thought I could feel regret. It was an emotion I’d locked down so long ago and refused to let out. Besides, when was the last time I’d made a split decision and it didn’t have a good outcome? It’d been so long, I couldn’t recall.

This was a stupid mistake I couldn’t take back. The blinding fear in her eyes as she clawed at my hand… It’s burned into my skull, forced to relive it over and over.

She’d drawn blood in her frantic attempt to wake me, and my arms stung with the tiny scratch marks.

Fear was an emotion so exotic to me. I wasn’t even sure it was real. It drew me into a parallel reality where I questioned if what we just experienced together was real or not. But how could I deny it was?

Her face told me all I needed to. I’d messed up, and there was no turning back from it.

Dust billowed around me as my tires kicked it up to form a cloud that blocked my vision. When I brought my truck to a skidding stop at the base of the water tower.

This place was my sanctuary. I’d come here when I was a kid, hiding from Ma, only to face the consequences later. But it was the only place in this pathetic town where I gained a new perspective. Where I could clear my thoughts.

I climbed out of my truck, swiping the dust out of my face, then took the rusted rainbow ladder to the top. What used to be a white water tower was now a multitude of colors. These damn kids and their graffiti. It wasn’t even art anymore like it used to be. Now it was just something they did to destroy something.

Boredom got the better of them in this defunct town.

I sat down on the metal-grated floor and dangled my feet over the edge, then leaned on the thin metal bar that acted as a barrier.

This tower held a vantage point of the town you couldn’t get anywhere else. I could see it as a whole instead of the tunnel vision I held while my feet were on the ground. It placed me above it all. Above the abuse, the gossipers, the corruption. Of course, at that age, I didn’t understand corruption. It was just a place that made me feel better than anyone else. They were literally beneath me.

Staring at my feet, the ground below me blurred as I focused on them and nothing else.

Ivy was just an infinitesimal moment in my life that clouded my vision as the dust below me. I had duties—responsibilities I let slide just to be with her. Something I’d never done before. And she suffered the consequences of that blindness.

I had handled the whole reason I came back to this town after so many years. Albeit with gratuitous violence, I took care of it. So why did I stick around with these people, this town? Why did I feel the need to protect her when I was no safer than the world trying to get her?

How was it that just yesterday, I was ready to pull her down into the darkest depths of my mind and see how she’d survive without the light? But now I know she’d never make it that far—I’d destroy her before she hit the bottom.