Page 94 of Monsters

Chapter 31

THEN

MASON

The rain fell heavy and fast, the droplets feeling more like razors slicing through our skin. Large puddles had formed over the backyard and driveway making shit even more difficult. I’d wrapped rope around the tarpaulin securing Borelli’s body as we dragged him toward the car. In the dark of night, we heaved and pulled in unison, our tired muscles struggling with the weight.

Lightning lit up the sky illuminating everything and exposing us to our neighborhood’s watchful eyes. I stopped and stared at my brother, breathless, watching the rain wash the blood from his face before we fell into darkness once more. He was struggling, mentally and physically.

“I’ll never get away with this,” he said, defeated. I watched and listened to my brother’s voice. “I’m still a juvenile. If I confess, I may not be tried as an adult.”

“It’s murder, Lucas. You’re of the age when it can go either way.”

My brother muttered something incomprehensible through sobs.

“I need you to stay together, Lucas.”

“If I hand myself in now, it’ll spare us being hunted down in the future,” he continued.

We lowered the body by the car, and I took the opportunity to talk sense. Grabbing Lucas’s shirt, I pulled him close. “That’s bullshit. If you hand yourself in now, we’ll all go down for this. Listen to me, Lucas. That fucker deserved everything he got, and I’m not about to have him continue to destroy our lives.”

Another flash of lightning and my brother recoiled from me. I was further scaring him in a situation where he was already terrified. But I couldn’t stop. Borelli had been right about one thing. Weak people are the first to go, and I wasn’t about to let this happen to him. Lucas had always been the faint-hearted one. I was the brother who carried a chip on his shoulder, harassed the teachers at school and terrified the neighborhood elderly with my impulsive outbursts. And now as the lightning spotlighted us, rain running down our battered faces, Lucas could see just how unfazed I was by a murder that took place in my own home, committed by my own brother, to save my own life.

I didn’t feel remorse like most would.

I didn’t feel the type of guilt that would plague someone for the rest of his life.

I wanted Borelli dead, and now I had my wish. If Lucas hadn’t done it, I would have.

A flash of lightning revealed my brother’s trembling lower lip. A deep rumble of thunder followed. At least the earth would be soft.

I knocked his shoulder, drawing his waning attention back to me. “Stop fucking wallowing and help me lift this asshole into the trunk.”

Conceding defeat, Lucas took the tail end of Borelli and together we struggled to lift him off the muddy drive.

“Higher,” I demanded, not quite able to reach the tray.

“I can’t. He’s too heavy.”

“I have the damn heavy end, so fucking lift this fucker.”

The tarpaulin slipped through Lucas’s fingers causing me to drop my end, Borelli’s wrapped head thumping on the tow bar on its way down.

“Fucking deserved that.” I smiled at Lucas who shook his head in shame.

“That’s not funny, Mason.”

“Sure as fuck is. Now go again. Lift.”

Once more, we heaved and grappled with the body using our knees for balance until we could roll it into the trunk.

We stood catching our breath, wiping the mud off our hands.

Someone was watching us.

I could feel it.

They’d watched our every move.

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