Page 16 of A Sip of Sin

“I know,” said Hollen. He ran a hand through his hair, the coolness clinging to him. “And I’m so sorry you had to go through that. God, I feel like such an ass.” His gut was churning with guilt, hunger completely forgotten. “I’m telling the truth. I promise, Adair. Just…ask me something only a demon would know. Let me prove it.”

“I’m not mind-reader, if that’s the trick you’re going for,” said George, his voice trickling down Hollen’s spine. He seemed to have perked up in Hollen’s head, his excitement palpable. “But I know a lot of history.”

“Uh-huh,” said Adair, his shoulders stiff as he cut the pizza. “You can stop anytime, Hollen. If you’re trying to distract me from our money problem, you’re doing a crappy job.” He set the cutter to the side, leaning heavily against the stove with his head at the level of his shoulders. “Please stop.”

“Something old,” said Hollen, shuffling ahead until he was right next to Adair, the heat from the cooling oven radiating against his back. “Ask me about pyramids and stuff…or maybedinosaurs. George, have you been to Egypt? I know nothing about it other than that there are pyramids and a sphinx.” Adair, on the other hand, loved that kind of thing. Hollen had seen him look at hieroglyphics before…forfun.

“I was there when they were built,” said George, a chuckle in his words. “I may have had a bit of influence on the placement.” His presence shifted, like syrup dripping inside his mind.

“Oh, cool,” said Hollen, looking to his hand where he could have sworn he felt the soft brush of skin. Speaking to George was like answering that little voice in his thoughts that always seemed to know right from wrong. There was no lying between them or false truths—only the absolute vulnerability of reality.

It was hard to know where to look, though, when the person he was talking to was swirling in his own thoughts. A mirror just gave him the creeps, a flash of black on his skin or color in his eyes enough to put terror into his soul.

He didn’t look up from his hands, waiting for the same sensation when George would speak again. “How long did it take to build something like that? Adair probably has so many questions for you.” He looked up, his smile faltering at Adair’s expression. “He said he was there when they were built…”

His voice trailed off. The soft features on Adair’s face were stained pink, tears welling in his eyes until one spilled over to wind down his cheek. The pure betrayal on his face was enough to gut Hollen to his core, every snippet of excitement burned away to nothing.

“Stop.” Adair didn’t move to wipe the tears from his cheeks, even as more followed the first. “How could you do this to me?” The pizza wheel slipped from his fingers, clattering onto the floor in a splatter of sauce and cheese. “You know how hard my mom’s disease was on her—how scared I was about it.” He sniffed, shaking his head. “She almost killed me—twice. How could you—? I can’t believe this.” His voice wavered. “Get out ofthe kitchen. Just leave me alone.” Adair pressed his hands to his eyes, tears seeping past. “I don’t know why I stayed up to make you dinner when I should have just gone to sleep.”

“I’m sorry,” said Hollen, holding his hands out until they hovered in the air a few inches away from touching Adair. He flinched back as if he’d been burned. “I didn’t mean to upset you.” His chest ached, twisting harder at the sight of fresh tears.

He couldn’t break his promise to Adair—or the one he’d made to Adair’s mother in one of her few lucid moments in the brief times they’d met.“Keep him away from them. Keep him safe, and don’t you ever let him get hurt.”

George spoke up, his voice soft. “Give it up.”

Hollen trembled, dropping his hands. “I can’t keep lying anymore. I lost the last three jobs because they thought I was crazy—because they heard me talking to myself all the time. It’s not just a little bit, like everyone does. They thought I was having full conversations with myself, even arguments sometimes. I tried to hide it, but George doesn’t shut up, and I can’tnotanswer. He’s in my head all the time—talking, asking questions,complaining. He’s a negative Nancy.”

Hollen took a step, settling his hands on Adair’s shoulders as he sniffed, a fresh round of tears trailing down his face. He couldn’t hold back, hugging him close and dragging in the comforting scent of his hair.

“Please believe me.” He brushed his cheek against Adair’s shoulder. “I would never hurt you.”

“I know you wouldn’t,” said Adair, leaning into him. His voice was trembling. “You need to see a doctor, Hollen. I can’t go through this—not again. I want to help you, and I can’t do that by believing this fantasy. You need help.”

George curled inside his chest, so sudden that it ached. “No doctors. We don’t need anyone fumbling inside your thoughts like you’re insane.”

“I know. You know I don’t like doctors,” said Hollen, squeezing Adair tight. He hiccupped, sobbing against Hollen’s ear.

“That’s exactly what Mom said when she was having a crisis, Hollen. You can’t trust yourself or your thoughts right now, but you can trust me. Please go to a doctor. I’ll take you and hold your hand. Anything you want, as long as you’ll go.”

Darkness blinked over Hollen’s vision, a pressure like none-other radiating from the base of his skull as a metallic taste seeped over his tongue. He pushed away from Adair, stumbling back to clutch his head as it throbbed.

George was there, thrumming through him and filling every gap in his being that he hadn’t known existed. The sensation surrounded his prickling skin, spreading through his gut and chest as untamed fire that was bent on destruction. He couldn’t breathe—couldn’t think, his ears ringing and his heart thudding faster and faster. It was more than he could take, each muscle stretched over limbs that no longer felt like his own.

The poison spread, infecting everything in the same way that it would if it were dropped into a clear pond. He went to his knees, the impact aching and stinging all the way to the back of his spine where it curled in a burst of flame. George surged ahead, using every drop of agony to wrestle control, biting and snapping until his synapses ached.

His vision cleared, the kitchen and Adair’s terrified face coming into view. Hollen tried to move to brush a drop of sweat from his forehead, but his limbs were locked, his scream deafened within the sound of his own head. He couldn’t move, his limbs belonging to an entity that wasn’t him.

“George?” he asked. His lips didn’t move, the sound dead in his throat before it could be spoken. Instead, it echoed in his skull, plinking across the rounded walls until it was siphoned away in a depth of noise.

My hands.Hollen tried to scream at the sight, but he was wrapped tight, his wrists and ankles bound within himself. He’d always been pale, the creaminess of his skin now anything but. There were black lines etched into his flesh, stained as the darkest ink that could compete with a starless sky. Each line was beautiful and rough, symbols and designs that he had never seen, writhing to life and stamping their way until there wasn’t a square inch of him that was left untouched.

Adair flinched as George cleared his throat, the sound echoing in the room for the first time. “Five thousand years ago I carved this into rock.” His voice was deep and thick, a rock grinding against stone as he pointed to a symbol on Hollen’s wrist of a bird perched over water. It was crude but beautiful, the meaning as clear as the picture.

A gasp caught in Hollen’s throat, refusing to go farther. Hollen could tell that George somehow sensed his gasp from the way he chuckled.

That voice.It was like finally putting a sound to that nagging conscience that berated him at every move, laughing at his blunders and keeping him out of trouble. It was deep and wisping with darkness and smoke as the design on Hollen’s arm twisted into the shape of an eye.

“I did the eye next,” said George, stretching Hollen’s lips into a grin. “No one understood the humor in it then. By the time they did, it was too late.” His laugh turned dark.

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