Page 82 of Set In Stone

Heat rose to my face, and I felt my fists clench. I couldn’t think. I couldn’tspeak.

So, Iacted.

I lunged at Hale, landing a well-aimed punch to the center of his face. I heard a crack of cartilage. Whether it was from my knuckles or his nose, it didn’t matter. Blood spurted immediately from his face, but I didn’t pause. I hit him again. He staggered back a step, but didn’t offer me a returnblow.

“Fight back, youbastard!”

I felt something, or perhaps someone, on my back. Krystina. Justine. My subconscious knew it was them pulling at my arms, but I just keptswinging.

And then I heard her voice. A voice I haven’t heard in over twenty years. It sounded exactly as I remembered, yet…different.

I stopped moving. My chest heaved and caused by breath to come out in rapid successions as I turnedaround.

“Mom,” Iwhispered.

She sat up in the bed and clutched her blanket to herchest.

“Do I know you?” sheasked.

“Alex!” Justine hissed. I slowly turned to look at her. “There are things you don’t know. Please, just play along or you’ll upsether.”

Confused, I looked back at my mother. She stared at me with a curious expression. I wanted to go to her. I wanted to tell her that I had somehow known she was alive and I never stopped looking for her. However, there was something about her gaze that made mepause.

It had been decades since she last saw me. She wouldn’t be able to recognize the man I had become. So instead of saying all the things I wanted to, I stepped up to her and extended myhand.

“I’mAlexander.”

I waited to see if she would remember, but she simply stared at my hand. It was as if she didn’t know what to do with it. To my astonishment, she didn’t shake it, but took hold of it and turned it around inhers.

“I thought you had a sweet treat for me,” she pouted. She pushed my hand away, pulled a stuffed rabbit out from under her pillow, and began fiddling with its floppyears.

My eyes widened in horror. A wave of nausea hit me and I wanted to vomit. Swallowing the bile in my throat, I turned to Justine. Tears were falling down hercheeks.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked so quietly, I may as well have mouthed thewords.

I heard Krystina clear her throat. I had almost forgotten she was there. When I looked at her, her face showed almost as much shock as Ifelt.

“Alex, why don’t you, Justine, and Hale go find a quiet place to talk. I can stay here with, um…with her,” she offered and pointed to where my mother sat in herbed.

I looked over at Hale who was standing quietly in the corner. His nose was bleeding and it appeared that I split open his bottom lip. However, he made no attempt to wipe the blood away. Instead, he stood there like a statue, his expressionstoic.

Fucking lyingbastard!

I tore my gaze from him and looked back atKrystina.

“No. I can’t…” I trailed off. I glanced at Justine, then down at mymother.

How long has Justine known she washere?

Anger and betrayal, painful levels that I never knew to be humanly possible, sliced through me. It was a burning pain that shredded though every inch of mybody.

And then, I feltnothing.

I recalled reading a study about how the human mind could effortlessly construct the feeling of being out of body, as if you were experiencing a scene from the outside looking in. I saw myself standing in a comfortable and tranquil room. My mother sat on the bed pretending to walk her stuffed rabbit back and forth on her lap, almost like a small child would. She was humming, as if she too were in another world. Other people stood around me – Justine, Hale, Krystina. All were staring at me in expectation, but I was unable to find the words to describe what I wasthinking.

“Alex,” I heard Krystina say. She sounded faraway.

Her hand touched my arm, pulling me back from the floating abyss and back into my body. I looked down at her hand, hoping to feel the familiar warmth that I always felt when she touched me. However, I was numb. And then it occurred to me, I couldn’t find the words I needed because there were no words to be said. I only knew that I couldn’t stay in that room anylonger.

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