Page 117 of Did They Break You

“It’s okay if you do. You remember what I told you, Remi.Some things are messy.”

The gunshot is still ringing in the aftermath.

Then a woman’s scream pierces the air.

My chest heaves.

I can’t breathe.

I close my eyes tight, trying to ride out the panic. To force it back. To breathe through it. But I can’t escape it. It claws at me, eating me alive from the inside. The scene shifts on the TV, but I can’t hear it.

I can only see the darkness. Feel my knees in the dirt. Hands all over me, grabbing me, pulling at me.

Chase is the worst of all.

“The fuck is wrong with you?”Cortland’s sharp words.

But he didn’t stop him.

Storm watched me.

My body was numb with Chase.

This isn’t happening to you.

You aren’t really here.

This is all a dream.

I’m on all fours and I should stand up.

I should stand up.

I should get up.

Get up.

Get up.

Get. Up.

But I don’t.

And I don’t stop them.

I don’t do anything.

A sound like a wounded animal claws its way up my throat, and I feel Cortland’s arms around me, but I’m trying to get away from him, trying to run.

Someone else’s hands find me, firm and strong around my back. I’m pulled into someone else’s lap, and I bury my head in someone else’s hard chest. The smell of leather.

Cortland is at my back, enveloping me in his scent, too, his arms tight around me. “Shh, baby,” he’s saying as I sob into Storm’s chest. “Shh, you’re okay. You’re okay, baby.”

“She needs to sleep,” Storm’s low words, rumbling against my ear. “She’s exhausted.”

But I barely register their words. In my mind, I’m walking into my house that morning. My head hurts, and my body hurts, and everything fucking… hurts.

There’s a lump in my throat. I close the door at my back. The house feels empty. The garage doors were closed, and I just parked outside of them.

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