Page 116 of Releasing 10
He offered me a clipped nod. “I’ve never hated anyone before, but I truly hate him.”
“Can you keep a secret?” I whispered, feeling nervous.
Gibsie’s eyes were wary, but his head was nodding slowly, as he walked over to my bed and sat down next to me. “I’ll keep your secret, Lizzie.”
“You swear?”
Another noble nod. “Pinky promise.”
Hooking my pinky finger through his, I turned and gave him my full attention. “I think I hate him, too.”
The moment the words were out of my mouth, I started to shake. “I’m sorry,” I was quick to blurt. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
Not out loud at least.
“It’s okay,” he replied, reaching for my hand. “It’s okay, Liz.”
It wasn’t okay.
Because if he found out…
Breathing hard and fast, I tried to concentrate on Gibsie’s face and not the voices growing louder in my head.
I didn’t want the monster to come out now.
Not during the daytime.
My friend sat with me for a long time, eyes locked on mine, before he finally spoke. “Has he hurt you?”
“Who?”
“Mark.”
I thought about it for a long time before shaking my head.
“Are you sure?”
Was I?
I used to think so, but not anymore. It was the monster in my dreams all along, not Mark. The monster got me at night when I was sleeping, but the doctors said he wasn’t real. But my sister? He definitely got her.
Leaning close, I whispered in his ear, “He hurts Caoimhe.” And then I pointed to my bed for good measure to emphasize what I was trying to tell him. “He does things to her.”
His entire body stiffened. “What kind of things?”
“Bad things,” I whispered, remembering it vividly. What I’d seen. In the dark of the night when I was supposed to be sleeping. Her cries. The sadness. The pain in my heart. “He takes off all her clothes, and then he makes growling sounds when he holds her down on the bed. He pushes the hard thing inside her and she cries, Gibs. She cries so hard, but he always covers her mouth with his hand and keeps poking her until she stops crying. And then, when he stops wrestling her, when the white stuff comes out, he gets out of her bed and goes back to…he goes downstairs for a drink.”
Gibsie reached up and wiped a tear from his cheek. “He’s bad, Liz. He does it at my house, too.”
My eyes widened in horror. “To Caoimhe when she sleeps over?”
Gibsie paused for a moment before closing his eyes and nodding.
“I want him to go away,” I admitted, scurrying closer to him, as I admitted my thoughts for the first time out loud. “I don’t like when he’s in my house.” Shivering, I added, “I want him to go away andnevercome back.”
“Me, too,” he whispered, turning his shiny, gray eyes back on me.
“I haven’t told anyone else,” I whispered. “Not even Hugh.”
