Page 28 of Broken Fate
“No!” I shrieked pathetically as he scooped me up. My arms flailed wildly as I tried to go back to them. “Put me down! Put me down! Let me go! I did this. They’re dead! They’re all dead! They’re all dead. I killed them! Just let me die!”
Clive didn’t listen. He was bigger than me, stronger, and he used that advantage ruthlessly, picking my naked body up and slinging it over his shoulder. He carried me to the big window, and holding me with one hand, smashed it open. Without waiting for a moment longer, he jumped through it, taking us both from the inferno.
We hit the ground, rolling and bouncing hard from the awkward landing until we were on the edge of the long grass, nearly swallowed up by it.
“No!” Clive shouted as I got to my feet, trying to go back inside. “Jada, no. There’s nothing you can do.”
“Mommy,” I whimpered, an anguished sob shaking my core as I stared into the flames, wishing I could throw myself into them as if that would absolve me of the guilt that racked me.
Sensing my thoughts, Clive kept me pinned down by lying on me, using his weight to hold me in place. Preventing me from doing anything rash.
“I know,” he said, wrapping his arms up tight. “I know. I know. Come on. We have to move back.”
Consumed by grief, I let myself be led away from the fire that had killed my parents. Once we were a safe distance away, Clive forced me to sit, my body not responding, my mind numb.
My parents were dead. They were dead. They were dead. They were dead. I killed them just like I killed my sister.
“It’s me,” I whispered to nobody. “It’s because of me. They’re all dead because of me.”
“Jada,” Clive said, putting one hand around my shoulder. “Don’t do this.”
“Do what?” I asked, finally looking up. “I killed my entire family, Clive.Idid it. You should have left me in there.”
“And then I would be responsible foryourdeath,” he snarled angrily. “How the fuck do you think I would feel about that, hmm? Do you want to put that on other people?”
“I don’t know,” I muttered flatly. “I don’t know how you feel about anything anymore. I don’t know anything about you. If I ever did!”
Clive stood there unflinchingly as I hurled my grief at him in the form of anger.
“You lied to me,” I said.
He just stared at me. Letting me vent.
“You used me. Is this what you wanted, Clive? Is this why you wanted me involved in your rebellion?Is it?” I was screaming, pointing furiously at the flames that had been my parents and home.
“No,” Clive whispered, the words barely audible over the roar of the flames and the crashing wood as it split and burned. “No, it’s not.”
“Well, you fucking got it!” I shouted in his face, spittle flying everywhere.
A fresh wave of grief surged over me, and my legs lost their ability to support me. Clive was there in a flash, his arms underneath mine, helping me slowly to the ground. Then he held me, my back to his chest, as I sobbed.
“What have I done?” I choked out.
Clive didn’t respond. He just continued to hold me until my tears slowly subsided. My grief was far from gone, but for the moment, I was exhausted and numbed by it all. There was nothing more I could do except watch as the house slowly fell in on itself.
“Come on,” my best friend—former best friend?—said softly. “We have to go.”
“Go where?” I said. “Where can I go now, Clive? I don’t have anything.”
“You have us,” he said. “And we have togo.”
“Why?” My brain wasn’t functioning. What purpose did he see in us leaving? There was no point to anything anymore.
My parents were dead.
“Because,” he said, shaking me by the shoulders. “Do you really think he would send people here to kill your parents, burn the house, and then justleave?They’ll be coming for us, Jada.”
He?
