Page 61 of Relapse
You can’t hurt me.
Next thing I knew, I was snatched away by a pair of strong arms.
“Mason, stop.”
The spicy scent and suit jacket told me it was dad, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Lunging forward, I tried to break free of my dad’s hold. He tightened his grip and pulled me back against his chest.
“You need to calm him down, Louis.”
“No,” I screamed back at the deputy. I would not calm down. “You made Harper lie.”
She wouldn’t say that. Harper loved me.
My eyes swung over to the hospital room displayed on the TV.
Didn’t she?
Why would she say that? She knew I would do anything for her. I had done anything. The boogeyman came for her, and I let him take me instead.
Would she show you the same loyalty?
I looked at the beautiful face on the video as a sharp stab tore through my chest. The pain was so strong that not even the tears burning a trail down my cheeks could chase it away. She didn’t just say it, Harper looked right into the camera and lied. She looked right into my eyes and accused me of being a monster.
The boogeyman was right.
Looking up into comforting dark eyes, I sucked back a sob and pleaded, “Dad?”
“It’s alright, son,” he pulled me into him and smoothed his hand down my back. “We’ll figure this out.”
I buried my face in his chest and let the tears fall. He was wrong. Nothing would be alright ever again. The monster from my nightmares told the truth.
And the girl I loved lied…
My eyes landedon a brown bottle sitting on the bar in the corner of the parlor. It was in my hand before I could blink and I was swallowing a welcome mouthful of scotch. This was my refuge. The only thing I had to feel when I was lost in a drunken haze was numb. That’s usually how it went. Not this time. The smoky burn flowing down my throat was doing nothing to chase away the image I was staring at.
So, I drank more.
By the time I was on my second bottle it seemed to be working. I was stumbling around barely able to stand on my own two feet. Yet the faces displayed on the screen in my hand were just as vivid as the day the picture was taken.
I could feel the sun on my back and see Fin’s chubby little hands full of shimmering red hair. Every breath I took carried the scent of sand and water while her sweet voice thundered through my head.‘You better learn to like babies Mason Kessler, cause I want three.’
My fingers tightened around Harper’s phone. These children and their smiles were mocking me. I wanted to crush their happy faces and rid myself of what could’ve been. But no matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t do it. Even if it was all a lie, memories were all I had. And I still loved the little girl in this picture.
I sighed and dumped the rest of the bottle down my throat. That girl was gone now. Maybe she was never here? Maybe she’d only ever lived in my head? She was fierce and loyal. The kind of person that had no problem pushing my brother when he was being a dick. She never would’ve betrayed me.
My eyes drifted through the moonlit room to the form on the bed.
I had a better idea of how I got in this room than I did of who the girl sleeping in it was. Was Harper ever the person I thought she was? Or just a trickster sent to crush my soul?
“Would she show you the same loyalty?”
That’s what Ryker said when we first started oursessionsas he called them. I told him he could do whatever he wanted to me if he didn’t touch her. And what did he do? Questioned her loyalty and laughed like he’d just won a game. I could still hear that eerie chuckle. It followed me around, echoing in the background as I walked around Ashworth. It rang through my ears when I stepped in the ring and went to bed at night. I couldn’t escape that laugh.
Just like I couldn’t escape her.
That was the cruelest joke of all. After everything that sick fuck did to me, he was still right. And I was the dumb kid that he threw his innocence away.
I believed in our love so much that I managed to hold onto a piece of my soul. Ryker could put his hands on me. He could carve out as much pain from my young body as he wanted, but he’d never touch that part, because it was for her. And she took it. Harper tainted the last pure piece of me.
