Page 115 of Inevitable Destruction

EVERETT

“Masterpiece”—Motionless In White

Redand blue lights flash behind me, reflecting in the rain coating the black road. My tires slice through, shattering the spectrum as it dances across the pavement.

Next, the sirens wail, the sound blaring over the rumble of my bike as I gain speed, hitting the throttle until my bike lurches under me.

I blink, disoriented, the blurred night around me morphing into one of stillness.

My heart hammers, my body shaking uncontrollably.

Pain.

“Rhett, you dumbass!” Jamie huffs as she runs over to me. Her small arms cup under my armpits as she hauls me to my feet, dragging me backwards as I stumble.

Once I’m stuffed into the passenger seat of the cruiser, Jamie slams her hands on the steering wheel with a scream of irritation. “You could’ve fucking died, and then what, Everett? God, you’re so fucking stupid sometimes.”

I glance out the windshield, seeing my bike on its side. Mud covers my hands, and my right side, but other than that, I’m fine.

“If I ever catch you riding, or fucking driving when I can smell the vodka leaking from your pores, I will personally throw you in a goddamn cell, you hear me?”

I don’t say a word as she pulls away from the curb, punching numbers on her cell. It rings through the Bluetooth—Johnson’s voice sounding on the other end when the ringing stops.

“I need you to get Rhett’s bike. It’s on Mortenson Road, just past mile marker 221, heading north.”

“Sure thing,” he replies before hanging up.

“He’s not driving my fucking bike,” I grumble. “The prick is fucking stupid and will probably wreck it.”

“No, Rhett. That was what you did. Now shut the fuck up and let me drive.”

Jamie seems to be driving slower than an eighty-year-old woman, but every time my eyes dart to the speedometer, it shows the same speed as before. My teeth grind together as I clench my jaw to the point the jawbone creaks under the pressure, sending shockwaves up my nape.

Rain dots the windshield. The wipers make them disappear before more pop back up in their wake. My eyes fall to the window. Trees, buildings, and lights blur on the other side.

The car jolts as Jamie drives over the lip of the emergency entrance to the hospital. Before the wheels stop moving, I’m out of the car and through the sliding double doors. Sweat trickles down my brow, burning my eyes. I swipe at the liquid, instead rubbing it in and making the sting worse.

“Rhett!” Jamie calls behind me, and I whirl around the chaos surrounding me.

Or maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m the chaos.

Doctors and nurses dart around the large, open room. Beds line the walls, some occupied, most not. Antiseptic burns my nostrils as I suck in deep breaths through my nose, the air suddenly feeling too thin. Not enough.

“Sir, you can’t be back here,” a woman in a white coat walks up to me, papers in her hand.

“I’m looking—”

“He’s with me,” Jamie cuts me off, and the doctor’s gaze shifts to her. She nods her head and goes about her day, leaving us. Jamie keeps a tight hold on the back of my shirt as she pulls me through the room and through more double doors. We enter a long hallway where we take a left.

I remember blinking, the hardness of the floor under my soles, the fluorescent light blaring down from above, the pregnant silence amongst the standard noise, the biting chill to the air as it ghosts over my flesh like a death sentence.

I remember every step I took towards him, my ankles shackled, a chain wrapped around my heart, connecting me to him.

I felt it before, the tether infused inside of us, keeping us together. But in this moment, I’ve never felt anything more prominent, more demanding.

“Hi, my name’s Officer Knoxx. I’m looking for Dominik Reed’s room.”

“And for what reason?”

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