Page 154 of Run Away Home: Tempered

I run down the stairs and try to help Peter up. Tristian pushes me away. My head bangs against the opposite wall. I slide down the steps and land at the very bottom. I push myself back up and lean against the door.

“Too late,” he says to me. “You already committed to this. You committed to this the moment you poisoned his coffee this morning.”

Peter looks directly at me. He’s still trying to catch his breath.

“I don’t want to be committed to this anymore!” I sob and cover my face with my hands. I claw at my own skin like I want to rip it off, free myself from my own body. “I’m done!”

Tristian pulls a wheezing Peter up by one wrist. He drags him up the stairs that way. Peter tries to use his other hand to claw at Tristian’s fingers, but Tristian doesn’t care. I hear Peter’s body hit each and every step. Tristian lets go of Peter’s arm once he reaches the top. He leaves him on the floor and walks away.

I crawl up the stairs on my hands and knees, but it’s like climbing a mountain. I’m dizzy as fuck. I don’t know if I’m really high, or if my head hit the wall too hard, or both. I don’t care. When I make it to the top of the steps, Peter is curled up into a ball, vomiting. Is that blood? I think that’s blood. I think he’s throwing up blood. Fuck!

Tristian

“PETER! PETER!” SHE’Son the floor with him now, holding him in between her legs. I knew she was a weak-minded bitch. Not like me. Once I’m in my zone, I’m in my zone...and I’m there.

I dig through my backpack and pull out my Bluetooth speaker. I shove it in the pocket of my sweatshirt, turn on my phone, and click shuffle on my playlist. I crank the volume up as loud as possible. Some heavy metal shit starts playing. That will work. Hayley normally has the TV blasting in here, anyway. I doubt the neighbors will think twice about it.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” she yells.

“HUH? CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

“TRISTIAN!”

I take the rope from my backpack. Now I’m ready.

I walk toward them. Hayley’s eyes look like they might pop out of her skull. She scoots backward on her ass, holding onto the little fuck.

“Tristian, no! Why do you have rope? What are you—? It wasn’t supposed to be like this!” She cries and cries.

“Nothing’s ever the way you expect it to be. That’s why you have to adapt.”

“Please, stop! Please leave him alone!”

She puts him down and lays on top of him, almost like they’re about to fuck or something. It only makes me angrier...but this is an easier position for me to rip her off of him, anyway.

I grab her by the waist. She’s stuck on him. I tear her off like Velcro.

“NO!”

She kicks me while I drag her toward the kitchen. She grabs onto anything she can. She’s clearly on his side now. I need to get her back on mine.

“It’s okay, Hals. It will be over soon, and then we’ll have the money to get a place of our own. You’ll never see me like this again. I’ll be the Tristian you know again, and we’ll have a set of keys of our very own.”

“What are you talking about? Keys? I don’t know you! I don’t know who you are!”

“Just calm down—”

“I can’t calm down. PETER!”

“Stop saying that asshole’s name, and let me take care of this. We’re almost done here.”

I push her toward the cabinets. I didn’t want it to come to this, but I’m going to have to tie her up. It’s the only way to get the job done.

“Hayley? Hals?” I snap my fingers in her face. She whimpers a little. Maybe the Oxys are finally kicking in. She doesn’t move. Guess I don’t have to tie her up, after all. This works too.

I go back over to ass-face. He’s still struggling to breathe, but he hasn’t moved from the spot where I left him.

“You know what she thinks of you?” I ask. “It’s actually a funny story. She’s the one that poisoned you, not me.” I kick him directly in the forehead. The back of his skull smashes into the corner of the wall. He doesn’t make a sound. “What else did she say about you...? Oh yeah! Big teeth, crooked nose. Let me help you with that.” I kick him in the nose.

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