Chapter 9-2
257 Words
“Evan.”
He turned at Anne’s voice, sinking back to sit on his own heels. She was as red and sweaty and overheated as he’d been a few minutes ago, and she was crying again.
“You knew about this?” he whispered, looking back into his mother’s eyes.
“I saw…I saw this. Right now. I remembered seeing you beside her. I didn’t know what to do.”
“When?” Evan wondered at the blood on his palms, still not feeling the cuts. “When did you see it?”
“When I told you.” Anne knelt beside him, avoiding the broken cup. “Not until then.”
Evan looked up at her, into her lovely green eyes. She was shaking her head and crying harder.
“I couldn’t stop it, it was too late, your mom, I mean, but I thought if I could stop you from coming home, it wouldn’t hurt you so bad. I couldn’t let this be even worse.”
“Hurt me.” Evan couldn’t understand her words or his. He stared at his hands again.
“I’m sorry, Evan, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t make it stop.”
He turned back to Anne, his movements and his thinking painful and sluggish.
Something. He had to do something.
His mother was…
His mom, she was…
“Be careful.” Anne held out her hands. “You’re going to cut yourself.”
“My mom,” Evan whispered, unable to find any other words. “My mom.”
“I know, Evan. I’m so sorry.”
Evan finally moved, crawling toward Anne, desperate to get to her before something inside of him broke.
He could feel it, a dam overflowing and cracking down the middle, failing to hold back a torrent that would drown everything and everybody in its path.
He grabbed her around the waist and held on for dear life, wondering if he would still exist after the flood.
- Writer
