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“It won’t be for long,” Bennett says with a smile as he takes a bite of his sandwich.
I swear he wants me to have a coronary. Right here.
My whole world is on fire and nothing is okay. I may not deserve happiness, and I may not deserve her, but can’t I pretend for just a while longer? I don’t expect God’s blessing, but Lucifer isn’t offering me a deal, either. And I would give him whatever he wants if I could have her.
My soul and eternal damnation in exchange for a single lifetime of her love.
But I can’t have that. I can have a few more hours, and then it’s over. I’d best make the most of it.
I turn to Kindra. “Do you want to go bowling?”
She lowers her sandwich. “Jim built a bowling alley on the island?”
“Not exactly. It’s only a little two-lane job crafted beachside. You use human heads as bowling balls and just chuck them down the lane at some limbs that have been stood in the sand. Jim’s macabre creation. To be fair, it’s more like bowling mixed with cornhole, but it’s a lot of fun and a good way to blow off some steam.”
“You haven’t even eaten yet,” she says as she motions to my empty plate.
Bennett chugs a beer to wash down the rest of his cholesterol sandwich, then begins making another one. “I don’t think he’s very hungry right now.”
“I’ll go,” she says through the last bite of her meal. “Sounds like a good time.”
I expected more of a fight from her, considering we usually have to pull her teeth to get her to join in. This is a pleasant surprise.
“I feel like I can actually enjoy myself now that I’ve learned the truth about my brother’s killer,” she adds, and my heart collapses in on itself like a dying star.
Bennett clears his throat, adding salt to a festering wound. I kick his ankle beneath the table and pray the next sandwich takes him out.
We say goodbye. Well, Kindra says goodbye to Bennett. I just walk away.
This isn’t what I pictured when I sought my brother all these years ago. I figured we’d share a brotherly connection and support each other, and for the most part, we have, but for someone with no moral compass, he appears to feel very strongly about my dishonesty. Or maybe it’s deeper.
Maybe Bennett is afraid he’s losing me.
Kindra and I head down the beach. My mind races with ways to keep my charade intact, but I’m running out of time. Regardless of Bennett’s reasoning, he’s determined to see Kindra and me separated by a monumental divide.
We reach a mound of severed heads and recognize some of them from the games we’ve participated in. Others have decayed past the point of recognition. Flies swarm the macabre pile.
Two lanes have been cordoned off with rope, and at the end, dismembered arms and legs poke from the sand. Metal rods have been driven into the flesh to keep the limbs upright. Rigor doesn’t last forever, after all.
I step toward the pile of heads and pluck one from the top. I choose a fresher one for Kindra so that the skin doesn’t slough away when she touches it.
I place the head in her hands, then motion down the lanes. “The goal is to pick up a head, toss it, and knock down as many pins as you can.”
Kindra studies the head, then decides to go for it. She sticks two fingers into the nose and one into the mouth. She steps toward the first lane, raises the head, then stops.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
She lowers the head and turns to face me with a shrug. “I’m not sure. You’ve hardly looked at me since we left the pavilion, and you were quiet on our walk down the beach. It feels like something is off. What changed?”
“Not a thing, pet. I promise. I’ve just been thinking about the hunt. That’s all.”
“I’m really excited about that. Now that everything is behind me, I feel so much better. Lighter. And it’s all because of you.” Kindra looks back at me with a smile as she grips the severed head and throws it down the lane, knocking six arms and legs onto their sides.
But with her words, she’s knocked everything out ofme.
All because of you.
Yes, her ten years of agony. Every tear she shed over her brother. Her struggle to connect with others because she’s lost her trust in humanity. All of that is because of me.
