Page 156 of Pretty Thing

But how can I breathe when she is my entire world? Without her, I cease being anything worthy.

Racing out into the living room, my eyes sting with tears when I spot the little turtles. I love her. Everything about her. Love is supposed to keep you safe. It anchors the two of us together so neither of us floats away in the turbulence of life ever again. We’ll always have each other.

I have to start thinking like Eden…what will she do?

She is a creature of comfort and habits. My first guess is Kris, but that seems too obvious. The police aren’t here kicking down my door, so she didn’t call them.

“Where did you go?”

My phone rings, and I nearly drop it in my haste to answer.

Unknown.

Normally, I ignore those, but since Eden doesn’t have her cell, I hit talk.

“Eden? Is that you?”

“No, but she has a real nice ass.”

The room spins.

No…it can’t be…he’s dead.

“You still there, son?”

My knees quake as my hand tightens on the phone.

“Father?”

“Ding, ding, ding. Give the boy a prize. He hasn’t forgotten his old man’s voice.”

“You’re supposed to be dead. The police said that the transport bus burned.”

“Apparently, God saw fit to spare my life.”

“I don’t think that was God,” I snap back, the anger in me burning hotter by the second.

“You’ve got a smartass mouth on you now, don’t you? What does he win for mouthing off to his father? I know…”

My heart thumps as loud as his feet do when he walks. But then it goes completely still when I hear a squeal that I’d know anywhere.

“Let go of me,” Eden growls.

Fear like I’ve never experienced grips me by the throat and squeezes. I want to yell at her to lie still and not fight back. He likes it more when someone fights him. But, I also want her to claw his eyes out.

My body trembles as ice water runs through my veins.

“Give your boyfriend a little hello, let him know you’re alive, would ya?”

“Fuck you.”

He laughs, that sickening sound that haunts my nightmares. He loved to laugh when he hit me, locked me up, and made me watch him destroy everything I loved.

“That will do,” Father says.

Then Eden’s voice becomes muffled, and I know he’s gagged her. I know that sound too. Mom sounded like that when he gagged her and raped her all night but didn’t want the neighbors to call the cops.

“What the hell do you want?”