by Ryan Casey
He felt blood oozing through his fingers. His light-headedness was peaking. He tried to scream out for help, but he was too weak. His body was going cold. Everything around him was getting darker and darker…
He felt tears roll down his face when he thought about how he’d done things, and how things could’ve been different.
He felt those tears touch his lips, and he thought of the life he had before.
“Forgive me, Bethany,” he said. “Forgive me, love.”
He closed his eyes and lay there in the dark as the rain fell down heavily on the caravan roof, and he fell to sleep to dreams of soft music, and laughter, and happiness.
But all the good stuff was haunted by a spectre of guilt…
And that spectre came along, loomed over him with terrifying scale, and before Phillip could scream… darkness won the battle, and he fell to sleep.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
I stood with Holly by my right side and Lionel by my left and looked at the road ahead.
It was morning. The sun hadn’t long ago risen. Last night had been difficult. We’d slept rough in the woods. We’d made sure we got as far from Phillip’s camp as we could to avoid any potential fallout. Truthfully, I knew that nobody from that camp would come after me. It was Phillip who had the vendetta.
I’d leave them to tear themselves apart, now.
I was standing at the same spot I’d stood just a day ago, when I’d debated whether to go back for Holly, Lionel and Haz—God bless him—or to walk on to the sanctuary. I knew the dangers of the road ahead. I knew Mike and his people were still out there, heading in that direction themselves. And I knew that beyond Mike, there were even more dangerous things waiting for us just out of sight.
But I had to be willing to push myself. Not just for me, but for the little girl by my side. The little girl I’d sworn to stand by and protect, no matter what.
And that’s exactly what I was going to do.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we had, like, a pogo stick or something?”
I looked at Holly and I smirked. “A pogo stick?”
She tilted her head to one side, like she was planning ahead. “It would be more fun than walking.”
“You’re probably right. But what about Lionel? He can’t pogo stick, can he?”
“Unless they do pogo sticks for dogs.”
I smiled and shook my head. “I guess we’ll just have to find out.”
There was silence, then. And I knew at that moment that I was going to have to be completely straight with Holly about what we were doing, where we were going.
“Holly, I… I can’t promise the road ahead’s going to be an easy one, sweetheart. I can’t promise that there won’t be scary things we have to face up to. There’s going to be days where we don’t eat, days where we don’t drink and days where we think everything’s lost. But I can promise you one thing. I’m going to do everything I can to get you to safety. Do you trust me?”
She looked at me for a few seconds, like she was weighing up whether or not she trusted me. “Will there be other children at the safe place we’re going?”
I smiled back at her. “Probably, Holly. But—”
“Then I trust you,” she said.
She smiled up at me, then she held out her hand.
I looked at her hand and I knew that if I took it, I’d be taking on the biggest responsibility I’d ever had. And that naive part inside me still begged me not to. It told me that I didn’t need responsibilities, and I especially didn’t need to bond with anyone because bonding just brought trouble and loss.
But that voice was quiet, now.
I looked over at Lionel, who looked eager to continue our journey.
Then I looked at the road ahead, as the sun rose above the horizon, last night’s storm nothing more than a memory.
I looked back at Holly.
Then I took her hand in mine and felt all my resistance slipping away.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
Holly nodded. “Ready.”
I looked at the road ahead, and wondered what it held for me. I wondered what kind of a future hid around the corner, behind the trees, and in the villages and towns we would come across.
But for now, I could only worry about the next step I had to take.
And then the next.
And then the next.
I took a deep breath.
I looked down the road and readied myself, hand tightening around Holly’s.
“Let’s go,” I said.
And together, we took our first steps into the rising sun.
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any reference to real locations is only for atmospheric effect, and in no way truly represents those locations.
Copyright © 2017 by Ryan Casey
Cover design by Damonza
All rights reserved.
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Published by Higher Bank Books