Jake’s Silence

by Joy Blood

  “Fuck yeah,” I say when I pull away. “Love you, Key.” I then remember she is holding the ring and start to look around for it. Finding it, I take the box from her hand and pull the ring out to place it on her finger. It’s just a band with a single diamond embedded inside. Simple and elegant, just like her. My beautiful Kimi. My girl.

  And soon to be my wife.

  Epilogue

  Gin

  My face feels like it is on fire. The left side of my body blinds me with the pain, but I continue to crawl. Crawling through blood and piss. Crawling through the sea of bodies of my fallen brothers trying to get to the door. The one door I need to go through to get to the next. The one door where I will find her. It doesn’t matter how many times I crawl through these doors or how fast I go. I already know what I will find when I pull my bloodied body through.

  She will be there, lifeless, on our bed. The room will be painted in her blood, as will the sheets. The pain will get worse until it ultimately wakes me from this dream, but it won’t do so until I see her. Until I get to look down at her. How they left her to bleed out and die.

  I’m almost there, just a few more pulls with my arms and I make my way down the hall leaving a trail to follow. A trail leading to my woman. The door is in sight and before I reach it, I hear a voice calling my name. It stops me.

  This is new. I haven’t heard this voice in my dream before. She is never alive when I get to her. Could this be happening? Could I find her alive this time?

  I quicken my pace but the voice calls out again and I notice it is coming from behind me. Telling me to come back. “Gin. Come back. Please come back. I need you,” she says. Looking back down the long hallway I have already crawled through, I see it getting longer the farther I look, but I don’t see anyone. “Gin please,” she says again, but I shove it away. I need to get to Brit. She needs me. “She is gone Gin. I need you. I’m alive,” the voice says, making me stop again.

  “Where are you?” I shout, looking all over until my eyes land on her, as if she just appeared out of nowhere. Her. It’s her.

  Gasping for air I shoot up in my bed clutching at my face like I normally would. I can still feel the fire burning away my face and scalp. The smell of burnt hair lingering in my nostrils. “The fuck was that?” I say to the empty room. The dream isn’t unusual to me. I have it at least twice a week if I haven’t drunk myself into a stupor. Tonight, I went to bed stone cold sober. Big mistake. But I needed to keep a clear head. I couldn’t drown myself in the liquor anymore. I needed to stay alert.

  Maybe the responsibility of taking care of her is too much. Maybe I should ask someone else to take over. I can’t though. I made a promise and I intend to keep that promise, even if it kills me. Even if I want nothing more than to make her mine. But I can’t. Just fuckin’ can't. She is my best friend’s daughter and even if he is dead, I still can’t. It would be like spitting on his grave. No, I can’t.

  Grace is off limits.

  Thank you!

  A special thank you to Word Nerd Editing who did an amazing job making my scrambled words easier to read!

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