Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
“You’re not ready to be anyone’s mother, Ms. Kim. Come back when you get your life together.”
And she’d be right.
Pushing that lump way down, I started the car, plugged my own charger and phone into the port, and then set off—resuming my silent game as Sue’s laughter filled my ears.
WELCOME TO LANTANA: The Only Thing Nicer Than The Scenery Is The People
I blew past the welcome sign, officially entering the town limits of the only place I’d known for eighteen years.
Night chased the sun over the horizon, blanketing the world in an inky, shining duvet.
Sue had long since tired herself out from her nonstop self-congratulating and fell asleep, her head resting on the window. The peace and quiet was almost meditative—allowing my anxious, irritated mind to relax, and imagine the scene waiting for me at home.
I wasn’t kidding when I first dismissed Sue’s news, not believing that my mother was dying. Wasn’t it just an eerie fact of life that spiteful, cruel people got to live forever while those who tried to be good struggled on to a miserable end?
No? Okay, maybe that’s too cynical, but I did always believe my mother’s stubbornness would outlast my life. I would die before ever getting her to see the truth. I believed it, and now here I was... going home.
I halted at the stop sign, looking up and down the three-way stretch of road cutting through the dark and shifting forest. On one side was more forest, but on the other were the cliffs, and the sea.
What do I say to her when I see her? I turned right, taking the final street that spilled out onto the Kim Estate’s private road. Do I bring up the past? Do I ask if she finally believes that I had nothing to do with that evil prank?
I sped along the natural bend in the road.
Or do I just thank her for making a real gesture and welcoming me bac—
A deer shot through the trees, racing out onto the street.
“Ahhh!” I slammed on the brakes.
Bang!
The last thing I saw before the deer’s body flew to meet me, was the steering wheel rising to meet me first.
Chapter Three
Ring, ring, ring.
Ring, ring, ring.
A heavy, crusted lid peeled open, letting in the darkness.
Ring, ring, ring.
Discordant jangling rattled in my pounding brain, dragging me groaning out of the fog.
Slowly, achingly, I scraped myself off the steering wheel—flopping back onto the seat.
Ring, ring, ri—
The noise finally stopped, allowing silence to give way to the screaming in my head.
“Aghh.” A shaky hand rose to my temple.
It came away tacky with blood.
“S-Sue?” I croaked. I blinked through the blood, straining to see through the dark, dark, and more crushing dark. “Sue? Are... you o-okay?”
The noise started up again, making me cry out.
Cellphone, my sluggish brain supplied. It’s my phone. Call for help.
“Need help—” I turned my head, and screamed.
Wide, unseeing eyes stared at me through a red mask... even though her body faced the other way.
“Ahhhh! Ahhhhhhhhh!” I shoved against the car door, screaming, pounding, and pulling until the latch popped free—spilling me out onto the forest floor. I crawled a single inch before showering the dirt in gas station potato chips and diet soda. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” I cried, crawling farther still.
Sue’s eyes followed me the whole way.
Sobs wretched my throat. I cut ever more slices into my skin, clutching my face with clawing hands.
Sue was dead.
I didn’t need to check. I didn’t need to question. No one survived after gaining the sudden and tragic ability to tap their spine with their chin.
“Oh my God. Oh my God!” I screeched, screaming into the forest. She was sleeping. She couldn’t brace herself. Protect her head. She had no chance.
She had no chance at all.
I threw myself back, pounding the leaves and twigs—screaming myself hoarse.
How often I wished that bitch would get what was coming to her, but not this. NOT THIS!
“Oh, God, no,” I cried. “Why? Why n-now? Why like this? Why me! How much can you shit on me in one day! How much?!”
My raw, strangled throat gave out, but shrieking raged on in my head.
How could this happen? I was so close—so close. And now I had to go back to my dying mother... and tell her I killed her eldest daughter.
Loud, hiccupping cries heaved my chest—shredding the last flicker of hope in my soul. Nothing could ever be the same again.
The person I entered the world with—the one whose soul shared mine until nature tore us in two—she was gone. And the only thing that was certain now was that my life could change, it could even improve. But it would never be whole.
Ring, ring, ring!
“Fuck’s sake.” I shoved up, tearing across the ground. “What do you want!?” I snatched up the phone, reading Satan clear and shining on the screen. “Ugh! Fuck off, Dan!”