Cruel Boundaries (13 page)

Chapter Forty-Six

Amy~

I’m halfway with the book I’m writing. It’s not exactly a book, but more just me scribbling all my thoughts down. With every word I feel the pressure in me gets lighter.

I close my laptop and grab my bag. I’m meeting Noah at my parents place. He’ll go there straight after work, so I’m heading over a bit early so I can catch up with Momma.

When I walk in I yell, “Momma? Where are you?”

She pops her head around the corner that leads to the kitchen, “In here, Angel. Come sit by me.”

When I walk in, Momma’s busy loading a pie into the oven.

“Yummy, that one’s mine right? Y’all have your own pie.”

She laughs and it sounds good. With everything that’s happened I haven’t seen Momma smile much.

She pours us each a glass of wine. “Don’t tell your dad,” she says as she hands me mine. I always sneak in a glass with her.

“How are you feeling?” she asks, trying to get a peek at my back.

I shrug away from her. “I’m fine, Momma. Don’t do that. It really doesn’t bother me that much anymore. Noah puts on that oil for me, so it will heal nicely.”

She takes a sip of her wine and then asks, “So are you and Noah happy?

I nod, and I can’t keep back the smile. “I love him. I love him so much. I really can’t imagine my life without him.”

“I’m happy for you, Angel.”

“Me too,” I whisper, really feeling happy, “Noah is the man for me.”

Noah has become my everything. He’s super protective of me but I can understand why. I’m just as protective over him. We make the perfect couple, because we understand each other.

I’ve taken his advice, about just being me, and being happy. I tell myself that’s all that matters every single day. Sometimes a doubt will crawl in, but Noah is quick to ease them away with constant reminders that he loves me.

We are far from over what happened, and it will take some time still. All that matters is that I have Noah.

~*~

Chapter Forty-Seven

Noah~

It’s been one hell of a day. I’m leaving work when I find a woman leaning against my car. She looks so familiar, but I just can’t place her. She tucks some of her jet black hair behind her ear and pushes herself off of my car.

“Can I help you?” I ask, in a hurry to get home to Amy. Tonight I’m proposing to her. I’m not waiting months. I want her in my life forever. I want her as my wife.

“No, but I’m here to help you,” the woman says, her voice is much harsher than I expected. “I’m Bridget, but my friends call me Birdie.” She reaches her hand out to me and I just stare at it.

“Look, I’m not-” I start to say but she cuts in.

“I’m your sister.” She just says it, just like that. I stare at her, not sure I heard her right. “Actually, we’re twins.” That’s another shock.

She looked familiar, because she looks like me. She has the same black hair, same green eyes. She is the female version of me. “I’m not looking for a huge brother-sister reunion. I’m just here to warn you that our father is being released from jail, and he will come looking for you.”

“I don’t even know who he is! Why would he come looking for me? How did you find me?” This whole scenario is just too confusing.

“He has his ways. In his last letter he said he’d be visiting you for money, seeing as he wasn’t getting any for me.”

“This is all a bit sudden. How did you find me?” I ask again.

A man walks up to us, his whole body and the way he holds himself screams danger. He reaches his hand out to me and then says, “I’m Cole. I’m a friend of your sister’s. I helped her track you down. It’s best you listen to her, we have a file on that asshole in the car. You can look through it so you know what to expect once he’s released. He is one fucked son-of-a-bitch that should never see the light of day, if you ask my opinion.”

~*~

To be continued in Twisted Boundaries…

See where it all ends with …

Twisted Boundaries

Prologue

Birdie~

There are different shades to black. There’s your normal black, then there is the kind where it’s so dark you see spots.

It’s so dark you see things children shouldn’t see.

It’s so dark you see the Bogeyman.

It’s the one your daddy whispers about through the door. “Here comes the Bogeyman. The Bogeyman’s coming to get you.”

It’s so dark you see fear in every speck of dust.

And then you smell it when you wet yourself. You feel it when it gets cold, because you’re standing in your own pee, and there’s nothing you can do about it because you’re locked in the closet.

You smell fear. You smell it in the stench around you when the hours become months.

You taste the fear in your tears, you hear it when your stomach growls for food.

The Bogeyman is real.

The Bogeyman is my daddy.

He only listens to one song. The man plays guitar, plucking the strings hard, as hard as the Bogeyman drinks. He sings about skeletons in the closet and the Bogeyman sings with him.

“I’ve got a skeleton in the closet and she ain’t ever coming out,” he sings loud, but sometimes he’ll stand in front of the closet and he’ll whisper, those are the days I believe him. “I’ve got a skeleton in the closet and she ain’t ever coming out.”

~*~

Chapter One

Birdie~

Living in Lyman, there’s not much to do on a Saturday night. Some of the seniors at my high school decided we should all get together at the lake. Our senior year is over and it’s just another excuse to make out, and get drunk. Reece and Link dragged my butt out here to the lake. The lake is the last thing I want to see, especially at night.

Too much water and darkness: two things I fear with an ungodly fear. 

Facing only one of those at a time is terrifying enough, but both at the same time is so overwhelming.

It has only been five years since I’ve moved to Lyman. Five years since I’ve stepped out of the darkness.

I still can’t think of my life before Lyman, because I’m sucked right back to that horrible time. The anxiety builds slowly, taking on different shades black and pulling me under, until there’s nothing left of me but the skeleton, the terror.

I was placed with Pastor Beasley and his family. That’s where I met Link. He’s a foster kid, as well.

When we graduated Pastor Beasley told us life is full of pebbles. You pick up pebbles along the way; some might be smooth, some rough around the edges - it doesn’t matter what they look like – it only matters what you do with them. Pastor Beasley believes we all throw our pebbles into the same lake and the ripples we make affect the ripples of other people. Some people’s pebbles skid over the water and they have a smooth life. Other people’s pebbles sink, and they don’t get to live that long. Then there are those – like ours, he says we have to ride the ripples together and nudge each other ripples along, safely to the other side of the shore.

I’m thinking about those words Pastor Beasley told me as Link drives us out to the lake.

~*~

I’m staring at the fire some of the guys just made. I’m trying really hard to ignore the night creeping in around me, when Wyatt Holden comes and sits next to me. I wrap my arms tighter around myself, trying to make myself smaller than the five foot three inches I already am. I had a five inch growing spurt over the past three years, but the doctors said I will always be small, because of what happened. I’ll always have the scars, too.

So when boys like Wyatt sits down next to me, I feel dwarfed. Wyatt is a year younger than me and he towers head and shoulders into the stars. He’s brother Aiden and cousin Cole are even taller, they’re a different kind of breed altogether.

There’s something about the way they all carry themselves. Every girl is head over heels for a Holden brother, or Cole Trenton. Those boys just have that something that makes them stand out from a crowd. Then there’s Trend Mason, to round of the equation. Cole and Trend are best friends, every girl’s dream team.

Cole is the one I spent my nights dreaming about. My stomach does this weird flip thing every time I see him. Maybe it’s because he’s the quiet one out of the four. His icy blue eyes have a way of looking right through you. They are the lightest shade of blue. I always avoid making eye contact with him. I’m scared of what he’ll see if he looks at me.

I’ve had a crush on him since the first day he helped me open my locker.  Our senior year has come to an end and there won’t be any more days were he can help me with my locker. My heart feels heavy as I stare at the flames licking at the darkness.

~*~

So next to me sits Wyatt Holden, a boy that can have any girl’s attention. I’ve never talked to him. I just like to keep to myself. I’m scared someone will ask questions I can never answer, if I let them get close.

“Hey, Birdie, you having fun?” he asks, surprising me that he knows my name.

Tongue tied I can only sit stunned. A Holden brother is actually talking to me? I can feel him looking at me, but I just can’t bring myself to glance back at him. Being near one of the elite four makes my brain go into near shut down mode.

“Great time,” I manage to squeeze the two words out. Feeling nervous, I tug at my sleeves, pulling them over my hands. I wrap my arms around myself, hoping he’ll stop talking to me now.

“You like to swim?” he asks. 

A shiver runs through my body. Actually, it feels more like a jolt of electricity has hit me. I glance up at Wyatt, frowning. Were Cole is the serious and quiet one Wyatt is the joker of the four, known for his pranks. I wonder what he’s up to.

Fear grabs hold of my chest just because Wyatt mentioned the word
swim
.  I hardly have time to shake my head in answer to his question, when he grabs hold of me.

His hands dig hard into my hips as he pulls me up. I try to yank free from his grasp, but he is twice my size and so much stronger. He yanks me up into his arms as if I’m nothing. The light of the fire is blocked out by his huge frame, as he carries me into the darkness.

At first I’m overwhelmed by the mere fact that I’m in Wyatt’s arms, but then he starts to run with me right into the inky black of the night. Panic grips at my chest as he keeps running away from the fire.

From behind us someone shouts, “Dunk her!”

I grab hold of Wyatt as people start to cheer all around us. “Dunk her!”

Soon my ears are ringing with the words as they all chant, “Dunk her, dunk her, dunk her.”

Wyatt starts to laugh and runs faster, jostling my body in his arms. “Wyatt,” I choke on his name as I peer into the darkness. The lake’s flat surface glimmers only a few feet away. My body goes ice cold and I feel the old familiar shivers start deep in my belly. They are going to pull me down! My breathing speeds up with each step he runs until I’m gasping for air.

The darkness closes in on me, until I see nothing but the different shades of black, and then there’s nothing when I hear the splashing of the water. There’s nothing left but it – the skeleton.

~*~

I want scream and beg him to stop, but it feels as if terror is trying to claw the flesh from my bones. I feel the wetness of the water claim me, and then the horror swallows me all over again. I can’t suck in any air! I’m back in the closet. I can feel the hunger gnawing at my insides while I stand barefoot in my own urine.

I’m too scared to move.

I’m too scared to make a sound.

I can hear the song about the skeleton echoing in my mind long after it stopped playing. I can hear him whispering, “
I’ve got a skeleton in the closet and she ain’t ever coming out.”
 

I believe him with every beat of my heart. His voice becomes the very darkness that surrounds me! He is the Bogeyman. He is what my nightmares are made of. He comes at night to sing me those words through the closet door.

Flashbacks paralyze me, letting the water suck me under.

Something hooks around my waist and I’m yanked up. It keeps yanking at me until my head breaks through the surface of the water back into the dark night. I start to cough, horrible burning coughs. It feels like my body is on fire from the inside out. It feels like it’s happening all over again. I’m eight all over again, living the nightmare that will never end.

Someone drags me out of the water and then arms circle me, caging me against a hard chest. Fear shudders through me! Not again, please not again!

I choke on a whimper, waiting for hands to grab at me. I wait for more pain but all that comes is confusion. Whoever is holding me is rubbing warmth into my back, not ripping the clothes from my body.

“Wyatt, you’re such a dumbass!” The person yells, scaring me halfway to death. “You could’ve drowned her!”

I can’t control the shaking, the fear pulsing through me. I yank free from whoever has me and scramble backwards. A wounded sound slips from my trembling lips. I pinch my eyes closed, so tightly so all I can see are the tiny dots. It’s something to focus on.

“Bridget?” a voice breaks through the terror. “It’s okay.” The confusion in the voice forces me to open my eyes, and I look right into Cole’s icy eyes. Shit! The one moment I freak out and it has to be Cole who sees it?

He reaches out to me, and when he sees I’m not freaking out anymore, he slips an arm around my shoulders. Only then do I notice the water dripping from his face and his wet clothes. Cole was the one that pulled me out?

“Bridget, I’m sorry for what Wyatt did. Are you okay?” he whispers as he sits down next to me.

I drag in a deep breath of air and start to cough again, my lungs still on fire. Tears flood my eyes and my vision blurs. Cole starts to rub my back again and for the first time in a really long time I welcome someone’s touch.

I let someone hold me for the first time in five years.

I let Cole Trenton rub my back with only a wet shirt between his hand and the scars, and it hurts deep inside, because I know no man would ever want to touch me if they could see the scars.

“Come on, I have a towel back at my truck,” he says, and then his arm draws me close to his chest and he stands up with me. He tucks me under his arm as he steers me away from the water, and towards the lights of the parking area.

I feel his body heat through the wet clothes, warming me. It was dawning on me that Cole was holding me. The only boy I’ve ever had a crush on, was holding me.

Cole guides me to the back of his truck. He slams down the tailgate and then his hands go around my waist and he lifts me to sit on the back of his truck. 

“Be right back,” he says and I’m relieved when he walks to the passenger side, it gives me a moment to calm my racing heart and gather my thoughts.

He comes back with his gym bag, smiling the Holden’s family trademark smile.

“I have a dry shirt that I always keep for after practice,” he whispers the words carefully, standing a few inches from me, as if he’s scared that I will run. It’s actually a bit funny. Cole Trenton isn’t known to be scared of anything.

Link said that he had heard that Cole and Trend was joining the Navy. I cried the night Link told me. This town is going to be a ghost town without Cole here.

He just offered me his shirt, and is holding it out to me. My heart starts to pound faster. It not that I’m scared of Cole, not at all. I just don’t want him to see what I myself can’t even look at.

Cole smiles, places the shirt next to me and starts to walk away. “I’ll wait on the other side of the truck while you change.” 

I look down at the washed out, blue shirt I’ve seen him wearing before. Cole Trenton’s shirt! It’s all a bit dreamlike that he’s talking to me, helping me, and being so gentle with me. 

I glance over my shoulder to make sure he’s not looking. I can see the width of his shoulders stretching his shirt across his back, as he stands with his arms crossed, starting at the ground.

I slip off the truck and quickly peel the wet shirt off. I rush to pull Cole’s shirt over my head, and his musky scent engulfs me. I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with his scent, before tucking my left arm through the sleeve. It’s only when I slip my right arm through the sleeve that I realize my mistake. My scars are showing. Cole is going to see the scars!

They draw my eyes like a magnet. The skin is still pink like cherry-pop flavor bubblegum, chewed and stretched, and stringy.

Panic wells up so fast, scorching through me. For the first time in my life I’m glad for the darkness covering me. My heart pounds in my head, making it hard for me to think clearly.

“Bridget, you okay back there?” Cole calls, and it makes a blast of anxiety crash over me.

I don’t know what to do! I only know I don’t want him to see it.

I hear his shoes crunch in the gravel and for a moment I think of running. I grab the shirt and start to pull it off when I hear a gasp behind me. I swing around and seeing the look of horror on Trend’s face is a hard blow to my already frail nerves. I didn’t even notice Trend! How long he has he been standing there?

My breathing speeds up until I can hear it.

I really thought I died that night. When they found me, I thought the policeman was an angel. The pain only lasted a few seconds before my body went numb. But then I woke up in hospital, Everyone looked at me with horror and pity, just like Trend is looking at me now.

“Please, don’t look.” The words are hoarse, and they don’t help, because he’s still staring at me.

Anxiety claws its way up my spine, settling deep in my chest. 

“What happened to you?” Trend finally manages a few words.

Cole wraps a towel around me, and keeping his arms around me, he snaps, “Back off, Trend!”

He pulls me in the direction of the passenger side, forcing me to stop looking at Trend. “Let me take you home.”

I get in, clinging tightly to the towel. I can hear Trend asking Cole something. I don’t want to know what it is!

I keep my head down, my eyes on a piece of the carpet tearing up in the corner by my feet. I feel the truck dip as Cole gets in, and when he doesn’t start the engine immediately, my stomach bunches nervously.

“Let’s get you home,” he says. His tone is light as if we’re old friends.

I lift my chin and clearing my throat, I attempt to save the little pride I have left. “Thank you.”

He smiles and then starts the truck. I only realize I didn’t give him my address when he pulls into my driveway. The tough that Cole knows where I live brings a smile to my face.