Maya (Book #3)

Chapter 33

I asked to go outside alone when our conversation ended. I needed to get some air and escape the sad energy that hovered around my family. I slipped out the glass door to the backyard with my blanket still wrapped around me.

The string lights beside the house were bright, but the area by the pool was dark. I crossed the grass to head over to the edge, before dipping my feet in. It was freezing, but the cold was welcome. I looked around the backyard with boredom, before feeling a prickling on my neck. I spun to see the curtains against the glass door fall, as Dominic pulled his head away from the window.

I smiled as I faced the front again. An icy breeze blew by, chilling my cheeks and neck. I pulled the blanket higher up, wishing I could feel nothing. I used to be so good at slipping into numbness, and now it was near impossible. I closed my eyes and saw my uncle exactly as I had described him to Dominic.

He smiled in my vision, and I shivered. It had nothing to do with the cold. I saw his hand coming at me in a fist and felt the pain as it used to appear in my body, blossoming in every corner. I saw his fingers sliding toward me under the cover of my sheets as I tried to sleep. I saw his eyes rake my body like sharp nails, capturing every part of my youth in his memory, as I tried to outrun it.

I fell back on the ground, bringing my feet out of the water and letting them dry on the concrete beside me.

"I hate you," I whispered to the monster in my mind, as I stared up at the stars. "I hate you more than anything," I said before the anger dissipated. I never seemed to be able to hold onto it for long.

I waited for an answer from the image I had in my mind, but he just looked at me.

I heard a noise from the trees behind our house and I stood up immediately, running back inside and locking the door behind me. I ran to Dominic and tried to act casual. His lips twitched into a smirk as if he knew what I was doing, and he wrapped an arm around me.

I looked at it as he pulled me close and compared it to my uncles in my mind. Yeah. Dominic was stronger, even if I wasn't yet.