Diary of the Unbroken (BOOK #4)

Through My Fingers

Jane 

           The house stood in a fit of chaos throughout the night. By sunrise, the action had died down. I stood on the front porch, downing an unnecessary cup of black coffee, staring out at the glowing sky. A sky that knew nothing of the horrors that awaited. A sky that would remain unchanged.

A million sunrises, and nothing has changed.

Footsteps echoed behind me. I whipped around.

"Sorry," Hanson said, closing the front door behind him. "Don't mean to disturb you."

I glanced down at the bottle of whiskey in his hand. "Isn't it a little too early to be drinking?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "It's five o'clock somewhere, right? And it's well-deserved if that's any consolation.

He popped the cap and took a long swig.

"We're all going through things. That doesn't mean we should start pouring a glass every hour."

"It's not like it affects us. Here, you want some?"

I shook my head nodding to my coffee. "I'm fine, thank you."

He shrugged, drinking in another gulp. "Funny, I always hear about how our very own Jane Parker used to be such a party girl. Guess motherhood truly does change a person."

"That and the world blowing up in our faces."

"I think that's even more reason to drink."

Hanson tended to be the sarcastic ass of a character, always making remarks. Unless it had to do with Liv. In that case he was at her full defense. This version of him seemed far more bitter.

I pressed my lips together. "How's Liv?"

"Besides busy being an unforgivable liar, she's great," he said. "Absolutely, positively great."

I swallowed Nope, it was far too early to hear some sad love story, but at the rate Hanson was drinking, I was bound to hear it at some point anyway.

"What did she do this time?" I asked him.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he kept his gaze forward. "She's been getting better. Somehow miraculously, she isn't dying at the rate she was before. Whatever Celia gave her...it seemed to be losing its effect. At first I thought it was just some kind of miracle. That somehow faith and hope collided and God finally heard my prayers. But...she was hiding something. I just knew it. Turns out she's been taking some drug. I don't know what's in it. But it's something Hunters cooked up. The same people who made her this was in the first place."

My stomach fluttered. "The Hunters made a drug to counteract that cure?"

"I don't think 'counteract' is the right word. It's more like this drug is extending her life. She's still dying. She's still going to die eventually. But this...it's just putting it off. She's just putting it off."

"Well, what are you going to do?"

He looked up at me. "What do you mean what am I going to do?"

"You love her right? For some reason, you want to keep her alive. What's your plan?"

His eyes glimmered wildly for a second. "I've been doing research all night. As you know, there aren't exactly Hunters in Newberry anymore, but she's been getting her fix for the past month, meaning they can't be too far away. I found a location on the internet. It's right outside Fayetteville. Not as suspicious as that school in Charlotte or wherever they were crashing before, but I think it's where they are located now."