Masks (boyxboy)

30. Brothers

Edward

I walk into the cavernous living room alone, Blair has decided to leave to pick up her things from Lou's house, she's going to be staying with her parents from now on and she's going to try to look for Amanda. Hopefully.

I immediately notice that my mum has tried to make the space brighter by throwing in some light coloured couches. The place still feels like a bloody cemetery.

My mum and Jo are holding each other and speaking in hushed tones that completely silence when they spot me. Before they do though, I catch the following phrase coming from my mum: Lou is going to be fine, I promise, we'll do anything to keep him safe.

Fear settles deep within me.

"Eddy, how are you feeling?" Jo asks abruptly. My throat hurts and I just don't want to talk so I nod my head and turn towards the library. As I walk closer and closer to my dad's office I listen as my father tells Lucas:

"A gang like that is not going to let you quit that easily. You know too much."

I gulp. Coldness and a sense of dread washes over me. There is no way that those bastards are going to take someone else away from me.

Over my dead body.

I stand outside for a while longer as they continue to talk. My father forgives him, he's going to help Lucas and I promise myself to do everything I can so that we stay together, us being apart is part of what got us here in the first place.

I burst open the double doors and walk inside. Lucas is sitting on the couch, my dad is behind his desk, drawing diagrams and writing down on a white cardboard whatever Lucas is telling him. They both seem so concentrated that they barely acknowledge me. Lucas seems to tense a little but he keeps talking as I stump over to him and sit down on his lap, pulling my legs close to my body as I lean into his.

He sighs and wraps his warm arms around me. I hold him tightly back. I will not let him out of my sight again. Ever.

I begin to tremble at the thought of them doing to Lou what they did to me and my sister. He kisses my hair and strokes my back, trying to calm me down, but the mere thought of him gone, of him being murdered is beginning to trigger another panic attack. I hold on to him, reassuring myself that he is here with me, that the vibration of his voice through his chest is real and that the sound of his beating heart is not only a dream.

My dad looks at me worriedly, immediately takes something from his cabinet and sits down besides us. He places a hand on my back. "Eddy," he says softly, "It's okay son, everything is okay. We will get back at those bastards for taking Sophie away from us."

"W-what if they take Lou too?" My voice is still hoarse and tired, but I hold on to him as if my life depends on it. My breathing gets ragged, I begin to tear up.

My dad takes a dose of my medication that he keeps close by for emergencies and injects it into my arm. I calm down almost immediately.

Just before unconsciousness takes over however, I notice as my hand slacks its grip on Lou's shirt, that it is stained with blood from where I cut my hand with that knife earlier today and that the bandages need to be changed.

Why am I still bleeding? I ask myself before the faint memory of digging my nails into the wound as I talk to Blair, begins to fog up my vision.