Invisible

Invisible Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Helpless

(Mason)

I am covered in dirt and sweat by the time I finish digging the hole. The girls wanted to help, so it would get done faster, but I didn’t want to risk anyone seeing them. If someone spots a shovel hovering in the air, they’d likely just pass it off as a trick of the light or the late hour.

Exhausted, I toss the shovel aside and head back to the Jeep. Time to get the body.

Robin jumps out of the driver’s side and rushes over to me. Olivia is a little slower, needing Evie’s help. Is it just the moonlight that is making her look so pale? A tightness in my chest jolts me toward her. She said she was fine before we left the house, that the cut wasn’t that bad. I stumble over to her, afraid she was lying.

“Are you okay? You look pale.”

“I’m fine,” she says.

Evie let’s go of Olivia’s elbow and crosses her arms over her chest as if daring me to contradict her sister. I want to, but I don’t want to be caught standing around the construction site for too long. I grit my teeth and promise myself I will not let Olivia slip away from me later. Whatever that psychopath did to her, I will make it right.

“Mason,” Robin says, “you’re going to need help lugging this guy over there. He weighs a ton.”

She says this as she tries to drag the plastic wrapped-taped up-heap toward the edge of the Jeep. The yellowish dome light casts heavy shadows across her face. For a moment, the effect gives me pause, because in the harsh light she looks more like a corpse than herself. I shake off the disturbing image and step up next to her.

“You guys stay here.”

Robin and Olivia both try to object, claiming I’ll need their help. No offense to them, but neither one would be much help right now. Olivia looks ready to pass out and Robin’s slender arms don’t give me much hope of her being able to heft this guy. Gripping the body under the shoulders, I yank him out of the bed and sling him over my shoulder.

Again, this would look really bizarre if someone spotted me, but I’m not as worried about that as I am getting this done and over with. I want Olivia back home and resting as soon as possible. All three girls troop back into the Jeep obediently as I carry the body over to the hole. There is no ceremony as I drop him into the ground. My aim isn’t quite on and he lands half in and half out of the shallow grave.

I want to get out of here, but a sudden wave of white hot anger stabs at me. He is the reason Olivia is hurt. He’s the reason Evie was tied to a chair. He’s the reason my life is in danger. I can’t contain my fury in that moment. My foot crashes into the body, kicking, shoving it toward the hole, hoping it will somehow take all the other Sentinels with him.

I already lost one family to these sickos. My heel snaps down on his skull. I don’t care that one push would have been enough to get him into the grave. I don’t care that he can’t feel anything anymore. I don’t care that none of this will stop the next Sentinel from coming after me. Every furious, pent up emotion clambering around inside of my head explodes out of me. My foot crashes down again and again. A primal scream rips out of my chest.

The body is in the hole, has been for a while, but I stomp on its chest one more time, letting everything go. Covering the body takes no time at all, but it steals what little strength I have left. I slump to the ground next to the grave and bury my head in my hands. How did our lives come to this? Why couldn’t they just leave me alone?