The End of Summer

Chapter 36- 'I said I'd finish it.'

A/N: so yeah, here's the next chapter. Sorry it's been a while since the last update, just took me a while to write this part.

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Considering Miss Vines had only known her father for two years, she looked a lot more certain than Bradley that Alex was still lying.

Bradley had said nothing to prove Alex wrong, and we all knew he had him by the balls.

“Why was I kneeling Bradley?” Alex repeated, knowing that the fog had cleared for the boy in front of him.

He said nothing, and I don’t know if it was my eyes deceiving me but he looked like it hurt. It looked like he had been trying to forget that for so long that now it was out in the open, it hurt to actually realise that Alex had been telling the truth. That the man he thought so highly of, the man he loved and did all this for may not have been the good man he thought he was.

“You’re not actually buying this are you?” Miss Vines asked, her voice disgusted as she pointed the knife at Alex “Bradley you’re not listening to him are you?”

Bradley’s eyes were still directly on Alex’s, and in a way it was like they were having a silent conversation. He ignored his sister.

For a second, Bradley was not who he had been all night. He was not Melt Face and he was not the guy who had killed all these people.

He was the little kid we had grown up with and considered a friend.

“Bradley!” Miss Vines actually screeched. She was trying to pull him back.

I suddenly remembered earlier just before Harry had driven through the window, when I had managed to actually get a conversation with the guy in the mask. I almost got him to open up, and then the thing that brought him back to reality was her cry.

That wasn’t a cry of fear. It was a way to get his head back on the job at hand.

“You know the truth Bradley.” Alex’s voice was so different from her screaming. It was calm, almost like a murmur.

This time, there was no mistake. Bradley’s teeth were gritting together to stop his bottom lip from going. His eyes were red, and I knew the boy was trying not to show any emotion. He was trying not to break.

“He was still my dad.” It was almost a whimper. A sob. He choked those words out through gritted teeth and as much as I tried not to –as much as I hated myself for it- my heart broke for him.

The conversation I had with Miss Vines replayed in my head again.

Question is Summer, do you think your parents are capable of this? No one knows them better than you do, and you need to ask yourself if you’re going to believe what people say about them or if you’re going to listen to your own gut.

I knew from one look at Bradley though, even his gut wasn’t sticking up for his father anymore.

“He killed him!” Miss Vines screamed like a banshee, and she was no longer composed. She was frantic as she tried to bring him back “He watched our father die, it was because of him that your life ended up like it did!”

Bradley jaw clenched, and I knew he was losing it. I knew she was winning.

It was at this point that I briefly registered the sounds of the sirens in the background. I was just about to scream ‘ABOUT MOTHERFUCKING TIME’ when I realised the sounds of the sirens could mean more bad for us than good. Everyone’s head turned as they heard them, and it was like Bradley realised he was on a curfew. Like he had to move things along.