Staying Grounded [BXB]

Death Wish

CRAIG:

"Dare give me that look again, and I'll deck you." Those were the first words my brother ever said to me.

It was my first day of year seven, my first Geography lesson at Yoverton Community School, and just two weeks previous to that meeting, I hadn't even known the boy existed. Honestly, if not for YCS being the only secondary school in our small town, I'm almost certain I would've remained in the dark. Eleven years of thinking myself an only child made it a staggering blow to learn.

Alex, however, had not been fresh to the discovery of me.

My eyes had barely caught on him. His glower, fierce and intimidating, pulled me up short just inside of the classroom door. He said: "I'm not playing, Golden boy," and he looked so sincere. "Trust me."

We've come a mighty far way over the five years since then. Reaching the point now that, without any hesitation, I can say he's the one and only person in my life I do trust. Fully and entirely.

Time and time again, he's come through for me. Today, no exception.

Yet...

Yet.

"Thank fuck for you, Al," I say as I climb into the passenger seat of his mum's old Honda, turning away from the solitary house and the unfriendly figure seeing us off at its door. "I owe you big time for this."

The arctic look my brother levels me with has no less of an impact on me.

He starts up the car without a word, his face more than threat enough. His blond faux-hawk has the ravaged look of frustrated raking.

I make the mistake of catching a glimpse of myself in the rearview mirror, seeing what Alex sees — it's grim — and then I'm slouching down in the seat and folding my arms across my chest. Only the steady purr of the engine relieves the stony silence of the car as we leave the farm behind. Yoverton North Farm, I read off the sign by the gate as we pass out through it.

I'm wearing another man's ill-fitting sweats — commando. My own clothes, blood-soaked and mud-caked and altogether ruined, stripped from my body by a stranger. And, no matter how hard I'm wracking my brain, I cannot get anywhere close to fathoming how the hell I managed to land myself in this predicament.

My favourite jacket will be missed.

A shower and change will be gratefully appreciated.

I should count my small blessings, really, that Alex isn't pushing for an explanation I don't have. But as the view of nothing but trees and fields to both sides of the car — and a long, empty road stretching ahead — makes the quiet too intense for me, I crack. "Maybe I was lured all the way out here by some will o' the-wisps or something, huh?"

My effort doesn't even score me a glance this time. My reach for the stereo is pulled short at the warning tick of his jaw.

It's not yet nine in the morning; a peek at the clock horrifies me.

I awoke to discover myself in the woods, a voice thundering through my head and a dog probing my nethers. I next opened my eyes to that same ominous voice and Ashleigh Shay unfastening my pants...

Truly a nightmare that just keeps right on giving.

Ashleigh. Freaking. Shay!

And for all I don't understand of this, she's perhaps the part I'm unsettled by most.

"What did she say when she called you?" I make another attempt to engage Alex. "Actually, no. I'm not sure I want an answer to that." He blinks, nostrils flaring. "I'd be stupid to hope she won't blab to Steph, right?"