Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 129571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Benny punched the wall again.
Boom.
Frantically, I searched the room for Troy and found him right on the floor on the other side of Vivian’s bed. The blankets sat in disarray. Their clothes lay in a pile on the floor. Naked, Troy knelt on the floor. Red streams of blood streamed down his face and onto his bare back.
“And Viv, I too am wondering if you would like to walk with me,” my brother had said.
“Hmmm. I do love to walk.” Vivian had winked at him.
Benny must’ve returned home and caught them in the act.
Fuck.
“Benny!” I screamed. “Stop. Look at me. Please, stop.”
Troy didn’t even show me his face. “Go back into your room, Jazz.”
“You’re a psychotic monster!” Vivian cried. “Monster!”
Benny punched the wall again and then shook his hand. His right hand was now a dust-covered wound of flesh and bits of wall spilling from the broken digits. “Yes, go back into the room, Jasmine. We’ll need to talk later as well.”
“Monster!” Vivian screamed.
I took two careful steps toward Troy. “Maybe we should go and talk now, Benny. You look like you broke your right hand.”
Glancing my way, Benny lifted his left hand and gripped the gun in it. “Jasmine, I can shoot with both hands, so I would stay right where you are at, if I were you.”
“I heard gun shots.” I didn’t move. “Did you shoot Troy?”
“Not yet.” Benny collapsed against the wall, but his gun hand didn’t tremble.
“I think we should just stop right now.” I kept my hands to the side. “Let’s go into the kitchen. Perhaps, we could even put that gun away.”
Benny smiled. Not a freaking good sign. He gestured to me with the gun and then flicked the point it at Vivian. “You see that she calls me a monster, while she sneaks away in the middle of the night and sucks her brother’s penis?”
“Okay.” I blinked. “Let’s not go there.”
“Go back in your room, Jazz.” Troy still wouldn’t look at me.
“I’m not going anywhere.” I concentrated on Benny.
Vivian screamed and knocked over the lamp on her night stand. “He’s not even my brother you pyscho fuck!”
Benny stared at me. “No?”
I took in a long gulp of breath. “Let’s all calm down.”
Benny let his busted hand hang to his side. “I’ve been thinking about a lot of stuff today. Your boyfriend has been busy, but then you already know that, don’t you, Jasmine? You know that he’s a busy guy.”
“Can we put away the gun?” I asked. “It scares the shit out of me.”
“We’re not siblings you sick fuck!” Vivian kicked at the cracked lamp.
“Not her brother. That’s what Vivian keeps saying,” Benny continued as if I never spoke. “I considered that. Sophia had drawn a line in the sand today. That’s what she did. She ended her twisted partnership with me, and I couldn’t figure out why. Maybe she figured Chase was a stronger power to side with—”
“We should go out to the kitchen.” I took another step toward Troy.
“Sophia knows you three are with me. Did you know that?” Benny asked.
“Why did you have to hurt him?” Vivian rushed to Troy and held his naked body.
Benny turned the gun to them.
“Please, don’t.” I held up my hands like I had some power to magnetize his gun to my fingertips. “Please! Don’t, Benny!”
“What you don’t understand, my little Jasmine, is that your mother talked me into having you three here with me in the first place. She didn’t know where I would take you, but she did want me to take you. It seemed like a good idea at the time. She knew that I’d unraveled.” He stared at the ground and began to pace from side to side in front of the mural. “She knew that I’d lost a sense of my reality. Chase has pushed me to the madness. I’d had structure and foundation, and the damn man tore it all apart.”
I swallowed down my fear. “Let’s go talk in the kitchen, Benny.”
He stopped pacing and pointed the gun back at me. “What makes up a body?”
I held my mouth open and couldn’t find my voice.
“What makes up a body, Jasmine?” he asked again.
“Water.”
“No.”
“But, water makes up sixty-five percent of the body.”
Troy’s voice shook as he spoke, “Jazz, go back in your room.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” I targeted Benny with a hard glare. “Water makes up most of the body. Let’s go and check it on your computer.”
“Now’s not the time to debate biology with me.” He raised the point and targeted my head. “What keeps the body standing straight?”
“Jazz, please, go,” Troy whispered. “I can’t watch ... anything happen to you ...”
Benny’s gun remained on my head. “What keeps the body straight, Jasmine?”
My bottom lip trembled. “The legs.”
“What else?”
“The bones.”
“Yes, Jasmine. The bones. Without the bones, the muscle has nothing to attach to. The lungs get no protection and shield. Everything falls to the floor like a blob. Chase shattered my foundation. The truth of what I was came to light. I had to answer to you as your father. I had to face Troy’s accusing face. I had to reveal the monster that lives inside. Chase did this to me, and your mother took advantage.”