Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 70429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“I’m not… I’m not good!”
Incorrect. You just made a wrong turn. You were born pure! You had the face of an angel and a heart of gold! You better make amends, boy. You’re broken in two! Trust your brothers to love ya, so you can mend. Find out how to love yourself, so you can love others. Forgive yourself, Caspian, and pursue the truth! Make good on that promise or you will be forever silenced! YOU ARE NOT TO BLAME!
Hot tears streamed down his face. He wanted to claw at himself, rip himself to shreds. He screamed, but nothing came out. He had no voice.
Open your mouth! SPEAK! Make the Devil eat his words and choke on ’em! He counted you out. Prove to the malevolent banished angel that you may be down, but you ain’t out! The race ain’t over. GET UP AND TALK! GET UP AND SCREAM! SPEAK TO THE WORLD! NOT FROM A COMPUTER, BUT FROM YOUR HEART! GET UP AND SOUND THE ALARM! TIME IS TICKIN’. SPEAK NO EVIL, CASPIAN! SPEAK NO LIES! SPEAK ONLY TRUTH, SO YOU MAY FINALLY BE SET FREE!
She vanished then, and the broken glass around him faded away.
Caspian’s chest burned and his face was covered in sweat. He sat up, happy to see an unopened bottle of water on a coaster on the nightstand. When he reached for it, his cellphone buzzed. He didn’t recall turning his phone back on, but perhaps he had and it slipped his mind.
“Hello…” He gulped down the water, not a drop wasted.
“Hey, glad you got to the house okay. Let me cut to the chase. I just spoke to Legend. He was pretty upset, and I think you know why. Why did you tell him I got my rocks off to Mrs. Florence?” Caspian smiled and shook his head. He never in his life imagined he’d be relieved to get chewed out by Axel. “If it’s the incident I think it was, when you walked in on me when we were like sixteen or somethin’, you know fuckin’ well I wasn’t doing anything to ’er picture, you fucker.”
“Actually, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure. I mean, she was in the yearbook, Axel.”
“Oh, fuck you, Caspian! On the other side of that page was the cheerleading team, and I had a thing for Lucy Bell. I know you remember that! You are so full of shit!”
Caspian burst out laughing and rubbed his head.
“…I’m sorry. What else can I say?”
“You’re sick, you know that?!”
“So I’ve heard. Look, Axel, the reason I said it was because I was trying to get Legend off my back. He’s the one who invited himself to come pick me up at the airport, and all he did the whole damn time was act like the morality police. How ironic! He picked me up with his fuckin’ music blasting. He didn’t bother to try ’nd help me. He threatened to kick my ass and then went into a long tirade about how I better stop ignoring these dreams. I asked him to stop talkin’ to me about Mrs. Florence. He didn’t respect my wishes, then even brought her up again at lunch.”
He took a deep breath before continuing, “I’m uh… I’m going through a lot right now. I could feel my temper boiling. Something bad was going to happen. He was pokin’ the bear. The only way I could make him shut up was to say somethin’ to throw him off.”
“Well, ya didn’t have to throw me under the bus to do it! I had a crush on Mrs. Florence, I admitted that to you years ago, but I never imagined anything sexual with her. You went too far.”
“How can you have a crush on someone and never imagine fucking them, Axel? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Well, I didn’t, okay? It was a line in my mind that I didn’t cross. Anyway, I know you’ve been havin’ a hard time with the loss of your aunt and all. Aunt Angel was a great lady, and she will be sorely missed. I just saw her last month… I can’t believe she’s gone.” They were both silent for a bit. “Well, I’ll be over there in about twenty minutes.”
“Okay, see you in a bit. Sorry for bringing you into all of that. You know how Legend gets though. I’ve had enough.”
“Yeah, he just cares about you is all. See ya.”
“See ya.”
Caspian disconnected the call, and lay back down.
She’s not going to make this easy, but hell, I didn’t come here for this. I don’t have the time for any of it. Mrs. Florence, why now? Couldn’t you have waited until I buried my aunt? I don’t even know where to start to do what I promised I would in the first place. You know what roadblocks I’m up against. It’s like trying to open a door made of water…