Page 85 of Apathy
“You stupid, stupid, fool!” he yelled and came closer to us. I pushed Skylar behind me, afraid of what he might do, and stumbled before she grabbed me by the shirt, balancing me.
I was on the receiving end of his wrath once and I’d be damned if I let him harm her in any way. The guy I met that first day of school was nowhere to be seen. He used to look calm, collected, a true Golden Boy of Winworth High, but the person in front of me was everything but calm.
The crazed look in his eyes froze the blood in my veins, and I worried what he might do to Skylar. I didn’t have to be a genius to know that he had an unhealthy obsession with her. Whatever the story was between the two of them obviously left scars.
Scars that would forever be there.
“She will never be yours, but she will also never be mine,” he cried out. What the fuck was he talking about? “Can’t you see? Can’t you see what they’re doing to us, what they’re doing to her?”
Skylar gripped my elbow, hiding behind me, but I wanted her gone. I wanted her out of here because I knew where he was going with this. I knew that he didn’t have control anymore over what he did or what he said, and what he could say in this state could shatter Skylar forever.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, her voice small, almost shaky, because she also understood that Kane knew more than he was voicing. “Kane?”
He gripped his hair and started walking backward, murmuring, shaking his head.
“Kane?” She stepped around me and attempted to go to him. When I pulled her back, shaking my head, she sliced me with those stormy eyes. It wasn’t safe.
“They’re coming. They’re coming. They’re… He will get her, and she will be gone, forever.” Kane continued crying, his voice bouncing against the walls of the kitchen, mixing with the painful lyrics Amy Lee was singing through the song. He suddenly looked up and came in front of me, grabbing me by the shirt.
“You have to save her. You have to,” he begged. “He will take her from us, Ash. He will—”
“Who is he?” Skylar asked,
Whatever was going through Kane’s head was too strong, and instead of answering her, he bypassed me and stopped in front of her, as still as a statue. He lifted one hand and placed it against her cheek, while his shoulders shook.
“I’m so sorry, Sky. I didn’t know,” he sobbed. “I didn’t know that this was going to happen.”
“What, Kane?” She placed her hand on top of his, and if that burning sensation in my gut was jealousy, I would never say it out loud. He needed her now more than I did, and whatever was going on with him, obviously messed him up enough to act like this. “You didn’t know what?”
For a moment, the only sounds in the kitchen were the sharp inhales of breath from him, and Skylar’s soothing voice, trying to calm him down.
Not once did she look at me, and I couldn’t blame her. He was fucked up, and I didn’t mean only about alcohol and God knew what else he poisoned his body with.
“You have to run, Sky,” he murmured, barely enough for me to hear. “You need to get out of here now, because if you don’t—” He stopped and turned around, facing me now. “You need to get her out of here, Ash. Just get her out of here, before he comes back for her. Please. I’m begging you, man. Save her.”
He swayed on his feet as he tried coming closer to me, and if it wasn’t for Skylar who rushed after him and held him up, I was pretty sure he would have ended up on his knees.
“Kane, calm down,” Skylar said. “No one is going to take me.”
But as Kane lifted his head and looked up at me, pleading with his eyes, I recognized the fear coursing through him. He knew and he hated it.
He knew about The Order, and it was eating him alive.
He was asking for help.
“Please,” he begged. “You don’t have much time.”
Samhain.
Something big was happening. Something I had no idea about, but he did. I just had to get him to talk.
“Kane, please. What are you talking about? Who’s coming? What’s coming?”
“The man that gave you that.” He looked at her bandaged arm. “He’s coming, Sky. And this time, he won’t be leaving without you.”
Skylar
Some nights I could sleep like a little baby, and my brother often joked how even a Third World War wouldn’t be able to wake me up.
