Page 37 of Enter if you Dare: Part Two

Valli glares at me, but I need her to understand, so I open my mouth and will the word out of me.

“Danger.”

She huffs. “Danger? Cave, you put him in a cage like an animal.”

“Safe.”

“You lied to me. You had so long to tell me, yet you didn’t. I don’t care if you wanted to keep me safe. I love that you wanted to, but it’s not your job. You had no right.”

Bells chiming, the Jester appears through the stalks with Rowan’s body thrown over his shoulder.

“You must know he did this for you. Your brother’s a dead man out there, but in the basement, he is fed, warm, and untouchable because of your scarecrow. I would have ended him the first night, but my comrade’s riddle was quite heartwarming really. ‘I did not plant him, so I will not reap him. Only her hands hold the end.’ That’s you in case you were wondering. Nobody on this earth is allowed to touch him, except for you. You are the only reason he is breathing. He is alive because he belongs to you.”

I watch it all sink in, that she finally understands. “You were saving him?” she whispers. “For me?” She walks to me and tips her head up to look at me. “You know how I feel about you hurting my brother, and you lied to me. It’s my line and you know it, yet you crossed it day after day. No matter what your intentions were, that’s not okay. Maybe I made a huge mistake.”

“No.” It’s all I can say. I hate how my past robbed me of forming words when I need them.

“I’m taking him off the island right now,” Valli says, and when I move, she puts her hand on my chest. “Let me do this. It’s what I want.”

I did all this for her. I kept him safe, letting her breathe for the first time in her life. Now I’ll put his life in her hands to do with as she pleases. If I stop her, she will hate me, so I step aside.

Valli walks past me and collects her brother from the ground where the Jester dropped him, and he stands, clinging to her side, looking back at me with a smirk on his face.

I stand and watch them walk away as my heart breaks into a million pieces. The worst parts of me are clawing their way up, and I don’t know how long I can fight them off.

I try to remember that I did this for her, and if she wants to leave, I need to let her. She will come back—I know she will.

My vision blurs, and her voice fills my head as my fears take over. “I’m done, Cave. I don’t want to see you again. I thought I could help you, but nobody can.”

I grab at the cornstalks and roar. Though she didn’t say that, someone in my past did, and it rings through my head over and over in the sound of Valli’s voice.

The Scarecrow inside me forces his way forward. He’s my protection. I feel nothing when he takes control, and no one can hurt me.

The Jester might still be here, or he could have left. Everything is hazy and I feel myself moving. I try to fight my way back to the forefront, but the Scarecrow is stronger. He numbed all the pain I felt when I was younger, when everyone thought I was a freak, when no one understood the hurt I suffered at the hands of the man who was supposed to protect me. He hardened my heart after I lost the only good thing in my life, I was thrown away like garbage, and no one believed in me.

As I walk, I find a lantern on the main path, and I reach for it. I don’t know why, but my scarecrow and I gather things and head back to the cornfield.

Making it to the center, I look around. I couldn’t keep her. Everything I touch is ruined.

I strike a match.

I was once told that the fear that cannot be outrun is losing people you love.

When I drop the match, the field goes up in flames around me, and I watch it burn.

The Scarecrow was built to protect me, but there is no world I want protection from if she is not in it.

I watch everything burn until there is nothing left but ash.

Valli

Rowan doesn’t speak until we clear the bridge, then he sits hunched forward in the passenger seat with his knee bouncing. Every few seconds he looks behind us, and once the bridge is almost out of sight, he turns and stares out the back window.

I don’t blame him for being on edge. Part of me expected Cave to alert the others, and for them to all come after me, but there is no hearse in sight. I tighten my hands around the steering wheel; I should feel relieved, but I don’t.

Rowan is alive. Cave didn’t kill him, when I know he would have wanted to wipe him from existence. Hell, I silently wished it, too, after Cipher was hurt. If Rowan had died, all my problems would have gone away. I know that makes me a bad person, wishing my brother dead, but Cave saved him—for me. And I understand why he did it, which is the problem. I’m furious that Cave looked me in the eye and said no when I asked if my brother was dead, but when I asked where he was, he shrugged. He made me believe he didn’t know, but he did the entire time. He lied to me.

What I really want to know is what part Cipher and Noa played in this. Did they lie just as much as Cave? They all watched me breathe easier at the thought that it was over and Rowan was finally going to leave me alone.