Penance - Uncovering the truth, Secrets and confessions, and Twisted pasts

Chapter 1

Poor Grayson woke up from, yet, another nightmare. He had dreamt of the airplane explosion at Hawthorne Island. He was there, helpless and frozen, watching as Avery bled profusely and struggled to catch her breath.

Avery is safe, he reassured himself, but the fear and the panic lingered. Grayson got out of bed, feeling a sense of urgency to do something, anything to ease his mind.

If there was anyone awake or swimming in the pool at 3:30 in the morning, Grayson didn't notice.

Grayson looked at his reflection, his piercing grey eyes seemed lifeless, lacking the sharpness they usually held.

Grayson had always been the responsible one amongst his brothers—a "tyrant of a brother" Jameson used to say. Nash was laid back, Jameson was irresponsible, and Xander was a human Rube Goldberg machine. But looking at himself now, Grayson was...

I'm not broken, he told himself, repeating it over and over again in his mind. But the thought only brought on a headache, reminding him of the struggles he had faced in his past.

Without a second thought, Grayson leapt into the pool, cutting through the water with powerful strokes. He swam with such grace and precision that it was clear he was in his element. The water seemed to wash away all his troubles, and for a moment, he felt free.

But then he heard it- a voice calling his name. "Grayson," the voice was soft and gentle. It was a voice he knew only too well. Emily's voice.

Emily had been the love of his life, the one who gave him purpose and made him feel alive. But now, her voice was a constant reminder of what he had lost, what he had broken.

"Emily?" he whispered, hardly daring to believe it was real.

Grayson felt like he was losing his mind. He plunged his head into the water, trying to block her voice. He held his breath until his lungs felt like exploding,desperate to escape the painful memories that Emily's voice had brought back- the good times he had spent with her, the laughter they shared while bowling, the adrenaline rush when Jameson and him raced to find her a special something, and the quiet moments when he braided her hair.

He resurfaced, gasping for air, and scanned the pool's edge, half-expecting to see Emily standing there. But there was no one in sight.

The voice kept calling him, and Grayson couldn't take it anymore.

He swam to the other end of the pool, hoping to escape her voice. But it followed him, driving him to the brink of insanity. He swam to the edge of the pool, climbed out of the water, his body slick and dripping, and sat down on one of the deck chairs, closing his eyes. "It's not real," he tried to convince himself.

Grayson pleaded with his mind to let go, reminding himself that Emily was gone. But the voice was too powerful, too real, too good to be true.