Knife's Edge

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

I haven't told anyone about the gun I saw yesterday – not Ellie, not Charlotte... not even Bailey. Briefly, I toyed with the idea of telling George and Stella this morning, only to have a cork wedged into that plan when I realised that Karen would be joining us at breakfast.

Normally, I wouldn't mind the intrusion, but this was her third visit this week. An 'impromptu catch up,' she called it but, truthfully, there are only so many times a girl can say that everything's great before it starts to sound false.

By the time Karen left, everyone was already behind schedule. Stella was running late for some meeting with a new client, and George had to take the boys for their dental check-up, so there hadn't been any time for me to drop a casual gun-sighting into the conversation before the four of them were all calling out their goodbyes.

So, now, that just leaves me and Bailey in the house. Although, really, it feels a lot more like I'm here alone.

Bailey hasn't surfaced from her room since breakfast.

Unfortunately for me, her absence means I have nothing around to distract me from my thoughts at the minute. Standing at the kitchen sink, I barely see the water jetting from the tap as I fill myself a glass because, in my mind, I can only see one thing.

The gun, completely unassuming in the glovebox of Lucas Coleman's car, sitting mere inches from my knees. A sleek, black killer made of carbon steel and harmful intent.

I never should've gotten in that car.

Until yesterday, I'd never seen a gun before. Not in person, at least. My father never used them, you see. He preferred more... unconventional methods.

I was too young to understand at the time. I didn't know what was happening when I'd hear those screams, loud and relentless, coming from somewhere above us in the main house. I hadn't known what it meant; I just knew that we weren't allowed upstairs when we heard them.

To me, the screams were just normal – as average as the chirp of birdsong or rumble of a car engine in the distance.

Normal.

The thought makes me sick. There was nothing normal about those screams.

With a sigh, I trudge out of the kitchen and up the stairs, the glass clutched in my hand as my mind loses itself to the past memories. As if in some kind of trance, I watch the water as it moves in time with my footsteps, swaying this way and that.

Water.

Red water.

Red water dripping down his face.

I was supposed to stay in my room. I should've stayed in my room – just as I never should've gotten in that car.

Why do I never learn my lesson?

Goosebumps flare along my arms like a poisonous rash as I push the memories away, my feet finding the landing as I turn for my bedroom. Lately, I've caught myself reflecting on my past a lot and I'm not sure why. Usually, I'm pretty good at keeping my demons at bay.

I hate thinking about that shit.

"...I've really fucked it all up."

I stop walking as a voice drifts through from Bailey's closed door: young, male, and definitely not my sister's.

Anger ignites like ethanol inside my chest, freeing me from my reverie as I realise that Alex Coleman – the little shit that he is – is inside the house. If Stella and George find out, they're going to go mental. If Karen and Noah find out... let's not even go there.