Page 300 of Ominous: Part 1

Mom laughs again. So, so loud and bright and mean. She doesn’t stop, for a long, long time. Then it sounds like she hits something, maybe her palms on the kitchen island. “Our son is here,” she repeats Dad, and my stomach twists into knots, “and he is the worst thing you have ever done to me.”

I grab her wrists.

She’s jerking away from me, screaming at me, I don’t even know what she’s saying.

I hear Luna, quiet at first, beneath the roar of Eden’s words, Eden’s eyes closed, her face red, her skin so, so cold.

“Eden, Eden, Eden.” Luna gets louder, she comes closer.

I hear someone else, too. Janelle. “Leave her be.”When did she get here? The gate. The creak. Did she hear everything? See all of it?

“Get off of me, get the fuck off of me.” Eden lifts her knee, shoving it into my groin, and I tense up, releasing her as she spins away, raking her hands through her wet hair, messing up her braids. She turns her back on me, on Luna, who is wide eyed and fearful, looking from me, to Eden, and back again. I don’t see Janelle. She’s behind me, in the shadows.

“What happened?” Luna’s voice is thick with sleep.

I take a breath, hunched over, but I don’t speak.

“Eden… are you okay?” Janelle whispers the words.

Eden isn’t screaming anymore, and I think maybe she’s calm, but then she snarls, a vicious sound, and she kicks one of the lounge chairs.

It flips over onto its side.

She screams again, kicks another one. Then she bends down and grabs one, spinning her body as she tosses it into the pool where it makes a weak splash.

“Eden…” Luna sounds nervous. Scared.

But Eden’s eyes, bright and so, so blue, like her rage has turned the shade of her irises, is staring at me. “I want to go home. I want to go homenow.”

I smile at her. Luna’s chest is rising and falling fast, and she doesn’t know what to do. She’s nervous. She’s probably thinking of her parents. All of ours seem so fucked.

“We’re not going home,” I tell Eden.

This enrages her. She closes the space between us so fucking fast, and she’s shoving me again, she’s hitting at me, my chest, across my face.

Luna squeaks, but she does nothing.

Janelle calls Eden’s name, but she doesn’t move to help her. She thinks I deserve this, doesn’t she?

I feel the sting of Eden’s hit, but I don’t care. I kind of like it.

“Take me home.Right now.You’re going to drive me homeright fucking now!”Her words are so fast and nonsensical, because I’m not taking her home, and it’s just after three in the morning, and she’s in shock or… or she’s having some kind of episode like Mom or—

She slaps me again.

This one hurts.

There’s a silence, after it.

Even she’s quiet.

My face stings, and slowly, I bring my palm to my cheek, feeling hot skin beneath.

We’re a foot apart. I could grab her if I wanted to. I could throw her in this fucking pool.

But I just say, hand still pressed to my face, “Let’s go up and lie down, okay?”

Luna looks horrified, just beyond Eden, her arms held by her sides, her lips parted, eyes wide.