Page 118 of Pieces of Ash

“It’s…Ashley,” I sob.

“Ashley…,” he sighs, his smile fading. “You’re safe now…kid.”

“Anders,” I say through tears. “She loved you. She loved you so much.”

“I…loved her,” he says, his voice threadier by the second.

“You can’t leave me!” says Damon, his tears falling onto his brother’s dying face. “Please, Anders! Stay with me!Stay with me!”

“Help’s coming,” says Simmons, running from the barn. “An ambulance is on the way.”

I hear Julian ask about Bruno and feel a small, short-lived burst of relief when Simmons says he’ll be okay. The agent reaches down and grabs Damon’s gun. “I’m taking your weapon, son.”

“I don’t want it,” murmurs Damon, his attention focused on his twin.

“You’ll…be…okay,” says Anders to his brother, his voice a whisper now. “Go home. Leave…America and go…home.” His eyes, barely able to focus, look up at the starry Vermont sky. “She’s safe…Tea…gan. She’s…free.” He wheezes softly, a dying gasp. “I love you…I’m coming…”

Damon reaches under Anders’s shoulders, pulling his brother onto his lap and rocking him. Through tears of disbelief and agony, he sings a haunting lullaby.“Hai Lulu?u, dormi un picu’… Dragul mamii, puiu? micu’…”

On the porch, Julian keeps his gun trained on Mosier’s lifeless body.

In the driveway, Damon sings softly as his twin brother passes from this life to the next.

And in the distance, I can hear sirens, coming closer and closer.

She’s safe, Teagan. She’s free.

“Thank you, Mam,” I breathe, looking up at the heavens, where Tig and Anders are finally together. “Thank you.”

Day #50 of THE NEW YOU!

We are leaving tomorrow.

It’s a month earlier than I wanted.

IwantedAshley to finish high school. But Anders insists that tomorrow—when M and Damon leave for their weekly trip to Newark—must be the day. And after learning what he knows, I agree. We need to get the fuck out of here because if Anders’s suspicions are correct, M has been making plans. Plans I knew nothing about. Plans that I must stop.

Anders told me that just after Easter his father started acting strange—saying things about me, about Ashley, about how one sister is just as good as another. For a while now, I’ve felt the distance between me and M. I’ve felt him pulling away from me. I’ve wondered what happens in a marriage likes ours, when a husband like M decides he’s done with a wife like me.

Is it possible that he means to replace me with Ash?

Divorce me and marry her?

HELL NO.

FUCK NO.

NEVER.

I’d die first.

He can’t have her. No. Never. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I didn’t see this coming. I didn’t know that this was his plan. Maybe it was even his plan all along. It makes me sick to think about my baby ending up with him. It makes me want to kill him.

Thank God for Anders. He has a plan.

He’s given me Ex-Lax to put in Grosavu’s morning tea. The amount I’m going to give her will keep her shitting for hours.

An hour after M and D leave the house, Anders and I will leave too.