Page 55 of The Man Upstairs

My senses reeled to another level. I spoke my thoughts out loud, hit hard.

“The psycho fuck who lives…” My voice trailed off as his words kicked in. “You mean Julian? Really? You mean Julian? From apartment six?”

“YES! The freak upstairs! He told my dad he’ll fucking kill him if he doesn’t get the fuck out of town. And it’s about YOU! What the fuck did you tell the creep?!”

I was still trying to fathom what he was talking about. I still didn’t know.

“WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM?!” Jayden yelled again, with his hands in his hair. “Because you told him SOMETHING.And that SOMETHING was enough that he’ll kill Dad over it, and he must have meant it, because Dad’s on the fucking run!”

I felt shivers up my spine. I tried to frame the craziness.

“You’re saying that Julian threatened your dad?”

“Yeah, that fucking creep! He held a knife to Dad this morning as he was off to work. I’m not fucking joking. A fucking KNIFE! Right in his ribcage!”

I would have laughed out loud at how ridiculous that sounded if my senses hadn’t tingled. Call it instinct… intuition… I don’t know, but I knew he was telling the truth.

“He was full on fucking serious!” Jayden carried on. “Dad wouldn’t have bailed if he wasn’t. He’s a lot of things, but he’s not a total pussy.”

I was still battling my mind as he launched into another stream.

“You should fucking know about this, because it was down to YOU! He told Dad to stay away from YOU!” He paused, his eyes still angry. “So, why?! Why the fuck did he tell Dad to fuck off because of you? What the fuck did you stir up?!”

I tried to compose my thoughts, but then, fuck it. I opted for the truth. There was only one reason.

“Your dad came into my room the other night and pinned me down on the bed. He told me to keep my mouth shut and not to cause any waves for him, or he’d make me suffer for it. HE was serious, too. HE meant it, Jay. HE would hurt ME if I even thought of calling him out for beating my mum!”

Jayden stepped back, shaking his head in hurt. His voice was nearly breaking when he said one simple word.

“Shit.”

“Yeah, SHIT!” I said. “He’s a violentpieceof shit, Jay, and you know it. He hurts Mum, and he’d hurt me, too. Julian found out about it and rescued me. I guess it set him off somehow.”

“Somehow. Yeah, great.Somehowwhich meant he put a knife to Dad and threatened his life.”

Even in the carnage of the revelation, I felt myself burning up with a different heat. I tried to picture Julian there, ordering Scottie to stay away, fromme, with a knife.

He’d threatened Scottie’s life for me. ForME.

I managed to get some words out.

“What’s happening now?” I asked Jay, and he shrugged.

“I dunno. Dad was freaking out, but he said not to tell anyone. He shouted me down when I said I was going to pull you up on it.”

“But you did it anyway?”

“Yeah, I did! Because I wanted to hear what the fuck was going on, direct from you!”

“My mum doesn’t know about any of this. So, what do you want me to tell her?”

“NOTHING!” Jay yelled, then leant in close. His anger was fading to hurt. “Just keep it a secret, please. I’ve already broken the fucking rules by opening my mouth. I don’t want that creep chasing around after Dad, or your mum kicking off, or the police being involved or anything.”

I stared into Jayden’s eyes, as everything sank in. I felt sick. Everything spinning.

Scottie was gone. On the run. Julian had threatened to kill him. Mum was in happy land, thinking Scottie was off on some career promotion up in the highlands. And me? I just didn’t know what to do.

Jayden regained his composure before I did.