Destruction: The December People, Book One (14 page)

More silence.

“You’re scaring the shit out of me right now. You were there. Why are you asking me? Do you have amnesia or something?” A heavy pause. “Did you do magic? Did it do something to your brain? Come here right now. Or I’ll come get you. Where are you?”

With every question, his happy-go-lucky brother disappeared more and more. He sounded like someone else, someone David didn’t remember.

“No, I’m fine. It’s not like that. I didn’t do magic. Amanda did. She manipulated my memories.”

“What? She knows better than that. When did she do this?”

“She didn’t say exactly, a long time ago.”

“Like years?”

“I think so.”

“You’ve been walking around without memories for years?”

“I guess.”

“That’s not fucking fair.”

To me or to you?
he wanted to ask.

“Don’t worry about me,” David said. “Please don’t. I’ll get it all worked out.”

“Just answer my calls, okay?”

“I will.”

atrick froze mid-stride on his way into the family room. Samantha sat in his spot. Of all the places in the house she could have sat to read her book, she chose the exact spot he sat in to play video games. She would get it all warm and smelling of her. Her blonde hair spilled across the cushions like white neon light. The closer he got to her, the sweatier he got, and he probably smelled fully funky when he sat down next to her.

“You’re still here,” he said.

“Disappointed?” She tucked a bookmark into her book and placed it aside.

“No.”

“My parents were in a skiing accident.”

“Oh my God,” he said. “Are they okay?”

“They’re okay. Just some broken bones. They’re in a hospital in Switzerland. So I’m staying here a little longer.”

“Okay…”

Just some broken bones. Just in a hospital. No reason not to sit here calmly reading a book. She said it so quickly and calmly that he thought she might be lying, but he couldn’t imagine why she would.

“It sucks you have to be stuck with my family. I’m sorry they’re so messed up.”

“They’re not so bad,” she said. “I like it here.”

He laughed. “Sure,” he said, his tone dripping with skepticism.

She laughed too.

“Saaamaanthaaa,” Emmy wailed from downstairs. “Come on.”

Samantha dutifully answered the call. Patrick didn’t realize he had followed Samantha, as if she had him on a leash, until he had walked halfway down the stairs behind her.

Emmy held out her hand at the bottom of the stairs and grabbed Samantha’s as soon as she could reach. She pulled her toward the downstairs family room.

“I picked out the movie,” Emmy said.

Patrick followed them into the family room where Emmy had some Japanese horror movie pulled up on Netflix.

“I didn’t invite you, Patrick,” Emmy said.

“You can’t watch this,” Patrick said. “It’s too scary for you.”

“Yeah right. Besides, it’s Halloween.”

“It has subtitles.”

“Uh… we can read, Patrick,” Emmy said. “Unlike the Colters.”

“We can read,” Xavier said.

Patrick jumped. Perfectly placed to argue this point, the Colter siblings sat on the floor in a blind spot behind the couch, pulling books off the bookshelf and placing them in piles. Flushed patches appeared on Emmy’s neck. She had intended her mean comment to be of the behind-their-backs variety.

“I didn’t know you were there,” she said.

“What are you guys doing?” Mom came into the room as if she had smelled the confrontation brewing. She saw the movie on the screen. “No. It’s too late. You all need to start getting ready for bed.”

“Jude’s not home yet,” Emmy said.

“Let me worry about that,” Mom said.

“It’s only 11:15.” Patrick’s own words surprised him. Since when did he stand up for his brother?

“I’m sure he’ll be home any minute,” Mom said.

“Where’s David?” Evangeline asked.

Patrick hadn’t even noticed Dad’s absence.

Mom hesitated. “Away.”

Evangeline stood. “You can’t send him away.” Her voice had a higher pitch than usual. “You can’t be apart.”

Patrick’s eyebrows knitted together.
Who was she to say anything? What did she care?
By the indignation on Emmy’s face, she thought something similar.

“If you really cared about their marriage, you should have thrown yourself off a cliff,” Emmy said.

Okay, he didn’t think
that
.

“Emmy!” Mom shouted.

Everything in the china cabinet along the wall shattered.

“Xavier!” Mom shouted. “No magic.”

What?

“Magic isn’t a choice,” Xavier said. “The only choice is whether or not you control it or let it control you.”

The light bulbs in three of the lamps shattered.
What the fuck?

“Stop it,” Mom cried.

Xavier’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he breathed. His gray eyes darted back and forth. Looking for something else to break?

Then something even more disturbing happened: Samantha ran at Xavier and thrust her body against his. He stumbled back at the influx of her weight. She wrapped her arms around him, plastering his own arms to his sides and pressed herself… close. Patrick’s throat got dry. It looked so… intimate. Xavier sort of grunted, in surprise, but it also sounded kind of private, like the sounds people make during sex.

After what seemed like several years, she released him. An odd way to calm someone down, but it worked. Xavier didn’t speak or move. Patrick supposed that would shut any guy up. Distract him, at least.

“That was weird,” Emmy said into the silence.

Then a few seconds of calm passed over them. Like the eye of the storm.

Then all hell broke loose.

The whole house shook in a deafening crash of shattering glass and splintering wood. Patrick grabbed Emmy and tried to shield her, but he couldn’t tell where the danger came from. He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back as bits of glass grazed his arms.

When the terrible crunching and shattering sounds had ended, Patrick raised his head. He had somehow guessed correctly about where to pull Emmy. In the spot where she had stood, he now saw the front bumper of Jude’s truck.

Patrick scanned the room for everyone else. Where had they stood? He even wanted to glimpse the dark-haired heads of Xavier and Evangeline. Patrick saw them first. They had backed into the hallway and huddled together, looking as shocked as he felt. Mom? Samantha? Where?

And what about Jude?

He heard his mother’s voice. “Emmy!”

Patrick released Emmy from his grip and saw blood on his hands. Emmy stayed standing when he released her, a good sign, but her stomach and chest were red with blood. She clutched at her heart, breathing heavily.

“What happened?” Mom ran over and pulled up Emmy’s shirt. “What got you?”

“Glass, I think,” Emmy said.

She had a deep cut right under her bra. Patrick saw blood pulsing out of the gash with each heartbeat.

Xavier came from nowhere and firmly pressed a folded throw blanket against the wound.

“Thank you,” Mom said.

Samantha made her way to Emmy’s side. Bits of glass sparkled in her hair, but she looked okay. What about Jude? Patrick climbed over the pile of wood that used to be the coffee table and scrambled over to the driver’s side of the truck. The door was cracked open but wedged shut against the side of what used to be the couch. Patrick heaved his weight against the couch and moved it out of the way. The door came open, and Jude fell out on top of him. He reeked of alcohol and needed to cling to Patrick to keep from falling over. But still conscious. Lucid. And, by the look on his face, he sobered up fast.

“Emmy,” he said.

As soon as he said her name, his blue eyes stilled, as if they had turned to glass. Then they seemed to melt. Patrick held his brother up while he cried.

David had made it back to the Expressway when his phone rang. Amanda.

“I’m almost home,” he said.

He heard silence on the other line.

“Amanda? Did you pocket dial me?”

“No. I’m here.”

“I’ll be at the house in ten.”

“David.”

“Yes?”

“Something happened.”

His stomach got heavy. Dear God, what now? His stress headache already made him nauseous. Not today. Nothing else today.

“What?”

“First, everyone is okay. Or will be okay.”

“What?”

“Jude crashed the truck into the living room. Emmy was hurt, but she’ll be okay. She needs stitches and a blood transfusion. We just arrived in the ER at Memorial Hermann. Please come here.”