Ethereal Love (Book 2 LS Series)

Chapter 37

Skipper's POV

My breath echoes through the empty night along with my whimpers and cries for help. It's no use.

Blood perpetually drips down into my eyes, and when I attempt to wipe it away with my blood-soaked hands, that only makes it worse. I kick off my heels, and toss them into a trash can, limping and dragging myself with all of my strength. My head is spinning, the world seems surreal, and coated in a thin sheen of red.

It seems I'll be alone in my misery forever, the death of a man (killer or not) is still resting firmly on my shoulders. I can feel my stomach lurching with the sickening reality of what has just happened, but I'm in shock, which numbs my body pain.

My mental pain- that's another story. Thoughts of murder and images of X's body flood my mind, and then it hits me-

I'm a murderer. I have killed a man.

I fall to my knees at the obvious revelation, dry heaving, as gasping for breath. I turn my red face to the sky, and let out a cry of pain to the world. Why? Why did it have to end this way, and why did it have to be me? I'll never be able to live with myself again, I know it in my heart.

I somehow manage to regain my footing, and continue my slow and lopsided sort of a trot down the street.

A few minutes pass, or maybe an hour... I can't tell, before I reach familiar territory. St. Mary's is dark, all the students having gone off to bed ages ago. As I drag down the sidewalk before the building, crying and whining, I spot a black town car a few feet ahead of me. As I make my way past it, I see that it is parked, and the windows are too black to know if there is anyone inside.

As I continue my hopeless effort, a loud sound scares me, the sound of a car door opening and closing. Every noise seems muted yet amplified at the same time, making the world appear to be extremely distorted.

"Skipper!" Now my mind is playing me, who could possibly be out here at this hour? I turn around anyways, almost tripping over my own bare feet, and peering back into the night.

"Skipper!" A figure calls through the dark, moving closer to me. Sweet relief floods my heart as I recognize the person. "Dad!" I call in response, sobbing and running straight into his waiting arms.

"Oh my god!" He almost yells, looking down at me with a mouth as wide as a cave. "Oh my... Skipper! You're covered in blood! You're shaking, you look terrible! What's happened?" He grips my shoulders, while I struggle to stay upright. "I... k-killed a man..." I manage to wail, before my knees buckle. "What?" He catches me before I fall, hugging me close to his chest.

I clutch him for dear life, afraid of what will happen if I am ever alone again.  "Baby, what? Speak to me, you have to tell me what's going on!" I can't speak anymore, it's like I have an apple lodged in my throat. "Come on Skipper." He pleads with me, but I can only shake my head.

"Okay, we're going back to my place now, you'll be safe there, alright?" I nod in agreement, and let him half-carry me over to the town car.

I slip in between consciousness and unconsciousness through the unbelievably long car ride. Sperm Donor's voice sounds like a thousand instead of one in my mind, begging me for information, panicking. I can see him nervously ravaging his own hair with his fingers, looking between me and the street rapidly. "We're almost there, baby," He keeps promising me, but I am certain a decade passes before the car comes to a stop.

"Don't tell anyone what you saw here," He says to the driver, tossing some bills at him.

I continue to sob, harder than I have ever before, as he pulls me up a shiny staircase to a huge set of wooden double doors. The night is far too vast for me to survey my surroundings, but I can't tell they're grand.