Loser II || WlW

Thirty-One

     I suppress a gag and clamp a hand over my mouth as slide through the doorway. This is the fifth... maybe sixth dead body I've seen in the last year but no matter how many times I come face to face with them, it doesn't get easier. Bile rises in my throat and I'm grateful I didn't touch Chrissy's soup or it would be in a pile next to Ron... Real Ron. Wiping the sweat from my palms, I make my way to the exit and pull the keyring from my pocket. Maybe I missed one earlier. I have to get out of here. Have to find Brittany. 

But before I can start trying keys again, Zachary appears on the other side of the window, his eyes wild with fear.

I jump back without thinking. The site of him is still startling despite how different he looks. He doesn't share any of the same features with the Zachary I knew besides his eyes. Those deep brown eyes, always so full of emotion.

"Did they hurt you?" he asks, his voice muffled through the glass.

I shake my head.

He takes another step toward the window and when the light from the storage room shines on his face I let out an involuntary gasp.

His lip is cracked with blood, he's got a light bruise spreading under his eye, and a knife wound that runs parallel with his cheekbone.

"What happened to you?" I immediately regret the question. I don't care what happened to him. Or, at least, I shouldn't. But I do. And by the way the corner of his mouth twitches into a half-smile, he knows it.

He scratches his neck while he talks. His nervous tick. "That guy Roger attacked me when they found out about his son."

I find myself gravitating toward the window. I tell myself it's so he can hear me easier through the door but there's an edge of protectiveness in my tone as I say, "you didn't have anything to do with that."

Zachary glances over his shoulder. "Roger doesn't care. And that Ron guy? He lied about Brittany's uncle. He never left. I saw him walking around your cabin." He shakes his head. "I have a bad feeling about all this, Jo. We have to get you out of here."

I shake my head, take a step away from the door.

He's looking the door up and down, wiggles the doorknob. "I need a key. There has to be a key around here," he mutters and then he's gone from view. He pops back up and shakes his head and I find myself missing the way his floppy brown curls used to bounce when he did that. "Nothing on this side. How much you wanna bet the only key is with that Ron guy?"

I don't know what to say. I don't know how to talk to him anymore.

"I'll go get it for you," he says as he motions over his shoulder.

I reach out before he can leave. "Have you seen Brittany?"

His expression falls. "You still haven't put it together." He taps his fingers against the door while he thinks.

"Zachary, I watched you kill our father," I tell him. "And if you don't remember, you tried to kill me too."

"And you left me in the river to die," he spits. "But I forgave you."

"It was self-defense, Zachary."

He slams his fist against the door. "When did you start calling me that anyway?"

I can feel us spiraling into one of those sibling arguments, the ones that end up being about nothing but everything all at once. "Your name?"

He scoffs. "You know Dad only called me Zachary when he was mad."

"Well, excuse me if I'm not too keen on using your nickname after you tried to murder me."

His lips press into a thin line as he chews the inside of his cheek.

I shake my head. "Why are you here anyway?"

"I'm trying to help my little sister get off this stupid mountain alive," he screams. His face goes a dark shade of red.

"But how did you know where to find me? Who told you where I was?"

His eyebrows pull together. "It was just a guess, Jo. I got some spam text with a coupon code for a resort and I thought about what you said on the phone. I thought maybe you'd be here too and if you weren't I was just going to turn around and go home."

"Bullshit."

He pulls his phone out and holds it up for me to see. "You want the number? I'll give you the number."

I'm not planning on doing anything with the number but just to prove a point, just to show him I'm not falling for his crap, I grab a pen off the filing cabinet and nod. "Give it to me," I order.

He rolls his eyes, taps his phone a few times, and reads the number to me as I write it thickly on my arm so it won't smudge.

"Have you seen the house?"

The question comes out of nowhere, makes my blood run cold. I shake my head. "I haven't been back since it sold."

"The new owners fixed it up pretty nice."

I don't say anything, only offer a nod. I'm not having small talk with the boy who murdered my dad.

He clears his throat, scratches the back of his head. "I'll go find Ron and lift the keys off him."

I look at him for the first time since I wrote the number on my arm. "Does Brittany really have something to do with all this?"

Zachary almost smiles, looks at the ground instead, and when he looks at me again he says, "Are you finally ready to hear the truth about what happened?" 

***

Okay! I know I promised I wouldn't do another short chapter but listen. I found out yesterday that my best friend has covid and it was very distracting for me so I couldn't seem to get in the flow. Excuses aside, you have my sincerest apologies and I can promise with 99% certainty (as long as I don't get covid or something) I will have full-length uploads for ya'll next week. 

But, anyway, this is my last upload for the week unless you're one of those extra special people who watch my subpar YouTube videos in which case, I will see ya'll tomorrow.

I hope you all have a magical weekend (: 

***