Within These Walls

Life After Dark: 13 (WTW Sequel)

I've seen dead bodies. The cold press of a knife handle in my palm. The reverberating shock of a gunshot. Blood on my hands. Lifeless human eyes.

Just this hazy dream of a buried memory is enough to knock the breath out of me now. "Oh God." I sink down on the ground and cover my face with my hands. No wonder I kept disappearing all these months. I must have been blanking and killing innocents.

Davey comes over and lays a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, what is it? Are you okay?"

"I remember blanking." Tears blur my vision. "I killed people, Davey. Why didn't anyone stop me? The others must have known."

"I don't think you killed that many people."

I stare at him. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"I—I mean, I don't think you were blanking for that long. Sure, you were paranoid as hell and didn't trust anyone, and you always acted like you were trying to solve a riddle to prevent the world from exploding, but you were still you. All that stress piled on until eventually you did start blanking. And that's when your buddies started keeping you under lock and key."

"How do you know that?"

Davey stares out at the river, his teeth grazing his bottom lip. "You called me and asked me to break you out. You said you had an important job and you were afraid Willow was going to block your memories before you got around to it."

"Did I tell you what was so important?"

He shakes his head, smiling wryly. "You didn't even tell me about Hansel. What makes you think you shared such a gigantic secret with me? Whatever it was, I'm guessing it had the power to save the world. Or end it."

His words tickle the back of my brain, which aggravates me more than it helps. Growling, I rub my eyes with my knuckles until they hurt. "I hate this. I hate not knowing something so important. Dammit, I need to remember."

"You need to relax," he says soothingly, squeezing my shoulder before returning to his brother's side. "Stressing out didn't help you the first time. You'll probably keep remembering little by little, so you shouldn't let yourself get worked up."

That's why I asked Davey to meet me here when he asked to catch up. I need to relax and unwind. I thought sitting around for a week straight would've done the job, but all it's done is give me plenty of time to ruminate over my thoughts and worry about the unknown.

I watch Davey with Carson again, noticing the caring and loving way he interacts with his zombie brother. It's starkly clear that he loves him.

"We're not together, are we?" I say to him.

He turns around, his eyebrows raised. "Uh, what makes you say that?"

"You don't act like someone who has feelings for me."

His cheeks flush red as his gaze drops. "I didn't know what else to do."

"What do you mean?"

"I kissed you one day after you broke up with Marcus. We both went along with it because we were hurting, but it didn't last more than week. We just don't feel that way about each other. That's when you started going M.I.A and being secretive about everything. You didn't seem to care about finding a cure for Carson."

It doesn't take long to put two and two together. "So when I forgot the truth, you thought pretending to be together would get me invested again."

"I told you before. There's nothing I won't do for my brother. I'm sorry for tricking you, but I'm desperate, alright?" His face looks like it's aged a decade in less than a minute. "I don't know how long I can keep this up. Look at him. He's dying right in front of me, and I don't know what to do for him. Can't take him to a hospital or Gardiner will come after him. Can't just let him go because he's my kid brother and I love him too much to let those monsters take him. You're the only chance he's got."