Define Normal

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Still...

I let out a long sigh, banging my head against the tree trying to knock some sense into me and it must have worked because I pushed myself away from it, firmly telling myself that this wasn’t a cute reunion but a mission and if I wanted Jackson’s father to stay alive I needed to focus.

I moved quickly down the street, sticking to any shadows I could find as I left the school behind me about twenty minutes before it let out.

When I was at Jackson’s house, the general wasn’t there so I let myself in through the side door, picking the lock swiftly and using the code that I’d seen Jackson punch into the security system panel many times to disarm the alarm and I was in.

I wandered through the dining room and into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water and an orange from the fridge, smiling slightly as I remembered the one that general Ryder had chucked at my head to test my reflexes.

Good times.

The water bottle made crackling noises as I moved towards Jackson’s room, my hand squeezing the plastic hard as my heart started to hammer in my chest.

Holding my breath, I stopped in the doorway, my legs turning to jelly as his familiar space came into view making my heart ache in my chest. God, I missed him. I missed him so much it was like I’d lost a limb and seeing this reminder of him was like poking an open wound.

Still, something propelled me forward, some sick, twisted, messed up part of me wanted to immerse myself in the pain, in the memories so I had something to hold onto while I slowly became what I feared most. A killer. Hard, cold, detached and inhuman.

Half of me was already there but half of me was still here, in this town with my friends and family and Jackson, living life as a normal girl doing normal girl things but I felt that part of me slipping a little more every day.

And it was better that way, it really was.

It just kind of sucked.

I ran a hand over his bed, wishing I could just lie down there and wait for him until he was done school. He’d walk into his room, waking me up but I’d pretend to sleep as he stretched out on the bed beside me, gently lifting my head to place his arm under it, wrapping his other arm around my waist before planting a soft kiss on my lips, whispering that he loved me.

I squeezed my eyes shut and jerked my hand away from the mattress.

“Not gonna happen,” I muttered, feeling my heart for the first time in a month and wishing I wasn’t. That muscle was supposed to be numb, dead.

But there it was, hurting once again.

I moved over to the closet and carefully selected an old, worn out sweater of Jackson’s, one that he rarely wore and probably wouldn’t miss.

Now I had to get out of there before─

The creak of a floorboard made me freeze in my tracks, my heart racing with panic. Was it Jackson? Did he leave school early?

I listened to the soft sound of footsteps down the hallway as I shifted to flatten my back against the wall behind Jackson’s door. He was wearing boots.

Whoever was out there had boots on.

The general never let anyone wear shoes in the house.

A deadly sense of calm settled over me and I realized that whoever was out there, wasn’t Jackson and it wasn’t the general and my guess was, it wasn’t someone who wanted to pay a friendly visit.