Relentless

Chapter 47

"She's gone... and yet I still see her in my dream sometimes."

Peter silently stared at me, waiting to hear my response. For the first time in my life my words have failed me. I want to tell him how sorry I am for what he had to go through, but what would that change? Nothing. My mind scrambles to find something to say. Finally I say, "knowing the outcome, I thought I was prepared for it. I was dead wrong."

"Not funny." He snapped.

"I wasn't trying to be." I snapped back.

I see what Kane meant when he said that the memories will "trigger' him. If you don't know him well you would miss it but I can plainly see it behind his eyes. Something else. Something I couldn't put into words.

What are you, Peter?

"Anyway," Kane began, breaking the tension. "It's getting late." He lifted his head to the sky. "Did you want to go over our plan before morning?"

Some of the tension escapes my shoulders as they relax slightly. I silently thank him. For once he is being kind to me or maybe it is to serve his own purposes but frankly I don't care if he is just trying to keep secrets. I am grateful for the change of subject.

I look up at the sky. It's dust and the first stars are appearing above our heads. "Your right. Can you two go get Katrina and Ashton and meet me by the fire?"

"What are you going to do?" Kane whined.

"I have to talk to check-in with someone before our meeting starts."

"Come on, Kane. Let's leave her be." Peter said, his voice almost a mumble.

"Thank you." I replied respectfully.

He gave me a stoic nod and I am worried when he refused to meet my eye.

"Kane?"

He stopped and turned toward me. "Yes?"

"I changed my mind. Can I talk to you in private for a minute?"

He shrugged. "I guess so." He and his brother exchanged one last look that I couldn't decipher before he left.

I wait until Peter is out of earshot to speak my mind. "If I ask you a few questions will you be straight with me?"

Kane's eyes trailed to the ground. "I guess I can't blame you for having questions."

"Can I have your word?" I asked genuinely.

"It doesn't mean much but sure."

"What happened to him?"

"You mean besides becoming depressed after killing his own sister?"

"Kane, I'm being serious."

"So am I!" He snapped. "No matter how you look at it, one way or another Peter killed Emma. He kept her condition from our parents until it was out of control and our mother was murdered because of it. This is no joke, Celeste... and I never let my brother forget it, not that he needed my reminder. He had already taken it to heart."

"By why is he like- you know?"

"Ah, that. I don't completely understand it myself but from what I best understand, one of Emma's personalities 'escaped' her when it realized that she was dying."

"Can they do that?"

"One of them did. I mean, we don't know how many personalities she manifested but you saw how she returned to herself before she... anyway, I think that the most dominant one found the nearest host to survive on, which was Peter."