Paint with Me Among the Shadows (Book One, the Salvation MC Series)

20. Come with Me

It's in the exact spot where my fractures start.

I scream and the vines stop followed by a rumbling then an eruption. They explode all around the kitchen and surround me in the ashes of my memories.

Each tiny particle... a memory.

Me as a child smiling, laughing, playing tea with my sister, rushing to dad hugging him wherever he would come home, him teaching me to ride a bike, mom brushing my hair and singing to me as I played with a stuffed bunny. I was sweet, bright and... normal.

They still like a projector screen pausing.

Tears slide down my cheeks.

There's so much blood and I watch through the stilled soot as dad picks up my little body, causing my curls to get stuck in the linoleum. It rips off the counter as he maneuvers so I'm in his lap and his Goliath body surrounds me protectively.

Blood soaks his shirt but he has no idea.

"I've got you, Georgie. I won't let anything happen to you."

But something did.

I watch as the color starts draining from my face.

"What have you done?" My mother shrieks as the fireworks continue in the backyard where Amber sits unknowingly.

"Get back." Dad barks.

Mom tries to grab me but dad gets up and darts away with me.

"George, please let her go! Let my baby go!"

Dad gets more frantic and mom starts sobbing uncontrollably. "Please, please tell me that's not blood! Please tell me you didn't kill her!"

His body stills and he looks down and once he registers what's happened his eyes widen in horror. The sound of him breathing in a deep anguished sob as he wails, makes me cry more.

As soon as she sees its safe mom yanks me from him and runs to the phone dialing 911. Her voice becomes muddled as the memory starts to disappear from the thickness of the hovering ashes.

"It's not over." I look behind me and see my child self. She's sad as she stands with perfect posture and wearing that blue summer dress with bows.

"Who are you?" I ask as darkness takes over and the ashes now resemble grey snow hovering around us.

"I'm you," she says absently. "I'm the you that was. The one that was lost."

"What happened?" I ask. "I should've died."

She doesn't answer and stands there eerily. Tilting her head, as if she heard something coming from above us, she says, "Times up."

She fades away and soon the ashes slowly circle around me. Wind picks up and soon I'm caught in a tornado of soot. I try yelling but my voice is lost in the shrieks of the wind. The smoke lifts and then crashes down, billowing everywhere and soon I'm standing on something light.

I look down to see black water then fall in. It's like I'm flung back into my body and I stand, watching Adonis pummel his dad who's still laughing hysterically with a gurgle as his own blood tries to drown him.

I look around and realize I never fainted.

My eyes go to my painting and it's exactly the same with the figure staying where it should. I touch the back of my head and feel something rubbery against my skin. A scar I never knew was there before...

Or didn't want to remember was there.

I glance around and see Ducky and Amber looking at each other not knowing what to do. If they should stop Adonis or not. Bones, Dana and Nova are nowhere to be seen, which is probably a good thing given Bones' condition. My guess is that Nova and Dana are keeping him out of this for his own good.