The World Never Ended novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Voice

A man opens the cellar for a walk-through, and she knows his voice as the loudspeaker voice that ran her days; she hits him, and he carries her out and shows her a photo of her son.

I sat on the cellar step until the bleeding got worse.

Then I stood up, because sitting there was how I would die.

The only light came through a window well high on the back wall, gray with dusk.

I found the wine racks by touch.

Mom had called the bottles by year when I was a girl, and Dad had never let me near them.

I took one by the neck and kept it.

Upstairs the party people were already coming in and out, with caterers' carts and laughing.

Somebody was setting up chairs for my baby's welcome.

My legs started to shake, so I sat on an empty crate and held the bottle across my knees.

I watched the door at the top of the stairs and waited for it to open.

I did not know if I wanted it to be Dean or Mom or anyone, I only knew I would swing.

An hour went by, or two.

The bolt scraped back.

A flashlight beam swung down the steps and I stood up so fast the room tilted.

A man came down slowly with a radio on his belt.

"Cellar's last on the list," he said into it. "I'll pull the stairwell camera and I'm done."

I knew the voice before I knew his face.

It was the voice from the loudspeaker.

It had said wake-up at six every morning for five years.

It had said line up for rations, residents, and it had said lights out.

It had said, Resident Nineteen, report to the medical wing.

That was me.

"Resident Nineteen," I said.

The man stopped on the bottom step and the flashlight found me.

He was in his thirties, with a dark beard and a canvas jacket.

His mouth opened and no sound came out.

I swung the bottle.

It caught him on the shoulder and broke, and wine ran down his sleeve.

"Wait," he said.

"You said I could eat if I walked the line," I said, and swung what was left of it at his face.

He caught my wrist and did not squeeze.

"Stop," he said. "You're bleeding on the floor."

I looked down.

My dress was soaked to the knee and the floor around my feet was dark.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said.

"You said that in the first week too," I said, and my knees went.

He caught me before I hit the concrete.

He lifted me easily, and I knew why, because they weighed us every Sunday.

"Put me down."

"I will," he said. "In the truck. You need a hospital."

"They'll take me back."

"Then they'll have to do it in front of a hundred nurses," he said.

He carried me up the cellar stairs and not into the house.

There was an outside door at the top, the one the gardeners used.

It was open.

Nobody was in the yard.

I could hear the party being built around the corner, a man shouting about tables.

"Who are you?" I said.

"Shane Colgan." He did not meet my eyes. "I own the company that built the compound."

"You built it."

"My crew built it. I ran it." He swallowed. "I read the announcements."

"I know," I said. "I know exactly what you read."

I wanted to hit him again and my arm would not lift.

He kept walking, fast and quiet along the hedge to a white work truck at the end of the drive.

He set me on the passenger seat and shut the door gently.

The inside smelled like coffee and cable.

When he climbed in he took off his jacket and wrapped it around my waist, tight over the blood.

"Press here," he said. "Hard."

I pressed.

"Why are you helping me?"

He started the engine and did not answer until we were out of the gate.

"Gordon Sandstrom hired me for six weeks," he said. "A family intervention. I was told you knew, and you had agreed, and you needed a scare."

"I didn't know."

"I figured out you didn't about a month in."

The road went dark under the trees.

"A month," I said.

"And I stayed."

I turned my head and looked at him.

"I stayed because the contract doubled every year and I told myself the next month would be the end of it." His hands were tight on the wheel. "That's not a reason. I know that."

"No," I said. "It's not."

We drove in silence for a minute.

"Why would you tell me?"

"Because I'm done saying only what's on the card."

That was the Command voice, but quieter.

I leaned my head on the glass and the road lights slid over me.

He took out his phone at the red light at the highway.

"I have to show you something," he said. "I don't know if you want it."

"Show me."

He turned the screen.

A small boy sat at a table with his hands in a pile of frosting, grinning at the camera with all his teeth.

He had my eyes.

He had Dean's chin.

A paper crown sat crooked on his hair, and the cake in front of him said FOUR.

"That's your son," Shane said. "That's last month. He's well."

I put my hand over my mouth and could not make a sound.

I had a son.

Nobody had ever let me hold him.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend