They Fed Me to the Dead, So I Woke Up Before the End novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Pump House

Bridget set the thermos on a hay bale and folded her hands.

"Relax," she said. "Nobody's dying. I brought coffee."

Beside me, Jonas pulled on his flannel and reached for the ladder.

"I'll go find Ray," he said, and gave me one look I could have read in the dark.

Then he was gone, and the barn door creaked, and Bridget and I were alone.

I climbed down.

She poured two cups with steady hands and passed me one.

"Keaton's still asleep in the truck," she said. "The captain's on watch by the lane. Nobody saw you."

"Why are you telling me?"

"Because I'm your friend."

It was said so plainly that I almost believed it.

"I won't tell him," Bridget said. "Not about the fireman, not about last night. You look happy, Reese. I haven't seen you look like that in a long time."

I held the cup and said nothing.

Her eyes were wet, and she wiped them quickly with her sleeve.

"Just keep it quiet. Keaton is..." She stopped. "He's under a lot of strain. I don't want him hurting you."

"Hurting me how?"

"Like this." She waved a hand at the loft. "Being unkind. Making a scene. You know how he gets."

I hadn't known, the first time.

I had found out on a roof.

"Thank you," I said.

She hugged me, hard, the way she used to after bad exams.

I felt her trembling.

It was not the trembling of a liar who feared getting caught.

It was real fear, and I did not understand it.

I filed it away with the rest.

*

That night I lay awake in the cabin on the lumpy sofa bed next to my stepsister, and I listened.

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