“Venus, what the hell were you thinking?” my mother muttered after a few minutes of silence. She walked closer and stood behind me. “You made a deal with the devil? For answers to your stupid questions?”
Seriously? She could stand there and say that to me despite everything that just happened, everything that she just admitted?
I rolled my eyes and moved to face her. “Apparently it runs in the family. And I only went to him because you two refused to tell me the truth. I went to you when I needed answers and you treated me like a child, making me believe I was crazy. If you’d only been honest I wouldn’t have needed to reach out to him.”
My mother glared. “Don’t blame this on us! You brought his attention to us by bringing those creatures into our home! He could’ve taken us right now. Hell, he could come back and take us any moment, now that you’ve revealed where we are. If anything happens it’ll be—”
“It’ll be on you.” I cut in, trying to ignore how her words planted fear in my heart. “You had the chance to bargain with him, but you didn’t. You didn’t even give him a chance to finish what he was going to say. What kind of reckless person accepts a deal without knowing all the details?”
“You think you know everything, but you don’t,” my mother accused. “You brought him here and that’s on no one but you— grow up and learn how to take responsibilities for your actions.”
My eye twitched as her words registered in my brain. It was like something snapped in me and fire burned in my veins. My hands itched with the need to break something.
“Are you kidding me? I need to grow up and accept responsibility? Me? Who made the deal in the first place?”
“It was to save you!” Her face was turning an alarming shade of red, one which I’m sure was reflected on my own skin.
“Did I ask you to?” I snapped. To her credit, she flinched. “I never knew this world, mom. So be honest with me for once— who were you really saving that day?”
I could hear the blood pumping through my veins, and I wasn’t sure whether the room was that silent or I was that angry.
“Alright,” my father finally spoke up. His hands were raised as he came to stand between us. “Emotions are high right now, so why don’t we just take the night to reflect on everything? Katherine, you’ve got work tomorrow morning and Venus has school. If we could just—”
“I don’t even go to school,” I muttered childishly.
It felt like a good time to throw caution to the wind and destroy my relationship with my parents. I wanted to hurt them like they would hurt me when they died.
“What?” my mother whispered.
“I stopped going,” I shrugged. I could barely meet her eyes. “After the first two weeks, I decided I didn’t want to study psychology anymore. Not that you would know, or care. You two are always so busy making sure we look like the perfect family to others that you stopped being good parents to me.”
I didn’t mean that. Oh my god, I didn’t mean that— but it was too late to take back my words. The tears in my mother’s eyes felt like poison. I could feel something nasty take hold of my heart and burn it.
In an instant, the hurt in her eyes was replaced by fury and she stormed out of my room. My father looked at me with a stern face.
“I hope you’re happy now.”
He walked out after her. I was left alone with my guilt and anger.
Suddenly I was the bad guy, now?
I rubbed my eyes and ran my hands through my hair. The itching got stronger and no matter how many times I clenched and unclenched my fists, the feeling lingered in my palms. Looking around in my room, I groaned. There wasn’t anything worth breaking.
A slight breeze blew through my window and I paused in my movements. Did I dare go out the window?
I poked my head out and judged the distance. It didn’t appear to be a long fall, only two stories high if I were to guess. Climbing down the roof where possible would lessen that to about half the height…
Just thinking about it had my blood rushing through my body again, except this time it was a good feeling that made me feel like I could take on anything.
“Fuck it,” I muttered to myself and climbed out the window. My legs shook as I balanced on the roof tiles.
With a deep breath, I let go of the window and slid down the rooftop. The air brushing back my hair was one of the best feelings I’d experienced since the last time I’d been at an amusement park.
But holy shit, this was worlds better.
I closed my eyes as I jumped off the roof. This was flying— this was freedom.
The loud snap as my feet touched the ground was the first thing to bring me back into awareness. The second thing was the mind-numbing pain that climbed up my leg as I fell face-first into the grass.
I bit my lip to keep from screaming but tears slid down my face as I writhed around in pain.
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