“Mom?”
There’s no answer, only loaded pregnant silence.
My hands shake as I wait for what seems like an eternity, but is actually only a second.
“Mom?” I demand, scared now.
Still nothing.
Then
A
Whisper.
“Oh, God. Finn.”
It’s my mother.
Her voice is hoarse and cracked and terrified and weak.
“My baby. What have I done?” Before the phone goes dead, before I can ask, she screams a haunting, shrieking wail, the torment of a mother.
“Finnnnnnnnnnnnnn!”
The line goes dead
And my heart goes dead
Because
FINN.
FINN.
FINN.
Chills run up and down my back, and goose-bumps form on my arms because somethingsomethingsomething terrible has happened to my brother.
My other half.
My heart.
I feel it.
Chapter Fourteen
I know it in my heart as I race out to the porch, as I stare at the smoke winding its way into the night sky, just a little ways down the mountain.
Finn is down there. I know it.
I know it
I know it.
I know it as I sink to a heap on the steps, gripping the phone.
I know it as I try to breathe and can’t.