Tieran clears his throat as he wipes away a tear then looks down at me.
I can see the corners of his eyes crinkle and I know that he’s probably reliving another memory that neither of us wants to remember or talk about.
“Hey, check that out,” he suddenly says, nodding behind me.
I place my hands on his hips as I turn around to see what’s got his attention, then I look back up at him and grin.
“Let’s have some fun,” I beg him, hopping quickly in place. He laughs as he drapes an arm around my shoulders, pulls me close, then presses his scarf-covered lips against mine.
“Like I could ever say no to you?” he teases as he turns me around and we walk over to the source of our shared excitement.
When it’s within touching distance, Tieran scoops me up off the ground, then deposits me into the metal basket of the shopping cart.
I throw my arms in the air like a victory won over a battle not yet fought, as he places a foot on the slim bar just above the wheels and pushes us down the street with a gleeful laugh.
If only she could see us like this. Happy, carefree, loving. All of the things she tried to take away from us grew into a mutation of its own and we’ve claimed each other’s souls as the only way to survive this brutal world.
However, our love wasn’t for Gloria’s eyes, nor her approval. She’d do her best to make us feel like useless whores just because we found something in each other that she never could find in someone else.
Her loneliness, hergreed, drove her to abuse us and sell our bodies—and I’ll never fucking forgive her for it.
I tried to stop understanding years ago, and that’s when I also realized that forgiveness would never come.
She doesn’t deserve it.
Even if she begs for it.
Pushing Gloria from my mind, I tuck my hair behind my ears as soon as Tieran reaches forward and yanks my hood off. I glance back at him and make a face he can’t see, but he laughs anyway as he pushes off the pavement again.
“You know, I can push this thing, too!” I say to him, pulling the scarf down and sticking my tongue out at him.
“Eh, you aren’t strong enough to push me in this, Hens. Besides, as the younger sibling, I think it’s only fair that I get to push you around for once.”
I give him a stale look and he laughs again as he drops his foot and then pushes the cart along at a steady pace.
“Got anything you wanna do before we head over into the poor side of town?” he asks me dryly with an eye roll.
I smirk as I shake my head and then turn back around. My legs become a little numb and cramped in the basket end of the carriage, but I’ll be fine once we getthere.I lay the bat on my legs as I lean my head back and sigh.
I always had been when we ran away and then went back home; I will be now.
And so will you, little brother,I promise him silently.
The thing about Hell is that it’s always so welcoming. It’s a guise of golden streets, lush green forests, and crystal blue lakes that one can see to the bottom of, but when one steps too closely to the water, stops to admire the golden pavement, or even place a hand on the large, thick tree trunks, it swallows one up whole for being such a fucking fool to begin with.
And that was Gloria.
She’s killed more johns than she actually fucked because they tried to stiff her. Though with times are what they’ve now become, I’m hoping that maybe one of them returned the favor and that Tieran won’t have to look into her soulless fucking eyes again.
As Tieran slows his pace, I reach up and scratch the side of my face. We’re getting closer to the edge of town, which means we’re getting closer to Hell again.
I think we both knew that Gloria wasn’ttwo or three townsaway, but we both agreed to the assumption because we wanted to keep the other feeling safe for as long as we could.
“You don’t have to go in,” I offer as I tilt my head up to look at him. His knuckles turn white from how tightly he’s now gripping the handle, but Tieran shakes his head. “We started this together, and that’s how we’re going to end it.”
I smiled as I reached up and gently squeezed his hand.
He was still afraid of the Boogeyman.