Behind Every Lie(9)

I struggled against him. “No! I need to go home!”

Liam’s eyebrows shot to his hairline as he sidestepped my flailing limbs. My heart and head were pounding in tandem. I felt like I was floating out of my body, looking at myself and wondering who the hell had replaced me.

I swung my legs around to the floor, tentatively putting weight on my feet.

“Didn’t you hear the doctor?” Liam’s clenched jaw gave away the worry he meant to mask. “You need to rest, let your brain recover. You’re hooked to an IV, for God’s sake!”

Our eyes locked, mine pulsing, a staccato flicker in my peripheral vision. Fear poured ice through my veins. I ripped the tape from my arm and the IV out in one smooth motion.

Liam gasped. “Eva! What are you—why’d you do that?”

We stared at the blood pumping from the inside of my arm. I hadn’t thought it would bleed so much.

Liam grabbed a handful of cotton balls from a canister and pressed them to my arm. “That IV was in a vein! What is wrong with you?”

The blood was already clotting, oozing instead of pumping. “Where are my clothes?”

“Don’t you remember? They had to cut your shirt off. There was no sign of your coat.”

I groaned, frustrated I’d forgotten.

“Eva …” Liam’s gaze was on the lightning marks that peeked out of the gauze bandaging on my arm. “Does it hurt?”

The marks looked like cracks embossed onto my skin, a mosaic of broken shards that climbed up my arm.

“No,” I lied. I tapped the gauze back down. It hurt like hell, but I’d rather eat my arm than stay in the hospital another minute. I had to get out of there. A deep sense of urgency pressed down on me. “I’m fine. Can we go home?”

I hobbled to the cupboard on the far side of the room. My body throbbed. My equilibrium was totally off. Inside I found a plastic bag with my things. My leggings and shoes were fine, my cell phone unharmed. But my socks were singed, my shirt and green corduroy jacket missing.

I slid my leggings on, then rolled up the hem of my hospital gown, pulling the ends together and tying them in a knot at my waist, nineties-style.

Liam sighed. “You look ridiculous.”

I ignored him and walked unsteadily to the open door.

“Eva, stop!” Liam’s fair eyebrows scrunched into balls. “What is going on? This isn’t like you!”

I knew I was behaving out of character, but I couldn’t seem to find the words to explain how terrified I felt. An overwhelming sense that I wasn’t safe here crashed over me.

Suddenly I was sobbing in giant, messy gulps, spluttering and gasping for air. I knew that something very bad had happened, worse than before. Something, or someone, threatened me still, but I couldn’t remember what.

“Please! Someone … I was running.…” I wasn’t making sense, the words coming out wrong. I couldn’t convey what I was thinking because I couldn’t rely on my brain to tell me the truth.

“Shhh …” Liam pulled me against him, so tight I could barely breathe. “It’s okay. Remember, the doctor said this could happen. You just need to rest. Let’s get you home. I’ll get your meds later.”

Downstairs, the chill of fall slid in through reception’s rotating doors; then suddenly we were outside and I tasted it on the breeze, saw it in the harsh slant of the shadows cast between clouds bloated with rain. The wind whispered ominously in the treetops as we crossed to the parking garage. The remnants of a storm were everywhere: broken boughs, torn leaves, standing water, pieces of garbage strewn over the road.

Liam kept his arm around me as he led me to the car. I caught sight of my reflection in the window as he unlocked the door. My short hair was more disheveled than usual, tufts sticking up in every direction. My eyes were charcoal-hued, circled by dark moons and sunken in my small, pale face. A massive bandage covered the lump on my temple.

I swiped at the water on the window, smearing my reflection into a swirl of distorted colors, someone completely unrecognizable from the person who’d stood there only seconds before.



* * *



The Mukilteo ferry terminal glowed in the fading light as we pulled up. Workers in high-vis vests shouted and waved their arms as we drove onto the boat. Soon it was chugging into the choppy waters of Puget Sound. The trip was only twenty minutes, so we didn’t bother going upstairs. Instead, I left Liam checking his phone while I went to the back of the car deck.

I stared at the steel-gray waters churning behind the ferry. Tears filled my eyes as reality smacked me in the face. This time yesterday I was about to get this ferry into Seattle to see my mom.

The mist swirled up and combined with the moisture on my cheeks. My relationship with my mother had become prickly these last few years. Distant. I’d never forgiven her for her cruel words, the arguments we’d had.

And now she was dead.

My cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw it flashing Andrew.

“Eva!” my brother exclaimed. “What’s going on? I’m at the hospital. Where are you?”

Andrew was the kind of person who waited a half hour after eating before going swimming; who stopped at a stop sign even in the middle of the night. If the sign said don’t walk on the grass, he didn’t walk on the grass. There was no way he’d understand my need to run, to hide, to get away from this.