Drowned In Silence

35. Liar

Liar

Elliot

He drops the groceries at his feet, throws his hands up in defence and takes a step back.

“Woah, bro. I told you I went to get groceries. What happened?” He says with mock empathy. He takes two more steps back out of the front door and onto the porch.

“I can’t believe you,” I growl again. I let go of Dynah and step around the couch, never taking my eyes off of him. Once I get face to face, I take both hands, lay them on his chest and push him off the porch. He lands on his ass in the sand, looking at me with fear in his eyes.

I’ve never once made him feel the full strength of my anger. He’s never seen how I can flip a switch and become more unhinged than usual.

He scatters to catch his footing, slowly crawling backwards in the sand that battles to swallow him whole.

“I don’t know what happened? What's wrong, Elliot? Why are you acting like this?” Spencer yells from beneath me.

“You don’t know why I’m mad?” I scream at him, my head tilting to the side and my eyes pinning him down with anger. “What’s in your closet, Spencer Martin?”

His face pales more than possible, his skin turning a greyish green. He stops looking at me and lets out a broken sigh.

“Elliot… Spencer? What’s going on?” Dynah asks from the doorway.

“Go back inside, Darling. I’ll be back soon. Lock the doors, let no one but me in. Not even him,” I tell her, pointing at Spencer.

“Elliot?” She says, frightened and scared.

“NOW!” I yell, whipping my head to her and letting Spencer get a chance to run. I walk back up the porch and grab her by the back of the neck, pulling her forehead to mine. “I have to take care of this, Little Raven. You stay put. Please. I don’t usually beg, but I will now. I’m begging you to be a good girl and stay in this house. Do you understand?”

Her tears fall from her cheeks, and I wipe them away with my thumb. She nods and steps back from me, holding the door handle and looking at me like I am possessed.

“Stay,” I command her, before I turn around and walk off the porch, pulling my knife– that always remains in my pocket– out, and hunting Spencer.

It doesn’t take long for me to find his hiding spot behind some trees along the beach's edge. Footsteps in the sand are always a tale-tale sign of where a person came from, and where they go.

“Oh, Pen,” I call out sweetly into the forest. “Tell me about the paperwork I found. Tell me that you haven’t been FUCKING LYING TO ME for almost 19 fucking years!”

He slips between the trees and I follow him with my eyes and the point of my knife. When he trips and falls onto his stomach, I pounce. I land on top of him, pinning his body down with mine.

I grab his hair in one hand and lay my blade against his throat.

“Speak,” I growl at him, forcing him to gulp. I can feel it beneath my blade, I can feel how terrified he is of me at this moment.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know how to tell you! You’ve been adamant for so long about finding the girl and you wouldn’t listen to anything I’ve ever said! I tried to get you to not go to that town, but you wouldn’t listen,” he sobs uncontrollably.

“You lied to me, Spencer,” I whisper, bending down to talk in his ear. “You kept this from me for so long.”

“Please, Elliot! You’re still my brother. I have been okay with whatever you do for this entire time. Don’t kill me. Don’t lose the rest of your family, too,” he pleads.

“Family?! You want to talk about family?!” I move the blade so it nicks his throat, letting the tiniest bit of blood seep out. “You had all this time to tell me the truth about her! You all did! No one told me that me and Dynah are fucking step-siblings! ”

“I’m sorry, Elliot! Truly!” He wiggles around beneath me, trying to flip himself over to look at me.

I allow him, only so I can see his eyes and see the fear he holds within them. Eyes are the pathways to the soul. If he is really remorseful and sorry, then I will try and forgive him. Family or not, Spencer has been by my side for my entire life and I don’t want to lose him. Even though he has been keeping this secret from me.

When we lock eyes, I can see inside his mind. He really is upset. He looks at me pathetically, sniffling, and still crying.

“I love you as my brother. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything,” he whispers to me.

I release my blade that found its way back to his throat, and stand up slowly. I tuck the knife back into my pocket and run my fingers through my hair.

“I’m not forgiving you yet. Tell me more. How can the man who walked out on my mom, be the same fucking guy that raised her?”

“Well… Uhm,” he starts, sitting up and leaning on his forearms, watching me walk back and forth between the trees. “From what I know, your mom left him when he started beating both of you when you were just a baby. After your mom died, you went to live with him and his new wife for a few weeks before my parents filed for adoption or some shit. That’s how the picture ended up with you. My mom took it the day we got you home, but she never let you have it. She hid it in the attic, but you found it first. I’m so sorry, Elliot. I really am. If we would have kept more of an eye on Dynah, we probably would have adopted her too, but the piece of shit shut our parents out. After we took you in, he lost contact and forced his new wife– Dynah’s mom– to move. I only knew the town she was living in, nothing more.”

I pull my hair from my scalp, letting the pain help control my anger.

“She’s my step-sister, Spencer. I’ve been fucking with my step-sister! ”

“I know…” He says, looking down at his lap, lost in thought.

“She can’t know. Not yet. She’s still broken,” I mutter to myself. Spencer agrees and I allow him to get up on his feet.

We walk back to the house, and pray that Dynah didn’t follow us. I can’t have her knowing. I can’t have her finding out the truth.

My step-sister…