W\\CKED

Scar

[Jul]

I slid the green beans on my plate back and forth, unable to stir up an appetite after spending the afternoon at Ken's wake. My father watched me, having already finished the sandwich on his own plate. His days were long, lasting well past midnight, so his meals were small and staggered, though he always made sure to sit down to dinner with me.

"Have you been getting enough sleep?" he asked.

"I'm okay."

"You don't look okay."

I stared at my plate. "How do I look?"

"Like you've been having bad dreams."

My dreams were none of his business.

"Juliet," he said firmly, "we need to talk about what happened."

"Why?" I set my fork down. "I'm not a witness."

"The mark on Kaydrien's face was, inch for inch, an exact duplicate of your own."

I ducked my head down, seeking shelter behind my hair. "That doesn't make sense."

"It does if they were made by the same person."

I pushed away from the table. "Excuse me. I need to-"

"Look at me."

He was a bulky silhouette I glimpsed between streaks of yellow. "Why do we have to talk about this? Can't we leave it in the past?"

"This isn't the past anymore. It's here and now." He moved to the chair beside me. "The mark on your face belongs to a serial killer." The shape of him filled my vision. "He makes his victims bleed before he kills them." I turned my head away, but he still loomed in the corner of my eye. "I know that all you have left of that night is fragments, but now you need to know what you don't remember. He killed your mother first. Then he killed your brother. He would have killed you, too, but before your brother died..."

A moment of silence. The figure rose, receding from my vision.

I tucked a section of hair behind my ear, so that I could see him through one eye. He was staring at a family portrait on the wall. It was one of my favorite images, an intimate moment caught by my father. Jordan was carrying me on his back. We were playing nerfoid battle with Mom. Dad took the photo a split-second after I dropped my foam sword. I was leaning over my brother's shoulder, my fingers stretched out as it fell out of reach. Jordan had his arms tight around my legs to make sure I didn't fall. His head was turned toward me, a big grin spread across his face. It was the last photo taken of him. Two days later, Mom and Jordan were dead.

"Your brother bought you time. It meant a more painful death for him." Bitterness filled his voice. "I could barely look at what that bastard did to him."

Jordan, looking at me as he holds Mom's limp body in his arms.

"It's my business to protect people, but that night, I couldn't save my own wife and son."

In his eyes, horror. He knows what is going to happen next.

"I didn't even know my family was in danger until it was too late."

In his eyes, determination. He knows what he has to do.

"I was the one who put them in danger in the first place."

His lips move, as he whispers goodbye.

"That scar on your face is my fault."

Don't do this, Jordan.

"We were hunting that bastard down for abducting one of our clients."

Please don't leave me.

"He hunted us down as revenge."

I didn't mean to let the monster in.

My father was suddenly there, bending down in front of me. "He's come back to finish what he started."

I heard his words and understood them, but they seemed so far away. I was still looking into my brother's eyes, in those precious seconds before I lost him because of what I'd done. Jordan, Mom, Dad...their lives were destroyed because of me.

"Juliet, don't tune me out. I know it's hard to face something as terrible as this, believe me I know, but I need you to face the truth."

His words were dragging me back to the present. Jordan's face faded. My fingers reached out for my older brother; they found my father's chest instead. My fingers clung to the fabric of his shirt.

My father's strong hand slid over mine. "He wasn't after Ken or Kaydrien. They were his way of sending a message."

"Ken's death was a message." I wasn't asking a question. I was confirming an incomprehensible truth. "Is he going to kill Kaydrien, too?" I could barely get out the next sentence. "What about Sanny?"

"Your friends are being looked out for. My primary concern is you. Until we catch this killer, I'm going to have to restrict you to the estate for your own safety."

"I can't go anywhere?" The idea of being trapped in the house night and day, surrounded by portraits of the dead, was unbearable. "What about school?"

"I doubt they could make the Academy secure enough to satisfy my expectations."

"But I have to go to school." There was no way I could spend day after interminable day alone while my father chased a threat that had already eluded him for twelve years. "Please, Dad, please," I begged. My fingers trembled; his hand wrapped more tightly around mine. "I need my friends right now, my routine. I need to feel like everything is normal."

After an agonizingly long moment, he said, "I'll see what can be arranged."