Page 112

Twice.

Surely this is the end.

Thrice.

Fuck, seriously?

My ears ring as the car finally comes to a stop.

There should be fear that circulates, but there is only a deep aching numb. A feeling of not again.

This isn’t the worst thing to happen to me. Not by a long shot.

My eyes flash open, and I find that I am hanging upside down. My hair hitting the roof of the car which is now on the ground.

My seatbelt is the only thing that keeps me in place.

Probably the only reason I didn’t go out the window.

And just as I have in situations like this prior, I dedicate a few beats to checking in with my body. To feel for injuries. I shift my limbs, my fingers, my toes, my nose.

Everything appears to be in working order.

It takes several beats to gain the rational thought that I need to call for help.

Warmth drips from my lip towards my nose, to my forehead, and then onto the roof of the car below me.

I follow its path and find my phone has managed to land in the only place I have any hope of reaching it.

It’s cracked. With hardly any battery left.

I slice my fingers as I navigate to my contacts. I can’t see her name but I scroll to where the S’s should be, clicking on it.

Or is that an R?

Rinnnnng—

She answers, soft music in the background, but before she can speak, I clip out, “Aunty! Listen to me, I was in a crash. I’m upside down. Code red, please help, my phone is going to die. I’m on the old highway north of to—”

The music disappears, and I pull my phone away to find it has died.

Fuck!

All I can do is hope she heard enough to find me and hang in here until she arrives.

54

Saving Her Bacon

Reuben

“We are trying to track down Romaine. He has gone into hiding and all the factories we have raided have been decoys,” Benedict explains.

We are in his home, a place I hate being.

Soft jazz music plays in the background as we sit across from each other in his living room. My eyes focus on the mantle before me.

On Benedict. Between two women… His sisters.