Chapter 3

I picked up my fork and shoveled food into my mouth mechanically. Everything I swallowed tasted like nothing, as if I were chewing cardboard.

Soon? There was no soon. Not for me.

After dinner, Mom and Dad took me out to walk around the neighborhood. The open lot outside was packed with people, laughter and chatter rising from every direction in a wash of celebration.

None of it had anything to do with me.

I stood at the dark edge of the crowd, my gaze drifting past the sea of faces to the abandoned building in the distance. It loomed alone against the night sky, no lights, just a dark, hulking shape crouched in the darkness.

It was the place I had decided on. The most fitting place for it all to end.

The cuts on my palms had already scabbed over, but I could not stop myself from picking at the edges. The scab tore free and fresh blood beaded to the surface, sticky on my fingertips, carrying a faint copper smell.

It was fine. Just a little longer. I just had to hold on a little longer, and it would all be over. I would never have to go back to that hell.

Soft footsteps approached from beside me, and Talia crept over, holding a small building block set shaped like a torch. The tiny flame design caught the light, flickering against the unease in her eyes.

She held it out to me, her voice barely above a whisper, as if she were afraid of startling me. "Tommy, you used to love these, remember? I bought this one just for you."

She kept the toy extended at arm's length, deliberately staying far back. She was terrified of scaring me again.

I stared at it for a moment, then shook my head and shrank back, pulling away from it. I did not dare take it. The camp rules said you could not accept things handed to you by the opposite sex. Even standing near her felt like a violation.

Talia's hand hung in the air, and the light in her eyes dimmed piece by piece. She pulled her hand back without a word, clutching the little toy, and turned to walk back to Mom and Dad.

Watching her walk away, I opened my mouth, but the words came out so quietly that only I could hear them. "I'm sorry, Talia."

I stood in the dark for a long time, watching the smiles on strangers' faces and listening to the laughter around me, feeling like something that did not belong anywhere.

The crowd grew louder and livelier. Mom, Dad, and Talia got pulled into a conversation by the neighbors, and no one noticed me.

This was the best chance I would get. I could slip away while it was busy, walk to the abandoned building, and no one would see.

I took a deep breath, squeezed my bleeding palm, and lifted my foot to go. However, just then, their voices drifted over to me, sharp and clear. Every word cut into my chest like a blade.

Dad spoke first, a thread of worry in his voice. "Where'd Tommy go? He was just here a second ago."

Talia's voice followed, quick and protective. "Leave him alone. He probably just got overwhelmed by the crowd and went somewhere quiet. He'll be back."

Then Mom's voice rose suddenly, sharp and barely controlled, as if Talia's words had set something off in her.

"Leave him alone? You're going to stand here and defend your brother now? If you hadn't insisted on dating that boy, your brother would never have been sent to that place! All you had to do was break up with him, and your brother wouldn't have had to go. You didn't know how to protect him then, but now you do?"

Mom's words hit me like a physical force, locking every muscle in my body. It felt like the blood in my veins had stopped moving.

"If I hadn't felt sorry for you because you're a girl, the one they sent wouldn't have been Tommy. It would have been you!"

That sentence buried itself in my chest like a spike of ice, twisting through everything inside me until there was nothing that did not hurt.

I finally learned the truth!

It was never about me saying 'goodbye' to a girl from school. It was never about me 'not knowing the rules'. The reason I was sent to that hell was my own sister. It was because she refused to break up with her boyfriend.

They had not sent me to that place to teach me a lesson. I was just a warning, a punishment aimed at Talia but carried out on me.