Read The Blood Will Run for Free Online

where the other large scar was on her right rib. She couldn’t help but wonder, why she didn’t die as her mother and brother did that night.
    Coven Daily had reported the story a couple of days later in the newspaper. The car that smashed into her mothers’ Honda had belonged to an old man by the name of Jack Parkinson. Jack
    Parkinson was the town drunk. He passed out while he was driving and it wasn’t the first time according to Sheriff Hunter.
    Alivia pulled the clipping out of her uniform pocket and read it for the millionth time.
    Four killed in the Omar gas explosion that shook the peaceful streets of Newgrave:
    An autopsy report revealed that Jack Parkinson had a Blood Alcohol Concentration level of point twenty-eight.  Sheriff Hunter of the County Sheriffs’ department explained that a point twenty-eight BAC level was the reason Mr. Parkinson slipped into an unconscious state before he collided with the Marks’ Honda at the Omar gas station. Sheriff Hunter explained to the press, that Jack Parkinson had several driving under the influence arrests, that landed him in the county jail on several occasions over the past twenty years. Coven Creek and it’s residents will miss seventeen-year-old Lawson Marks and forty-nine-year-old Amelia Marks. Mr. Grell who was the owner of the gas station also died in the explosion. Mr. Grell, who was fifty-three years old, was in the process of selling the Omar station to move to sunny Florida with his daughter Rita. Alivia Marks the only survivor in the explosion is currently at home with her sister Jules and is in fairly good health. Jules and Alivia Marks will continue to run the Grand Coffin Cafe in Coven Creek, as it was their mothers’ lifelong dream.
    Alivia folded the clipping and slid it back in her pocket.
    For the longest time she had blamed herself for what happened.
    If she hadn’t insisted on going to the bathroom that night they wouldn’t have been at the gas station and Lawson and her mom would still be alive.
    Jules was the one who snapped Alivia back to reality.
    She read the newspaper clipping to Alivia every single day at least three times a day. When Jules finished reading it, she’d tell her that there was nothing she could’ve done and there was no possible way that the accident could’ve been her fault.
    It took her sister a little over three weeks to convince her. Eventually, Alivia replaced the guilt with anger and wondered why the Sheriff didn’t take away Jack Parkinsons’ license.
    When Alivia questioned the Sheriff about it, she found out that Jack Parkinson lost his drivers’ license over ten years ago. Now, when she read the clipping, she knew it was his fault for driving drunk without a license.
    Still, she felt the loss. She missed Lawson and her mom so much. Now, she spent as much time as she could at the cemetery at the family burial plot. She’d sit there for hours at a time. Some nights, she’d fall asleep on the grave. Somehow, this made her feel closer to them.
    She could feel the tears sting her eyes. She tried to force them back and concentrate on chopping the ingredients for the Cafes’ homemade special salsa. But she had to stop because the tears streamed down her cheeks anyway.
    The door behind her swung open, but Alivia didn’t turn around to see who it was.
    “Hi, um… I was wondering if you were going to the party tonight.”
    She recognized the voice. It belonged to Chace.
    “Alivia?”
    She couldn’t turn to face him.
    Seconds later, he was standing beside her. He cupped his palm under her chin and turned her to look at him. When he saw her tears, he brought his thumbs up to her cheeks and wiped them away while he cradled her face in his hands. She stared at him and cried even harder. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. She buried her wet face against his t-shirt and sobbed as he stroked her hair.
    Chace never said a word. He just held her close to him stroking her hair with his hand as