Read Hurt: A Novel (Solitary Tales Series) for Free Online

me.
    “She’s at another rehabilitation center.”
    “Don’t lie,” I say.
    “I’m not lying. I have no reason to lie to you, Chris. This is not my doing. It’s out of my hands. But I do know she’s in rehab, thinking she needs to be there. Trapped. Going out of her mind. All on purpose, of course.”
    “What do you want me to do?”
    “I want you to relax. Please. Nothing is going to happen to your mother.”
    “That’s not what Staunch said.”
    “Of course not. And that’s why—listen to me, okay?—just listen. But sit. You’re making me nervous standing there.”
    I sit down on a couch, and he sits across from me. For a second he seems to look at me as if he’s trying to figure out what I’m thinking. Or what brand my shirt is. Or whether I’m wearing cologne (and no, I’m not).
    “I told you when we first met that I’m only here to help, Chris. To help you find your way.”
    “I just want my mom back.”
    “She’ll be back around soon.”
    “You take orders from Staunch. Who takes orders from that …”
    I can’t say what I’m thinking and feeling. There’s really no word to describe my great-grandfather.
    That old man who turned into a monster before my eyes.
    “Do what I say, and you’ll end up very happy. They don’t want your mother. They don’t want anything other than you, Chris. You.”
    “But why?”
    “Because it’s time. It’s been time for a while, but soon he won’t be here.”
    “You mean Walter Kinner?”
    I’m tired of saying great-grandfather . I don’t want to claim him.
    “Yes.”
    “So is there a crown and a ceremony? Do we have to kill a cow?”
    Marsh laughs. “That’s funny.”
    “I wasn’t trying to be.”
    “I can’t answer that, Chris. I don’t know.”
    “But I’m supposed to just—take his place? What place is there to take? What does he do?”
    Marsh’s eyes shift downward, as if thinking about something. Maybe whether to tell me the truth. Or what lie he needs to tell next.
    He rubs his hands together, then leans over with his elbows on his legs.
    “This gift of sight that you have is useful to them. That’s—that’s all I know.”
    “Oh, okay,” I say. “That explains everything.”
    “Which way do you want it then? Tell me.”
    He curses, then stands up and heads back over to the kitchen. I stay on the couch while he grabs a couple of waters out of the fridge. He tosses one over to me.
    “I can make up lies that sound nice and easy to you. Or I can do what you’re wanting—what you’ve been asking for ever since you came here. To get answers. To know the truth. But listen—the truth isn’t nice and isn’t easy, and I don’t think you’re going to want to hear it.”
    “The truth about what?”
    “About everything. We tell you things bit by bit, and I can just see your mind reeling. You don’t understand. That’s why I feel it’s better to show than tell. Like Marsh Falls. I could have told you that, but you would have never believed. Even now I bet there’s a part of you that doesn’t believe. It’s too surreal. Too crazy. Right?”
    I sigh and nod. Marsh opens his bottled water and takes a short sip.
    “There are those who come to Solitary, those who do business here. They do business with Kinner and always have. He takes care of them.”
    “How? Who are they?”
    “You will meet them soon enough.”
    “And do what?”
    “That—that I do not know. It’s being a—a guardian of sorts. A caretaker. At least that’s what I think. But I might be wrong.”
    I’m sitting there wondering how a scrawny seventeen-year-old is going to be anybody’s guardian.
    “So how—” I start to ask.
    “You do what you’re supposed to do. You go to school. You study. You pass your classes. You be an ordinary student and just get through.”
    “Until what?”
    “When the time comes, you will find out. All I know is that it will be Memorial Day. That’s at the end of May.”
    “What’s the significance of Memorial