“NaNoWriMo 2020 Pt. 32”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Additional note: This is a continuation of the NaNoWriMo 2020 TTtW story.

Read the compiled NaNoWriMo TTtW story here!

MASON’S POV

I race after Garrett, barely able to process what just happened.

I mean, I just learned that my brother was magically resurrected, that Skye is here at the Garden, and that Skye and Maddie are friends?! It’s almost too much for me to take in at once.

I force myself to go a tiny bit faster so that I catch up with Garrett.

“Hey!” I pant. “Slow down!”

He slows down slightly, glancing back at me.

“Hey, what happened back there?” I demand, jumping in front of him and forcing him to stop completely.

“What do you mean?” he asks. He hasn’t even broken a sweat.

“Those girls we passed, do you know them?”

Garrett glances back up the stairs, but neither of the girls followed us. “You mean Maddison?”

“Yeah, but what about the other girl?”

He frowns. “No, I’ve never seen her before in my life. She’s pretty cute though, don’t you think?”

My heart drops. Something’s wrong.

Slowly, I back away from him. “You’re not my brother,” I whisper, trying to stop my voice from trembling.

“Of course I am,” Garrett says. “Why would you say that I’m not?”

I point a shaking finger up the stairs. “That girl up there? The one you say looks ‘cute’? Yeah, that’s Skye, your girlfriend.”

Garrett’s eyes bug out of his head. “My girlfriend?” he whispers. “I have one of those?”

“Yes,” I reply flatly. “You did. And you never shut up about her either. It was always ‘Skye this’ and ‘Skye that’ and ‘guess what I did with Skye today’. It was literally the most annoying thing ever.”

His eyes drop to the ground. “I… I don’t remember any of that,” he admits.

“Well you seem to remember me just fine,” I hiss. “Or what, is this just some type of joke that Winston had? To torture me with a recreation of the brother who was mauled to pieces in front of my eyes?!”

“No!” Garrett shouts. “No, of course not. It’s just…” He sighs and runs a hand through his hair before saying, “After the incident, when I woke up again, I only had fragments of my memory. You were the only person I remembered from before I had died. Winston suggested that it was because I could only remember the person I loved the most.”

I scoff. “Yeah, right. Well, either Winston’s wrong or you’re lying, because I wasn’t the person you loved the most. That would’ve been Skye.”

“But… but you’re my brother,” Garrett murmurs. “Of course I loved you the most.”

“No,” I snap. “You loved Skye more. You made that clear when you left us for her.”

Something’s off here, and I really don’t have the energy or willpower to deal with it right now. I shove past him and run back up the stairs, ignoring his desperate pleas for me to come back.

Final Comments: I’m a bit worried that the story’s going to lose steam sometime soon…

Overall Rating: 😖