Free Touching Smoke by Airicka Phoenix

which way I looked at it. She lied to me, and it wasn’t a small lie that could easily be forgiven. She was supposed to be someone I could depend on, someone who I could trust and all this time…
    “Fallon!”
    I turned at the screech of tires. The Impala came to a rattling halt just a few feet from me and my mother jumped out, still dressed in her robe and slippers. The wind toyed with her wispy hair, sending the strands across her tear stained face. Against my will, my hanger diminished.
    “You have to let me explain,” she said, coming around to stand in front of me. “You can’t be angry with me until you at least let me explain!”
    “I have no home because of you,” I said quietly, suddenly feeling completely exhausted. “I have no friends, no father… I have nothing.”
    She shook her head. “You have me. You’ll always have me.”
    “Did you ever stop to think that maybe I wanted more?”
    Her head bowed as she nodded. “Every day.”
    “Then why?” I faltered when my voice broke and tears burned behind my eyes. “Tell me why.”
    She looked up. “Because I would rather see you alone then watch you suffer and be used.”
    I opened my mouth to ask her what she meant when the earth shuddered beneath our feet and an ear-splitting whoosh, like a fighter jet, sliced the air. Mom’s eyes went wide in terror as they shot past me to something over my shoulder.
    “Fallon!”
    I had no time to react when she grabbed me and threw me to the ground. The concrete met me with a force that knocked the air from my lungs. Something whistled over my head and exploded as it made contact with the only obstacle in its way — my mother’s chest.
    I might have screamed. I must have, it was ringing through the night, echoing in my head over-and-over again. Yet I lay paralyzed as I watched her fly backwards into the air, momentarily suspended, a pale blur before dropping like a ragdoll and skidding three feet against wet pavement. She came to a jarring halt, arms and legs angled at odd, bent positions. Her robes lay open, splayed like wings on either side of her.
    She didn’t move.

Chapter 7
     
    “Mom!” bits of rock and debris cut into my palms and into my kneecaps through the soft material of my sweat pants. The foul stench of roasted meat and fabric nearly knocked me over when I reached her. “Mom?” I touched her face, my hands shaking violently.
    Her lashes fluttered like black butterfly wings against the pallor of her cheeks before sweeping open. “Run!”
    I shook my head, my tears raining down on her face. “No… no… hold on, please!”
    “Run!” she rasped, her lungs making a strange wheezing sound, like trying to talk with water in your mouth.
    “Not without you,” I sobbed, grabbing her shoulders and struggling to lift her, taking great care not to touch the sizzling dodge-ball-sized burn in the center of her chest. “You have to get up! Just… please… get up! Don’t do this… don’t leave me!” I begged, hugging her and yanking her towards the car. If I could just get her inside, I could get her to a hospital.
    She shook her head slowly, her eyes closing. “Never leave you… love you so much… never meant… wanted…” With a shuddering breath, she went still in my arms, her head rolling lifelessly to the side.
    The scream could have come from somebody else. It poured out without an end in sight, yet it didn’t feel like it was coming from me. The whole world was a blur of sounds, rushing and rolling inside my pounding skull like wind through a tunnel. I grabbed my mom, begging her to wake up, to open her eyes… to live. But she remained unmoving, even as the night boomed with the deafening crack of gunfire. My haunting wails no longer sounded human, not even to my own ears. The hollowing din pulsed through my very soul, drowning out the pounding of my heart and the chaos originating from a short distance away. I clutched Mom’s body to my chest tight, pressing her as close as