Free Second Sight by Maria Rachel Hooley

need some help to get through this,” Scott says.
    “ Get away from me!” I yell,
trying to bash my head against his. I hate his hands—hate the way
they’ve forced me into stillness. I keep struggling, which forces
him to take me down, thrashing as he pins me. The anger explodes
with tears, but no matter what I do, I cannot get loose. Angels. If
this is what they are, who needs them? Maybe God, but not me. Never
again.
    “ It’s going to be okay. You
just need some help—someone to guide you through this.” His
expression is neutral, but the pity lingers in his eyes as I keep
trying to break free. At last, even the tears finally stop, and I
just lie there, my eyes closed—so damned tired.
    Scott slowly lifts his body from mine.
“Lizzie?” His voice is soft. He tries to touch my shoulder, but I
push his hand away.
    “ Leave me
alone.”
    I hear him get up, and I think he’s walking
over to the couch because I hear him talking to Griffin.
    “ I have a friend who runs a
youth center here in town. She and her husband both counsel
troubled kids. I think Lizzie needs that right now. She’s not
processing what’s happened. She’s not letting it go. I’ll call
Jimmie and tell him about what’s happened and try to get an okay
for her to come into town a few times a week to see them. Could you
drive her? I don’t think any of us trust her to come
alone.”
    “ Yeah, I can do
that.”
    “ Great. Here’s a business
card. My number is on the back.”
    Here it comes—the nuthouse. Jimmie’s
nuthouse. Looks like he’ll get what he wants, like always. And all
these lies—how many more? It’s said the truth will set you free,
but I’m not buying it, because everything I’ve thought has been a
lie. All of it. Lev should’ve just let me drown.
    “ Lizzie?” Scott’s back to
hovering over me, and I can’t face him. I never want to see him
again. I don’t care if he is an angel, which he probably isn’t.
He’s not Lev, and even if he were, it wouldn’t matter now. So I
pretend to sleep.
    I hear Griffin stand and come toward me.
“Jimmie said she hadn’t been sleeping well.”
    “ Okay. I’ll get her if you
get the car door open.”
    I feel the arms scoop me up, and it takes
everything I have inside to play possum and not stiffen up. Part of
me wonders if maybe Scott is right. Maybe I am just some messed-up
kid. Maybe Lev was just a bad dream. In any case, who cares?
    Scott carries me out to the car and sets me
in the passenger seat before snapping the belt across my lap. One
hand brushes the hair from my face and he whispers, “I know you’re
not asleep, Elizabeth. Just hurting. And you’re mad. But I do care
about you, and I want you to be okay. If it takes you never
speaking to me again, then I can live with that.” Then he backs
away, leaving me alone in the car with Griffin, and while Scott
seemed to know I was still conscious, Griffin isn’t so attuned to
my mental state. He drives away, believing that I’m in dreamland.
Fine by me. I don’t know what I’d say to him now anyway. Not that
I’d say anything at all. This is what comes with trust, and I can
totally live without it.
    Before we get out of town, Griffin pulls into
a gas station and goes inside to pay. I open my eyes to see where
we are and come face-to-face with Jimmie’s truck at the next pump.
What the hell is he doing in Knoxville? I thought he was working.
At that moment, I’m grateful for the tinted windows; maybe he won’t
see me. I scan the area, but Jimmie isn’t outside. In fact, I see
him coming from the convenience store, and he’s not alone. That
nurse, Teresa or whatever her name is, is latched onto his arm. The
two are laughing and talking, completely oblivious to the world
around them, and I sit up, watching them get into Jimmie’s truck
and drive away.
    The sudden emptiness hits me, and I see
Griffin coming out of the store, a bottle of soda in hand. Almost
instinctively, I close my eyes and pray for