Free Reborn by Tara Brown Page A

I’m sorry. I wish I’d asked for help. I had no idea what we were walking into.”
     
    He nods, “There used to be a saying, Dad always said it when me and Will were fighting. There is no ‘I’ in team. You either work as a team to win, or you lose as a group of individuals.”
     
    I sew the wound together. Leo sits, letting Jake pet his face. He doesn’t bite him. He’s as content as he can be. He trusts me again.
     
    Will walks in, “Sarah is sleeping.”
     
    I look up at him, “Thanks.”
     
    He turns and walks out. Jake makes a face, “He might kill you in your sleep.”
     
    I snort, “God, I hope so.” And I do. Because if he doesn’t, the cold hate is going to consume me and I’ll kill everyone until I’ve satisfied it.
     
    I understand why I never let anything in beyond Leo. Things and people end. They don’t take everything with them though; there is always a little bit left over that burns you inside.
     
    We finish with Leo and force medicine down his throat. Jake helps him down, getting bit again. We follow Jake to the living room and slump into the huge chairs. The house is quiet. Anna and Bernie are snuggled into a chair. Star is sitting on the floor next to the TV that doesn’t serve a purpose anymore. Will is on the couch. Jake sits beside him. I sit on the floor and let Leo come rest his head on my lap. Bernie gets up and passes us some of whatever they’re all drinking. I sniff it, smelling things that make my body shudder.
     
    I take a big drink and feel the burn. It feels good, warming me against the cold hate.
     
    I look at the glass and wonder who is going to talk first.
     
    No one does for a long time, but then Jake smiles, “I want to toast to Meg. The first girl who ever told me that I was what she called ‘a long sip of ice-cold water on a hot day’. I asked her when she’d ever had ice-cold water and she replied, never. I just heard Momma say it whenever we saw something as yummy as you roaming the woods. To Meg.”
     
    We all laughed and drank a huge gulp. My head started to spin.
     
    Star held up her glass, “To Meg, thank you for showing me how to cook deer properly, since I couldn’t do it, even if the damned deer got up and told me how.”
     
    I laughed harder and took back another big gulp.
     
    Anna whispered into Bernie’s ear. He held up his glass, “This is from Anna. To Meg, the girl who told me to tell Emma to stick it up her kazoo, when I told her she wouldn’t let me and Bernie date.”
     
    I laughed and nodded. Kazoo was a weird word I swore she made up. I imagined she made up most of what she said.
     
    I held up my glass, “To Meg, my sister. Thank you for showing me how to not take things so seriously.” I drank it back, knowing it wasn’t funny but it was true. She was always chewing a piece of grass and telling me to mind my business about Bernie and Anna. She was always telling me to just love both brothers and let them sort out the details. I drank back the last of my drink.
     
    “How did you meet her?” Bernie asked.
     
    I sniffled, “She saved my life. She saved me from something bad.”
     
    Bernie looks surprised, “She saved you?”
     
    I nod, “We were with the others, in cages. I was about to be… next thing I knew, he was dead and there was little Meg cussing at me to hurry up and run away. She’d stabbed him in the side of his eye with a nail. She was a savage. She didn’t stop talking for days. Momma this, and momma that, and Auntie Heather, and Leo was sort of useless for a pet. He wasn’t as great as her precious hounds.” My eyes gloss over and I finish the drink, “She was one of my first friends, like a little sister.” I glance at Anna. She smiles and winks at me.
     
    Bernie smiles, “She was a genuinely-good person.”
     
    Jake laughs, “She was just crazy enough to be fun, but had more sense in one finger than anyone I’ve ever met.”
     
    I laugh and hold my glass out with the last drink of the