Free The Border Part Two by Amy Cross

fucking funny. Your face, brother, I will not forget that look in your eyes, not in a hurry. I can’t believe you seriously thought I was opening up to you and telling you some big, awful secret. You’re too funny, Jack. Too fucking funny by half.” Another swig of beer. “And far too fucking easy to wind up.” Yet another swig, and this time he looked over at Jack and saw that his brother was simply staring at him with pure hatred in his eyes. “Boo,” he added.
    “Go fuck yourself,” Jack said, pushing past him and heading through to the front room.
    Sighing, Ben made his way over to the window and looked out at the garden, where the children were playing.
    “That’s always been your problem, Jack,” he muttered finally, still chucking. “You can never take a joke. And you can never tell which parts of a joke are real and which parts aren’t.”

VI
     
    “Have fun,” Simon muttered as he swung the door shut, leaving Katie standing along in the stairwell. Music could be heard from down below, and there was the occasional faint call of a voice, but this time Katie wasn’t scared. She’d already spent two nights at The Border, so she knew exactly what to expect.
    Naked again, she made her way down as the stairwell wound to the right, spiraling deeper down until reaching the red-lit entrance hallway.
    “Hey,” Hayley said, looking up from the book she was reading. Sitting on a bench over by main desk, Hayley was also naked, although she carried her nakedness much more casually than Katie could manage. “Ready for another ride on the old buck?”
    Katie nodded cautiously, although her eyes were fixed on the archway at the far end of the room. Off in the distance, voices could be heard shouting to one another, and it sounded as if the evening’s festivities were particularly raucous. People were laughing.
    “Well,” Hayley muttered, setting her book down and getting to her feet, “my break’s pretty much over, so we might as well go in together. Crutchlow’s here again, surprisingly enough, and his appetite’s come back. Yay for chemo.”
    Katie nodded again.
    “You’ll be okay,” Hayley added, offering a faint smile as she reached out and took Katie’s hand. “I told you the other night, it’s just a matter of shutting down the part of your brain that would normally be bothered by what happens here. I know it seems hard, but one day you’ll be able to do it without even thinking about it. And then one day you’ll be out of here for good.”
    “Sure,” Katie whispered. “I guess.”
    With that, she allowed Hayley to lead her through the archway into the main part of The Border, where Crutchlow was already holding forth and regaling his fellow guests with stories of his better days.
    ***
    She knew that people were supposed to feel relaxed when they headed out of town, and freer, and somehow ‘in tune’ with nature, whatever the hell that meant. Jane, on the other hand, usually just felt out of place, as if she was more exposed than normal. She was a city girl, or at least a town girl, through and through. Even now, as she climbed out of the car and headed across the dark field, toward the twisted oak tree, she couldn’t help glancing over her shoulder, just to make sure that there was no-one else around.
    She just wasn’t used to the natural world.
    Hearing her phone start ringing, she pulled it from her pocket and sighed as she saw that Jack was trying to get in touch again. Figuring that she’d better answer this time, she tapped the screen.
    “Hey, honey, I’m just -”
    “On your way to Beth’s house?”
    “To Beth’s? No, why would I be on my -”
    “Because that’s where I am,” he replied. “I’m sitting here right now with Beth and Bob, and the kids. And my mother, my dear, slightly drunk mother. And a few other family hangers-on. Oh, and Ben. Ben’s here. Please, I need you to come and help keep me sane.”
    “I’m…” As she reached the oak tree, she turned and