Page 13 of House of Sin
Nell rose with him, slipping her arm through his. “I love these dinners,” she said, her voice soft, as if speaking any louder might shatter the moment.
Maeve waved her hand. “Leave the dishes. I’ll handle everything.”
I stood slowly, hugging each of them one by one. Giving long, tight embraces, like I could absorb a bit of their love into my bones if I just held on long enough.
“Well, my sweets,” I said at the door, reluctant to leave the light, “I better be off. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You sure you don’t want us to walk you?” Emil asked. His voice carried more than concern—It held the quiet fear of someone whoknewwhat I carried and how heavy it could get when the night got too still.
I touched his shoulder, grateful. “I’m okay tonight. But thank you.”
He hesitated, then nodded.
Outside, the night was calm and crisp. The stars were scattered like broken glass across the sky. Themoon, thin and pale, hung low, a waning crescent with just enough light to softly kiss the night.
I filled my lungs with the cool night air, savored the stillness for a moment, and then slowly let it fade. The silence wasn’t what scared me, it was my thoughts. And by the time I reached my front door, they were screaming.
I wrenched the door open and rushed inside. The old wood groaned beneath my strain, protesting the intrusion. I slammed the door shut behind me, as if noise could seal the thoughts out of my mind. And then I dropped.
The floor beneath me was cold and unforgiving as I curled into myself, arms tight around my frame, rocking gently. The tears didn’t fall all at once. They started slow, hesitant, and then, as though something deep inside me had cracked wide-open, they poured out fast and wild and hot and unstoppable.
My cries echoed in the emptiness, stretching out into the hollow corners of the house.
No one answered.
7
BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE
THEN
The explosion tore through the entire town of Butte with the fury of God’s fist. A thunderous sound that seemed to ripple through every corner of the earth, shaking it to its very core. I felt it first in the soles of my feet, a deep, reverberating hum thatrattled through the wooden floorboards beneath me. The picture frame hanging on the wall above the chest in the living room trembled, its thin edges quivering. I watched the glass shudder, my eyes fixated on the family portrait inside, the one showing us on a summer trip to the lake, our smiles captured forever in that moment of innocence, before the world turned cruel.
Then the house shook violently as the walls groaned. Plates burst from the cabinets, smashing against each other in a cascade of shattered porcelain, and a scream caught in my throat. I dropped to the floor instinctively, my body going low as I dove under the coffee table, arms wrapping around my head in a futile attempt to protect myself from the chaos.
Dust rained from the ceiling, the air thickening around me in a murky haze. Everything was sound and no sound—furniture crashing, glass exploding, the low roar of fire, the high shriek of metal splitting. My heartbeat drowned out everything else. My breath was ragged, my heart pounded, and my hands trembled uncontrollably.
And then, silence.
It pressed down harder than the blast did. The absence of noise was suffocating, like the world had gone still just to listen to what had been lost. Smoke curled through the room. The smell of sulfur stung my throat, a sharp, acrid, scent that made my stomach churn. The dust had settled in the wake of the blast, and it now clung to the furniture, to the floors, to my skin. I couldn’t focus on anything but the feeling of terror seeping into my chest.
It took a few moments before I could gather the courage to move, to peek out from under the coffee table where I had taken cover. My hands were shaking violently as I pressed against the floor, the wood beneath my palms slick with dust. Slowly, I crawled out from my makeshift shelter, my breath still shallow, my body tense, unwilling to let my guard down.
I continued toward the front door, my feet scraping against the floor as I moved. I didn’t dare to stand yet, something in my gut told me to stay low, but the scream that rang out from the street sent a jolt of fear through me. It was high-pitched and full of raw terror. A sound so full of horror it could have stripped the marrow from my bones. I couldn’t ignore it.
My pulse quickened and I sprang to my feet in one fluid motion, my breath coming in short, frantic gasps as I shoved open the door. The town was filled with smoke, turning the morning into a gray hell. Fires crackled in the distance and I could hear shouting somewhere beyond the mine. It all felt like a nightmare, but one I couldn’t wake up from.
I didn’t think, I just ran.
My feet pounded the dirt road with urgency, each step harder than the last, pushing me closer to the mountain. The panic was rising in me, tightening around my ribs.John,Ray. Their names rang through my skull, thrumming in my chest. I said them with every breath, every step—as if by calling them could somehow summon them back to me.
The ground tore at my feet, sharp rocks digging in with every step, but I didn’t slow down. I didn’t care about the pain in my lungs or the burning in my legs. Nothing mattered except getting to them.
I stumbled once, tripping over a large stone in the road, but my momentum carried me forward, and I found my balance again, pushing myself harder. My dress fluttered around my legs, and I barely noticedthe dirt smeared across my skin or the way my breath hitched in my chest. All that mattered was for me to get to them.
I reached the mine. Smoke rolled from its mouth like breath from a dying beast. Men stood in front of it, their faces were pale and their expressions grim as they banded together. They formed a wall across the entrance, a wall of grief, and when they saw me coming, they moved to block my way. Their eyes were wide with panic, their hands trembling, and for a moment, I saw the fear in their faces, the same fear that gripped my heart.
I wasn’t stopping, though. I couldn’t.
