Her words had stung. Brandon ran and cried in his room, but after he cried, he felt…relieved. Like someone had taken a burden off him. He didn’t have to try to make his dad stay, didn’t have to try to earn his love, because it wasn’t possible.
So Brandon kept going to school, getting bad grades because his brain didn’t work well for school things. He took his mom’s old job at the gas station, and he watched television with Grammy at night, and it was okay, really, because he didn’t have to do anything to earn her love. He just had it. Even after she died, at least he had the memory of it. But it wasn’t quite enough, so when he got a call from his father, he couldn’t help that old lure of happiness, that old twist of hope.
That hook cast into the water, snagging him.
And because of that call, Brandon knows something LeGrand and Mack and Jaden don’t.
He knows exactly where his invitation to the competition came from.
Brandon understands that Jaden isn’t his father. Obviously, on some level, that’s clear. But Jaden set people up to die. Sydney, maybe Rebecca, and definitely the pretty Ava and his friend Ava.
His friend Ava who loved him. And Jaden will let Mack and LeGrand die, too, and he won’t care, because to him, they’re all just things.
Brandon feels like a thing for the first time in his life, like Grammy was wrong all those years ago. Brandon is a thing to be used and discarded, and this is it. The final place where unwanted things are dumped. He’s trapped with the devil, his friends are dying, and he can’t—he can’t— He can’t.
He can’t.
So he jumps and grabs one of the chains, and he climbs.
He climbs for Ava. For Mack and LeGrand. For his dreams of roommates and pizza parties, a shared life. And, inexplicably, the kindest gas station attendant in Pocatello, Idaho, who has never set foot in a gym, manages to climb the chain all the way to the top. He scrambles for a grip, and when a normal person would be terrified of the fall, he stays calm until he finds a lip on the circular platform above himself. Just enough to fling his leg up and roll onto the top of the swing ride.
“What the fuck?” Jaden demands, curled fetal style in the center of the platform, sweating and sunburned and perfectly safe. He gets on his hands and knees, face red and furiously contorted.
“You killed them.” Brandon turns his head to the side to stare at Jaden. He doesn’t quite see him, though. He sees a white smile and a swig of beer, a lure sent flying into the water.
“What are you talking about? Why are you up here? This is my hiding spot!” Jaden’s having a difficult time puffing himself up to be threatening without standing. He’s adopted an awkward crouch, balancing on the balls of his feet.
Brandon looks upward. Up here, they’ve broken through the surrounding trees, and there’s nothing above him but sky. Clear blue, so blue it makes his eyes tear up and everything blurs. It’s a nice blue. A good blue. An honest blue.
He closes his eyes against the brilliance. There are monsters, real monsters in the world. His friends are dying. They’re all going to die. And his father knew, he’s sure of it, and once Mack and LeGrand are dead, there’s no one left in the world who cares about him. But if one of them wins, then in a way, Brandon wins, too, doesn’t he?
Making sure that happens is the least he can do. The only thing he can do. The only thing that makes sense in an absolutely broken reality.
“You killed them,” Brandon repeats, not opening his eyes. “There’s a monster out there. And you got both Avas killed.”
“Don’t be a jackass,” Jaden scoffs. “Did that bitch put you up to this? Listen, it’s only a game, and if they got out, then—”
Brandon grabs Jaden’s ankle. The other man is yanked off balance in his crouch, and as he teeters, Brandon rolls, using Jaden’s momentum to launch him off the side of the platform.
“One,” Brandon calls down to his friends.
Two people get out a day. So two people have to get out tomorrow, and it won’t be Mack and LeGrand. He can give them that. Because he’s not just a thing. None of them are. He’s a person, like his grandma taught him to be. A kind person, and a good friend. He doesn’t want to live in a world where he’s a thing, or where he’s a bad friend, or where monsters are real.
Brandon stands up, taking a deep breath. He steps to the edge and looks down. Mack and LeGrand are waving and shouting. He waves back down, then takes one last long look at the perfect blue of the sky.