Blest by Blaise Lucey Read Free Book Online

every day on the bus, when it drove through the tunnel and it got pitch-black, like another tornado was coming to sweep her up and take her away from him for good.
    “Look, storm clouds!” Someone shouted from the docks.
    Claire ignored the noise. “Jim,” she said softly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
    He managed to smile. “No one does.” Really, he thought, even he didn’t really know what had happened. Every time he tried to ask his dad about that train ride, Michael shut down. Jim wasn’t sure how much of it was even real, whether it was more dream or more imagining. The disappearing man, laughing? Was he real?
    A low rumble of thunder echoed across the water, and everyone on the dock squealed. “Dude, let’s get out of here!” Erik hollered, as they all started back to shore. At the other end of the lake, a huge, black storm cloud was blooming, unfurling like smoke in the sky.
    A motor rumbled close as Shane and Gunner pulled up to the dock on Shane’s speedboat. Shane cut the engine when they got close, drifting to them. Jim noticed that when Shane saw Jim and Claire together, his eyes darkened, but he didn’t say anything.
    “You dopes, you want to get electrocuted out here?” Gunner called. “Get in!”
    Claire and Jim quickly climbed into the boat and Shane drove them back to shore. Everyone piled out, splashing up and onto the grass. Another boom of thunder sounded in the sky, and a flash of lightning lit up the darkness. Claire and Jim grabbed their shoes by the tree and raced inside after the crowd. Everyone else was shivering and laughing in the living room. Jim headed for them, but Claire yanked him by the wrist, jerking him in the opposite direction.
    She led him through the kitchen, up a wooden staircase, and to the second floor, where there was a soft padded rug in the hall that they left wet and dripping. Jim’s heart pounded in his chest. She pushed open a door, to a room with a messy bed and bare walls, with boxes still standing in piles in the corner.
    “Claire—” Why had she brought him here?
    “Sit.” She directed him to a wooden chair in front of a desk and pushed him into it.
    He dropped down onto the chair. “What are you doing?” he asked, looking past her to the window outside. Rain broke across the sky, falling in sheets, leaving streaks on the windowpane. Everything outside turned black. All he could see was his reflection, glowing orange on the glass. Abruptly, Claire hit the lights. Jim went blind.
    “Claire!” he said, startled. The familiar suffocating feeling was creeping up in his chest.
    “We did the water, so now let’s do the dark.” Her voice came from somewhere nearby. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’m right here.”
    Jim felt his panic rising, like he was drowning. “You don’t understand, I can’t help it!”
    “ What can’t you help?”
    The train flashed across the back of his mind again, the howling of the wind outside and the screaming. He couldn’t tell what was the past and what was the present. Wasn’t it all really the same thing, when it was all in your head?
    “Just breathe.” Claire’s warm hand found his, and he held onto it tight. Her breath tickled his ear. “Let your guard down.”
    “My guard down ?” Jim snapped. He wanted to jump right out of the chair and throw open the door, where he could see a sliver of orange light peeking in from the hallway. What was Claire talking about? Keeping your guard up was the only thing that kept him safe. He had let his guard down around her and look what that had gotten him.
    “Just turn on the lights,” he said, his voice strained as he tried to keep calm. “And—”
    Claire’s mouth landed on his and his head exploded with all the force of a rocket ship blasting into orbit. Suddenly, the only thing he could think about was how warm her lips were, and the way she was breathing, slowly bringing him back to reality. Bringing some other kind of light to the pitch-black