Save Me: A TAT Novella by Melanie Walker Read Free Book Online Page A

she left you…”
     
    Trust me.
     
    We are playing trust me, the game Noah invented when they were too small to understand the evil they survived and would live in for years.
     
    I admit that it was genius on Noah’s part inventing this game, but right now it is too hard and think of a world where Candey isn’t gone. Its music that I think of as Noah stares off at the window like she isn’t talking. I know, as does everyone else, that he is hanging on to every word she is saying.
     
    I’m singing songs in my head, trying to place all this fucked up shit in its place in my mind. Joshua James ‘Crash this Train’ comes to mind and it is fitting.
     
    Someone, God or anyone, crash this train. This is suffering to the N’th degree.
     
    Sass takes my left hand and opens my palm, using her finger to write ‘I <3 U’ on the inside then touches the spot where my wedding ring should be, reminding me that I’m lucky.
     
    Reminding me he is destroyed.
     
    Like earlier, his suffering undoes me and tears fill my eyes. I am unashamed because everyone in this room, except Noah, is dripping tears. Even Cal keeps looking up at the ceiling as tears slip down his cheeks.
     
    This isn’t just the loss of the woman we all loved as a sister, but it’s the loss of my hero Noah.
     
    My hero, and the strongest man I know, is nothing more but a shadow. I think of everything he has overcome… and this is what will break him.
     
    “She is forcing you to dance right now, to the dreaded country song playing in the tent…”
     
    I look at Carrie, fighting for him with every word she speaks when Noah pulls his hand from hers and tries to sit up. The room goes eerily silent.
     
    “No more.” He says, his voice is almost unrecognizable and I’m guessing it’s the damage from earlier.
     
    A collective, but silent sigh is felt through the room, all of us relieved that we are done playing trust me. That shit is brutal and I know it’s all about protecting the mind from the truth… I see the truth as the only thing that has a shot at saving him. It’s what will force him to move forward. Not on, he’ll never move on, but life does and that game played where she is alive, well, it ain’t the way. “Can I have a minute?” He asks and we all nod, no one is talking through our tears. Cassa and Tay both go to Carrie and stand at her side because this had to have wrecked her. Cassa had been crazy close with Candey after being friends, then roommates…but to Carrie, well Candey had helped along side Noah before they had even fallen in love, helped bring her out of that damn shell. This game had to have ripped her to shreds.
     
    I watch Cas then Tay lean down and kiss him, Cass on the cheek and Tayla on his head. Noah was never one to ignore these girls, he was the protector of them all, of all of us, and he looked numb, like he didn’t notice that they were there.
     
    I go to the door after Cass moves to leave when I hear that painful voice. “Shame, stay a minute yeah?”
     
    I halt and kiss Cassa quickly and then nod. “Sure man.” I play it cool because he doesn’t need me being a doter. He has enough doters. I take my seat and assume he will have Cal and Chad stay too…but as the room clears out other than Carrie…I’m confused, but also concerned.
     
    “Go home Carrie.” He says to her, and for a small second I saw the flash of his soul in his eyes, the big brother in him reaching out to her knowing he is the only person who she will listen to, no matter what.
     
    “No. I was there earlier. Mike and Ron have Noelle-“
     
    He cut her off. “No go home. Take a bath, drink some wine, hold your baby and get some sleep. I’m here for a week at least, I’m not going anywhere. Go.”
     
    It is the first time that I have heard him talk to her without that tone of love in his voice; and it saddens me because of the fierce bond between them.
     
    She knows him better than anyone though and nods, hugging him then