Absolution(107)

“Because of what I did,” Jack insisted, steely-eyed.

Callum could see he wasn’t going to get anywhere, so he conceded defeat, changing tack.

“So, how are things going with you and her? From what I saw earlier, it looks like things are getting pretty serious.” He tried to keep his tone conversational as he met Jack’s gaze across the table.

“It’s going okay.”

“Okay? Looked more than just okay.”

“What’s your point?” Jack’s gaze was solid and steady, clearly on the defensive.

“Calm down – I’m just asking,” he clarified. “Honestly.”

Jack took a swig from his bottle. “I think she trusts me a little more,” he admitted after a few moments. “We can talk about things now – some things, anyway. She seems more comfortable.”

“And what about you? Are you more comfortable?”

Jack glanced up at him sharply.

“It’s not easy,” Callum said. “There are a lot of changes to get used to.”

Jack stood up, throwing him a sidelong glance as he walked over to the window. He made a show of checking the road outside through a slim gap in the curtains.

“I think it’s gonna take some time,” he said, deep in thought. “She still keeps a lot of stuff to herself.”

“You’re right there.” Callum watched his back as he stood staring out into the street. “There’s stuff that she won’t even talk to me about and I’ve been here since it happened.”

Jack glanced over his shoulder at him. “That surprises me, given how close you two are.”

“Yeah, well, she keeps her cards pretty close to her chest. Sometimes you have to guess what’s going on inside that head of hers, and sometimes it’s just better to accept that she’s not gonna talk about it until she’s good and ready so you better settle in for a long wait.”

Jack continued to stare out the window, taking a slow pull on his beer. Callum debated whether he should say what was in his heart or not. Honesty won out. “It’s a really big deal, y’know – what’s happening here, with you and her.”

Jack half-turned around, waiting.

“There hasn’t been anyone since you left, since the accident.”

“I didn’t know that,” he said quietly.

Callum shrugged, unsure why he had even shared that with him. He took a hasty sip of his beer, draining the last of it. “I need to get some sleep. Some of us have work in the morning.”

He stood up, abandoning his empty beer bottle on the coffee table. Pausing in the living room doorway, he turned back to Jack.

“I think maybe you should stay away from her for a couple of days, just until we can be sure this is all a storm in a teacup.”

Jack nodded. “I hate lying to her, but I think you’re right.”

More lies, even if they too were disguised as little white ones.



She felt as if she were running in quicksand. Each step sucked her leg into the molten road, but she fought on regardless. Smoke filled her lungs as the wind changed direction, blowing smoke and ash from the burning car straight into her face. People ran past, heading for the burning car on the road up ahead, but for some reason she couldn’t explain, she didn’t call out for help.

She kept her eye on the car, horrified as the flames engulfed it. People pushed past her, blocking her view, and panic began to take hold, squeezing her chest.

She could hear Jack up ahead, screaming her name. She tried to call back to him but the smoke got caught in her throat and she choked on her words.



Ally woke up gasping for breath, her lungs burning. She was trembling all over. She knew instinctively that she had been moaning in her sleep, maybe even screaming. She whimpered, hating how pathetic she sounded. Her thighs ached and she tried to hang on to the phantom pain, even as the last threads of sensation died.

Uncharacteristically angry, she pulled the sweat-soaked pillow out from under her head and flung it across the room. Lying alone in the dark, she crossed her arms over her face and cried.



As Callum headed home after work the following day, he scanned the streets for any sign of the car he had seen outside Tom’s house.

He had spent the day going over and over the conversation with Jack the night before. Putting himself in Jack’s shoes the night he found out about Tom, he was on the brink of understanding. But the nagging feeling that this wasn’t just going to go away refused to leave him.