Excerpt: Othermoon

As I dragged the boy across the hallway, I glanced into the living room – and froze. Dad’s chair was empty. I whipped around, trying to hear any life in the house, but there was nothing. I strained my ears, waiting for the loud thumping as he ran across the upstairs landing, ready to turn the corner and pound down the stairs, ready to blast me. Ready to scream. And lastly, ready to question just what the fuck I was doing.
But... nothing. Absolute silence.
I continued to pull the cylinder-shaped bundle towards the basement entrance in the kitchen. My moves were far more confident now, knowing the house was empty. I didn’t stop to think jsut where dad could be – there was no time to worry, no time to ponder or think or contemplate how much trouble I could be in, or whether I could be caught at any moment.
It was as I opened the basement door that I heard the front door bang open, and my dad’s loud footsteps pound across the foyer.
 
Before I could think, I’d shoved the cylinder into the basement. I tried to ignore the thump thump thump as he rolled down the stairs, and slammed the door shut behind me to disguise the noise. A final thump... and then dad rounded the corner. I pressed into the door.
‘Where have you been?’
‘What?’
I mentally winced at how fake I sounded, how incredibly cheerful or overly innocent or whatever other bullshit I was trying to pull off. He raised his eyebrows, much in the same way he had the night before. ‘Don’t play fucking games, Morgan. Where have you been?’
My eyes widened at his words; dad never swore. Never. Not even when mum had crashed his beloved cadillac into a stoby pole that he’d spent a fortune on trying to restore. Not even when mum had driven us to the hospital and I’d bled all over the back seat. Not even when mum had died.
‘I couldn’t sleep...’ I started, and without meaning to, tears sprung to the corners of my eyes. ‘The house felt suffocating, I needed to get out.’
Silence ensued as he waited for me to continue. I looked down, tried to blink the tears away, tried to ignore how truthful my words actually were. How lonely this house felt at this very moment, with just me and my dad standing here. Just the two of us, like complete strangers.
I didn’t realise he’d moved closer until I felt a hand wrap around my shoulder, firm and comforting. ‘I understand.’
I nodded, unable to verbalise any coherent thoughts or feelings. Instead, I squinted my eyes shut and prayed he’d walk away.
Instead, I heard a shuffle, and then his voice floated beetween us from below. When I opened my eyes, he was kneeling before me, looking up at me with sad, mournful eyes. ‘I understand, Morgan. But you can’t just leave like that. I’ve already lost your mother. Waking up and finding you gone... you gave me a heart attack. I... I can’t lose another one of my favourite girls. My last favourite girl.’
I nodded mutely. My vision blurred and with a hurried hand, I brushed away any stray tears that threatened to tear a path down my cheeks. ‘I’m sorry, dad. It’s just something I had to do.’
When I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around him, I murmured into his ear, ‘I won’t do it again.’
He nodded stiffly against my shoulder, his hand rubbing my back awkwardly. ‘that’s my girl. Now... please. Try to get some sleep.’
‘Okay.’
I waited until I heard his footsteps pounding up the stairs before I finally opened the basement door and willed myself to look inside.
The body lay in a stiff heap at the bottom of the stairs. Unmoving, of course – I don’t know why I expected differently – and looking nothing more than a a rolled up carpet. And although he hadn’t moved in the last few hours, looking at him in such an abandoned heap made my heart leap into my throat, that maybe rolling down those stairs had been his final demise, and now he really was dead. Gone.
Another lost victim of death.
Tentatively, I made my way down the stairs, one at a time.
When I reached the bundle, I kneeled, my hand resting gently across what I could only assume was his shoulder. And then I pushed at the bundle, and he unrolled across the floor.