Ransom by Denise Mathew

normal people didn’t have. From the time he had been three, Gabriel had seemed to know things about stuff that he just had no business knowing. More times than I wanted to admit he had predicted that stuff was going to happen in the future. Somehow Gabriel could tap into some kind of bank that allowed him to glean information that he just shouldn’t have been able to know.
    “I never said you didn’t know stuff Gab, I….” I started to say. He threw his hand up to stop me.
    “I told Pa that you were in trouble, and that he needed to go get you and…”
    “You told Pa,” I said with a note of incredulity in my tone.  
    I couldn’t understand why he had ratted me out like that. I trusted Gabriel to have my back more than I trusted myself, and now he had…
    Gab gave a sharp nod of his head. His eyes flashed with uncharacteristic anger. I wasn’t sure how to process it.
    “I told Pa that only he could get you out of the trouble you were in, and that if he laid a hand on you I would cancel the show.”  
    Gab held my eyes in a stare that showed more strength than I had ever given him credit for.  
    “What do you mean?” I said.
    I already knew exactly what Gab was saying, but I couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around how he seemed to already know everything that I had gone to great lengths to hide.
    Gabriel released a mirthless laugh.  
    “Come on Ransom I’ve known for too long what Pa is like and how he…”  
    He swallowed a few times and his eyes glazed with tears. I wanted to make them go away because he wasn’t supposed to know the truth. I wanted to keep what little bit of innocence that remained in him, preserved and safe. If Gabriel didn’t know about the ugliness of life and our father, then it somehow felt less real. Gabriel’s ignorance meant I could compartmentalize my life. Whatever went on behind closed doors didn’t need to tarnish everything else in my world.  
    “I don’t know what you’re saying,” I said, clinging to my denial, the only thread holding the fabric of my lies together.  
    “Ransom, it’s okay, I’m going to make sure he never hurts you again. I just wish I’d had the courage to stand up to him before now,” Gab said.  
    A single tear trailed down his pale cheek. It was almost too much for me to take.
    Then it came, sudden, cresting over me like a   shockwave of fury that was propelled by gut-wrenching fear. I couldn’t allow Gabriel to protect me. It was my job to keep him safe. I needed him to see that, before he ended up getting hurt.
    “You can’t protect me,” I hollered.  
    Even as the words burst from my lips, I regretted them. I had never raised my voice to Gabriel, ever. From the way he shrank away from me he was as surprised by my outburst as I was.
    But as quickly as he had drawn in on himself, he straightened his spine and met my eyes with pure defiance. Once again I was thrown at this shift in his behavior.
    “I’m not scared of you, or Pa either. I’m going to do what’s right.”  
    His eyes narrowed to slits.  
    “Don’t even try to pretend that you wouldn’t do the same for me Ransom. I know how you protect me, take care of me. I know how to do it because you taught me how. I don’t care what you say or do. I’m going to let Pa know that I’m not going to allow it to happen anymore. I may be Gabriel Sanders the boy wonder, but I’m also Gab your brother, and there’s nothing I won’t do to make sure Pa never hurts you again. I’m not going to let him make you go away like he did Mama.”
      It killed me that he still believed that Ma was alive, a lie that Pa had forced me to tell him. But worse than that, was how he still thought she was somewhere out there in the world, and would someday come back to us even though he believed that she had abandoned us years before.
    And there it was, the pain that had gouged strips from my heart but that I had managed to hold inside was sliced wide open all over again. It felt like my