Freezing Bonds that Tie our Hearts (Blood and Water #2)

13. Nova

Mrs Diaz was the first to break out of the trance we all seemed to have fallen into.

“Quick! Get into the closet! Now! Lock yourselves in!” She pushed us towards the back of the room, to the small closet where she kept some supplies and school books and manuals.

I couldn’t comprehend anything happening around me, just Aiden’s hand clutching mine while my heart was beating so fast I thought it might come out of my chest somehow. He ran to where Diaz had told us to hide, bringing me along. It felt like an out of body experience, my legs running to safety while my brain was completely shutting down. More screams and gunshots echoed in the halls and someone whimpered in fear. It took me a second to realize it was me.

My whole body was shaking and I squeezed Aiden’s hand harder for comfort.

He yanked the door open and ushered me in before getting in himself. Turning around, he looked back at where Mrs Diaz was, fumbling with her keys to lock the second door of our class.

“Sara!” He whisper-yelled, “Get back here!”

“I need to make sure he can’t enter!”

Right after she said that, we heard a gunshot, silencing us very effectively. Because the sound was close. It was right outside the door.

Mrs Diaz—Sara— gasped in surprise and her keys fell to the ground in a clinking sound that had us all holding our breath. There was no way that noise went unnoticed by whoever was on the other side of the door.

After a beat, she seemed to swallow down her stupor and quickly turned around to run towards us, which was made difficult by her pregnant belly. She was only a few feet away from us when the door was kicked open, bouncing off the wall with a boom.

Aiden closed the door to our closet before whoever was turning our school day into hell could enter or see it move, thus revealing our location.

I heard him turn the lock down as silently as possible, effectively trapping us inside… and keeping Mrs Diaz out of it.

My back was pressed against the wooden door when my gaze grabbed his. Tears finally managed to break free from my eyes and started flooding my cheeks silently. I managed to keep my sobs inside, biting my lip until it bled to make sure I wasn’t making a noise. My legs were barely able to hold me upright. Guilt quickly spread all around us for leaving her out there but I knew if Aiden hadn’t shut the door down when he did, we would’ve been discovered too.

Still, my heart was breaking with culpability. She had been trying to keep us safe by locking all entrances to the classroom and now her life and that of her baby were in danger.

We heard heavy footsteps entering the room, kicking chairs and desks around as Mrs Diaz whimpered in fear.

Dread was heavy in my gut. We couldn’t see anything but each other in the dark space we’d trapped ourselves in, but we could hear everything. From the shooter’s loud breathing to Sara’s quiet sobs. My eyes never left Aiden’s and his never left mine like we could watch what was happening outside in each other’s irises.

“Please.” She begged and I imagined her putting her hands up, slowly walking backwards to the back of the room. “Please, m-my baby.” She sobbed.

The person holding the gun was silent and for a second I thought maybe whoever it was had found a modicum of humanity in them and decided to spare her.

But then the gun went off, two times, and a following, gut churning thud echoed around the room, right on the other side of the door we were pressed against. My eyes widened, red with tears and my mouth opened in a gasp, or what would have been one if Aiden hadn’t been quick to cover my mouth with his hand.

My feet gave up on me and I let myself slide along the door down to the floor as panic seized me. Aiden followed me down as he crouched in front of me, one hand firmly on my shoulder while the other was smashed against my lips, keeping my cries and sobs silent.

The monster right outside of our closet seemed satisfied with himself, his footsteps echoing around the room until we couldn’t hear them anymore. Gunshots coming from further down the hall from us let us know whoever it was, was finally gone.

When Aiden took his hand away from my mouth, his whole body slumped as he fell on his hands and knees next to me. That’s when it hit me, I wasn’t the only one panicking, Aiden was, too. I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding him to me as I sobbed against his chest. His heart was beating fast too, just like mine.

“I need to check. Maybe she’s still alive.” He whispered and I nodded.

Even though I knew. I knew it in my gut.

Sara Diaz was no longer alive.

Someone had barged in there and killed her and her baby simply because he could.

The injustice of it all had my blood boiling.

Aiden unlocked the door as silently as he could and opened it, peeking between the gap stealthily. I watched the side of his face as he took in the view before him and I swear I saw the light leave his eyes. He shut the door only a few seconds later with a solemn look on his face. I tried meeting his gaze but he wouldn’t let me. With a slight shake of his head, I understood I’d been right earlier.

Mrs Diaz was dead.

After a beat, his arms engulfed me in the tightest hug, holding me so hard, like he was scared I’d disappear if he didn’t. All the animosity I had felt earlier suddenly felt so obsolete as I clinged to him like my life depended on it. And maybe it did.

His hand caressed my hair softly and I closed my eyes, thinking maybe if I did, I could pretend that everything that had happened in the last few minutes was just a nightmare I’d wake up from. That everything would be okay.

But when something warm, slimy and thick started to spread on the floor underneath me, slowly soaking the skirt of my dress and the back of my thighs, it was impossible to pretend.

I whimpered, my tears doubling and Aiden pulled away to take a look at me, alert.

“What’s wrong?” His voice was thick with emotion and worry.

“H-her blood is seeping through under the door.”

The words sounded broken, I still couldn’t believe this was happening. Oh, how fickle life truly was.

Ten minutes ago we were talking to her about an assignment, and now she was lying dead on the floor with only a door separating us. Her blood staining us, branding us guilty for leaving her to die. I thought I might throw up.

“Fuck.” Aiden muttered and before I could understand what was going on, he had me by the waist, pulling me into his lap so that I wasn’t in direct contact with the floor, but he was instead. “I’m so sorry, Nova. So fucking sorry.”

His broken whisper had me hugging him tighter, shaking my head when the words just wouldn’t come out. We stayed like that for what felt like hours. I did my best not to look down at the floor, knowing it was probably saturated with blood by now.

“I fucking failed her. Fuck, I was so fucking scared that you’d get hurt and I fucking failed her. I thought she was right behind us.”

I shook my head, eyes brimmed with tears, “Aiden, you couldn’t have known. This is not your fault.”

“Her mom—” his voice broke, “fuck. Her mom, she’s gonna be so devastated. Sara was all she had left.” I noticed it then, the silent tears streaking down his face.

Aiden was crying. Tears of anger, helplessness and sadness. He wouldn’t stop whispering how sorry he was and I had a feeling that what had just happened was only the tip of the iceberg.

“She used to babysit me, you know? My sisters too.” He added, his voice hoarse and scratchy from crying. That explained while he was on a first-name basis with our teacher.

Wiping a hand over his face harshly to erase the tears, he continued, “She’s always been so fucking nice and sweet to us and the last words I said to her were out of anger she didn’t even deserve. Fuck.”

I said nothing and hugged him tighter, his head nestling in the crook of my neck.

“You’re not to blame, Aiden. I— I don’t know what happened but she didn’t seem to blame you for being angry earlier.”

He didn’t respond at first, but his grip on my waist tightened. His heady scent of pine wood and soap grounded me somehow.

“Oscar disappeared last week.”

I pushed away so I could look at him a little more clearly, my heart breaking at the news. Aiden wasn’t crying anymore, his face was tight with anger and another emotion I couldn’t quite decipher.

I had only met the boy once but he’d seemed like such a sweetheart and I knew him and Aiden were close. The thought of losing a sibling was gut wrenching and I couldn’t imagine what he must’ve been feeling right then. I felt stupid for even thinking he was ignoring me on purpose or that it had anything to do with our kiss at all.

His jaw clenched, he continued, “He’s thirteen and we’re not blood related or anything, he’s my neighbor, but I always considered him my brother. We grew up together, you know?”

My heart bled for him.

“Blood isn’t what makes family.” I breathed and green eyes anchored mine.

“No, it’s not.”

“Does the police have any leads? I haven’t heard anything on the news.”

He tensed and looked away from me. “The cops think he ran away. They don’t care that he is the fourth kid that’s disappeared in the last three months. We’re nothing but Northie scum in their eyes.”

I’d always known that this town was messed up, but I never realized how much until then.

My dad had never been the biggest fan of the police—hence the reason why he became a lawyer— and he passed on his mistrust to me. I grew up seeing him and my uncles get pulled over for nothing, simply because some cops couldn’t stand to see a black man drive a beautiful car.

They’d speak to them like they were dirt on their shoes, second-class citizens. I could even remember one particular time, after Dad had picked me up from dance class back in New York, where the cop all but threw him against the car to check his papers, breaking his wrist. Once he recognized his name, his whole behavior changed, of course.

Because they might not respect us for what we were but they sure respected us for what we had.

That cop, my dad got his badge, because he was a damn good attorney, but how many others didn’t have that privilege?

“I hate this town.” I confided quietly. “I never understood the break between North and South, it’s— it’s maddening.”

“I hate it here too.” His forehead fell against my own, dejected.

“Are you planning to leave after graduation?”

“I wish I could, but I could never leave my mom and sisters behind.”

“I’m leaving. Going back to New York.”

He tensed under me before nodding quietly and kissing my temple. “You’re too bright a star to stay here. Ravenbridge would only weigh you down.”

I said nothing, sadness settling in the pit of my stomach.

“I’ve been searching the town for a week, looking for him or maybe a clue about what could’ve happened to him.” He sighed, “there’s nothing. It’s like he vanished into thin air.”

“I”ll help you.” Aiden pulled away, frowning down at me.

“What?”

“I’ll come with you and look around town for him. For them. My dad’s cousin is a detective, maybe he could—“

“No cops.”

I opened my mouth to argue but at the ashen look on his face, I quickly closed it and nodded. Aiden was about to speak when gunshots and more screams echoed down the hall again, startling us. The reality of our situation was simply impossible to escape.

Aiden’s hands clamped tighter around me, bringing my body closer to him like he could feel the panic start to rise within me. His voice shushed me delicately while he caressed my hair.

“I think I’ve misjudged you and I’m so sorry I did.” I mumbled in a soft, sob-stricken voice.

My admission seemed to startle him as his hand stopped moving down my hair for a beat before he went back to it.

“That day you saw me hit Sebastian, it was because he’d sent a dick pic to my sister. She was twelve at the time.” Guilt gnawed at my chest and I closed my eyes in shame, “I swear I’m not a bully, Nova. But I’m not a pacific person either. I believe that violence can and does solve things sometimes.” I nodded quietly, understanding why he would think that.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

Silence met me as he pinched his lips together, “I— I don’t know. You already had me sorted. And I guess being noticed for something I wasn’t was best than not being seen by you at all.”

His admission made me speechless. I gape at him as he held my gaze courageously.

Neither of us spoke for the longest time, to the point where tiredness and shock caught up on us and I’m pretty sure we dozed off.

The door to the closet being yanked open is what woke us up with a start.