Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
INDY
Athud from above the living room catches my attention, and my eyes snap to River.
“Where’s Summer?” I ask, frantically searching the room.
“Call Hartley!” I hear Summer shout from upstairs, right before a door slams shut.
“Oh, God.”
Stumbling up the stairs, I reach the door, but the knob won’t turn.
I can hear them inside, awful noises that my brain makes images for.
Fumbling with my phone, I dial the sheriff's number and my heart races as it rings and rings before I leave a tearful message on her machine. “Hartley, he’s here! He’s in my house! Please come back!”
There’s a loud bang against the floor, and the sound of fighting inside, but my door won’t budge. “Summer,” I scream banging on the door, “Please, Summer…”
“Oh my God,” Zaye whispers, as I stand there desperately trying to get the door open.
“SUMMER!” I yell one more time when I hear the crash of a window shattering before everything just… stops.
There’s nothing, and my ears start to ring, my heart falling into my stomach…
Oh God.
There’s voices outside now, but I can’t make them out from here, and I’m afraid to leave the door. Summer comes out of my room looking like she just fought for her life, and it hits me… that’s exactly what she did. Our eyes meet, hers widen and her mouth moves, but I can’t hear her.
The ringing gets louder, a high pitched noise that makes me feel funny.
“Hey, Honey, come back to me,” Summer’s voice cuts through the thick fog of my brain and I blink, finding myself looking up at her. “There she is.”
Palms flat on the floor, I push myself up. Summer gently lays my head against the wall near my bedroom door and wipes away a tear that’s escaped her.
“What happened?” I ask, feeling uneasy.
“You passed out,” she says, looking me over and holding her fingers against the pulse in my wrist. “You really haven’t drank much water today.”
Shaking my head to clear the rest of the fog, she grabs my face and kisses me. “They got him, baby.”
My eyes widen and the tears flow freely as I kiss her back, uncaring of the audience behind us.
“They got him?” I ask, just to double check I heard her right, since my ears are still ringing.
She laughs, a relieved sound and nods. Her eyes are red behind her glasses, and she sniffles a little. I’ve seen her cry, but I know those are happy tears. The kind that come from knowing an ordeal is finally over, and you can rest.
Mama and Papa are both on the floor next to us, and embarrassment floods my cheeks.
“BeeBee, you okay?” Papa asks, while Mama offers me juice.
“I’m fine,” I assure them, “I was just… so scared. I guess my body couldn’t handle it.”
Standing up, with Summer’s assistance, we make it downstairs and into the living room where Mama sits by my side and makes sure I drink the juice she brought. The rest of the counselors barrel in, all talking over each other.
“She’s okay, no I don’t know what the sheriff’s gonna do, now sit down.” Mama says, commanding the four of them like children. “What I do know is we’re gonna postpone this weekend’s riders, offer them another day, refund, whatever they want, and we’re all takin’ the next few days off.”
“Mama,” I scoff, “that’s hardly necessary–”
“I don’t want to hear it, we all could some time to go out and have fun. Do something for yourselves, okay?”
Everyone nods, looking at each other with varying looks of astonishment. Mama usually keeps her cool, but her tone leaves no room for argument.
In the silence my phone starts ringing and everyone pauses.
“I threw it down, I’m not sure where it landed.” All I wanted was to make sure none of the blood on her shirt was hers.
River sprints up the stairs, and after some shuffling, they return with my phone. By now it’s stopped ringing, and when I check the screen I look at Summer, biting my lip. “It was Hartley.”
“Call her back, and find out where they took him,” she gently grabs my hand and holds it tight. “Kyle, or should I say, Vincent, has some fucking explaining to do.”