Chapter 11
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Lina
Time passed terribly slow as Noah rushed the car through the highway.
Mika had called me earlier, her voice frantic and breathless.
She’d moved into the apartment above the Pine Valley shop a few months back, wanting to be closer to work and tired of commuting from across town.
Tonight she’d been getting ready for bed when she spotted someone outside the shop window, throwing liquid all over the storefront.
She’d called me immediately, words tumbling out so fast I could barely understand her. Someone was trying to burn down my shop. My parents’ shop. The place I’d built my entire life around.
I’d told her to wait for me. Told her not to do anything stupid. Told her the police were on their way and she just needed to stay inside and stay safe.
Then she’d hung up on me.
I’d tried calling back. Once, twice, three times. Nothing. Just her voicemail clicking on, her cheerful recorded message mocking me with every unanswered ring.
I’d called Vivi next, asked her to get there as fast as she could.
Then I’d called the police and reported the attempted arson, giving them the address and begging them to hurry.
But Pine Valley was a small town with limited emergency services, and I had no idea how long it would take them to respond.
All I could do was pray they arrived on time.
Noah, bless him, must’ve broken a dozen traffic laws on the drive.
He pushed the car to speeds I didn’t want to think about, weaving through the sparse late-night traffic with the kind of reckless precision that would have terrified me under normal circumstances.
Right now I just wanted him to go faster.
The two-hour drive took us barely an hour and a half. When we finally crossed into Pine Valley’s borders, I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
Then I saw the police cars.
Their lights bathed everything in alternating red and blue, illuminating the familiar street in harsh, clinical flashes. My heart stuttered when I spotted the ambulance parked near the curb. And behind it, a fire truck, its crew milling around with equipment I couldn’t identify from this distance.
The second the car stopped, I was out the door and running toward the scene. My pregnant belly made the movement awkward and my back screamed in protest, but I didn’t care. I needed to see. I needed to know.
“Sorry, miss, this is an active crime scene and you can’t pass-”
A young police officer stepped into my path, one hand raised to stop me. He looked barely old enough to be out of the academy, his face earnest and apologetic.
“I’m the owner!” I told him, desperation making my voice crack. “I own the shop and my friend was here! Please, you have to let me through.”
His expression shifted from professional to sympathetic. He stepped aside and waved me through the yellow tape barrier.
I rushed past him, my eyes scanning the scene frantically. Please let everything be alright. Please let Mika be okay. Please let my shop still be standing.
I took a quick look at the storefront and felt one of my worries ease slightly.
The building wasn’t destroyed. It wasn’t engulfed in flames or reduced to rubble.
The side of it looked charred, the exterior wall blackened and scorched, but only on the outside.
The windows were intact. The door was still standing.
Whatever had happened, the authorities had arrived soon enough to prevent total destruction.
But where was Mika?
I spotted the ambulance first, its back doors open and lights still flashing.
Vivi stood near it, her arms wrapped around herself, staring at the ground with an expression I’d never seen on her face before.
She was always the sunshine one. The optimist. The person who found silver linings in every situation.
Right now she looked broken.
“Vivi!” I shrieked, running toward her as fast as my body would allow.
She looked up at the sound of my voice and her face crumpled. We collided in a hug, her whole body trembling against mine. I held her tight, feeling her shake with silent sobs.
“What happened?!” I demanded, pulling back just enough to look at her face. “Where’s Mika? Is she okay? Why isn’t she here?”
“When I got here-” Vivi tried, her voice breaking. “When I-”
“Breathe,” I said, even though I wasn’t breathing very well myself. “Just tell me where she is.”
“She’s at the hospital, Lina.” Vivi whispered the words as if saying them too loudly would make them more real. “There was so much blood. When I arrived, she was on the ground and there was blood everywhere and the paramedics were trying to stop it but there was so much-”
She trailed off, her eyes going distant as she relived whatever nightmare she’d walked into.
My heart stopped. Literally stopped beating for a full second before slamming back to life with a painful thud.
“Is - is Mika...?” I couldn’t finish the question. My throat closed up and the words refused to come out. “Is she...?”
Dead. I couldn’t say it. Couldn’t even think it. Mika with her purple-streaked hair and her dozens of piercings and her attitude that took no shit from anyone. Mika who had been my first employee, my closest friend, the sister I’d never had. She couldn’t be dead. She couldn’t be.
Before Vivi could answer, a police officer approached us. He was older than the one at the barrier, with gray at his temples and the weathered look of someone who’d seen too much in his career.
“Ma’am? Are you the owner of this establishment?”
I nodded numbly, still holding onto Vivi. My friend seemed ready to collapse if I let go, so I kept my arm around her shoulders and forced myself to focus on the officer.
“I’m Officer Daniels,” he said. “Can I ask you a few questions about what happened tonight?”
“Yes. Of course. Just-” I swallowed hard. “Can you tell me what happened to my friend first? Mika Callum. She was here when...”
Officer Daniels’ expression softened with sympathy. “From what we’ve been able to piece together, someone sprayed the exterior of your building with gasoline and was preparing to ignite it. Ms. Callum apparently witnessed this from her apartment window and came outside to confront the perpetrator.”
“She confronted them?” Of course she did. That was so Mika. Brave, foolish, stubborn Mika who never backed down from a fight even when she should have.
“Unfortunately, the altercation turned violent. Ms. Callum was stabbed. The ambulance arrived quickly, but she’d already lost a significant amount of blood by the time the paramedics reached her.
” He paused, his voice gentling. “She’s been transported to Pine Valley General Hospital.
The paramedics were confident she would need surgery, but they were able to stabilize her for transport. ”
Mika had been stabbed while defending my stupid, meaningless shop. A building that wasn’t worth a fraction of her life, and she’d nearly died for it.
My knees buckled.
Noah appeared out of nowhere, his arms wrapping around me from behind to keep me upright. I hadn’t even realized he’d followed me from the car. He must have been giving me space to process, waiting nearby in case I needed him.
I needed him now.
“Easy,” Noah murmured against my hair. “I’ve got you.”
“The arsonist?” I managed to ask, forcing the words past the lump in my throat. “Did you catch them?”
Officer Daniels shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. By the time officers arrived on scene, the perpetrator had fled. We’re canvassing the area and reviewing footage from nearby security cameras. If there’s anything useful, we’ll find it.”
“Okay.” My voice sounded distant, disconnected from my body. “Okay.”
The officer asked me more questions after that.
My name. My contact information. When I’d last been at the shop.
Whether I knew of anyone who might want to harm me or my business.
I answered as best I could, the words coming out mechanically while my brain screamed at me to get to the hospital. To get to Mika.
When he finally finished and handed me his card with instructions to call if I thought of anything else, I turned to Noah with tears streaming down my face.
“Take us to the hospital,” I said. “Please.”
He nodded and guided both me and Vivi toward the car, one arm around each of us. Vivi was still shaking. I wasn’t sure I was any steadier.
The drive to the hospital was a blur. I sat in the back with Vivi, holding her hand while she cried silently against my shoulder.
My own tears fell freely, soaking into the fabric of my shirt.
My brave, foolish friend. Why had she done that?
Why had she put herself in danger for a building?
The shop wasn’t important. Not compared to her life.
I could rebuild a shop. I could repaint walls and replace furniture and start over from scratch if I had to.
I couldn’t replace Mika.
Pine Valley General Hospital was small compared to the medical facilities in Ravenshollow, but it was clean and modern and staffed by people who actually seemed to care. Noah dropped us off at the entrance and went to park while Vivi and I rushed inside.
The woman at the information desk directed us to the ICU with a sympathetic expression that told me she’d probably heard a version of our story a hundred times before.
We followed her directions through sterile white hallways that all looked the same, past doors with small windows and beeping machines, until we reached the intensive care unit.
They wouldn’t let us in.
Mika was in surgery when we arrived, and then in recovery, and then being transferred to a monitored bed where she could be watched around the clock.
The nurses explained in gentle voices that ICU patients weren’t allowed visitors, that we could look through the window but couldn’t go inside, that Mika needed rest and quiet and specialized care that couldn’t be interrupted.
So we stood at the window and watched.