Chapter 22 #2
They show up a few minutes later and we sit around the kitchen table discussing things.
Landon has dug up a few things on Matthew, but nothing that’s concerning.
“It looks like he made his living selling weed and pills. Lived in a little grungy trailer in Princeton. No family left. I doubt anyone will look very hard for him.”
“Did you figure out why he chose Joshua?” I ask.
Landon shakes his head. “No, maybe he owed him money for drugs or something. The only way we could find out would be to ask him, and that could just open up more problems you don’t need.”
Justus nods his agreement.
“Can I go to work tomorrow without a chaperone then?” Silver asks.
Justus fakes offense. “I can’t believe you’re trying to get rid of me after I made you pancakes.”
Silver rolls her eyes. “Would you like it if I followed you around?”
He shrugs. “A lot of women have. I’m used to it.”
“Yes, I think we can get back to normal,” I tell her, then turn to Justus. “I’ll call Lacey tonight to let her know she’s safe without a bodyguard too. You can let Dare and Tucker know.”
“We could leave for home around five tomorrow,” Landon suggests. “As soon as it’s dark.”
Silver surprises them by grabbing each of them in a hug. “Thank you for everything you did. And I’m sorry again for hitting you,” she tells Landon.
He grins at her. “No more apologies needed.”
“I’m going to go to bed and let you guys hang out. Have a safe trip back.”
They don’t stay long before Justus goes to the cabin to help Landon pack up.
After I call Lacey and let her know everything’s fine and she’s free of her security detail, I pop the panel out of the back wall of my closet and pull out a few stacks of cash.
I divvy it up into individual envelopes for Landon, Justus, Dare, and Tucker.
They won’t expect any payment, but they’re getting it.
I couldn’t have kept Silver and Lacey safe without them.
Silver’s asleep with a small smile on her face when I climb into bed. It’s the most relaxed I’ve seen her since before her house fire. She finally gets a peaceful night’s sleep knowing she’s safe and everything’s going to be alright.
I pull her into my arms and lie there for a long time, just holding her, until my eyes grow too heavy to keep open.
Suddenly, I’m standing at the edge of the parking lot in front of Lucky’s Diner. What am I doing here? Was I supposed to pick up Silver?
A dim, flickering light comes from a single pole.
The frail beams only claw their way out a short distance before hitting a wall of blackness.
The diner’s barely visible in the gloom and everything about it feels wrong.
Light and life should glow in the windows.
It should be full of laughter, conversation and warmth.
Instead, the building squats there dark and silent, the windows only black mirrors that reflect nothing.
My skin prickles, and I turn in a circle to look around me. Is Silver here? Is she in danger? Is that what I’m doing here? Every thought feels like a herculean effort, like I’m pulling them through syrup, and they keep slipping out of my grasp.
My foot moves forward to take a step but I’m not the one controlling it, and gravel crunches loudly under my boots. The sound is distorted, as if warped by water.
My heart starts to pound, and I try to turn around to go to the diner. Silver must be in there. My body doesn’t listen to my commands and points me toward the edge of the parking lot where something waits. I can’t see it yet, but the hair stands up on my nape.
One step is followed by another, and another, slow but steady, and completely out of my control. Every instinct I have screams at me to stop, but my legs move anyway, slogging through air that feels like mud.
A car comes into view. It’s parked by the edge of the lot, half hidden in shadows. Fear has gripped me from the moment I couldn’t control my body, but it isn’t until I get close enough to recognize the car that my knees nearly buckle.
No.
My breath catches sharp and painful in my ribs. The car looks just like it did in the pictures. The same rusted bumpers and shitty paint job full of scratches. Joss’s car.
I’m desperate to stop moving toward it, to have a second to think when it feels like I’m grabbing at thoughts that pop like soap bubbles, but my feet carry me over to it.
A metallic smell hits me first, one I’m far too familiar with, and I try to close my eyes.
The pictures were enough. I don’t want to see the car soaked in her blood again.
Closing my eyes doesn’t work. I can still see. My hand closes around the door handle but it won’t open. My stomach twists as I bend down to peer through the window. It’s just blood, and you’ve seen blood before, I try to tell myself. Keep your shit together.
A scream rips across the parking lot, a horrifying sound that raises goosebumps on my skin. It takes me a moment to realize it came from me.
Isla sits naked in the backseat, her body turned slightly toward me. Her eyes are closed and her hair is plastered to her face and shoulders, dark with blood. It covers her, smeared across her chest, stomach, and thighs. It pools beneath her and the seat looks swollen with it.
As I shout her name, her skin begins to turn gray, and dark patches of decomposition bloom. She’s dead. Of course she’s dead. You know she’s dead, I remind myself, the confusion sneaking in again. But here she is, right in front of me. I can bury her and finally lay her to rest. For her and for me.
I reach for the door handle and discover my movements are my own again. It’s still locked, and I go to each door, all the way around the car, but none can be opened. I’ll find something to smash the windows.
Movement in the floorboard catches my eye, and at first, I think it’s my imagination, some trick of the light mixed with my panic. But no, blood has filled the floorboards and is reaching the edge of her seat. It rises up, thick and dark, and spreads out over the whole interior.
I look around for something to smash the windows, but there’s only empty darkness. When I look back at Isla, her eyes suddenly pop open. “Lee.”
The terror is indescribable, but when her eyes lock on mine, alive and aware, all reason flees. “Isla!” My fists bounce off the windows almost comically, like they’re made of rubber. The blood rises faster, filling the car. It’s already lapping at her waist.
She puts her hand against the window. “I loved you.”
A sob tears out of my chest as I yank on the door and slam my fist uselessly against the window again. The climbing blood reaches her chest, and her body rocks slightly, floating. “Unlock the door!” I roar, slapping the glass. “Isla! Unlock the door. I can’t.”
She remains still, only her mouth moving. “I loved you, and you got me killed.”
“No,” I yell, my throat burning from the effort. “Please. Unlock the door.”
I can’t. I can’t do this. Can’t save her. Can’t stand here and watch her drown again.
Her mouth stretches into an insane grin, then her shout fills my head. “I didn’t drown!”
No, of course she didn’t. I know that.
Her words are followed by a deafening maniacal laugh as the blood reaches her throat. My heart hammers so hard it feels like it could tear itself free, and right now, I’d welcome it. Anything but this.
“I loved you!” she screams, her demented laughter following. “I died for loving you, and you love her!”
Silver’s face flashes through my head. Her smile, the way she looks at me when she thinks I’m not paying attention, the connection that’s grown so strong between us.
Isla’s laughter cuts off as if someone hit stop on a recording, and she looks me in the eye. The pure hate I see in her expression makes me recoil as she asks in a flat tone, “Are you happy?”
The blood rises over her lips, filling her mouth but she only stares calmly at me. She asks again as the blood covers her nostrils. “Are you happy?” The words are wavery, filtered through the liquid, and they repeat in my head as something pulls me away from the car.
I hear them over and over as I watch it grow smaller in the distance.
I loved you.
But you love her.
I died for loving you.
Are you happy?
I jolt awake with a strangled gasp, my lungs burning and my heart trying to escape. The sight of Silver lying beside me is the biggest relief, but echoes of Isla’s voice ring in my head.
Are you happy?