Chapter Fifteen #2
James ran so fast, at one point he wasn’t even sure he was touching the ground.
It was just pure propulsion from where Rose wasn’t to the spot by her side.
The closer James got, the more confusing the details became.
No one was with Rose but there was blood on the wood next to her.
The clothes she was wearing, however, were clean.
The only thing that had changed since he had last seen her at the hospital was the rope she was currently untying from around her ankles.
Rope that was attached to a cinder block near the dock’s edge. Two more cinder blocks were next to her.
She didn’t seem like she was hurt. Yet her expression was panicked.
He didn’t know why.
Rose pointed to the water.
“Save him,” she yelled.
James didn’t need to know more. He didn’t need the details to make sense. Context wasn’t the key to getting him to act.
It was Rose.
She needed him to do something.
So something was what he did.
Without a single question, James dove into the water.
The house might have been warm and the outdoor air humid, but the pond was absolutely cold. It hit James’s body like a ton of bricks as he immediately started swimming downward. He opened his eyes once he adjusted and the cold was less jarring, and scanned the area.
He didn’t know who this he was, and he didn’t know why he needed saving, but the second James saw the body sinking toward the bottom, he readjusted his aim.
The man looked like he was standing straight up in the water, his arms suspended above his head, his shirt loose and floating in the same direction. James made it to his waist and realized how the cinder block fit into everything.
The man was tied to it.
Just like Rose was tied to one on the dock.
James didn’t have time to be angry. The man wasn’t moving.
He dove deeper down to try and see if the rope was tied around his ankles too. The water was murky, but James was able to find where the rope connected. Luckily it was around one ankle, not both.
Water displaced above him as James set to undoing the knot. He didn’t turn to see who had jumped in. He knew it was Rose.
She attached to the other side of the man, using him to reorient herself so her feet were touching the ground. James’s chest started to burn with the effort. He was running out of time.
Rose must have realized it too.
She reached out and touched him before pointing to the surface.
But James wasn’t leaving her again.
Instead of dealing with untying the knot completely, James did the next best thing.
He ripped it apart.
Whether the knot was bad to start with or the rope was already frayed, it came undone fast. The man shifted and Rose’s positioning finally made sense. She pushed off the ground with her arm wrapped around the man’s waist.
Together with James, the three of them sprung up to the surface.
James hit it first, gulping up the air. Rose came second. She was already yelling for him.
“Help me! Help me get him to bank!”
It was a struggle at first but soon they found a system between them that worked. The man didn’t fight back at all, which made sense considering he wasn’t breathing when James hefted him up the bank and pulled him to a flat area of grass.
“He’s—he’s been in the water for—for over a minute,” Rose huffed out. She shoved her hair off her face. She didn’t meet his eye. “He’s been—been shot too. I need—I need to call this in but my phone—”
James yanked his phone out of his pocket but felt instant relief.
“It’s waterproof.” He started a call to 9-1-1 while Rose put pressure on the bullet wound in question. It was near his shoulder and the sudden force didn’t stir him either.
“Who is this?” he asked.
James was utterly shocked at her answer.
“It’s Damon. I—I need you start CPR while I go—”
She tried to stand, James kept her down. He might not have known what had led to Damon being the one tied to a cinder block and shot, but he doubted it was Rose’s doing, considering he had found her tied up too.
So there was a third person.
Someone he hadn’t seen yet.
“Who shot him? Who tied you two up? Was it Lloyd?”
Her eyes widened. A dispatcher answered the call, her voice floating up toward them. Rose simply nodded.
“Where did he go?” James’s muscles were tensing, his adrenaline surging one more time.
“The house. He’s—he’s armed.”
James didn’t give two licks.
He ran back to that house, clothes soaked through, and yelled Lloyd’s name like an angry sermon.
What he hadn’t counted on was the man calling him right on back.
Lloyd Harrison was standing by a window on the second floor. The window treatments were still there, framing the dirty glass with stubborn dignity. It was the only thing in that room that seemed to belong.
Lloyd didn’t. In fact, he didn’t look like he belonged anywhere.
His clothes were baggy, his hair limp, his expression dull.
He looked like he had already been written out of the world, but his body just hadn’t caught up yet.
He rested one hand on the window frame; the other was wrapped around a gun.
His gaze was slow as syrup as it moved between the outside world and James in the doorway.
James was dripping on the hardwood. His chest was heavy from anger and effort. His fists were empty but balled.
He had never met or seen Lloyd Harrison before that morning and now the man was squarely in his sights.
“You tied her to that block,” he breathed out, his voice as low as he’d ever heard it himself.
Lloyd hardly reacted.
“Damon did,” he said, voice just floating along. “Then I tied Damon up. Then I shot him and came here. I saw you two jump in to get him. I can see Rose is trying to save him now too. Because that’s what heroes do.”
James was taken aback at the honesty.
“You know, I don’t much care for the whole hero thing or games, but I get now why Damon was so angry.
” A small, watery smile swirled over Lloyd’s lips.
“His brother used to call him a hero too, and then, the day he died was the day he stopped. I never really got how much that must have hurt until now.”
He let out a breath. It was short and didn’t drag him down. Instead, it seemed to be just another motion he was going through. Then he smiled again. James couldn’t tell what emotion it was coming from, but it didn’t feel fake.
“I don’t think he ever really blamed Rose, though,” he continued. “I know I don’t. It wasn’t her fault. It was…it was that storm. That damned generator.” He let out a small laugh. “It’s funny how one single point of failure can wreck so many things.”
James took a tentative step forward. Why this man was waxing poetic, he didn’t know, but that gun needed to be gone.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but it sounds like you shot a man who was aiming to hurt you and Rose. We can be calm and talk about the rest of it.”
Lloyd didn’t seem to mind him creeping closer.
James got the impression that Lloyd had stopped minding anything at all.
He let out one last little sigh.
“If you want this to end here, I suggest you don’t repeat what I’m about to say, but, well, I think it should be said.” He glanced out of the window. James was about to spring at him, but he raised the gun and placed it against his temple.
When Lloyd looked back at him, his smile was the only thing left that seemed alive.
“Damon is really good at tying knots, but Rose sure got out of it easy, didn’t she? I could have pushed her in the water too, tied to that thing, but I didn’t. I guess we’re not all that bad, in the end.” Lloyd turned back to the window. His last words haunted the empty room.
“Close your eyes now, Mr. Keller. This won’t be pretty.”
James ran forward, yelling.
He didn’t make it.
The window treatments kept on hanging but Lloyd Harrison was gone.