Chapter Two #3
We climbed back out my window and ran. Luckily, her house was only a block away because Indi was barefoot and still wearing a thin nightie. I remember thinking vaguely that her feet had to be shredded from sprinting over the pavement, but neither of us slowed down long enough to care.
I didn’t even stop to tell Mum or Dad where I was going.
All I could think about was Indi.
About making sure she didn’t lose both parents in one night.
The second we walked into her house, I smelled it.
Alcohol.
Drugs.
Something sour underneath it all.
Then I saw her father lying motionless on the living room floor.
He was pale.
Too pale.
Almost gray-looking.
Foam clung to the edge of his mouth, and suddenly the entire room felt off in a way I can’t properly explain even now.
Indi stopped moving beside me.
She was completely still.
Like her body had just shut down.
“Indi,” I said quickly. “Call an ambulance.”
Nothing.
She didn’t even blink.
I rushed toward her father and dropped beside him, forcing myself to check for a pulse even though my hands shook violently.
Nothing.
His skin was cold.
Cold enough that deep down I already knew paramedics wouldn’t save him.
I slowly looked back toward Indi.
She stood there staring at her father’s body with absolutely no expression on her face. Her arms wrapped tightly around herself like she was physically trying to hold herself together. And the look in her eyes terrified me more than the dead body.
“Indi?”
Nothing.
I stood quickly and grabbed her arm gently, guiding her away from the living room. “C’mon.”
She moved mechanically beside me while I led her toward her mother’s bedroom. The door was locked, and panic crawled up my spine.
I knocked hard. “Mrs. Malone? It’s Caleb.”
Silence.
I knocked again, louder this time.
Nothing.
Behind me, Indi still hadn’t spoken a single word.
I looked at the door.
Then at her.
Then back at the door.
Every instinct inside me screamed that something was horribly wrong.
“Indi,” I said carefully, forcing her to look at me. “I’m gonna break the door down, okay?”
She stared at me blankly for a second before giving one tiny nod.
I stepped back and drove my shoulder into the door as hard as I could. The frame splintered near the lock, and the door burst inward.
The bedroom was empty.
But the ensuite light was on.
And I could hear water running.
A cold wave of dread swept through me instantly.
I walked toward the bathroom slowly, every step heavier than the last. “Mrs. Malone?”
No answer.
I pushed the bathroom door open.
The first thing I saw was blood.
Dark red water spread across the white tiles, running toward the drain in slow streaks.
Then I saw the bathtub, and my stomach turned violently.
I heard Indi step into the bedroom behind me, but I moved quickly, blocking her view as I rounded the corner fully.
Her mother sat motionless in the bath.
One arm hung limply over the side while blood poured from deep cuts along her wrist into the overflowing water.
“Jesus Christ,” I whispered.
My heart pounded so hard it hurt.
I hated blood. Always had. But this… this was something else entirely.
Still, I forced myself closer because I had to know.
I reached trembling fingers toward her neck.
Nothing.
No pulse.
And right then, her head rolled sideways toward me. I stumbled backward hard, slipping in the bloodied water and crashing onto the tiles. Fear shot through me so violently that my entire body went numb.
Her eyes were still open.
Staring.
Not seeing anything.
Behind me, I heard movement, and I looked up and saw Indi standing in the doorway. And suddenly it was like watching her soul slam back into her body all at once.
Her expression shattered.
A scream ripped out of her so loud it echoed through the entire house.
I scrambled to my feet instantly and grabbed her around the waist before she could reach the bathtub.
“Indi—”
“Mum!”
She fought me wildly, hysterical sobs tearing from her throat while she reached desperately toward her mother.
“Mum, wake up!”
Her mum’s body shifted in the water as Indi grabbed her shoulder, causing her to slip lower beneath the surface.
“Indi, stop!”
But she couldn’t hear me.
Couldn’t process anything.
She dragged her mother upward again, only for the body to slip helplessly back beneath the bloody water.
That image still haunts me.
“Indi!” I wrapped both arms around her and physically pulled her backward. “She’s gone.”
“No!” she screamed, fighting me with terrifying strength. “Mum!”
I dragged her out of the bathroom while water splashed across the tiles behind us. She kicked and fought and sobbed violently against me, and eventually I slid us both down onto the bedroom floor because I physically couldn’t hold her upright anymore.
And then I just held her.
As tightly as I could.
Because her entire world had ended in a single night.
Her father overdosed.
Her mother killed herself.
And at seventeen, Indi Malone was completely, and utterly, alone.
I hated her parents in that moment with a level of fury I’d never experienced before.
Because no matter how broken they were…
You don’t leave your child behind to survive something like that.