Chapter 71 – Charlie
CHARLIE
Mitchell goes down the stairs first and I quickly follow, my dads taking up the rear. Halfway down, I make out the cage in the edge of one of the flashlights' beam.
“Bonnie.” Her name is a breath on my lips and suddenly I’m racing down the stairs, pushing passed Mitchell until I’m kneeling in front of the cage’s door.
I tug on it, but it doesn’t budge. I call her name again, this time so she can hear me and finally she lets out a small groan. Her eyes flutter open but immediately wince and snap shut. “Lower the light,” I snap at everyone behind me.
They do, lighting up the ground instead of her face and my stomach sinks. “Jace?” I call out hesitantly. The hairs on my arms and back stand up when he doesn’t respond. His back is to me, lying with his head in her lap. Unmoving and covered in blood.
“H-Help him, Charlie,” Bonnie cries out, tears running down her face and her voice sounding completely broken.
I shake my head. Please, no. “Jace!” I scream out, my fists gripping the bar and shaking the door as my voice echoes through the basement.
He doesn’t even twitch. “No, no, no,” I mutter, my head snapping around when I hear the sound of metal.
Mitchell looks down, spotting the set of keys he just kicked and crouches down to pick them up.
The second he’s close enough, I snatch them out of his hand and shove the first one my hands touch into the lock, turning it.
“Fuck,” I hiss out when it doesn’t budge. I blink away the tears filling my eyes and try another. And another. It takes three more attempts before I finally find the right key, and I don’t hesitate to crawl inside the second it’s unlocked.
Grabbing Jace’s shoulder, the first thing I notice is how cold his skin feels. Gently, I roll him over and a sob rips from my chest when his body moves with no resistance, his eyes still closed and bruises marring every inch of his skin.
A sob rips from my chest when he doesn’t rouse, doesn’t react at all. “Jace, wake up.” I shake his shoulder, pulling him further away from Bonnie so I can lie him flat on his back. “Please…wake up.”
Pressing two shaking fingers to his throat, I hold my breath as I wait for the small thumping beat of his pulse, only to panic when I can’t feel anything. “No.”
Switching sides, I press my fingers down and wait.
And wait.
“No, no, no.” I can’t hold back the cry that rips through me, pulling him into my lap and holding him to my chest. I press my lips against the top of his head, rocking us back and forth as I cling to him, whispering his name over and over, begging him to wake up.
A hand grabs my shoulder and pulls, but I shake them off, refusing to let Jace go. “No!”
“Charlie. Charlie!” I ignore the voice. I don’t who it’s coming from and frankly, I don’t care right now. All I care about is the man in my arms. Tears burn tracks across my skin as they fall, and I try to blink them away so I can focus on Jace, but it’s no use.
“No!” I shout, fighting as their grip moves under my arms and they drag me away. “Jace!” I fight, pulling with all my strength to get away.
“Let me go!” I scream as my grip slips and they move quickly, ripping me away from him and pulling me through the door of the cage.
He’s not gone.
I refuse to believe he’s gone.
He can’t be gone.
He just…can’t.