6
Austin
I picked her straight away because of her weird running style. Her glasses caught the light off the church, glimmered, and shined. I called her name, but she responded with a fearful shriek, and it occurred to me that she was running away from someone or something and was genuinely scared.
Stepping in front of her as an obstacle to stop her from running, I open my arms wide, and she slams right into me and falls to the ground. “Emaline?”
“Huh?” she looks up at me, registers who I am, and then points that finger at my face. “You. Get away from me.” That little sweet Velma Dinkley climbs to her feet, glances behind her for the other nerd, and races to her aid.
“Whoa. Whoa, Emaline. Stop,” I stand over them. “I’m not here to harm you. Aaron and Xavier are here too-”
“I suspect you’re all in on it,” she hisses. I hoped that mentioning my brothers’ names might make her chill, but instead, it invoked more anger.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I tell her. “But we need to take you to the hospital.”
They storm past me toward the church, not listening to anything I’m saying, but seeing a fiery side to her has been enlightening.
“Your sister is in the hospital,” I call after her, and she freezes and turns back.
“How do you know?” she asks suspiciously, but I’m more curious about how she knows.
“Because we were first in the scene,” I step toward her as if something doesn’t add up with this scene. “Who are you running from?”
Even in the dark, I can tell that she’s distressed. She hesitates, then looks past me to the crypt, and I follow her gaze to find a couple wandering through the graveyard, drunk and dozy. “Your friends,” she snaps and turns on her heel to keep running toward the church.
“My friends?” I mutter to myself in confusion. “I don’t have any friends.”
I spot Aaron’s large frame lumbering around the side of the church just as Emaline and Rosie run inside. He notices them and is hot on their tail, but I’m guessing he will probably get yelled at just like I did.
I can’t help being preoccupied with the tomb, and I’m drawn back to it to see if anyone is inside. I’ve trodden this path so many times that I can do this with my eyes closed, but when I come to the door and find it open and hear the echoes of voices, I wonder who the fuck is down here.
With clenched fists, I bend right over to run down the steps and come out to see the faces of Kieran, Kody, and a blond chick. Kieran and Kody are buddies of Aaron, a year older and on his team. I don’t know who the blond chick is, but she looks familiar. Maybe she hangs with Aaron, too.
“What’s going on down here?” I ask assertively. Something doesn’t feel right, and I suspect these are the people Emaline was running from.
“Are Emaline and Rosie okay?” the blond chick asks as soon as she spots me.
“Why does that sound disingenuous?” I hit, leaning against the stonewall where the corridor leads out into the tomb, blocking their way. If they want to get out, they have to get past me.
The blond chick stumbles from my accusation. “Do you wanna tell me what’s going on here?”
Silence.
I continue, ”Cat got your tongue? Because I just bumped into Emaline Applegate, and ah, she doesn’t look too happy. I suspect her unhappiness has something to do with you.”
“We had her sister down here,” the blond chick is the first to speak.
“Do mean her sister that’s in the hospital right now after the van that she was stowed away in rolled in a field.”
More silence.
“Yeah, see, I know because we were following that van thinking it was Emaline inside. But instead, we come across her long-lost sister. Kinda weird, ain’t it?” I tell them, keeping my voice forcefully leveled because I’m fucking angry.
“It wasn’t us,” Kieran states, attempting to barge through my human blockade. “We were trying to protect them.”
“Sure, dude,” I shoot sarcastically. “That makes a ton of sense.”
“Ask Bri for yourself,” he suggests, cocking his head to the side.
“Maybe I will, but in the meantime, you three keep the fuck away from Emaline. Got it?” I warn as my shoulders tense, and I see red behind my eyes.
“You’ve got the wrong people,” Kieran asserts, yet he’s not convincing me. “We’re not the enemy.”
“Whatever,” I say, striding past them to check the tomb area to see if they’ve changed anything. The Butcher’s Block is the first thing I see, and I immediately envision Emaline hitched on that block with her legs spread and me railing her as if her life depended on it. Well…her life would depend on it if she wanted me to pay off her family’s debt. I wonder now if my offer still tempts her.
Two phones are left on the Butcher’s Block, and I scoop them up in my hand, noticing under the dim candlelight that they’re cheap brands and old models. Brands and models that the three people before me wouldn’t be seen dead using because that’s the stupid, superficial world we’re living in.
“Whose are these?” I ask them, knowing what the answer is.
Their answer leaves a gap of silence large enough to drive a bus through. “Emaline and her friend,” the blond steps forward.
“So…this ain’t making sense,” I state casually, holding the room. The one good thing about being a Leroux is that most folks are too fucking scared to screw us over apart from…The Huntsman lunatics, but that’s another story. “Since when do you need to take the phones off people you’re trying to keep safe? I mean…this is the excuse you’re giving me for why you kept Emaline down here against her will.”
“There’s no reception down here,” Kieran states the obvious, “so it wasn’t a problem. But it could’ve been a problem if one called for help.”
“Jeez, fuck,” I blast, irritated by their abstract answers. “What the fuck are you talking about? You’re not making any fucking sense. Do I have to crack your skulls open, pull your fucking brains out and read your mind to know what the fuck you are talking about?”
“Aust,” my brother calls from the top of the steps to see if I’m down here.
“Yo!” I call back. “We got Mickey and Minnie Mouse down here talking shit.”
The blond clarifies as if it matters, “My mask wasn’t Minnie M-”
“I don’t fucking care,” I snap.
Aaron saunters down the corridor, filling the space since he’s almost as wide as the corridor itself. “What’s up?” he says, cocking his eyebrows at his buddies Kieran and Kody, then his gaze travels about the tomb, landing on the phones in my hand, and his half-hearted smile vanishes. “What’s the fuck is going on down here?”
“They’ve been holding Emaline and Rosie hostage,” I tell him, and he screws his face up. “Where is she?”
He points his thumb behind him. “Xavier is trying to talk her down from her rage.”
“No, we haven’t,” Kieran argues. “We did not hold Emaline hostage. Fuck, bro, stop saying that because it ain’t true.”
“What is the truth then? Because of the way Emaline’s been yapping at lightning bolt speed, I’d say she’s not happy, and that makes me unhappy.” Aaron asks sternly, blocking the corridor behind me with his body. “You’ll have to explain it to me like I’m ten.”
“Look, it was Brielle’s idea,” the blond chick states, then sighs, folding her arms across her chest. “Brielle was in hiding, and we helped her-”
“Why?” I ask, tired of being given snippets and not the whole story. It doesn’t involve us, yet it bothers me that sweet Emaline is caught up in it. And let’s face it, it bothers my brothers too, or else they wouldn’t have spent the night searching for her.
“Some people were after her. Some really bad people,” she explains, ignoring Kieran”s warning look. “F-from-”
“Don’t,” Kieran interrupts, “say too much.”
“Why?” she hisses at him.
“Because Brielle said not to,” he shouts, and I’m still waiting for them to explain.
“Bad people? Bad people could mean anything,” I say impatiently, but then I remember the heavies that visited me in the bone gallery, and finally, night becomes day. Did Brielle mess around with some men from the dark side?”
“No,” the blond chick answers. “She found something about her parents when they disappeared in South Africa, and um…the bad people found her.”
“Emaline and Brielle’s parents were accountants or something, weren’t they?” I ask to clarify.
The blond nods as Kieran and Kody watch us closely, trying to predict if we’re going to be even more pissed.
“So, Emaline’s parents worked for bad people or something?” I ask, trying to remember what those heavies were threatening. In my mind, it’s a comical satire—gum chewers in expensive suits telling me to watch myself. It’s starting to make sense now.
“Yeah,” she sighs, stepping forward, “Look, please don’t tell Brielle we told you.”
“What difference does it make? Unless,” I ponder for a second, “unless you’re making this shit up.”
“No, bro,” Kieran stresses, “Harley was there when these guys, like fucking mafia or something, dragged Brielle into a black sedan, and they threatened to smash her face in if she squealed, and now Harley is freaking out. There’s a whole bunch of us that are involved in this shit. Several of us keep our mouths shut so we don’t end up in the river with a bullet hole in our heads.”
“Who’s Harley?” I wonder why he’s added another actor to this crazy stage play.
“Her,” Kieran answers, pointing his thumb to the blond beside her.
“We’ve met several times before,” Harley points out, offended that I don’t remember. I recognize her, but I couldn’t care less about her name or who she associates with.
“So, she…Brielle faked her disappearance to steer the bad fuckers off her trail?” I clarify. “And according to you, the bad fuckers are mafia from where? South Africa.”
“Yes,” they answer together, and I turn to Aaron. “I don’t know, bro. What do you think? Do you think they’re telling the truth?”
Aaron cocks his eyebrows, showing little animation on his face. “Kinda seems farfetched, but there’s one way to find out, and that’s to speak to Brielle.”
I nod in agreement, more concerned with the safety of Emaline than any of these guys.
“We better go, bro,” Aaron says impatiently, “Xave is our ride home, and hopefully, he’s charmed Emaline into believing that we’re the good guys here. For once.”
“What are we going to do with them?” I ask for a suggestion, nodding toward Kieran, Kody, and the blond girl.
“Nothing,” he answers without hesitation, turning his back to walk to the stairs. “If they lie to us, we’ll catch up with them.”
I glance back at the three to read their expressions, and they don’t seem too worried, which is all I need to know. That they’re telling the truth, and it adds up with the experiences I’ve had and the weird shit that’s been going on with Emaline.
“So her sister does care after all,” I say as I follow behind the broad shoulders and thick neck of my older brother, built like a fucking rhino.
“So it seems,” he mumbles as he stoops down so he doesn’t smack his head and makes his way up the stairs into the starlight night.