by Hart, Rebel
“Emmett didn’t do that!” I argue. “His father did! Your problem is with Thomas and he’s gone now…so let’s just go home! Please!” I grow more frantic as the water around us rises. I feel my feet sinking more, and I’m almost afraid that any attempt to move away from the edge will only cause me to slip.
“You really think he’s so different?” Theo questions. “Wake up, Ophelia! The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Emmett is just as awful as Thomas was. All he cares about is being the king of Jameson, and he’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen and line his pockets along the way. Especially now that everything has been ripped away from him…just like it was from me. Trust me, I know what it feels like. And I can see the desperation in his eyes.” He wipes his hand across his eyes, and I can’t tell if it’s to brush away rain or tears. “Don’t make the same mistake I did, sweetie. Please. Don’t waste any more time trying to see something in him that’s not there.”
“What if Bridgett had been the one who was with him?” I ask. “If you brought Emmett here to kill him…would you have killed her too?”
He thinks for a moment. “I don’t trust any of them,” he admits. “But no, of course not. I could have never killed her for that alone. I promise you, Ophelia. Now will you please come here!? Before you fall!”
It’s getting harder and harder to hear over the roaring sound of gushing water all around us. I hear the distant crashing of trees as the flowing waters eat away at the soil around their roots. More and more debris shoots past as the flood overtakes everything, and the rain shows no signs of stopping. If anything, it only falls harder with each passing second.
My clothes are heavy and completely drenched, sticking to my shivering body. My eyes are gritty and swollen from stress and lack of sleep. Every one of my muscles aches. Chills and shivers ripple through me, up from the puddles of water in my shoes as I’m sucked down further into the mud. I wipe my eyes again, feeling the pruned grooves of my soggy fingertips.
Another big cracking sound startles me from the side. I cut my eyes just in time to catch sight of a shed on the other end of the junkyard being yanked off into a stream of floodwaters. Steady rain continues pounding against everything around us, pinging off of the old cars that are still clinging to solid ground.
“I don’t know what to do,” I mutter under my breath. I’m desperate but stuck in the crossfires of Theo and Emmett.
I start to wonder if it even matters who I believe. Why should I die out here with them? Maybe Emmett really can’t be anything more than an Elite who was doomed to be a monster from birth. And maybe Theo really is every bit as greedy and manipulative as I have wanted to believe from the start. What does any of that have to do with me? I didn’t ask for any of this.
“Please, Ophelia!” Theo begs again.
Emmett grabs my hand suddenly, squeezing it tight. I look into his gray, piercing eyes. Water streams down his flattened hair that spiders along the edges of his face.
“Don’t go,” he pleads quietly, so that only I can hear. “Stay with me. Trust me.”
It’s all he has ever asked of me all along. To stay with him. To trust him. Even when none of his words or actions made him deserving of those things.
“I have stayed,” I cry softly. “I have trusted you. And look at where it got me?”
“We’re almost out of here, Ophelia. If we make it through this night alive, we can get the hell out of Jameson and never come back.”
“What were you going to do if you got away with me in your car that day?” I ask again. I stare into him longingly, desperate for an answer. Desperate for the truth. “Tell me the truth. What were you going to do?”
A sad smile flashes across his lips. “Drive away,” he answers, his voice cracking. “Drive away and never look back. Take you somewhere far away from here. Tell you everything and get us out of Jameson, so I could give you everything you deserve. It’s all I wanted to do then, and it’s all I want to do now.”
“But my family,” I whisper. “You would’ve taken me away from Mom and Brendan?”
“I didn’t know what else to do,” he shrugs. “I didn’t see any other choice. I knew what was about to happen and I wanted to save you. I couldn’t let them make me keep hurting you.”
My heart shatters as deeply as the dissolving ground around us. I wonder what would have happened if I would have gone with him that day. If I hadn’t grabbed the steering wheel and sent us crashing into the pole. Could we really have driven off into the sunset and found some kind of happy ending? The kidnapping. Being held hostage in Jameson manor. Meeting Thomas. Every single bad thing that happened from there…I’ve blamed Emmett for it this entire time. Maybe he did just want to save me all along.
I lose myself in Emmett’s eyes as Theo continues yelling, pleading for me to come to him. I barely hear him anymore as we stand there in the dark, looking at each other hopelessly.
Suddenly, his hand drops mine. His face stiffens with a strange, new resolve. “Go,” he says. “Go to him.”
“What!?” I cry. “Emmett! I don’t know what to do! I don’t know who to believe!” I look back at Theo, then back to Emmett, hoping at any moment some answer or sign will come to me.
“Go to him,” he insists again. “None of this is your fault. You have a chance at a big beautiful life outside of Jameson. I wanted to have that with you, but it may be too late. I’m not going to let you die out here with me. You don’t deserve that.”
“Don’t make me do this,” I sob, wishing there was more time. If the water wasn’t rushing around us so violently, we could stand out here and argue all night. They could debate and tell their stories, and maybe somewhere along the way I would find some shred of truth that I could believe in beyond a doubt.
“I love you,” Emmett whispers.
I feel something shoving into my back. I’m flung forward, plopping down into the mud. Not knowing what else to do, I slip and slide my way back up and run for Theo’s arms. He reaches for me, crying as I rush to cling to him for safety.
But just as I am about to fall into him, he goes toppling over. Emmett pummels into him, tackling him to the ground.
29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Just as I have wrapped my head around the idea of abandoning Emmett to die, still feeling no closer to knowing who is telling the truth, I watch Emmett plow into Theo. They crash into the flooding ground, splashing around in the mud and water.
After they hit the ground, with Emmett on top pinning Theo down, Emmett rears back. I watch in shock as his arm hangs in midair for a moment before thrashing into Theo’s face. He immediately pulls back to get in another punch, but he’s thrown off. They roll around for what seems like an eternity, throwing relentless punches and kicks.
I stand there, completely paralyzed and feeling like I’m going mad from being wet and cold for so long. They can’t keep track of where they’re going in the midst of their desperate attacks on each other, and I’m stuck watching in horror as they move dangerously close to the edge of the drop-off.
“Look out!” I cry, not entirely sure which one of them I’m trying to warn. Maybe it’s both of them at this point.
That’s when I remember that I’m free. With them fighting, no one is stopping me from running away from all of this. I could take off and never look back, completely free from the decision of who I’m supposed to trust. My feet start to run, then stop again. I am stuck in that motion for a while, pivoting back and forth between fleeing or staying behind to see what happens.
If I run away from this, it’s not up to me to decide anything. But both of them could die. If I stay and whoever the bad guy is here lives, I’m in danger. If I run and one of them catches up to me, I could be in danger. If I don’t get out of the rising floodwaters, I die. There is no good option. No right decision. Every path before me is scary, unknown, and dangerous.
I remember how I felt when Bridgett showed up and convinced me to go to prom with her. For a brief m
oment, none of this mattered. The scene playing out in reality before my eyes now was happening in my head then. I was just as torn. Just as conflicted. But I put it all aside and let myself be free to celebrate myself. Can I do that just as easily now with both of their lives at stake?
All I’ve wanted to do from the beginning of this was walk away. And now I’m free to do it, and I can’t. I look out into the darkness as the rain pours down. If I keep running, I can go home. I can tell my parents everything once and for all. Maybe they go to the police. Maybe they leave with me? Does it really matter at this point?
If Emmett or Theo come back with me, I run the risk of them destroying our lives. The only two factors of this equation that did not exist in the life I knew before, when everything was normal and happy, are Theo and Emmett. I didn’t know either of them nine months ago. I can keep running and go back to that, forgetting they ever even existed.
The two continue grunting and thrashing behind me. I close my eyes and focus in on the sounds of my own breath. In and out. Inhale, exhale. What are you going to do, Ophelia? What are you doing to do?
My instincts take over, and I do the only thing I am certain I know how to do. I run. I run like mad in a way I never have before. I slip and slide in the mud every few feet and flail like mad to get back on my feet and run some more. The sounds of the fighting men grow more and more distant behind me.
Steam billows out from my mouth and flaring nostrils against the cold, dark, rainy air. My muscles burn and ache, and I don’t know where I’m going. Everything around me has become unrecognizable, completely changed from how it was when we passed through here before. With each passing second, the rain washes away more. A car here, a tree there. It seems like the entire world is disappearing into this flood, and I know soon Emmett and Theo will be washed away in it.
A tinge of guilt pangs against my heart, but I force myself to keep running. It’s not my fault. I didn’t ask for any of this. I never would have come to Jameson if I had known this is what waited for me here. All I wanted to do was exactly what I’m doing now. To run. That’s still all I want. And once I am really free, I can go to my safe, warm, dry home where my mom and stepdad are waiting for me. Everything can go back to the way it was before.
I’ll get the hell out of Jameson like I have been dreaming about all this time. Maybe somehow, I can even avoid the news long enough so that I never know what happened to Emmett or Theo or Jameson or whatever new Elites pop up. I can forget all of Marissa’s words that I’ve read. I can forget the sound of Emmett’s voice and the features of his face. I can forget that I ever loved him at all.
I keep running and running, but my body starts to lose its strength. It wasn’t that long ago that I was drugged and completely unconscious. Since then I have been under more emotional and mental stress than I thought possible, which is saying a lot considering everything I’ve been through. There was a car crash and all those scrapes against the fence and the surrounding junk. I’m dangerously cold and soaking wet. It’s all catching up to me and I feel my batteries running out.
My run slows to a jog. Then a fast-paced walk. I feel like every step could be my last and I’m so close to just falling over and letting myself drown out here in the flood. But I didn’t come this far to give up. I’m a runner. Pushing myself is muscle memory. It’s in my veins. I take in a deep breath and take off again. But I quickly find myself in an area void of any light. I stop, heaving over in panic before desperately looking around for some sense of where to go. My eyes strain in the darkness. We had Theo’s flashlight to guide us through here before, but now it seems as dark as some deep part of a cave, miles below the earth.
Don’t give up, I tell myself again. I break off into another delirious sprint, not noticing the faintest shadow of something in front of me. I ram straight into the side of a big, broken-down semi. The ground around it is flooded and weak, and I feel the big hunk of metal give way under the force of my body. But it’s still enough to knock me backward off of my feet.
I shake my head and climb back up, feeling even more disoriented and lost now. I take off running again. I carry on like that for a while, but then a frightening sound echoes through the night. Voices. Screaming voices. I keep running harder and faster, and the voices get closer. Finally, I make something out of the panicked yelling.
“Ooooopphhheeelliiiaaa!”
My name is called, over and over again. What have I done? Did I take off running in the wrong direction after I fell? The screaming continues and gets louder as I go until I’m certain I’m headed right back to where I started from. I stop and consider turning around to try again. But more of the surrounding areas of growing unsafe. It’s too late, I think. I don’t know if I can ever get out of here now.
Is this bad luck? Or a sign…the hint that I’ve been waiting for. No matter where I run to, no matter how hard or fast I go, I can’t get away from them. And now I might die out here with them. I keep pushing forward, preparing myself for the possibilities of whatever I am racing towards.
I think I start to recognize some of the things I’m passing. I’m getting closer to where I started from. Or at least I think I am. But as I approach the spot that I am certain I ran off from before, Theo and Emmett are nowhere in sight. I can tell now that the voice calling out to me is Theo’s. He’s yelling my name over and over, and it sounds like it’s right next to me. But I can’t see him anywhere. I look around in the darkness, unsure of what to do next.
The aches and pains burn through my shivering body and I’m growing delirious. My eyes pound with the need for sleep, but I am so hyped up on adrenaline, I wonder if it will ever be possible to sleep again. My body is just as conflicted as my heart is.
Then I notice a strange splashing up ahead, and I realize it’s coming from just beyond the drop-off. I carefully approach it, praying that the current doesn’t overpower me. I get close enough to see that the splashing is coming from a pair of hands. Two pairs of hands. I drop to my hands and knees and crawl forward, finally getting far enough to see both Emmett and Theo have fallen over. But they’re each clinging to their own shard of debris poking out from the ledge that shrinks underneath the flooding waters.
I really am right back to where I started from. I have no choice but to decide. I look down at their desperate faces, both looking half convinced that they’re about to die. Why did it have to be so dark? Why did I have to get lost? Why couldn’t I have escaped this and stumbled back out onto the road? I would’ve kept running all the way home, never looking back again.
But here I am. With no way out and both of them pleading for me to save them. It occurs to me that even if I am able to choose between them, I still may not be able to help. And I might die out here regardless. I hope that being faced with that will give me some sort of clarity. Some sort of nudge to what I should do. But I know now that I am all the way back here, I can’t run away from this again. I can’t leave them both to die like this.
I look around, thinking I have to make a plan for how to do this before I can do anything else. A clinking noise a few feet away catches my attention. A chain is caught on one of the old cars nearby and is rattling against the rushing, rising waters. I race over to it, unwrapping it from the twisted piece of metal it clings to. I return to the edge and look over and they’re both still miraculously dangling there.
“Help me, Ophelia! Please!” Theo cries, nearly falling as he tries to reach for me.
Emmett is oddly quiet, grappling onto what looks like a bumper sticking out of the mud. I wait for him to join Theo in calling out to me. But he says nothing. He just looks up at me in between his attempts to hold on. The waters rise and I know if I’m going to try and save one of them, it has to be fast. A few seconds more and they’ll both fall to their deaths or get swept up in the rushing flood. And the more time I waste in indecision, the more I risk dying out here with them.
What would my mom do? She and Brendan are the only good, honest people I have left in this world
. Who would they want me to save? I think back to what my mom said about something always seeming off about Emmett. She wanted to trust and believe in Theo’s ability to change and give him a second chance. Does that mean that I should too?
You’re out of time, Ophelia. I look over to Emmett. His face softens with acceptance as if he knows what I have to do. And he’s okay with it. Just like when he told me to run to Theo. He just wants me to make it out of here alive.
“Ophelia!” Theo sobs, slipping further down towards the put below.
Without wasting any more time, I swing down the chain. I hear crashing waves all around as he climbs and the moment he claws his way back onto solid ground, I turn to take off running again. This time, I’m smart enough to stop and look around for the bobbing beam coming from Theo’s flashlight. It’s trapped among a cluster of debris. I race over, snatch it up, and take off. Not even caring if he’s following behind me. I did my part. I made my choice. Now I have to survive this and get the hell out of here.
By the time I reach the darkness I got lost in before, I am nearly swallowed up by a gushing stream of water. I manage to grab onto something sticking up and use it to climb to slightly higher ground. The rest of my escape is a blur. All I know is that eventually, I find my way back out onto the road. My feet stomp across the flooding pavement. A few of the dips in the road are so flooded I have to swim through them, using passing sticks and logs to propel me forward.
As the lights of Jameson finally come into view up ahead, the rain stops. The downpour grows silent and all that’s left is the sound of trickling water all around. I never thought I would be so happy to see this fucking town again. I hate it with every ounce of my being, but in this moment, I’ve never been happier to see anything. That is until I finally arrive home. I burst through the door and crash into the arms of my mom, still sopping wet.
I drag her down to the ground, crying the whole way. She holds me and rocks back and forth until I calm down. Not asking any questions or demanding I tell her what happened. She just takes me in and lets me get it all out.