Saving Hannah

by Saving Hannah (epub)

  He nodded, although, deep down, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to walk away from a fight. Still, he gave his dad a reassuring smile and said, “I promise. No violence. I’m just going to ride by her place. See if she’s there, maybe.”

  ***

  Standing in front of Hannah’s house, Caine felt a rush of confusion at the rundown building. Why was she living here, when she could be living at home with her parents? It didn’t make sense—even if she did graduate early, she was still only seventeen. Why would her religious parents let their underage daughter move in with a guy who was obviously too old for her? A guy who obviously had issues.

  From the top of the hill, he saw Max, carrying some duffel bags out to his car.

  Revving his motorcycle, he zoomed up to the house, making sure to make his engine nice and loud so Max would hear him coming. He slid to a stop behind the car, and pulled his helmet off, fixing his piercing gaze on Max. “Where’s Hannah?”

  Max turned, unaffected by the glare, and dropped a duffel bag into his open trunk. “She’s not here.”

  “What do you mean she’s not here?” Climbing off his bike, Caine quickly closed the space between them.

  “I mean she’s not in this area at this moment in time,” Max said, his words long and drawn out as if speaking to a child.

  “Where is she?”

  Max rolled his eyes. “I don’t know man. She’s gone. She just packed a bag and left.”

  “Was that while she passed out with a scorching fever or after?”

  “I don’t know what you’re trying to imply, but I don’t have time for this.” Max grabbed another bag off the ground, but Caine yanked it away from him and tore it open, dumping the contents into the trunk. Confusion and fear flooded over him when he saw a roll of duct tape, a bottle of pepper spray, a pistol and a stun gun.

  “What the hell is this?” Caine asked, as violent and sinister scenarios of Hannah’s sudden disappearance formed in his mind.

  “None of your business.” Max slammed his trunk shut, barely missing Caine’s fingers.

  Grabbing Max by his shirt, Caine finally lost it and slammed him down onto the closed trunk, pinning him there with all his strength. “It’s about time you tell me what the hell is going on. I come back after a year and Hannah’s living in this dump, with you, and she has track marks and burns on her arms.” His anger boiling over, Caine shouted into the scumbag’s face. “Then she passes out the other night and now suddenly...Hannah’s missing and no one’s seen her since you threw me across the room like some cracked-out superhero. I want answers and I want them now.”

  Clenching his jaw in annoyance, Max shoved Caine away with mega-force. Caine stumbled back, thrown off balance, as Max stood to his feet again. “I told you, man, I don’t have time for this.”

  “Where is she?” Caine shouted, following Max as he tried to climb in his car.

  “I have no idea.”

  Caine reached out, grabbing Max’s arm. “Why’d she pass out?”

  Max spun around, clocking Caine with a punch that sprawled him face down in the grass and left him dizzy and disoriented. He recovered quickly, but he’d still taken too long, and Max was in his car.

  Slamming the car into reverse, Max whipped around, barely dodging Caine’s motorcycle. With a loud roar of the engine, he sped past Caine so fast he had to jump out of the way to avoid getting run over. His body trembling with anger and confusion and fear, he watched Max’s car travel down the road, debating whether or not to go after him. Glancing back at the empty house, he decided he’d rather go inside and investigate.

  He’d been looking forward to kicking in the door, but he didn’t get the satisfaction—the door was standing wide open.

  Walking through the kitchen, with dirty dishes piled high on the counter, his first impression of the place was that it was a dump. He crossed the faded, peeling tiles until he came to another room.

  It looked like a living room, but was mostly empty with only a couch sitting in the center of the room. Seeing no tables, lamps or other source of lighting in sight, he figured this room wouldn’t hold many answers, so he turned to go down the hall.

  A knot formed in his stomach as he came to the bedroom, his gaze immediately seeking out the bed only to find it rumpled on both sides. He’d been holding out hope that Hannah and Max shared the house platonically, but the mix of her clothes and his on the floor told him different.

  This is no time to be jealous, he told himself, grow up!

  Forcing himself to look away from the bed, he searched the dresser drawers first but there weren’t many clothes in them. It looked like Hannah wasn’t much for doing laundry, and by the looks of the amount of clothes on the floor, he figured most of their clothes were dirty.

  After checking under the mattress—disturbed to find a condom wrapper—he decided searching the bedroom might be a little much for his temper, even with the meditation he’d done this morning.

  Heading back down the hall, he passed the open bathroom door and spotted something. He turned, reaching for the light switch and flipping it on. Kneeling down, he saw a pool of blood by the bathtub. Dark red and sticky looking, he could definitely tell it was blood, and his worst fears were confirmed.

  Something bad had definitely happened to Hannah.

  Chapter Four—Captive

  Hannah woke with a dull pounding in her head, feeling dizzy and disoriented. She felt like she was floating, bouncing up and down...

  Opening her eyes, she saw eight lanes of traffic and the road signs of an interstate highway and realized she was in a car. Alarmed, she looked around, seeing Sean next to her, driving. Her hands were cuffed together around the door handle, and glancing down into the floorboard, she saw her feet were tied, too.

  Panic bubbled over in her heart as she snuck a glance at Sean only to find him staring right at her with a sinister grin that made her want to yelp. Where was she? How long had she been out? More importantly...where were they headed, and what would he do with her once they arrived there? Her mind rushing with questions and terror, she avoided looking at him, trying to slow her pounding heart. “What happened?” she asked stupidly.

  “You didn’t agree to plan A so I went with plan B,” Sean said with a shrug.

  “I don’t understand.” Had he given her some type of drug? She felt groggy and tired—as if she were seeing and feeling everything through a warped magnifying glass. “I don’t understand why you want to break into that place. Do you know how hard it was for me to break out of there?”

  “You don’t need to understand.” Reaching over, Sean switched the radio off, leaving them both in an uncomfortable silence.

  “Caine will figure out what happened. He’s smart like that—”

  “I’m counting on it.” Without skipping a beat, Sean kept his gaze straight ahead as he turned onto an exit ramp.

  “You and your sick games,” she said in disgust, trying to hold back tears of fear. “It’ll be the death of you.”

  “My sick games?” He repeated, raising a disbelieving eyebrow at her. “What about you? You had plenty of opportunities to ask for Caine’s help...but you just loved the way he chased you around, trying to figure it out. Now—bam!—times up, Hannah!” he sang in a game-show announcer’s voice, “How will you screw up next?”

  She opened her mouth, ready to yell and curse at him, but he held a hand up to stop her.

  “I’d be careful if I were you, baby,” he warned. “I have the one thing you need in order to stay alive.”

  ***

  “I’m telling you, dad, there’s something wrong with that guy, Max.” Unable to sit still, Caine paced across his father’s living room, stuffing his hands in his pockets, then taking them out and running one through his hair. His thoughts racing a mile a minute, he searched his mind for some reasonable explanation and the only one he could come up with was foul play.

  “Caine, just calm down a minute.” Michael stood up from the couch, his worry evident
in his features. “You need to think rationally. He said Hannah left—”

  “And he also had a gun...and duct tape...and I think I might’ve even seen a shovel in his trunk. I swear to God, if she’s not alright...” his throat closed up on him and he couldn’t even finish the thought. Clenching and unclenching his fists, he could feel the anger boil in his blood, the monster inside trying to claw out and seek vengeance. Taking deep breaths, Caine forced himself to stay positive. Hannah was okay, and he’d find her, and everything would be alright. Believing in that as truth was the only thing that would keep the animal at bay.

  “If you’re really that concerned, you should go to the police.”

  “Yeah,” Caine said with a laugh. “I can see how that’d go down. An ex-con walking in to ask them to look for some girl—who for all appearances looks like a junkie. They’d laugh me right out of there.”

  “You don’t know that for sure,” his dad replied. “You could try.”

  He shook his head. “No, I need to find out why Hannah disappeared last year. That’s the key—it’s the link. Once I find that out, I’ll have a better shot of...”

  “Of what, exactly?” Michael stood up, grabbing Caine’s arm to keep him from pacing. “What exactly do you plan to do?”

  “I have to find her,” Caine said. “What else can I do? Something’s wrong, she needs me, I know it.”

  “Son, all you know is that she’s a troubled girl who ran away. You’re picking out the pieces that look suspicious and denying everything else—Hannah calling in to work, for example, or that boy said she packed a bag and left. That doesn’t sound sinister to me.”

  “It’s because you don’t know her.”

  “And neither do you, not anymore, you keep forgetting that.”

  Staring at his dad, he couldn’t believe what he’d heard. His dad always trusted him, always believed in him without question. And now, Caine was scared out of his mind because he knew Hannah was in trouble...and his dad didn’t believe him?

  I’ve got your girl, Caine. Again.

  Suddenly, in his head, he heard Sean’s voice taunting him. His heart pounding, Caine waited for another message from Sean. Where is she? he thought, focusing all of his energy on that question and hoping his brother would hear him.

  Ask Max—he knows more than he’s letting on.

  His fears confirmed, Caine started for the door, ready to ransack every inch of town if that’s what it took to find Max. Michael grabbed his arm, stopping him. “Where are you going?”

  “I told you,” he snapped, yanking away. “You might not believe me, but I know something bad happened to Hannah. And I’m going to find her.”

  ***

  Caine drove every road he knew, and even some he didn’t, looking for any sign of Max’s car. After two hours, his search turned up with no results, and he was close to giving up.

  Then, as he was passing by the diner, he saw Max walking out carrying a to-go bag of food.

  He whipped his motorcycle over and climbed off of it, appearing in front of Max before he could react.

  Glaring at him in annoyance, Max shook his head. “You again? You don’t give up, do you?”

  “No, I don’t.” Taking a few steps toward him, Caine tried to use his size to intimidate Max. He’d let the monster take over if he needed to, if Max wouldn’t give in any other way. “What do you know?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Caine grabbed Max’s shirt and slammed him against the side of the building. “I know for a fact that you do. There’s blood in your bathroom and Hannah’s missing, and you’ve got some pretty suspicious looking items in your trunk. Now, I know Sean has Hannah, so where do you come in? That’s what I keep trying to figure out.”

  “It’s none of your business.”

  “What does she see in you?” Caine exclaimed, furious to think Hannah was alone with a psychopath and her boyfriend didn’t care.

  Max started laughing, short maniacal laughter rang out. “You think we’re together because we’re in love?” He scoffed, grabbing Caine’s wrist and trying to push him away. “Well, I’ve got news for you; she’s not with me because she wants to be.” Breaking Caine’s grip, Max gave him a hard shove away. “She’s with me because her life depends on it.”

  Caine stumbled back from the surprising force as Max straightened up, glaring at him. “Who the hell are you?” Caine asked. “How do you do that? And what kind of abusive freak are you to think her life—”

  “I’m not an abusive freak. I’m not exaggerating.” Smoothing out his close, Max shot him a dirty look. “I’m another mutant...like you.”

  There were more of them? How many more? Was Max related to him somehow, or were other families affected by the same genetic curse?

  “Do you have any idea what your brother did to her?” Max’s voice, thick and coated in disgust, broke Caine from his trance. “When Sean kidnapped her, before you rescued her, do you know what he did?”

  Caine’s heart filled with terror. He’d always assumed he’d gotten to Hannah before Sean harmed her...surely he had, right? Hannah would’ve told him if Sean hurt her...

  “The bastard injected her with some of his blood—our tainted blood—and ruined her life.” Staring at him, Max shook his head and leaned against the building. “She didn’t want you to know...she acted like it’d be the worst thing in the world, but I’m not lying for her anymore.”

  “What are you talking about?” Caine yelled, full blown panic setting in. “What did the blood do to her?”

  “At first, she was fine. Then she started to change—like we do, and plagued this town with attacks she couldn’t remember doing. People got hurt and it drew the attention of...this sick group of scientists. They took her to their lab—the marks you saw on her arms? They’re scars from the experiments—their tests.” Max took off his jacket and showed Caine his arm, marked with same kind of round scars. “That’s where we met.

  “Once we broke out, she got really sick. She’d been sick...I guess the scientists didn’t realize, or didn’t care, I don’t know. Hannah was on death’s door when I got the idea to try injecting her again. What was there to lose? She was dying...and then she wasn’t. Our blood keeps her alive.”

  “I don’t believe you...” Backing away, Caine felt like he’d be sick at the thought of the horrible year Max painted. “Sean’s sick, but he’s not that unhinged...” Even as he spoke the words, he knew they weren’t true. Sean was that demented. This sounded like exactly the kind of twisted game he would play to make Hannah cling to him.

  He needed to talk to Hannah. He needed to hear it from her. “Where is she now?”

  “I told you, man, I don’t know.” Max knelt down and picked up the bag of food he’d dropped when Caine body-slammed him. “I brought her home, gave her an injection. She slept—like she always does after—and when I woke up the next morning, she was gone. She was worried Sean was going to come back...maybe he took her; maybe she finally gave up and ran away. I don’t know.”

  He walked toward his car as he spoke, but Caine followed him, unwilling to let him get away.

  “How can you act like it’s not a big deal? Don’t you care about her at all?”

  “It is a big deal, and I wish I could help,” Max faced him, catching his gaze in a look of honesty, “but that lab I told you about? My friends are still there. My little sister’s still there. And they’re running out of time. So if you want to find Hannah, you’re on your own.” Turning, he opened his car door. “I kept her alive for four months. Now it’s your turn.”

  “Wait, Max.” Grabbing the door, Caine kept it from shutting. “You can’t get them back on your own. We could help each other out, here.”

  Eyeing Caine slowly, Max looked like he was on the verge of saying no.

  “Now, I know for a fact that Sean has Hannah. If you help me find her, I’ll help you break your friends out of the lab,” he said, praying he would take him up on the offer. />
  With a sigh, Max said, “Get in.”

  ***

  “It’s happening so soon?”

  Sean’s menacing, sing-song voice broke through Hannah’s thoughts of fear. She could feel her body growing weaker by the second, confirming the fears she’d kept silent about all along. The amount of blood she needed was slowly increasing, her tolerance rising, and she had no idea how far it would go. She feared that one day; there would be nothing to save her.

  “I think you’re getting a little too used to the blood, Hannah. I wonder what’ll happen if you don’t get some soon.”

  She glanced over at him in irritation, her vision going blurry. Exhausted, she leaned her forehead against the window. “Why are you doing this to me?”

  With an exaggerated sigh, he reached over and squeezed her knee. “Because these scientists know something they’re not supposed to know, sweetheart. And I need to make sure the knowledge doesn’t go any further.”

  “What do you mean?” She asked, only partially hearing what he’d said over the loud ringing in her ears. She hated the side-effects his blood caused on her body.

  “You feeling okay, honey?” He gave her knee another tight squeeze as if he cared. “You’re not looking so hot.”

  “You know why,” she said, trying to fight the grogginess so she could stay awake. She didn’t want to be unconscious around him anymore...it was far too scary.

  “Right, the blood thing. You’ll die if you don’t get some soon, probably. Of course, I could always help you...” Sean said with a sick laugh. “All you need to do is ask.”

  She grimaced at the thought of asking him for some of his blood. No way—she wouldn’t do it. Opening her mouth to answer him, her words were interrupted by a cough that crept up her throat out of nowhere. Her fever grew hotter, sweat pooling in beads around her hairline as the scenery around her blurred, doubled and eventually faded out as she softly told Sean, “I’d rather die.”

  ***

  “Before Sean left town with Hannah,” Max said as he turned on to the interstate, “I managed to read his mind. The scientists who took us found a cure. Sean wants to destroy it.”