Alone

by Abigail Wallace

  “Tell Alec where you’ve been.” I hiss. It’s my turn to intimidate. “Come on Evan! Tell him what you’re doing.” I don’t know what’s come over me.

  “Why don’t you just tell him?”

  We argue for a few minutes. I look at Alec, who’s obviously very confused by the situation.

  “He’s building a bomb.” I tell Alec, “Because he’s so hellbent on blowing up that stupid bunker.”

  “You’re doing what?” Alec shouts in disbelief. His eyes shift between Evan and I “A bomb. Really?”

  Evan shrugs, grinning.

  “These people really are nuts.” Alec says to himself.

  “I’ll show you.” I tell Alec.

  Before Alec can ask me how I know, Evan jumps on me, pinning me to the ground. Alec tries to wrestle him off of me, but Evan is strong and angry. Evan’s fist slams into my face. I can taste blood in my mouth. My head is pounding, but adrenaline takes over and I knee him in the stomach. He doesn’t back off.

  “I warned you.” he whispers in my ear.

  “Get. Off. Me!” I cough, trying to wiggle my way free. Alec’s still pulling at Evan. I manage to get my arm out from under him and elbow him in the face. He moves his hands to cover his eye and I crawl out from under him. Alec wraps his arms around Evans chest and drags him away from me. But Evan gets enough force to stomp on my leg before Alec knocks him out with one punch.

  “Thanks.” I say breathlessly. I raise my hand to my mouth, blood drips on my finger.

  “This just isn’t your day.” Alec groans, trying to help me stand. I can’t put weight on my leg, he picks me up and carries me back downstairs.

  “Ally, get some ice.” Alec orders. Ally jumps up from her seat and bolts to the kitchen.

  “What are you gonna do?” I ask weakly, wincing as he lays me on the couch and props up my leg.

  “Don’t worry about what I’m gonna do.” he replies.

  “Consider me worried.” I reply.

  “Where does it hurt?” he asks, redirecting the conversation.

  “Everywhere Alec,” I would roll my eyes if they didn’t hurt so much, “I just got attacked by a very muscular, 200 pound man with anger issues so it hurts everywhere.”

  He squeezes my ankle gently. I pull back.

  “Well, excuse me for trying to help you out.” Alec mutters. Ally brings me two bags of ice. She places one on my ankle and hands me one for my head. I feel like I might pass out.

  “Kevin, don’t let her fall asleep.” Alec says as he begins to climb the stairs.

  “What are you doing?” Kat asks him.

  “I’m probably gonna kill him.” he replies, disappearing into the room at the top of the stairs. Shark comes over to me. He sits on the floor next to Kevin but doesn’t say anything for a minute.

  “Evan?” he asks.

  “Evan.” I confirm, wincing in pain. “I kinda pissed him off.” I admit.

  “Shark, you have to stop Alec.” Kat says.

  Shark stares at her, “Why?”

  “Because he’s really mad and he might actually kill Evan.” Ally replies before Kat can.

  “Let him.” Shark growls. He holds my hand.

  “Shark.” I say. He looks at me. “Please.” I beg.

  Everything goes dark for a minute.

  “Okay,” he agrees, slowly letting go of my hand, “but only because I want to do it myself.” He follows Alec up the stairs. I hear the two of them talking.

  Finally, Alec and Shark come downstairs. Immediately everybody stands up and goes to the dining room. Kevin whispers something to them before joining the others. Shark and Alec come over to me. I don’t say anything. Shark sits on the floor near my head and Alec kneels next to him.

  “Scarlet, I’m sorry.” Alec apologizes. I try to turn my head to look at him, but it hurts too much. I want to tell him something reassuring, that it’s not his fault. That I’m fine and he doesn’t need to worry, but I don’t say anything. I listen to his footsteps as he walks away. I reach my hand out to Shark, he takes it.

  “That was stupid.” he says. “What made you think you could take on Evan?”

  “I wasn’t planning on him beating me up.” I moan. My head throbs with every word.

  “What’d you think he was gonna do?” He tries his best not to sound angry. “Why’d he threaten you in the first place?”

  “Because I know where he disappears to all the time.” Our conversation is interrupted by Alec snapping at somebody in the other room. We listen for more yelling from the dining room.

  “He feels guilty you know.” Shark says, ignoring the conversation we were just having.

  “What?”

  “Alec, he thinks it’s his fault.” he says. I pinch my lips together.

  “It’s not, this is my fault, I shouldn’t have put myself in that position.” I reply.

  “No. You shouldn’t have.” he agrees. “But he still feels guilty for not being able to stop it.”

  “I don’t know why he suddenly cares.” I groan. “Last I checked, we don’t like each other.”

  “Can you just accept the fact that he feels responsible for you and everyone else in this house?”

  “He really feels that bad?” I ask. I can’t help but feel some joy knowing that Alec cares about me at all.

  “Yeah, he does.”

  “I’m about to do something stupid.” I say, pushing myself up. My impulsiveness takes over as I try to stand up. I start to fall off the couch but Shark catches me.

  “You shouldn’t be moving.” he says, trying to stop me.

  “No I shouldn’t but I hate staying still. And I’m gonna stop Alec from throwing himself a pity party. Not for something that’s all on me.” I can hear Shark sigh. It’s hard to see, the room feels like a boat. I balance on my right foot and try to hop forward but I almost fall.

  “Can you help me?” I ask. He stands there not moving. “Or I could just crawl,” I say sarcastically.

  “Fine.” He wraps an arm around my waist and helps me into the dining room.

  “Scarlet, you shouldn’t be up,” Alec shoots Shark a glare. Shark throws a hand up in frustration.

  “He tried to stop me.” I say. Ally brings me a chair and Shark helps me sit down. “Alec, you don’t get to take responsibility for Evan. None of this is on you. It’s my fault this happened.” I say. I look around the room slowly, which makes me feel a bit dizzier. “Evan has all these lists and maps and blueprints in a house close to here. He has notes about the government and the bunker, multiple bunkers and a bomb. Last I checked it was almost finished.” I tell them. “He’s crazy. He threatened me yesterday, he wanted me to help him. I don’t know why or with what. But I turned him down. He said that if I told you, he’d kill me.”

  “I should’ve known that’s what he was doing.” Shark mumbles. I can barely hear him.

  “You didn’t think that would be important for us to know?” Alec asks.

  “I don’t know.” I sigh. “I know I should have told you. I was just scared.”

  “She’s telling us now.” Shark points out. Alec grunts.

  “After she got herself beat to a pulp.” Alec rolls his eyes. “She told us after he almost killed her.”

  “The man threatened my life.” I say quietly. “Like I said, he’s crazy, he would’ve killed me.”

  “He almost did!”Alec argues

  “With you standing right there.” Shark growls at Alec.

  “Why’d you bring it up up there then?” Alec asks. “If you knew he wanted to hurt you. Why would you piss him off like that?” All three of us are growing frustrated with each other.

  “I don’t know.” I whisper.

  “You are not making my life easy Scarlet.” Alec closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Shark abruptly leaves the room, probably to avoid arguing with Alec more.

  “I’m sorry.” I apologize. “It really isn’t your fault you know. I put us both in a bad position.” I say once Shark’s gone.

&
nbsp; “It is.” he argues “I should’ve pulled him off of you sooner. You shouldn’t have even been there in the first place.”

  “It was my choice to be there. And Evan’s big and strong and he was angry. Pumped full of adrenaline. I know how hard it was to get him off, I was under him.” I say.

  “I know…but still.” He’s run out of arguments.

  “Now what should we do about him? He can’t stay.”

  “I have a few ideas.” Alec replies.

  “As tempting as murder is right now I can’t let you do that…yet.” I cut him off. He frowns.

  “I won’t kill him.” He sounds almost disappointed. “But I can’t promise Shark won’t.”

  I don’t trust that Shark won’t either…but I don’t want to think about that right now.

  “Let’s join everyone else in the living room. I need to lie down.” I tell him. I feel the energy leaving my body. “And we’ll figure something else out when I’m less concussed.”

  He agrees and carries me back to the couch and gently lays me down.

  5

  Chapter 5

  I slowly open my eyes. Looking at the group of people laying on the floor by me.

  “Where’s Alec?” I ask, sitting up and scooting my back up against the armrest of the couch. My ankle throbs with hot pain but I try to ignore it. I didn’t sleep well because of the pain I was in but I still got more sleep than I did the night before.

  “He went to find Shark.” Kat replies, she seems to be the only one awake. I look around at everyone in the room. I didn’t notice Shark was missing too. I hear the door creek open.

  “Scarlet we have a problem.” Alec says with the front door partially open.

  “What is it?” I ask him.

  “Just come here.”

  I gesture to my ankle. He raises his eyebrows and shrugs.

  I sigh, pushing myself off of the couch. Slowly, I hop to the door and lean on the door frame. I look out at him.

  “What?” I say, obviously frustrated and in pain.

  “It’s Evan.”

  “Is he missing again?”

  “No, he’s not missing.” Alec moves to reveal Evan’s body lying in the front yard.

  “Is he dead?” I whisper-shout, my eyes growing wide. I can feel Kat staring at me from across the room. Alec nods.

  “How?” I ask.

  Alec shrugs, “Looks like somebody hit him in the head a few million times and if it wasn’t me then I think I have a good idea of who it was.”

  “He wouldn—oh no.”

  “What?”

  “He’s not here.” I sigh. “You don’t think he would.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past him,”

  “Why would he do that?” I lean more into the door frame. I stare at Evan’s lifeless body. Should I feel sad? Guilty, maybe? I don’t really know. All I really feel is relief, safe. I run my thumb over a cut on the corner of my lip.

  “The man is in love with you.” Alec tells me “He’s only known you a little while, but he definitely cares for you. Of course he’s going to kill Evan for threatening your life.”

  “He’s right, Shark loves you.” Kat says, I hadn’t noticed her coming up behind me. She looks passed me, first at Alec and then at Evan. “Well that’s unfortunate.” she says unsympathetically. She stares at him for a few more moments. “Shark did that?” she smiles a little bit, but it quickly disappears from her face.

  “Yup, I’m pretty sure. Isn’t that romantic?.” Alec replies sarcastically. “I should probably do something with the body.” He looks at the corpse and sighs.

  “You think he could kill me next?” Kat laughs, although I can’t tell if she’s actually joking or not. She’s been making jokes like that for the past couple days. Alec stares at her with sad eyes, looking like he wants to say something comforting, maybe scorn her for saying such a thing. Instead he shakes his head and hoists Evan over his shoulder, walking away in a sort of morbid silence.

  “Come on, I’ll help you back to the couch.” Kat offers.

  “I have to find Shark.” I tell her, ignoring her offer. The others are beginning to stir now, I’m surprised they were able to sleep through all of the excitement.

  “You’re not about to be wandering around out there with your ankle like this.”

  “I have to do something.” I say “Who knows where he is. What he’s thinking or feeling.”

  “He’ll come back when he’s ready. Give him time to clear his head.”

  “When did you get so good at giving advice?” I ask.

  “In all honesty, I’ve just gotten really used to faking being positive.” She replies. “Shark could come back. He probably will, but he could be dead out there. He may not come back at all. But even false hope is better than no hope.” I look into her eyes, almost as lifeless as Evan’s body.

  “There’s always hope.” I reply, completely aware of how cliche it sounds. I wish I knew what was going through her head, how to make it better. But I don’t. “

  I have to find him.” I say “I can walk just fine.” I can’t…I can barely stand but I have to find Shark. I stand up and do my best to walk without a limp. She doesn’t stop me, she’s zoned out at this point, staring off into space. I immediately regret walking on it now, as if I had already forgotten what it felt like.

  * * *

  I walk through the darkness, I’m honestly not sure how long I’ve been wandering around out here, I’ve grown used to the throbbing of my ankle. I don’t understand how one could be this good at hiding, then again there are about fifty abandoned houses in the area and he could be in any one of them.

  What if he’s dead? What if he ran away from me? I mean us. Kat’s words echo continuously through my head.

  I force myself to think of something else, my thoughts shift to Evan. Did he suffer? I almost hope so. Anger flares up in my chest. The words “I’m glad he’s dead” float around my brain. I try to silence it but it’s no use. I hate him, whether he’s dead or alive I will always hate him. The adrenaline drains from my system and I am made aware of the pain again. The endless pain, my head, my ankle, my hand. I sit down on the steps of a house not very far from Alec’s. I could walk the rest of the way, but I choose to rest.

  “Scarlet?” I hear a familiar voice. “What are you doing out here?” Shark asks coming closer.

  “I was looking for you! Where have you been? What happened with Evan?”

  He looks down at his hands, still caked with what I’m assuming is Evans blood.

  “I’m so sorry Scarlet.” His voice breaks a little. “I caught him sneaking out and I started to feel angrier than I’ve ever been in my entire life and I just couldn’t stop myself. I wasn’t supposed to kill him. I didn’t mean to.” He frantically tries to explain. I jump up, wrapping my arms around him. I don’t know exactly what I’m feeling, my heart races as I relax into him.

  “It’s okay.” I whisper breathlessly. I feel him shake his head. I pull back and look into his black eyes and smile.

  “What?” he asks, searching my eyes for an answer. I remove my arms from around his neck, suddenly feeling shy. I continue to look into his eyes. I don’t know what to say next, and then finally it comes to me.

  “You make me feel safe.” I say. Sure, it’s sappy but I don’t care. “I know we just met, and for most of the time you barely spoke, I thought you were mute actually. But, I’m just drawn to you and today, seeing Evan like that. It made me feel safe. Maybe it shouldn’t, maybe it’s psychotic of me to even say something like that. But, I feel safe with you.” I ramble.

  “I just hated knowing that he hurt you.” he replies. I look up and realize just how dark it’s become.

  “Are you ready to go back?” I ask him.

  He nods. Without warning he picks me up. Picking me up seems to be becoming a trend around here. He carries me to the door gently putting me down so I can walk in myself, he hesitates to open the door.

  “Go on.” I encourage him. He looks a
t me, takes a deep breath and slowly turns the knob, pushing the door open. The downstairs of the house is empty. Everyone is most likely upstairs asleep.

  “We should get some sleep.” Shark says. Without argument I hop to the couch, unwilling to brave the steps after wandering around all day long. He lays down on the floor next to me. I can’t stop staring at him, I can’t help but find it romantic that he killed someone to protect me. I fall asleep thinking that exact thought.

  6

  Chapter 6

  Weeks have passed since Evan’s death. The warm summer weather has turned into a crisp fall, leaving us to wonder where our food will come from once winter inevitably strikes. I stopped paying attention to days and months a while ago but if I had to guess we’re getting into early-October now.

  “Alright, I have a proposition.” Shark says, resting his forearms on the coffee table Alec finally allowed us to put in the living room. His eyes are playful which makes me wonder what he might be up to.

  “Should I be worried?” I laugh. He smirks slightly, causing me to be more concerned.

  “Let’s go on a date.” he blurts out, the words fly out of his mouth like oxygen after he’d been holding his breath for too long.

  “Did I hear you right?” I ask, confused. “You, the vague, brooding man nicknamed after a sea creature that eats people, would like to go on a date?”

  “Well if you don’t want to I’m sure I can get Alec to go.” The two of us have been shamelessly flirting since the night after he killed Evan but I didn’t see this coming, not from him.

  “Come on, I already got Ally’s permission to make some sandwiches and go on a picnic, so we don’t have to worry about the kitchen guardian gutting us with a ladle.” He jokes. I laugh a bit.

  “I don’t think you know what a ladle is.”

  “Not really…but that’s not the point. You in?”

  “I don’t know if we should. We have so much work to do.”

  “But we don’t actually have to do any of it, we have all the time in the world. Let’s just go and forget everything for a few hours. Nobody’s going to die while we’re gone” He pleads. I’ve never seen him like this. He has been opening up and becoming more loose around everybody lately, but admittedly I miss the mystery.