As if on command, he lifts and carries me towards a new car. I hold on tightly to the handgun pointing it away from the both of us. Finally, we reach a car, and Xavier lays me down carefully in the backseat.
“You shouldn’t drive,” I wheeze.
“You can’t,” he responds and closes the door as silent as possible. When he climbs into the driver’s seat, the growls morph into a roaring thunderous sound that shakes the car.
Xavier peels out from the motionless traffic jam. We drive at such a high speed that the window looks like a swirling pattern of grey and green.
“Hey Hayles.” The voice sends a chill down my spine. I turn and look to see Cassie sitting in the passenger seat.
Oh no. I’m dead.
“Listen to me, cause we don’t have much time.”
I gawk at her and nod my head. There’s so much I want to say, but my lips are frozen, my voice box refusing to work. I reach out for her, but she holds her hand up to stop me. I try to ask why, but she speaks first.
“You need to stay alive for him,” she says pointing at Xavier. “All you have is each other.”
I look at Xavier and then back to Cassie. I just want my twin back—my best friend.
“Don't you see that’s him now?” Cassie answers.
Twin thought—I can’t help but smile. I feel a quiet laugh escape my throat and Xavier turns.
“Hayley!” he yells.
“Don’t you see her?” I feel myself say.
“Please Hayles—” she says. She reaches out and grabs my hands. “You’re all he’s got. I know how you feel about him. I know everything.”
I can feel her touch. It’s warm, like she’s alive. I feel wetness run down the sides of my face.
“I love you,” she says.
“I love you,” I choke out.
Everything fades to a perfect shade of purple before going black.
* * *
“Hayley!” Xavier’s voice calls out to me.
I force my eyes open, willing myself to follow Cassie’s plea. But the darkness that swallows my vision is so comforting—so easy.
“Hayley please,” Xavier’s voice calls. The anguish in his voice is enough to pull from the darkness’s warm embrace. “Please don’t leave me. Not you too. Please.”
I want to give in until I hear his voice in my ear.
“I love you too damn much to let you go,” he whispers. “Now wake up, dammit.”
Pain. So much pain floods through me that I feel myself shaking. I love you too, Xavier. I love you so much. I want to say it, and that’s when I hear his laugh. His lips meet mine, and I reach slowly with my hand and feel the roughness of his face. At first, I think the wetness on my hands is blood but when I pull back, I see tears flooding down his cheeks.
“I thought I lost you,” he says, letting a nervous laugh escape. I grab a handful of his hair and flip the strands through my fingers. I decide to keep the Cassie thing to myself. This moment right here is all I want.
“What happened?”
“Your stitches came loose,” he starts. “You were bleeding out.”
I hold my side and look down fearing that I’m still bleeding. But instead, I feel the softness of a new bandage.
“Stitched up already,” he comments. “Got right to it when I saw the blood.”
I nod and try to smile. His mouth twitches, but doesn’t move to return mine.
“What about your face?”
He laughs, “It’ll have to do for now.”
Day Nineteen: 12:00A.M.
We’re in a small town called Roscoe by the time I wake up. I try and stretch, but my joints hurt in every way possible.
“Hey,” Xavier says. “Caught you some breakfast.” I look down by my feet and spot something wrapped in a brown paper bag. “Bass,” he says answering my question before I ask it.
I open the bag and wolf it down, grabbing every small bit I can from the bottom of the bag. Xavier laughs and shakes his head.
“How long have I been out?” I ask.
“Probably close to three hours,” he answers. “A lot of the road was blocked off by traffic. No one was at the hospital by the time I got there.”
“Shit,” I respond.
“We’ll just have to go straight to Fort Ticonderoga.”
I nod my head and take a sip of water from the canteen in the middle of us. “It would be nice to make it up there in one piece,” I say.
“I’m pretty good with a needle and thread,” Xavier jokes.
I smile—at least one of us is confident in their abilities. I watch the small town go by in a flash as Xavier continues speeding on back roads. “Did we lose those guys,” I ask.
He nods his head. “I think we’re safe,” he smiles. He pulls off onto a dirt road and slows to a reasonable speed. “My parents owned a cabin back here. I figured we could sleep the rest of the night off there,” he says.
The first thing that comes into view are the green shutters.
“How old is this place?” I ask.
“Passed down for generations is what I was told,” Xavier answers. “There isn’t even central heating in this place.”
Great. No heat means we’re going to be collecting firewood for part of the night.
He puts the car in park and helps me to the ground. I look up at the cabin and cringe. It looks just like one of those model homes you see on the highways, only run down and not anywhere near as cozy.
“I’m still surprised you didn’t break anything,” he says.
“Yeah,” I say shrugging my shoulders. “I get thrown out a car window, and you end up with missing teeth and a broken nose.”
He smiles a toothless grin, and I bite my tongue trying not to laugh.
“Oh, come on,” he says. “You know I look ridiculous.”
I run my hand along his cheek. “You’re still the same to me,” I say. “Toothless.”
He laughs, and we walk hand in hand through the woods. In about fifteen minutes, we scrounge up enough wood to make a decent fire. I made sure it was dry enough so that there wouldn’t be that much smoke coming from it.
“Well, Pocahontas, work your magic,” he says kicking his legs back in a recliner. I roll my eyes and light the fire easily enough. I push myself up from the ground and curl up on top of Xavier’s lap. “How’re the stitches holding up?” he asks. I pat my side gently and smile.
“In the morning we’ll scavenge the house for food,” he whispers. “But for now, I can stay like this forever—”
“Aww, isn’t that sweet.” I feel hands grab my shoulders jerking me away from Xavier.
“Get the fuck off me,” Xavier yells.
We’re surrounded by shadowed faces, but the one voice I recognize.
“How long have you been following us?” I growl. The man behind me digs into one of my cuts from the glass. I let out a whimper, and Xavier tries to lunge at him.
“You know, I had to watch my best friend die because of you,” the same voice says. “I was planning on letting you go,” he says pulling Xavier’s head back by his hair. “But now I’ll just make you die—slowly.”
Xavier’s eyes find mine.
“And as for you, baby,” he says placing a fingertip under my chin. “Well, let’s make that a surprise shall we.” He looks up at the men holding me. I look over at Xavier, his eyes wide, his veins bulging from his neck.
“If you hurt her, I’ll kill you,” he yells nearly pulling one of the guys to the ground.
“Really now,” the man says. “How’re you gonna do that, when you won’t know where we are?”
Xavier frowns at him and tries to break free from the men holding him. He looks over my way and yells out to me—everything goes dark.
Captured
The light of the room burns at my eyelids. I open them to a spotlight shining on me. My arms are bound behind me against the cold of a metal chair.
“Xavier!”
I scream. My own pinched cry echoes off the walls of the room.
“He’s a little busy at the moment,” a voice says from somewhere in the darkness. “I told you we’d run into each other again.”
My heart thuds hard against my chest. Out of the shadows comes one of the men from the highway. I pull at the ropes on my chair, but can’t loosen them. My right arm is so sore that it throbs when I think about it. I look down and can see track marks.
“What the fuck—”
“Wanted to welcome you to the family the proper way,” he croaks.
“Let me go!”
“Not quiet yet,” he growls. “You caused us a lot of trouble out there.”
I grind my teeth and pull hard against the rope. A scream erupts from my throat that I barely recognize as my own. “Let me go!”
“Your friend wouldn’t want me to do that,” he says.
I freeze. No.
“Yeah—now what is his name?” he says circling me. “Xavier, is it?”
A fire burns in my stomach. I lunge at him when he’s close, but only manage to topple my chair and smash the side of my face into the floor. My vision blurs slightly as a pool of blood collects in my cheek.
“Now, see where fighting gets you?” the man says squatting in front of my face. He brushes a strand of hair off my forehead, leaving a trail of goosebumps behind. A throaty laugh escapes his mouth and sends a scent of sour milk into my face. “If I let you up are you gonna act pretty for me?” he asks.
I don’t answer, so he leaves me on the floor breathing in the copper smell of blood. “Well, if you’re gonna be impolite, I might as well get on with what we’re gonna do to you.”
I hold in the whimper trying to get out. I want to scream for Xavier, but I know that won’t do anything. For the first time in this new world I find myself in, I’m alone. I’m alone, and I’m starting to feel the anxieties of fear crawl up my back.
“What did you do to him?” I blurt out.
“Oh, you mean your friend?” he asks squatting by my face again. “We left him in the woods.”
My eyes go wide. “Don’t worry though darlin,'” he laughs. “We left him a gun with a bullet in it. You know, if he couldn’t run fast enough.” A yellow-toothed grin spreads across his face. I clench my jaw until it hurts.
“And with him out of the picture, we’ll get to use you however we want,” he says, getting closer to my ear. “And let me tell you, some of my boys here are getting hungry for a piece of ass.” He laughs another throaty laugh until I hear a gunshot come from somewhere.
The man stands quickly and rushes out of the room. Three more gunshots. Whoever it is, they’re getting closer. I twist my left arm and then my right, but the knots on them are too tight. I feel nauseous, my head is pounding so hard that I can barely concentrate on anything for longer than a minute. It feels like ants are under my skin. Why is that?
Machine gun fire fills the room closest to me demanding my attention. I wiggle the rope around my shoulders loose and I’m able to push the chair away. I tuck my tied hands under my legs and push myself off the ground. I reach into my boot and pull out the knife I tucked in there earlier and start cutting at the remaining rope.
The door swings open and the guy from the highway marches in. “How in the hell did you get up!” My ropes aren’t cut completely yet, but I grip the knife ready to stab him if he comes any closer.
I’m petrified of him; his face is distorted like he’s some kind of monster. I back myself up against the wall. Why am I seeing these things? I grab the sides of my head and try to squeeze the headache out. If only it were gone, I’d be able to focus.
He grunts and slumps forward with a knife plunging out of his back. I can’t make out the face of the person who stands behind him in the brightness of the spotlight.
“I’ll kill you if you come any closer—”
“Hayley, it’s me,” the shadow says.
“Get the hell away from me!” I swing the knife wildly until I’m out of breath.
“Hayles!” The shadow grabs my face and brings it inches away from its mouth. “It’s me!”
“Oh my god, Xavier,” I say. “I’m so sorry—I–I don’t know what’s happening to me.”
He reaches down and pulls the knife from the man’s spine and saws off the rest of the rope. “Come on, we don’t have much time,” he says.
He grabs a hold of my hand and we run as fast as we can through a warehouse. Gun shots pierce the air sounding like miniature airplanes buzzing past up. We make it across the concrete floors and to a small hole in the wall that looks like an air vent.
“This was how you came in,” I ask.
Xavier nods his head and starts to crawl in. I follow him and make it about halfway in before I’m grabbed by one of my feet. “Xavier!” I scream. I flip on my back and kick a man three times in his face before he lets go. Xavier pulls me out of the way and shoots past me at him. The man drops in a heap to the ground, blood collecting under his head.
We crawl through another opening, and we’re in a forest. Xavier pushes the metal panel back in place and places a kerosene tank in front of it.
“Did they hurt you,” he asks.
“I don’t think so.” The headache is so bad now that I have to fight to keep my eyes open.
“What happened to your face?”
“I fell in the chair they had me tied to.” Xavier pulls up his shirt and I feel the blood drain from my face. “You were shot!”
“Yeah, but the bullet went clean through. I just need something to stop the bleeding.”
I nod my head ripping a strip of my flannel off and tying it tightly around his midsection. I grab my head and bite down on my tongue until I taste blood. “Xavier, I think they drugged me or something,” I say. “We’ve gotta get to a car.” I say pulling his shirt
down.
“Shit, not you too,” he mutters. He takes my hand once more, and we’re running.
The woods make my knee throb and the cut on my cheekbone pulse with pain. Xavier pushes through the forest, and I swear I can hear him wheezing. “Xavier, is that you?” I ask tugging on his hand.
“No, it’s not. Come on, we can’t slow down.” We scale over a rock wall when I hear a twig snap. “Hayley, come on,” he says when I pause.
“Did you hear that?” We both stop and listen to twigs snapping somewhere in the forest.
“We need to move,” he says pulling me the rest of the way over the wall.
We’re sprinting now, Xavier’s eyes wide and darting throughout the forest. We can see the clearing up ahead when the growling starts. Xavier’s muscles tighten underneath his shirt.
“What is it?” I ask. He shakes his head and pulls me towards the opening of the forest. The growling is so loud that my ears start to hurt. It makes my legs feel like lead. My vision switches between blurry and in focus so quickly that my brain feels like its on fire.
“Xavier.” He turns and comes about two inches to my face.
“What did they do to you,” he asks, but his voice sounds muddled. I can barely keep my eyes open by the time he starts dragging me. I try to tell him it’s the growling that’s making me feel like this, but I can’t find my voice anymore.
We make it out of the forest and to a road that I faintly recognize. Xavier is shooting his gun, that much I can tell, but everything else is too blurred, too confusing.
“Xavier,” I call out, but my voice comes out as a whisper.
My legs turn to jello, and I collapse on the ground. I feel arms lift me up and swing me into a car. I open my eyes and see Xavier pile into the driver’s seat. He looks down at me and leans in close.
“Don’t open your eyes. Whatever you do, keep them closed,” he yells.
I nod my head and close them. Darkness washes over me, and I embrace it as tightly as I can.
Book Two
Broken Things
Zero Days Since Drugged
&nbs
p; I don’t think I’ve ever pushed a car this fast. My heart raps against my rib cage. I can feel the pain in my ribs sluggishly reaching my brain, but I don’t have time to deal with that right now. I push the gas pedal down to the floor of the car.
I don’t have time because I have to save her.
I know they drugged her back at the warehouse, but there are two problems: I don’t know with what or how long ago they did it. I must have been wandering the woods like an idiot for a while because of how disoriented I was.
It took me a while to find out where they had dumped me after I came to my senses. They were smart to black bag my head, but I guess they underestimated the fact that I left my old tracking device from Hayley and I’s camping trip in the back of our car. And naturally, they stole our vehicle when they took Hayley. Morons.
Hayley mumbles something, but I haven’t been able to make sense of anything she’s been saying for the past couple hours.
“Just hold on, Hayles,” I yell over the roar of the engine. “I’m going to get you something that can help, I promise.”
I make it off of Route 17 and head towards another line of abandoned cars. I throw the car into park and scramble to the backseat. I grab what I think could help us along the way and shove it all in the back of a relatively new Ford Escape and head back for Hayley. When I open the car door, her eyelids open halfway.
“Can I open my eyes now?” she whispers.
Thank god, she’s talking again. “Yes, yes you can, Hayles,” I respond and swipe her bangs from her forehead.
“I–I–I think they drugged me, Xavier.” She looks at me, her eyelids barely making it over her irises and attempts to smile. This is a much better sign than all the other ones she was giving me before.
“We’re going to get this out of your system and get you better,” I say. “I promise.”
I pick her up—god, she’s deadweight. I run along the row of cars until I reach the Escape. I lay her down in the backseat and take off my sweatshirt to give her a cushion for her head. She starts mumbling again once I climb back into the driver’s seat.
Burn Our Houses Down [Book One] Page 8