“Calla, I think I found something!” Running towards his voice, I found Jordan upstairs in what appeared to be a crawl space in the attic. “It looks like whoever cleared out the house forgot to come up here.”
I nodded. The little room didn’t have much - it was only a storage space after all - but there were a few boxes sitting in one corner and a small table with two chairs on either side sitting in front of the circular window facing the front yard.
We began opening boxes, but we weren’t expecting to find much in terms of clues. The first one was filled with sweaters and coats for the winter while the second box held some old toys and a few memory books.
The last box was mostly empty save for some pictures. What was surprising was that the pictures weren’t of a smiling, happy family. Grimacing, I put the pornographic photos back in the box, glad they were from a magazine but wishing I hadn’t pulled them out in the first place.
“What are those?” Jordan asked, reaching inside.
Closing the box before he could pick one up, I shook my head. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
He arched one brow, but didn’t argue. “What should we do? Call the police?”
“Probably, but what would we tell them? My roommate went missing then her parents disappeared taking all of their belongings with them? It sounds crazy just saying it out loud. For all we know, they moved and didn’t tell anyone,” I said, not mentioning that my therapist would be more than happy to throw me in the loony bin without a second thought.
He paused, considering. “So, what do you think we should do?”
I sighed, brushing a hand through my hair. “I don’t know. This is all just-” Honestly, the whole situation was terrifying. With the threatening letters, what happened with my room, finding out how my mother died... it was all too much. My chest tightened with each breath, and my stomach twisted into knots until I thought I would be sick. Why was all of this happened to me?
Vibrating in my back pocket interrupted my panicked thoughts, and I pulled out my phone to see I had an incoming call. Assuming it was Zoe, I answered, hoping she had some news about Jaelyn.
“Hello-”
“Calla?”
My breath caught in my throat at the familiar sound of a voice I heard every day of my life until just a few months ago.
“Lily? Is that you? What number are you calling from?” I asked.
“Calla,” she repeated. Her voice sounded harsh like she hadn’t used it in a long time. She said something else but it came out as barely more than a whisper.
“I can’t hear you,” I said, turning up the volume as loud as it would go.
Wherever she was, there must have been bad signal because her voice kept going in and out. Static made her whispered tone even harder to understand. However, one word came out loud and clear, and it would haunt me forever.
“Help.”
“Lily? Lily, what’s going on? Where are you? I’ll come get yo-”
The phone beeped on the other end, signaling that the call had been ended. I immediately hit the redial button, but was greeted with an automated message saying the number was no longer in service.
“What is it?” Jordan asked. “Is something wrong?”
“It was my sister. She left right after our mother died, and I haven’t heard from her since,” I explained, staring at my phone as if it would suddenly ring.
“That’s good then, right? You finally heard from her again.”
“I guess,” I said, but I didn’t think that was entirely the truth. That word help still rang in my head like it was on a loop. Help with what? Was she in trouble? Was that why she hadn’t responded to any of my messages since she left?
My phone vibrated again, and my heart leapt. It wasn’t another phone call though, this time it was a text message.
You could have saved Taylor. If you want to save them, return to where it all started.
A second later, another message appeared.
If you go to the police, she’s dead.
“I know what we should do,” I said, staring at the message between clenched fingers.
If he wanted me to go back to the house that badly, then so be it, but I wouldn’t settle for just walking into a trap. No, I would set the trap myself.
Jordan drove the car as I explained what I planned to do. He listened quietly the whole time while I went through everything that had been happening lately and how I thought it was all tied together with my mother’s possible murder and Jaelyn’s disappearance. Even though he never said anything, his facial expressions said he either thought I was crazy or that I was talking about what crazy.
“Shouldn’t we go to the police? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to set this trap than for us to do it? What do we know about catching a probable kidnapper and murderer?” he asked, and I would agree with him if I wasn’t afraid of the consequences.
“They already had the chance to do something about it,” I said, remembering the report.
“What do you mean?”
My hands clenched into fists as I thought about what could only be a cover-up. Pulling out the police report, I flipped through it, showing him what it said.
“They knew it wasn’t just a fire. When it was first investigated, the police thought there had to be an accelerant to make it get that big so quickly, and that was even before the autopsy report said she was… stabbed,” I said, wincing when I said the word, the thought making me sick.
“You think they covered it up? Why would they do that?” he asked.
I shrugged, feeling my face heat with anger. “I don’t know, but I’m not inclined to trust them right now.”
“I guess that makes sense, but how did this person get a hold of that report anyway? It’s kind of unlikely that anyone would come across a police report by accident,” he said with a frown.
I couldn’t disagree, but there was something deep in my gut telling me that this was the real deal. I didn’t really have a choice but to believe, otherwise everything I remembered from that night wasn’t real. I’d spent so many nights trying to figure out what was a real memory and what was something my mind made up. Dr. Carter said it was normal for my brain to fill in the blanks with what I wanted to be the truth, but I was never able to get over the fact that if that was the case, then why would I remember my mother’s death in such a violent manner. There was absolutely nothing I wanted to be the truth more than her having died peacefully in her sleep.
“Honestly, I don’t know, but that’s not something I can think about right now. All I know for sure is that someone out there is doing everything in their power to completely destroy my life. Not only are they probably responsible for my mother’s death, but they kidnapped Jaelyn and her family,” I said. And they probably have Lily as well, but I couldn’t say that out loud. Admitting to Jordan that one scary thought made it real, and I couldn’t handle anything else added to my plate right now.
Jordan didn’t say anything for a long moment, and the silence stretched out, continuing as they drove toward home. Finally, he nodded.
“What’s the plan?” he asked.
That was the question, wasn’t it? The farthest I thought ahead was wanting to set a trap for this madman. I hadn’t actually figured out how I was going to do it. It did occur to me that we wouldn’t get there in time. I should have gone the second I found the post it note on the police report. Why didn’t I listen to my gut? If I had sucked it up and actually read the entire report the moment Zoe gave it to me, then I would have found the message much sooner.
“Calla. Calla!”
I jumped, Jordan’s voice jerking me out of my reverie. He must have been calling my name for a while because we were currently stopped on the side of the road, and Jordan looked at me with a concerned expression.
“What?” I asked, even though I had a feeling what he was going to say.
Dr. Carter often had to stop me from spiraling into my ‘what if’ thoughts. What if I had woken up sooner?
What if I hadn’t jumped out the window. What if I had screamed, would she have woken up in time to escape? What if. What if. What if.
“You were mumbling to yourself, and you were starting to freak out. I thought you might have been having a panic attack,” he said. Well, that’s a new one.
“Sorry, sometimes I start thinking about something and I can’t stop myself. My mom used to call it the Calla wormhole,” I said, feeling a lump in my throat from the memory. “But that doesn't matter. What does matter is the plan, and unfortunately, I don’t have one. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have dragged you into this.”
Rolling his eyes, Jordan put the car in drive and pulled back into traffic. “You don’t have to keep apologizing. Besides, Jaelyn is my cousin, remember? You didn’t pull me into anything.”
“You’re right, sorry,” I winced. “Sorry.”
Jordan chuckled, shaking his head. “Now, about this plan. I think we should probably prepare for the possibility that whoever messaged you is already there.
If they have any intelligence at all, they should be trying to set a trap of their own as well. I think we should stop and get some weapons in case it all goes downhill,” he said, and I agreed, suddenly very glad he decided to come along.
“What kind of weapons should we get? Guns
I asked.
“While guns would definitely give us some leverage, we wouldn’t be able to get any in time. They have to run background checks and all that… unless you have connections to the black market?” he asked, lifting one brow, and I laughed, shaking my head. “Then we’ll have to settle on things we can get at the hardware store.
Knives, hammers, things like that. We can also get rope, duct tape, and anything else that might help make a good trap. Honestly, I’ve never done anything like this before, so I guess we’ll have to play it by ear.
“You sound more prepared than me. I was just going to go in kicking and screaming,” I laughed, realizing just how badly this would have turned out without Jordan here with me. I’d never been so grateful to have a complete stranger with me in my entire life.
After stopping at the local hardware store, the car now weighted down with rope, duct tape, knives, a couple of hammers, and a few other things they thought might come in handy to set a trap. They got a few strange looks from the checkout line, but fortunately no one tried to stop them. I wouldn't have been surprised if someone had called the police out of suspicion though.
Jordan pulled down the road where my childhood home sat in a pile of burnt wood and scorched bricks. Parking a block away, we sat in silence, neither of us wanting to take the lead. I’d been so confident in my anger, but faced with the consequences of my decision, I was much more unsure of what to do.
“Are you ready to go?” Jordan asked, and I clenched my eyes closed.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded and opened the door. We gathered our supplies, but I couldn’t bring myself to bring more than a knife. The more we thought about it, we weren’t sure how a rope or the tape would help.
“Remember to be careful. We don’t know what we’re walking into,” he said.
“Yeah.”
The walk down the street seemed to take too long but not long enough. I wasn’t prepared to see the place where my entire world crashed down around me. My heart settled in my stomach like a rock, and I felt like I might be sick. I couldn’t let myself focus on anything other than the goal in front of me, however.
Tightening my fist around the knife at my waist, I fought the urge to run in the opposite direction. This was it. This was the moment that would fix everything. This was the moment I would finally find out the truth about what happened to my family. Just before the house came into sight, I paused, taking a deep breath.
“Are you okay?” Jordan asked, and I steadied myself, preparing for what I would see.
“I haven’t been back here since the fire,” I said. “I’m not sure what to expect.”
Nodding, he placed a hand on my shoulder. “I get it. If you need a minute, we can wait.”
I shook my head. “We don’t have time to wait. I’ll be fine, let’s go.”
My breath caught in my throat when the remains of my childhood home came into view. It wasn’t a pile of rubble and ash. In fact, most of the first floor was left standing. There had clearly been a fire, however. The windows were empty save for shards along the edge as if they had shattered from the heat. The roof was completely gone, and the outside was discolored by the smoke and flames. It appeared that the fire was strongest in the center of the house near the back where my mother’s room was located, further supporting that she had been the target all along.
“What should we do?” Jordan asked. “Surround them?”
I shrugged, still caught up in my own thoughts. We walked to the house, keeping our eyes and ears peeled for any sign of someone else’s presence. Jordan split off to go around the back, and I decided to move closer. Mesmerized by how much structure remained, I approached the door. Careful not to disturb what was left of the foundation and walls, I stepped inside. After the fire, I was hospitalized for a few weeks, both to mend my broken arm and bruised ribs as well as to make sure I was mentally stable. By the time I got out, I had been given practically everything.
My story had been broadcasted across several news stations, and complete strangers donated everything from clothes to money to groceries. There was no need for me to go back to the house to see if anything was salvageable because I had everything I needed. The only purpose it would serve would be to remind me of what I lost.
Now that I was here, I was curious if any of our personal items remained among the rubble. Anything remotely flammable appeared to be beyond repair. All of the furniture in the Livingroom and kitchen were either ash or close to it. I couldn’t even pick out what some of the items used to be. In the kitchen, most of the dishes had either melted or shattered in the extreme heat, but a few were still intact. One in particular caught my attention.
It was a glass we got during our trip to New Orleans, the last place we were all together as a family. We got it at one of the local bars when Lily and I snuck out of the hotel one night. It was our first time being of legal drinking age, and we wanted to experience it without mom present. We each took one of the glasses home as a souvenir.
The memory made my chest ache so I moved on. There was no hope of finding anything from mine or Lily’s bedrooms since they were upstairs, which no longer existed, but I might still be able to find something of mom’s to remember her by. It wasn’t that I actually needed anything to remember her, but it would be nice to have at least one keepsake. I didn’t even have the pictures from my phone since it was destroyed in the fire, and I never backed it up.
“Calla?” Jordan called from the front of the house.
“I’m back here!” I replied as I reached the entrance to my mother’s bedroom, the entrance blocked by a fallen board.
I didn’t expect there to be much left since the fire was strongest in this area, but I pushed the board to the side, careful not to let it fall. I’d seen enough movies to know how unstable a building could be after it burned. Stepping over a pile of charred wood and broken glass, I stopped.
A figure stood across the street, dark hair blowing in the breeze. Something about the way she curled her arms around her waist and cocked her head to one side gave me chills. Confusion and concern waged war inside me as I moved closer to the road.
“Lily?” I asked, voice hesitant.
The girl glanced up, eyes wide enough for the blue, green to shine through. My breath caught in my throat as tears streamed down my sister’s face. Her hand reached towards me, and I gasped.
“Lily!”
Taking off at a run, I heard the blare of the horn before I saw the truck. My sister screamed, and - body still in its forward motion - I clenched my eyes shut, preparing for the bone-crushing impact. A weight crashed into my back, and I opened my eyes to see Jordan’s body pressing down on mine. His chest hea
ved, and he lifted his shaking hands to my shoulders, hoisting us up off the ground.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “What were you doing in the middle of the road?”
“I saw my sister,” I answered with a smile. I turned to show him, but my finger pointed at nothing but an empty field. “Where did she go?”
“Who?”
“My sister, Lily. She was standing right there,” I said.
Jordan furrowed his brow. “Calla, I was standing right behind you. There wasn’t anyone standing over there.”
“Of course there was. I saw her!”
“Calla-”
“No! I saw her! You have to believe me,” I said, voice breaking off at the end.
Jordan wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pulling me to him, and I pressed my face against his chest as I let the tears fall.
“She was there,” I repeated over and over again, feeling myself sinking into madness. “She was there.”
“Calla, I need to tell you something,” Jordan whispered, and I looked up into his eyes. He studied me for a long moment, then said. “I… I believe you.”
“You do?” I asked.
He nodded, giving me a small smile. “We’ll find her. I promise.”
“Well it took you long enough.
SEVEN
Jaelyn, what are you doing here?” I asked, frozen in place.
The petit blonde girl with the overly positive personality stood in the middle of my mother’s bedroom. In her arms was a barely conscious Zoe with a gun pressed against her temple. Tears streamed down the girl’s face as flood leaked from her mouth and nose.
You Could Have Saved Her Page 7