Chapter 9

My dad waits in the waiting room, while I go into the emergency room with Nick. The vet glances with curiosity at the bandage wrapped around Nick's head, but he doesn't comment. He's not a tall man, but has short, dark brown hair and a kind face. He helps Nick lay Elvis out on the table and quickly checks him over.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"We found him like this," Nick replies numbly. "There was a rock nearby."

"Did you see who did it," the vet asks, his eyes once more looking over Nick's bandage.

I'm about to interject but Nick slowly shakes his head. "No," he gives me a direct stare and my mouth closes. "Can you operate?" Nick asks.

"There's a little chance he'll survive..." the vet tells him gently. Nick looks down at Elvis. "The kindest thing would be to put him out of his misery." He gives Nick a sympathetic look.

I gulp back my tears and put my hand on Nick's arm.

"No." Nick says and it's like his throat is closing up because he can hardly get a word out. "Try."

The vet indicates the door. We wait outside for an hour, me gripping Nick's hand tightly as he stares at the vinyl floor. Finally the door opens and the three of us jump to attention.

"He's alive." The vet says and Nick's face lights up. "But it's not good." Nick's smile freezes on his face and then fades. "I don't now if he'll make it till the morning."

Nick nods. "Can I stay with him?"

The vet shakes his head. "I'm afraid not. He's in safe hands. You can come back in the morning."

"What time?" Dad asks.

"Call me first thing." He hands over a card. Nick takes it and stares at it in daze.

"Come on," I say gently.

It's an incredibly long, long night. Dad goes upstairs to bed as soon as we get back to the cottage. I can hear him talking to my sleepy mother in the room above our heads. I stay with Nick on the sofa and there are no complaints. I even rest my head on his chest and he stares up at the ceiling, too upset to speak or sleep.

"Do you think it was Kevin?" I ask carefully, lifting my head to look at him.

Nick hesitates before nodding.

"Why didn't you tell—"

"I don't know." He interrupts.

"Why do you feel loyal to him?" I try to keep my frustration under control. "After everything he's done to you?"

"It's not loyalty." He says. "It's like I'm connected to him." He keeps staring up at the ceiling, deep in thought. "Silence is almost second nature to me now."

I press my face to his chest. The next thing I know, Nick is edging himself away from me.

Dawn is spilling under the curtains.

"I need to call the vet." He tells me quietly. I sit up and rub the sleep out of my eyes as he delves into his pocket for the vet's card.

I dig out my phone but I'm out of credit and I forgot to top up. "I'll see if I can borrow Dad's." I say.

"No." He pulls me back. "Don't wake him. There's a pay phone down the road."

"Don't be ridiculous!" I snap.

He furrows his brow with annoyance at me. It's the first time he's looked at me like this and it makes me feel wretched. "I'll go to the pay phone." He reiterates firmly.

"Okay, I'll come with you."

We reach the pay phone and Nick goes inside. I stand against the door, holding it open. It's sickening waiting for someone to answer, but eventually they do.

"I came in last night," Nick tells the person on the other side of the line. "With my dog," Pause. "Sorry," he says, and I think he's being chastised for calling too early. "Please could you check on him now?" he begs. "Thank you." He looks across at me. "She's going to check."

"Is it not the vet from last night?"

"No," he shakes his head. "I think it might be his wife. She said he's still in bed."

"They must live at the vet's office."

He nods. I notice his knuckles are white from clutching the phone so tightly. Suddenly he perks up.

"Yes?" he asks. My eyes widen with anticipation. "Oh, no." He says quietly. Blood rushes into his knuckles as his hand goes limp. I step into the booth and take the phone from him.

"Hello?" I speak into the receiver.

"Hello?" the woman at the other end replies.

"What happened?" I ask.

"He didn't make it, I'm afraid."

Sobs well up inside me. I turn to quickly look at Nick. He's hunched over at the side of the road.

"What would you like us to do with the body?" she asks.

"I don't know." I stare in shock at Nick.

"Can you come in at around ten? We can discuss it then."

"Yes, okay. Thank you."

I hang up the phone and go to Nick. He cries hard into my shoulder, clutching my body as his tears dampen my T-shirt. I hold him as tightly as I can, crying too. Elvis meant the world to him. He loved him so much. He was his escape from reality, his only ally in a horrible home. He won't know what to do with himself now that Elvis is gone.


The bill is the next hurdle we have to face. Nick stares at the white sheet of paper, his hands shaking as he reads the total. I take it from him and almost have a heart attack. My eyes dart up to his. For the first time in my life I consider running away.

Nick reaches into his pocket and pulls out the wad of hard-earned cash that he asked me to retrieve earlier. He swallows, trying to keep his tears at bay.

"Maybe my parents can help." I say.

"No." He shakes his head.

"But that's for your car."

He doesn't answer. The bill is even higher that it would have been because the vet had to open after hours. Even now, on Sunday morning they would not normally have to deal with customers. But it's all money for nothing. Elvis died anyway.

"Would you like a moment?" The women asks.

"Yes please." I reply for both of us. As soon as she's gone, I turn to Nick. "Maybe we could bury him? In one of the fields that he loved running around in?"

"He's too heavy. We wouldn't be able to carry him. And, anyway, I'm sure it's not allowed."

"What about..." I imagine conducting a serious funeral ceremony at the edge of a cliff, before dramatically easing Elvis's weighted body into the water far below, but, again, we wouldn't be able to get him there.

"I'll have to leave him," Nick says dully.

"No, you can't..."

Nick nods abruptly, and knocks on the counter. The woman returns. He informs her of his decision and then walks out of the door. I bolt after him.

"Don't you want to say goodbye?" I call after him. "We could ask to see him."

He spins around, his face wracked with pain. "He's gone!" he cries, "Last night is the last memory I have of him. I don't want it to be his dead body!"

I rush to him and hold him in my arms as sobs echo through his body.


"What's the time?" Nick asks flatly when we're in the car.

"Ten forty-five." I reply.

Silence.

And then he sighs. "I need to go home."

"No way in hell." I shake my head.

"Miley..." he reaches over and puts his hand on my knee. I concentrate on driving. "It's not to stay. But I want to get my things. It's a good time." He adds. "The diner doesn't open until twelve thirty – my parents will still be in bed. They get absolutely wasted after closing time on Saturday nights and they're usually out cold until close to noon."

"In that case I'm coming with you," I tell him.

"You can stay in the car'" he replies. "I'd appreciate the lift."

"No, I'm coming with you."

"Even if they do wake up I don't suppose they'll do anything to you after Kevin landed me in hospital." He muses. "They'll know your parents will have them locked up...Okay." he decides.

The diner is dark and quiet. His parents must be still asleep. I'm on edge, though as I follow Nick up the stairs to the poky bedroom overlooking the car park. The door of the bedroom on the other side of the corridor is open. I can see the view across the fields to the ocean. That must be his old room. The bed is empty, I note with a shudder.

Which means Kevin is still missing.

I turn back to Nick. He's frenziedly stuffing his belongings into plastic bags.

"Are you going to tell your parents you're leaving?" I ask quietly.

"No." He mutters. "They didn't give a shit about me while I was here, so they should be happy once I'm gone. Gives them more time to devote to their precious favourite son." He spits.

"They'll miss you behind the bar..."

He snorts. "Yes, they fucking will. No more slave labour." He dumps another bag on the carpet near my feet and reaches for the fourth to fill.

"I'll take these down to the car." I tell him. He nods and gets on with the job at hand.

I return to the diner afterwards, still on edge in case his parents have woken up. I push through the doors and head to the stairs, before freezing in my tracks. Cigarette smoke. Almost in slow motion I turn to look at the dark lounge area, curtains still closed against the sunlight. There, in a corner booth, is Kevin, lazily smoking a cigarette.

"Hello, beautiful." He drawls.

My eyes dart towards the stairs, but he's on his feet and over to me more quickly than I would have ever imagined possible. Fear fills every part of me. He grips me round the waist, the smoke from the cigarette trailing up his fingers and into my nostrils. It's suffocating.

"You smell..." he whispers into my ear, "of sex." His breath reeks of stale cigarette smoke and alcohol. I can't move. My feet are glued to the spot. Where's Nick? God, where's Nick? I want him here with me, but I also want him as far away as possible.

Kevin throws his cigarette onto the stone floor and stamps on it without moving away from me, not even an inch. The next thing I know, his hand is up my skirt and groping me.

SMASH

I hear the sound of breaking glass, and at the same time the weight of him is thrown away from me. I clutch my hands to my head and stare at the scene before me. Nick, his face ripped with anger, is gripping the jagged end of a broken liquor bottle... Kevin's unconscious body is sprawled out on the floor, blood oozing out of the back of his head. Nick and I meet each other's eyes at the same moment and then two things happen: one, his dad shouts something from upstairs and we hear his footsteps stumbling across the floor above our heads, and two, Nick grabs my hand and pulls me out of there.

Then we run, run, run, as fast as we can to the car.

His hands shake violently on the steering wheel. I want to put my hand on his knee to calm him, but when I try I find that I can't move.

My whole body is juddering in shock and fear. Nick glances across at me and screeches to a stop – just in time for me to open the door and throw up on the grassy verge. I retch and retch until there's nothing left inside me except bile, but even then I can't stop.

Nick rubs my back gently while tears, brought on by the incessant retching stream down my face. Finally I'm done.

Nick opens the glove box in front of me and pulls out some tissues. I clean myself up, without looking at him. When I do eventually face him his appearance is pale and he's staring straight ahead, but his hands have stopped shaking.

I reach across and touch his knee, able to do this now that I've cleansed myself, but he doesn't move.

"Nick?" My voice sounds croaky. Slowly, he turns his head, but his eyes won't meet mine. "I'm sorry." I whisper.

Then his eyes sear into me and I almost fall backwards at the rage I see in them.

"You're sorry?" he snits. "YOU'RE sorry?"

"Nick," I say worriedly, stroking his leg. He bats me away, violently. I stare at him in shock.

"What the fuck?" he screeches, staring out through the front windscreen again. "What the FUCK! What the fuck just happened?"

"Nick.." I soothe. "It's okay. I'm okay."

His head whips back around to me. "Did I kill him?"

"No!" I exclaim. "No, I'm sure you didn't."

"How can you be sure?"

I realise he's terrified, utterly terrified. "Do you want to go back and check?"

He hesitates for a long moment, before nodding. "Put your seat-belt on." He tells me. I do as he says, then tell him to do the same. He ignores me, doing a manic five-point turn in the middle of a country lane. We speed back the way we came.

He pulls up at the bottom of the hill and we look at the diner. There's not sign of life inside. "Maybe your dad called an ambulance."

He reaches for the door handle.

"NO!" I shout, pulling him back.

He looks across me, regretfully. "I've got to check."

"You're not going up there! There's no way you're going up there." Why did I suggest coming back? I thought we'd see something from the outside, some proof that Kevin is alive...

No I don't want him to be alive. I want him to be gone for good. The thought of Nick going to jail for a man slaughter – or worse, murder. The thought is too awful to contemplate.

"I'll be quick."

"NO."

"I won't go inside. I just need to get a bit closer."

"No."

"Miley, I'm going."

"Nick, NO!"

But I can't stop him. I know that he needs this, but I feel like I'm going to throw up again. I put my hand on my door handle. I don't know what I'll do if Kevin goes for him again. I can't protect him. But I want to be able to get out of the car quickly if I need to. If something bad is going to happen to him, I have to be there, even if the bad thing happens to me too.

I can't stand this. I shove the car door open and fall out onto the road. Nick hears my footsteps as I run, but it's too late.

"MILEY!" he shouts. And at that moment, the diner door opens and Kevin stumbles out, fury contorting his features. He lunges at Nick, wrapping his arm around his neck and dragging him backwards. Then, suddenly, their dad appears.

He tears his eldest son away and nails his against the diner wall. Their mom runs out of the door. "What the hell are you doing?!"

It takes a moment for me to realise that she's screaming this question at her husband. She turns to Kevin, yanking her husband's crushing arm away from her son's chest. She caresses Kevin's blood-splattered face, calming him down, quietening him. Then their dad turns to Nick.

"What are you doing back here, you little rat?!"

"I...I...I wanted to check he was okay," Nick stammers.

"Well, he's not okay, is he? You hit him over the fuck head with a bottle." Yes- just like Kevin did to Nick!

"You CU-" Kevin's angry words are cut off by his father.

"SHUT IT." Their father points his finger at Kevin as his shushes him soothingly. "Take him inside," he directs her.

She walks Kevin to the door. His hair is matted with blood from behind, but he loos over his shoulder and smiles at Nick. A chilling smile. An evin smile. "I'm gonna get you," he says in a sing-song voice. And then he looks at me and my blood runs cold. "I'm gonna get you too,"

"Shush!" Nick's mom snaps at him as she leads him inside.

"Get out of here!" Nick's dad pushes at Nick's chest. "Go on, scat! I never want to see you again, you good-for-nothing little rat. You've always been a faggot. A fucking wuss with your long curls and your earring. You'll never be a real man like your brother. And if I hear you've gone to the police about him—" he looks at me, then looks back at Nick, meaningfully – "I won't stop him."

Nick backs away, then turns and hurries towards me. He takes my arm and ushers me to the car, waiting until I'm safely inside before going to the driver's side. He pauses before climbing in, and I turn to look at what he's seeing up there by the diner; his dad departing back as he walks through the door. And then Nick is in the car, beside me his hands shaking.

We only get a mile down the road before he pulls over, and this time it's him throwing up outside the car while I rub his back. But his tears are not brought on by the vomiting. His sobs are real and heart-breaking and they make me cry too.

In an odd way it occurs to me that he'll despise himself in the future. He'll think of things that he could've said to his father, clever things, cool things, cutting things, but he said nothing. He'll never get that moment back. And I know that he'll regret it for the rest of his life.


"You have to leave," Nick says when he's calmed down a bit. "You have to leave, today. You can't stay here."

I'm not stupid. I know it's dangerous, but I can't leave Nick. "I'm not leaving you."

"I'm not staying either." He replies.

"Where are you going?"

"London."

"But your car! Your money!"

"I'll catch the train, I have to go now, Miley. And so do you. I won't be able to relax until I know you're safe."

"I'm not going without you!"

"Stop it! Give it a fucking rest, would you?"

My mouth falls open.

"I'm sorry," he snaps, not sounding it. "But I have to go. I have to go to London."

I feel tears prickling in the back of my eyes. "What about Cambridge?"

"I'm NOT going to Cambridge!" He shouts at me. I'm at loss of words. Totally and utterly loss of words. "I can't, alright?" Now he sounds frustrated. "I can't. Not yet. Not until I've got myself sorted. I have to go to London." He sounds adamant.

"But why?" I ask hopelessly. "Why London?"

"It has to be London!" he shouts.

"But why?" I plead with him.

"It's my plan! It's my fucking plan! I've got to get something right! Stop going at me."

I stare at him as he puts his hands to his head. He looks almost shocked when he feels bandages there instead of hair, and then he's trying to rip the bandages off.

"Stop it!" I cry, reaching across to him. He knocks me away roughly.

"You have to go." He says in a low, serious voice. "You have to go today. Tell your parents what happened. Tell them to take you away."

"No. I won't."

"Then I will," he tears away from the kerb.

"Nick, stop it you're scaring me!" I scream at him. He screeches around the corner onto the dirt track leading to the cottage.

"Slow down!" I yell. But he doesn't. He slams on the brakes outside the cottage and my head jerks forward painfully. He's out of the car before I can even register.

"No!" I cry. I don't want him to tell my parents. He'll get his wish. They'll take me away. They'll take me as far away from his family – from him – as possible.

I run after him, but he's already banging on the door.

"Please!" I beg.

He pushes open the door and storms inside.

"What? What is it?"

I arrive just in time to see my mom asking these questions as she comes into the kitchen.

"Where's Miley?" My dad asks from behind her.

"I'm here!" I shout back. "Nick, stop please."

"You have to take her away." He urges my parents. "Get her as far away from here as possible."

"Why?" My dad demands to know.

"It's my brother. He hurt her." My mom gasps. "Not...seriously. But he'll hurt her worse next time." Nick meets my eyes and his face is full of pain and regret. "He's a rapist."

My jaw hits the floor. He told me his brother robbed a few banks.

"I'm sorry," he whispers to me.

"I'm calling the police!" My dad erupts.

"PLEASE" Nick shouts, "Please," he begs, "Please just leave. Just get away from here. As far away from here as possible. He'll find you. He'll find Miley. He won't forget. If you call the police he'll never forget even if he's locked up again for years. PLEASE." He begs again.

My dad hesitates, then turns to my mom. "Tish, get your things." He tells her firmly, then to me. "Go and pack."

"No.."

"MILEY." He shouts. "Go and pack!"

"Go," Nick urges me, nodding at the stairs. "Go,"

"Come upstairs with me,"

"I'll wait here," he tells me.

I glance at my dad, who I know was about to object my request. He gives Nick a hard stare but then turns his eyes on me. "Be quick." He says. I notice his bag is already packed and by the door.

He was about to leave for London himself.

"Wait!" the thought suddenly enter my head and hope fills every part of me. "We're going to London tonight. You can come with us."

"Just go and pack," Nick says gruffly.

"But you can, can't he dad? We can give him a lift."

My dad doesn't reply. "DAD!" I shout.

"Go and pack!" He snaps at me.

I glance at Nick. "I'll wait here," he tells me.

I regard him warily.

"Go," he urges once more.

I take a couple of steps towards the stairs, then turn back to look at him. He smiles a small smile. His eyes are sad: shining – not sparkling. He looks like he's saying goodbye with his eyes. Everything will be fine, I tell myself. He's just upset.

He's gone by the time I return downstairs.


A/N: This is it. The story truly begins with the next chapter. Tell me, what do you think happens from now on? I love how every one of you thought that this story is coming to an end, when in reality it is only beginning. You haven't met half of the characters that I cannot wait for you to meet, and oh gosh I'm really really excited!

P.S, Let me just say that this week's The Vampire Diaries episode was EPIC.