Unhappy Birthday part eight
The group stood there shocked.
"What!" Shelby asked in disbelief, jumping to her feet. She looked from Jess to her mom and back to Jess again.
"Shelby you should blow out the candles." Her mom said trying to ignore what had just happened. Shelby turned to her mom wanting to ask if it was true, wanting to believe it wasn't. But when Shelby saw her mom's face she knew it was true. Shelby's went numb and she wasn't sure if it was from anger or shock.
"Your, your going to let that man move back into my house?' Shelby shouted.
Alice very calmly set the cake down on a card table that had been set up, being sure that none of the candles went out. "That house is mine." Alice said after having put the cake down. "And I will decide who lives there."
Shelby looked at her mom as if she were an alien. "But you said earlier... You believed me. That Walt had... That it was Walt's fault." Shelby said accusingly. 'Are you telling me you lied?"
"Shelby, I think you should calm down. You're creating a scene." Alice said.
'Calm down!" Shelby shouted. "I don't believe you. You said you believed me. You signed a statement for the police. You ... you know what he did."
"No, I told the police what I did to keep my girls with me. You know after what you told me earlier I just realized that Walt is the one that's the victim here. You probably seduced him."
Shelby cut her off. "Seduced him! Seduced him?" Shelby shouted.
"Well, I wouldn't put it past you. After all you did sleep with men for money. Isn't that what you said?"
Shelby's jaw hit the floor. "I explained that to you. I thought you understood." Shelby said quietly.
"Understood. The only thing I understood is that my daughters a hor." Shelby recoiled as if she'd been slapped. Her hands began to shake and tears filled her eyes. Shelby began to back away. Someone grabbed for her arm, but Shelby pulled away. She continued backing away and tripped over something that was on the floor. She managed to maintain her balance. She heard someone say her name, but her eyes were locked on her mothers. And she couldn't seem to tear away from them. For a moment Shelby stood there, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Then she turned suddenly and took off running. She pushed through the doors and jumped down the steps. She ran as fast as she could into the cool night air. Past the bear, and the girls dorms and the gazebo. She kept running and running and running. Tears streamed down her face, but Shelby couldn't even feel them. She couldn't feel anything. She just kept running.
The cliffhangers stood there helplessly after Shelby ran out. They were too much in shock to even move. Only Daisy and Scott had known the true story of Shelby's past, the rest only knew parts. And they had all been too shocked when they heard it to move. Daisy and Scott, Peter and Sophie, they were all too shocked to move. Jess had been the only one. She'd tried to stop Shelby, but had been unable to. It was easy to see the devastation that had shown on Shelby's face when she took off.
Peter found his voice first. "Mrs. Merrick I think you should go." He said shortly.
Alice nodded and began to gather her things. 'Come on Jess." She said. But Jess just gave her mother a cold glare through the tears that were rolling down her face. "Jess. I don't have time for this." Alice said.
"Jess, you can stay here." Peter said stepping between Alice and Jess.
'You can't do that." Alice said.
"I just did." Peter said. Alice started to argue, but then just turned around and walked huffily out the door. Peter surveyed the group. He could tell most were shocked by what had happened. "All right, everyone." He said trying to take control again. "You guys can stay in here tonight. Daisy and Scott I want you two to go get the sleeping bags. Make sure to bring one for Jess." Daisy and Scott nodded. 'The rest of you go get anything you need and meet back here in exactly fifteen minutes. Anyone not back will be on shuns for a month. Go it?" The group nodded and then they all took off their separate ways. Except for Jess who fell back into Shelby's chair and began to cry. Sophie went to her and tried to comfort her. Peter blew out the candles and then headed out the door. He had to find Roger and anyone else who could help him search for Shelby. Peter knew by the look on her face that she would be capable of anything and he had to find her before she acted on it.
Peter, Roger, Megan and Jeff searched for Shelby for several hours, but she was nowhere to be found. Peter called Curtis once they came in from searching and said he needed his help the following morning.
In the lodge the cliffhangers were still awake. Scott was pacing the floor, fuming over what Shelby's mom had done. Daisy was trying to keep him calm, but she herself really wanted to go after Shelby's mom. Jess was in a corner sitting with Sophie. Sophie was trying to get the entire story from her, but Jess was crying so hard that she couldn't speak. The other cliffhangers talked quietly trying to digest everything that they had learned about Shelby.
Peter walked into the lodge. The cliffhangers looked up at him. 'We haven't found her yet. We'll start the search again in the morning. Search and Rescue will be helping us." Scott uttered a swear word under his breath. Peter let it slid, even though everyone knew what he said. "You guys should try to sleep. I know it's not easy after everything, but trust me. We will find her." He said this while looking straight at Scott. Scott looked away and began to pace again.
Peter motioned for Sophie to join him on the porch. Sophie walked across the room and followed Peter out the door. The first thing Peter did when Sophie stepped out after him was wrap his arms around her. She welcomed his embrace. She'd been trying to hold it together for the kids, but it was hard. "You really think you'll find her? She looked determined to get away." Sophie said concerned.
"I know. But I think she may just need time. She's hurting so much right now. Everything's been ripped out right from under her. But she'll come back."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I can't." Peter said and pulled Sophie tighter to him.
Peter and Sophie reentered the lodge a few moments later. The cliffhangers were still all wondering around and talking unable to figure out anything else to do. Sleep didn't seem to be an option they wee all too worried. "All right Cliffhangers." Peter said getting there attention. "If were not going to sleep, we might as well talk. Everyone in a circle in the middle of the room." He said. "Jess, why don't you join us?" He said. Jess was sitting in the corner still crying. Jess nodded and walked over. She wiped the tears from her eyes, but more were coming. She sat down and Sophie sat down next to her putting her arm around her.
"So, who wants to discuss how there feeling first?" Peter asked.
"You know this isn't helping Shelby. We should be looking for her." Scott said in an even voice.
Peter took a deep breath. "I know this doesn't help Shelby, but it's after midnight and too dark to search. So for now the only thing we can do is try and help each other."
"You mean help everyone, but Shelby?" Scott asked. "Because out of everyone that's who I want to be helping right now."
"Scott we're doing all we can." Sophie said trying to help Peter out.
"Well it's not good enough." Scott said and stood. He started to walk away, but Daisy stood and grabbed his arm.
"Look, we all care about Shelby. The best thing you can do is stay with us." Daisy said. No one had ever really seen Daisy being so openly emotional. "Stay with us." Daisy said quieter this time and looking Scott directly in the eye. Scott gave her a look, but then sat down and Daisy sat down too.
Suddenly Julliette started to cry. Everyone looked at her as she leaned on Auggie and cried. "I didn't know." Was all she said.
'You didn't know what?" Peter asked, trying to get her to talk.
"I never knew what Shelby went through and I said all those horrible things about her." Julliette said choking on the words. "I never knew." She said again.
"I guess that makes it all about you, right?" Daisy asked a little angry that Julliette had turned it into a poor me thing.
Julliette looked at Daisy. "No. It isn't about me. It's about Shelby and how I treated her. I feel horrible for it, all right? I just feel bad for her." Julliette said angrily, but still crying. Daisy could tell Julliette was sincere.
"Sorry. I'm just..." Daisy said. Peter looked at her.
"Your just what, Daisy?" Sophie asked. Daisy looked at them. She should have known that if she said something they would try to get her to open up.
"Nothing." She said, looking away.
"It's not nothing.' Ezra said the slightest bit angry. He liked Daisy and he had known her for a while now he could tell when she was and wasn't hurting. And he knew Daisy never wanted to talk, but he couldn't help but feel she needed to talk about this. Daisy looked up at him. "You know, you always push everyone else to open up. You tell everyone how they feel and what they should do, yet you almost never tell anyone about how you are. So tell us Daisy."
'What do you want me to say EZ?" Daisy asked.
"I want you to tell me how you feel." Ezra said.
"Fine you want to know how I feel? I feel as though I can't do anything. I feel that my best friend is out there in the woods somewhere and I can't do anything for her. I feel like putting my fist through something right now, because I'm just that angry!" Daisy said yelling and getting in Ezra's face. Ezra looked at her and then just put his arms around her. Daisy fell into Ezra arms crying, shocking the rest of the group who had never seen Daisy like this, not even when Shelby had left.
"I don't know how I feel." A voice from the corner piped up. "I mean I've only been here for a short time. It's not like I knew Shelby that well. I feel awful for what happened to her, but I just don't know her." Sara said. The others nodded.
"That's ok, Sara. You can't be expected to treat her as if she's an old friend if you barely know her." Sophie said.
"Yea." Auggie said. "But you can still have feelings about it." Sara looked at him.
'What do you mean Auggie?" Peter asked.
"Well, when Isaac Wilton, committed suicide, we didn't know him very well. He'd been here like a day, but we all still felt something about what had happened."
"Yea." Ezra said.
"Well, you know in an odd way, I feel pretty good." David said. The group all turned to him giving him evil looks. "Hey, I'm not trying to be mean here." He said defensively, "But it makes me happy to actually have the family I have." He shrugs, "Didn't think I'd ever say that. But you know, I'm just glad it wasn't me." Some of the others nodded in agreement.
"I know what you mean." Julliette said. She looked at Peter. "Is it wrong to feel that way?"
"No." Peter said. "You guys, it's perfectly natural to be feeling what all of you are feeling. Helpless, angry, sad, like you don't really know, and glad it wasn't you. All of those are perfectly natural reactions to a situation like this."
"Yea, well I feel most of those.' Jess said suddenly. The group looked at her. She was still crying, but not as hard as she had been earlier.
"Why do you feel those ways Jess?" Peter asked.
Jess looked at Peter. She knew she could trust him. She'd learned that when she'd come up here before. When she'd asked him to save her life. "I once asked if you could save my life." Jess began. " And for a while you did. I went home and Walt was gone. But we were still in that house. All those memories were still in that house. Everywhere I turned I could sense him, feel him. I couldn't stand it, but I just kept hoping it would get better. Shelby and I would write letters and talk about what happened, because she understood. She was the only one who understood. Who knew what it was like, to be in that house, to feel how I felt. She told me how much better she felt knowing Walt was gone. Knowing I was safe. So I couldn't tell her. I couldn't tell her that mom was going to go back on what she said." Jess was crying harder now. "I knew, I knew what happened to Shelby on the streets. She never told me until today, but I knew. My mom knew too, deep down she knew, but she denied it. Just like she denied what Walt did. I thought my mom was doing better. She was doing better until about a month ago. The money wasn't really there and she was so lonely. She cried every night. At first I thought it was because of what she had done. For her not believing Shelby, but then I realized she was crying, crying for that man. And I wanted to confront her about it, but I couldn't. Like if I ignored it wasn't going on. I guess like mother like daughter, right?" She said. "When we came here today, I wanted to tell Shelby, to tell you." She said looking at Peter, "About how much things had changed about how much better they had gotten and then how much worse they had gotten, but then my mom said she believed Shelby and I thought things would be ok. But when we left she told me that Shelby's life on the streets just proved what she had felt about Shelby." Sophie pulled Jess into a hug. "I thought things would be ok. I thought that things would be ok." She said sobbing into Sophie's shoulder.
Peter surveyed the group. Julliette was crying and Auggie was holding her. Sara had tears streaming down her face, Ezra was still holding Daisy who was now crying harder after hearing Jess. Scott was crying into his hands and looked as if he might be praying. David was starring off into space and Peter could tell he was trying to hold in his emotions. The group had pretty much broken down. An d Peter couldn't help but wonder if the group was like this now, what would happen if Shelby never came back. If she really had ran.
The group stood there shocked.
"What!" Shelby asked in disbelief, jumping to her feet. She looked from Jess to her mom and back to Jess again.
"Shelby you should blow out the candles." Her mom said trying to ignore what had just happened. Shelby turned to her mom wanting to ask if it was true, wanting to believe it wasn't. But when Shelby saw her mom's face she knew it was true. Shelby's went numb and she wasn't sure if it was from anger or shock.
"Your, your going to let that man move back into my house?' Shelby shouted.
Alice very calmly set the cake down on a card table that had been set up, being sure that none of the candles went out. "That house is mine." Alice said after having put the cake down. "And I will decide who lives there."
Shelby looked at her mom as if she were an alien. "But you said earlier... You believed me. That Walt had... That it was Walt's fault." Shelby said accusingly. 'Are you telling me you lied?"
"Shelby, I think you should calm down. You're creating a scene." Alice said.
'Calm down!" Shelby shouted. "I don't believe you. You said you believed me. You signed a statement for the police. You ... you know what he did."
"No, I told the police what I did to keep my girls with me. You know after what you told me earlier I just realized that Walt is the one that's the victim here. You probably seduced him."
Shelby cut her off. "Seduced him! Seduced him?" Shelby shouted.
"Well, I wouldn't put it past you. After all you did sleep with men for money. Isn't that what you said?"
Shelby's jaw hit the floor. "I explained that to you. I thought you understood." Shelby said quietly.
"Understood. The only thing I understood is that my daughters a hor." Shelby recoiled as if she'd been slapped. Her hands began to shake and tears filled her eyes. Shelby began to back away. Someone grabbed for her arm, but Shelby pulled away. She continued backing away and tripped over something that was on the floor. She managed to maintain her balance. She heard someone say her name, but her eyes were locked on her mothers. And she couldn't seem to tear away from them. For a moment Shelby stood there, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Then she turned suddenly and took off running. She pushed through the doors and jumped down the steps. She ran as fast as she could into the cool night air. Past the bear, and the girls dorms and the gazebo. She kept running and running and running. Tears streamed down her face, but Shelby couldn't even feel them. She couldn't feel anything. She just kept running.
The cliffhangers stood there helplessly after Shelby ran out. They were too much in shock to even move. Only Daisy and Scott had known the true story of Shelby's past, the rest only knew parts. And they had all been too shocked when they heard it to move. Daisy and Scott, Peter and Sophie, they were all too shocked to move. Jess had been the only one. She'd tried to stop Shelby, but had been unable to. It was easy to see the devastation that had shown on Shelby's face when she took off.
Peter found his voice first. "Mrs. Merrick I think you should go." He said shortly.
Alice nodded and began to gather her things. 'Come on Jess." She said. But Jess just gave her mother a cold glare through the tears that were rolling down her face. "Jess. I don't have time for this." Alice said.
"Jess, you can stay here." Peter said stepping between Alice and Jess.
'You can't do that." Alice said.
"I just did." Peter said. Alice started to argue, but then just turned around and walked huffily out the door. Peter surveyed the group. He could tell most were shocked by what had happened. "All right, everyone." He said trying to take control again. "You guys can stay in here tonight. Daisy and Scott I want you two to go get the sleeping bags. Make sure to bring one for Jess." Daisy and Scott nodded. 'The rest of you go get anything you need and meet back here in exactly fifteen minutes. Anyone not back will be on shuns for a month. Go it?" The group nodded and then they all took off their separate ways. Except for Jess who fell back into Shelby's chair and began to cry. Sophie went to her and tried to comfort her. Peter blew out the candles and then headed out the door. He had to find Roger and anyone else who could help him search for Shelby. Peter knew by the look on her face that she would be capable of anything and he had to find her before she acted on it.
Peter, Roger, Megan and Jeff searched for Shelby for several hours, but she was nowhere to be found. Peter called Curtis once they came in from searching and said he needed his help the following morning.
In the lodge the cliffhangers were still awake. Scott was pacing the floor, fuming over what Shelby's mom had done. Daisy was trying to keep him calm, but she herself really wanted to go after Shelby's mom. Jess was in a corner sitting with Sophie. Sophie was trying to get the entire story from her, but Jess was crying so hard that she couldn't speak. The other cliffhangers talked quietly trying to digest everything that they had learned about Shelby.
Peter walked into the lodge. The cliffhangers looked up at him. 'We haven't found her yet. We'll start the search again in the morning. Search and Rescue will be helping us." Scott uttered a swear word under his breath. Peter let it slid, even though everyone knew what he said. "You guys should try to sleep. I know it's not easy after everything, but trust me. We will find her." He said this while looking straight at Scott. Scott looked away and began to pace again.
Peter motioned for Sophie to join him on the porch. Sophie walked across the room and followed Peter out the door. The first thing Peter did when Sophie stepped out after him was wrap his arms around her. She welcomed his embrace. She'd been trying to hold it together for the kids, but it was hard. "You really think you'll find her? She looked determined to get away." Sophie said concerned.
"I know. But I think she may just need time. She's hurting so much right now. Everything's been ripped out right from under her. But she'll come back."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I can't." Peter said and pulled Sophie tighter to him.
Peter and Sophie reentered the lodge a few moments later. The cliffhangers were still all wondering around and talking unable to figure out anything else to do. Sleep didn't seem to be an option they wee all too worried. "All right Cliffhangers." Peter said getting there attention. "If were not going to sleep, we might as well talk. Everyone in a circle in the middle of the room." He said. "Jess, why don't you join us?" He said. Jess was sitting in the corner still crying. Jess nodded and walked over. She wiped the tears from her eyes, but more were coming. She sat down and Sophie sat down next to her putting her arm around her.
"So, who wants to discuss how there feeling first?" Peter asked.
"You know this isn't helping Shelby. We should be looking for her." Scott said in an even voice.
Peter took a deep breath. "I know this doesn't help Shelby, but it's after midnight and too dark to search. So for now the only thing we can do is try and help each other."
"You mean help everyone, but Shelby?" Scott asked. "Because out of everyone that's who I want to be helping right now."
"Scott we're doing all we can." Sophie said trying to help Peter out.
"Well it's not good enough." Scott said and stood. He started to walk away, but Daisy stood and grabbed his arm.
"Look, we all care about Shelby. The best thing you can do is stay with us." Daisy said. No one had ever really seen Daisy being so openly emotional. "Stay with us." Daisy said quieter this time and looking Scott directly in the eye. Scott gave her a look, but then sat down and Daisy sat down too.
Suddenly Julliette started to cry. Everyone looked at her as she leaned on Auggie and cried. "I didn't know." Was all she said.
'You didn't know what?" Peter asked, trying to get her to talk.
"I never knew what Shelby went through and I said all those horrible things about her." Julliette said choking on the words. "I never knew." She said again.
"I guess that makes it all about you, right?" Daisy asked a little angry that Julliette had turned it into a poor me thing.
Julliette looked at Daisy. "No. It isn't about me. It's about Shelby and how I treated her. I feel horrible for it, all right? I just feel bad for her." Julliette said angrily, but still crying. Daisy could tell Julliette was sincere.
"Sorry. I'm just..." Daisy said. Peter looked at her.
"Your just what, Daisy?" Sophie asked. Daisy looked at them. She should have known that if she said something they would try to get her to open up.
"Nothing." She said, looking away.
"It's not nothing.' Ezra said the slightest bit angry. He liked Daisy and he had known her for a while now he could tell when she was and wasn't hurting. And he knew Daisy never wanted to talk, but he couldn't help but feel she needed to talk about this. Daisy looked up at him. "You know, you always push everyone else to open up. You tell everyone how they feel and what they should do, yet you almost never tell anyone about how you are. So tell us Daisy."
'What do you want me to say EZ?" Daisy asked.
"I want you to tell me how you feel." Ezra said.
"Fine you want to know how I feel? I feel as though I can't do anything. I feel that my best friend is out there in the woods somewhere and I can't do anything for her. I feel like putting my fist through something right now, because I'm just that angry!" Daisy said yelling and getting in Ezra's face. Ezra looked at her and then just put his arms around her. Daisy fell into Ezra arms crying, shocking the rest of the group who had never seen Daisy like this, not even when Shelby had left.
"I don't know how I feel." A voice from the corner piped up. "I mean I've only been here for a short time. It's not like I knew Shelby that well. I feel awful for what happened to her, but I just don't know her." Sara said. The others nodded.
"That's ok, Sara. You can't be expected to treat her as if she's an old friend if you barely know her." Sophie said.
"Yea." Auggie said. "But you can still have feelings about it." Sara looked at him.
'What do you mean Auggie?" Peter asked.
"Well, when Isaac Wilton, committed suicide, we didn't know him very well. He'd been here like a day, but we all still felt something about what had happened."
"Yea." Ezra said.
"Well, you know in an odd way, I feel pretty good." David said. The group all turned to him giving him evil looks. "Hey, I'm not trying to be mean here." He said defensively, "But it makes me happy to actually have the family I have." He shrugs, "Didn't think I'd ever say that. But you know, I'm just glad it wasn't me." Some of the others nodded in agreement.
"I know what you mean." Julliette said. She looked at Peter. "Is it wrong to feel that way?"
"No." Peter said. "You guys, it's perfectly natural to be feeling what all of you are feeling. Helpless, angry, sad, like you don't really know, and glad it wasn't you. All of those are perfectly natural reactions to a situation like this."
"Yea, well I feel most of those.' Jess said suddenly. The group looked at her. She was still crying, but not as hard as she had been earlier.
"Why do you feel those ways Jess?" Peter asked.
Jess looked at Peter. She knew she could trust him. She'd learned that when she'd come up here before. When she'd asked him to save her life. "I once asked if you could save my life." Jess began. " And for a while you did. I went home and Walt was gone. But we were still in that house. All those memories were still in that house. Everywhere I turned I could sense him, feel him. I couldn't stand it, but I just kept hoping it would get better. Shelby and I would write letters and talk about what happened, because she understood. She was the only one who understood. Who knew what it was like, to be in that house, to feel how I felt. She told me how much better she felt knowing Walt was gone. Knowing I was safe. So I couldn't tell her. I couldn't tell her that mom was going to go back on what she said." Jess was crying harder now. "I knew, I knew what happened to Shelby on the streets. She never told me until today, but I knew. My mom knew too, deep down she knew, but she denied it. Just like she denied what Walt did. I thought my mom was doing better. She was doing better until about a month ago. The money wasn't really there and she was so lonely. She cried every night. At first I thought it was because of what she had done. For her not believing Shelby, but then I realized she was crying, crying for that man. And I wanted to confront her about it, but I couldn't. Like if I ignored it wasn't going on. I guess like mother like daughter, right?" She said. "When we came here today, I wanted to tell Shelby, to tell you." She said looking at Peter, "About how much things had changed about how much better they had gotten and then how much worse they had gotten, but then my mom said she believed Shelby and I thought things would be ok. But when we left she told me that Shelby's life on the streets just proved what she had felt about Shelby." Sophie pulled Jess into a hug. "I thought things would be ok. I thought that things would be ok." She said sobbing into Sophie's shoulder.
Peter surveyed the group. Julliette was crying and Auggie was holding her. Sara had tears streaming down her face, Ezra was still holding Daisy who was now crying harder after hearing Jess. Scott was crying into his hands and looked as if he might be praying. David was starring off into space and Peter could tell he was trying to hold in his emotions. The group had pretty much broken down. An d Peter couldn't help but wonder if the group was like this now, what would happen if Shelby never came back. If she really had ran.
