Chapter 13

Abby's brain had frozen. She couldn't process this. Of all the houses she could have broken into, this was the house she chose? It was too cruel. Yet she couldn't help but feel she was getting exactly what she deserved in that moment as Chloe and Rachel advanced into the room, both of them glaring at her with a mixture of rage and suspicion. That was when Chloe spotted the computer.

"Oh, fuck no!" she spat. "She's taken something from my social media!" With that, she turned her glare back to Abby. "What the fuck did you print, bitch?" Abby started backing up cautiously, trying to gauge her chances of making it out the window and back down the tree while avoiding injury sufficiently enough that she could still ride her motorcycle. Without that, she had no way of getting back to the lighthouse, even though she still had plenty of time.

"Look, I don't want any trouble-"

"Far too late for that!" Abby had been keeping her eyes locked on Chloe and hadn't noticed Rachel. The girl was like a human chameleon and had managed to avoid detection long enough to slip into the room and grab hold of the lamp by the closet. She swung it like a long club at Abby who grabbed her helmet off Chloe's computer desk and used it to defend. It made impact, the bulb shattering as both the lampshade and Abby's visor both cracked in unison. She staggered under the force of it, managing to fall in the direction of the window. With that, she jammed her helmet on as she hauled herself up and threw herself out into the back garden. Unfortunately, the wind had risen greatly since she'd broken into the house. The rain had also intensified and was now streaming down horizontally as she was flung sideways, impacting into the side of the house where the entryway stuck out a bit further than the rest of it, before facing a significant drop to the bottom.

The impact was easily enough to crack a rib. She found herself gasping for breath as she dragged herself to her feet, the rain splattering across her visor so badly that her visibility was instantly reduced to nearly zero and the water started to leak in through the crack that was now there. The same crack, she realised, that was there in her dream.

Panting raggedly, she pushed her visor up to see where she was going and soldiered on. Behind her, she could hear Joyce opening the door.

"Who in the hell is that?"

"Mom, it's Abby!" she heard Chloe yell from her bedroom window. "She stole something!"

"I'll get one of David's guns!" Joyce called back. She had no doubt that Joyce would do it, too. But if it was just a bluff and she was going for intimidation tactics, it worked just as well.

'Guns?' Abby's brain screamed frantically. 'Oh shit!' Luckily for her, the bike was getting nearer with each step. Breathing was a painful, torturous exercise, but she pushed through it knowing that her goal was now so close. She made it to her bike as she climbed on. By nothing short of a miracle, the pain in her ribs was on her left side. Her right leg was easily able to work the kick starter as she jammed the key in and started the engine, pushing her visor back down as she did.

The now refuelled bike sped off, heading in the direction of the lighthouse. It was hard as hell for Abby to keep stability as the wind tried ferociously to push her in the direction it wanted her to go. To make matters worse, even the shortest route to the lighthouse found her having to drop her speed drastically since the rain was coming down in sheets and slicking the road in water that was rapidly standing proud of the surface even with the assistance of the drains.

Then came the worst part: the edge of the beach. Up to that point, the houses had been doing a decent job of protecting her, They deflected the wind so that only the gaps between them and the roads that faced in the direction of the wind posed any problem to her. Unfortunately, there was no such thing on the beach. It was at least three miles of open seafront with no storm wall or shelter of any kind. For safety's sake, she had to slow down for the sole purpose of making sure she got there in one piece. The last thing she could afford was to be any more injured than she already was. It was an almost impossible task, though. More than once the wind almost got under her bike and tried to flip it. Her front wheel lifted off the ground on several occasions. Her progress slowed to a crawl and the part of her journey that had been the shortest last time now took up more than half of her remaining time.

Eventually, by the time she made it back to the parking lot, she had less than half an hour left. The rain had flooded in through the crack in her visor and so she had to pull her helmet off as she dismounted and began her walk towards the incline to the lighthouse. The water ran out of it like a miniature waterfall and she tossed the helmet aside as she dragged herself on. The walk to the lighthouse that had been so easy before now drained her of the last bit of her strength as the rain battered her and the wind continually tried to pick her up and throw her. Now she understood. This was exactly what she'd seen in her dreams. She'd known this was coming. They hadn't been nightmares, they'd been premonitions. She'd been seeing the future and somehow, a fragment of that had been leaking back to her part of the timeline. That was what the water on her bed had been. It was the only explanation for it she had. But that revelation filled her with fear. She knew whatever was going to happen next, it was going to be agony at a level of literal hell on Earth. But she didn't mind. If Lynn was going to be okay at the end of it, she promised herself that she would endure it. She'd made her choice in all of this, sealed her own fate and set her own price to secure Lynn's freedom. Now it was time to pay it.

Eventually, Abby was able to stagger up the slope to the top of the cliff. The first thing she noticed was that Lynn had been moved to the end of the smaller side building nearby, out of the wind. But she was still on her knees and Jefferson still had his gun on her. The second thing she noticed was that his accomplice was gone. That was good. There was a chance that she might be able to pull some small victory out of this if she played her cards right. Just as that thought entered her head, Jefferson looked over and noticed she was back. Whatever she was going to do, she wasn't going to do it until she knew Lynn was out of harm's way.

Author's Note: This is another shorter chapter, but I'll be posting the final chapter and epilogue as usual on Friday to make up for it. Now to address some points that was made by one of my reviewers. MaxandChloe4Ever: Yes, Before the Storm is set in 2010 which is when the Arcadia Bay inferno happens. That was a year ago in this story so it's 2011. Abby and Lynn started at Blackwell for the start of the college year which is September in America (thank you Google), and they've been there for a few weeks now, so this is intended to be early October. Hope that helps. Also, there's an Equalizer 2? I shall be checking this out tonight.