Hi there...so I don't really know what to say, except that after this, there will be one more chapter of this story, and that will be the last. Our adventures are coming to a close. But I am working on a few other stories, too, so hopefully, y'all will like those even better than this one! I am so sorry that it's been literally months since I've posted, so I made this one really good! Thank you all so much for your patience with me, creativity does not come easily. I'll let you get to reading now, cuz this chapter is really juicy. As always, ENJOY!
-8tickles
(Isabel's POV)
I'm so glad I hadn't seen the murder, but the sounds alone were enough to haunt me for a lifetime. They kept replaying in my head like a busted CD. The blood-curdling, skin-crawling, gut-wrenching screams were enough to get my imagination running wild. Unfortunately for me, I have a very creative mind, and each image my brain came up with was darker and more twisted than the last. Pictures of blood, entrails, and horror movies flooded my head.
Thomas, on the other hand, had walked in on the scene only minutes after it had occurred. Now, he insisted that I stay in the bathroom until everything had been cleaned up, or that I close my eyes and keep them shut until I was out of the hospital room. I'd shut my eyes and let Thomas lead me out of the crime scene. Hours later, after the cops had arrived and interrogated both of us thoroughly, I lay quietly by Thomas's side, listening to his panicked breathing, probably caused by nightmares from the incident. Bedtime came, and with it, the protests from nurses when Thomas required I sleep not only in the same room as him, but in the same bed as well. One glare from the eyes of a boy who had seen too much ended the argument.
I was pressed as close to him as possible, but nothing seemed to help the nightmare go away. Finally, after listening to him groan and whimper in his sleep for several minutes, I decided to wake him up.
"Thomas?" Nothing.
"Thomas." Still nothing.
I reached out my fingers and gently stroked his cheek, causing his eyes to fly open. Sheer terror radiated from them for a moment, then those beautiful, warm, chocolate-colored irises focused on me.
"Isabel you're alive!" He pulled me closer, tucked my head under his chin, and started to sob.
"T-Thomas what's wrong?" I stammered.
Through sobs he managed to choke out, "It was you who'd been beaten and kidnapped, not Serena, and oh god. I couldn't stand it! I couldn't stand to lose you, not now, not ever again! Yes, the blood and gore haunts me, but my life without you is a worse thought, much, much, worse. I'm in love with you. Complete and total love, and I mean it. A world without you is not a world worth living in. We've been through so much together, we've had some serious downs, but I would never, ever pick anyone else to have experienced the past year with but you."
Despite the fact that he was crying, I smiled. Thomas was loyal. Thomas was in love with me, and me only. I snuggled closer and hushed his cries. It seemed like so long ago that it was the other way around and he was comforting me, when in reality it was only a month or so ago. I hummed softly to the greatest guy in the world until his cries stopped entirely, the only signs of his distress left a sniffly nose.
Just when I though he was asleep, he said as clear as day, "We have to go after Serena."
"What?! That's crazy!"
"It's the right thing to do, I can just tell." He said.
"No Thomas, no. I will not let you go after her, and after everything she's done to us, you still want to?"
"Isabel. I'll explain more when I can think in the morning, okay?"
"Okay."
(Thomas's POV)
Isabel fell asleep soon after our discussion, but I watched the sun rise outside our window. It came up slowly in multiple colors. Reds, purples, oranges, pinks, and even flecks of gold tinged the morning sky. The bright patterns gave me something else to think about besides how tough the day ahead would be. Her warmth also gave me something to be happy about. I didn't know how or why we should go after Serena, but I just felt it was what we should do.
Isabel finally woke up at about 8. She moaned, stretched, then rubbed her face while saying, "Morning. How'd you sleep?" I contemplated lying to her, but decided against it.
"I watched the sun come up, it was really pretty."
"You didn't sleep at all?" She asked.
"Not even for a second."
"Oh I'm sorry." She said.
"It's not your fault, I was just…thinking about everything." She just stared at me for a long moment before sighing and walking off to get ready with a shake of her head. I laid there for another moment longer before sitting up and swinging my feet to the floor. It was going to be a long day, I could just tell. I had nowhere to start our search, or anything even close to a hint. Just then, a thought struck me.
"Hey Isabel? Can you come back in here for a sec?"
She swung her head out the bathroom doorway. "What's up?"
"I think…I think we have to go back to the scene of the crime.
The body had been bagged and taken away, but the carnage was still there. Everything was still splattered in blood, but by now it had dried hard and black. It was like something out of a Hollywood horror set, but it was real, it was all real, every last bit of it. Isabel and I stood in the doorway, just staring at the room where a homicide had happened only hours before. The smell was more overpowering than anything. It smelled worse than rusty nails mixed with a nosebleed, the kind where you can't smell anything but the metallic scent of blood. This was 10 times worse than any nosebleed. And it reeked not only of blood, but of death, too. A woman had lost her life here, and it was evident.
"Maybe we should start outside, by the window." Isabel suggested.
"I second that motion." I clarified, and we headed down the hall to the exit.
It took us several minutes to find which window it was, but once we did, there was no mistaking it. Bloody fingerprints wrapped around the edge, and bloody claw marks led all along one wall. The scent from inside the room wafted out the open window, once again overpowering our nostrils. Isabel crinkled her nose at the lingering smells of death, but curiosity was also apparent on her face. She reached out an unsteady hand and began tracing the long line claw marks running horizontally across the brick. "I don't get it." She said.
"Get what?" I asked.
"Why she was still fighting when in the room she was screaming about it being her destiny to be taken. It just doesn't make any sense."
"Maybe she had a change of heart?" I responded weakly.
"Or…or maybe she was working with him all along and this is an attempt to lead us into a trap."
I had to admit, Isabel's theory sounded much more reasonable than mine. I watched Isabel trail the marks on the wall until she reached the corner of the building. She turned around to me and said, "Well, are you coming or not?"
I smiled. This was one of the many reasons I loved her. I trotted over to her, and together, we turned the corner, possibly on the hunt for our own demises. The claw marks, dotted with a few bloody footprints here and there, trailed out to the parking lot, where they stopped abruptly.
"Dead end." I hung my head as my confidence deflated.
"No. It's just the beginning." Isabel said as she pointed to an idling black sedan a few spaces over. A man in dark sunglasses sat in the driver's seat. When our eyes connected, he nodded, and I reached out for Isabel's hand, but it wasn't there. I whirled around, but in our moment of naivety, we had let ourselves be surrounded by men in black. There were six of them, all with sniper guns trained directly on my head. I don't know how I hadn't heard them, or Isabel being dragged away. She was now cradled in the arms of the seventh man, a dart sticking out of her right bicep.
I slowly turned in a circle, evaluating the situation, and put my hands in the air. One of the men spoke.
"Get in the car."
"Say that Isabel will be ok, and I'll do it."
"Just get in the damn car, kid."
"Say it, or I won't do it. I know you won't shoot me. I'd bet twenty bucks that not one of you would dare pull that trigger."
They looked about each other nervously, taken aback by my bold statement. I was, too. The same one spoke.
"For now, she will be fine."
"That's not good enough! I want you to promise nothing bad will happen to her at all, ever."
"She will be fine." He said.
With that, I marched over, flung open the passenger seat door, and hopped in. The pack of men turned and hopped into another waiting car, where they tossed Isabel carelessly in the back. I pressed my fingers to the glass as our cars sped off. All I could think was: what had I just gotten us into?
I have an idea to propose to you guys. If someone comes up with a good idea for how the final chapter should end, and I use it, I will tell you guys what my real name is :) Hope this is motivation enough, so come up with ideas and send them into me, of course I'll credit you if I use it! See y'all for the final chapter!
