One Mistake & No Survivors
Disclaimer: I do not own anything or anyone from Big Time Rush. The girls belong to their creators. I only own the plot.
Chapter Twenty Two
Just When You Give Up Faith
Elena's POV
Amanda and I are sitting at the kitchen table, sipping at some hot chocolate. Kendall and Carlos are upstairs talking with James about his behavior at dinner. Erika is outside, probably cooling down from dinner. She looked like she wanted to rip James's head off.
"Have you spoken to Caleb lately?" Amanda asks, dropping more marshmallows into her drink.
"The other day." I response, stirring my hot chocolate absentmindly. "I told him about how Jackson was working for West and he couldn't believe."
Amanda let out a slight laugh and I looked at her. "I'm sorry, but every time I hear about Jackson I think about his last name, East, and the fact that he is working for West. East and West? Come on, there has to be some kind of freaky family connection." Amanda laughs.
"Jackson's middle name is East." I explain. "His real last name is Carter, but he dropped his last name and uses East as his last name now."
"Wonder why he did that." Amanda asks, but the question isn't at me. Silence settles over us, and the only noise heard are our spoons hitting the sides of our mugs as we stir them. The front door slams shut and we both look up to see Erika tripping over things in the living room, her eyes wild. She halts herself by gripping the doorway.
"What did you do, see a ghost?" I joke as I take a sip of my drink.
"Someone is out there." Erika gasps. Amanda and I jump out of our seats. "Do you know who?" I questioned.
"They said my name." Erika says, still trying to catch her breath. "They said my name."
"Who said your name?" Amanda asks. "Erika, who said your name?"
"It was Kameryn." Erika says, looking at us, her brown eyes wide with either fear or excitement. "Don't say it wasn't her. I know Kameryn's voice, and it was her voice. I would recognize it anywhere."
"But it is impossible for her to find us here." Amanda states. "We're in hiding. And how would she be able to get from California to here, and walk through all this snow? We are in the middle of nowhere. How could she find us?"
"And Kameryn would be beyond injured from the fall too." I add. "She would at least have to have some kind of broken bone or be seriously hurt. With an injury from a fall off a building, Kameryn is bound to be injury that would prevent her from traveling in these weather conditions."
"How about you two stop playing 'Let's examine the facts' and let's go see if Kameryn is actually out there!" Erika snaps.
"Erika, we can't just go looking for someone who we know isn't out there." I say.
"And what if she is out there?" Erika screams. "Kameryn could be out there, needing us and we won't even go out to help her? I'm going back out whether you two want to help me or not."
Erika storms back out of the house with a huff. Amanda and I quickly throw on whatever snow gear is nearby us. I grab three flashlights and we run outside.
It's dark out. I can see the shadows of Kendall, James, and Carlos behind the curtain of Kendall's room. No arms are flaring around and I can't hear them shouting, so I guess they are having a peaceful talk or they finished it. The light in Logan's room is out. I toss a flashlight to Amanda and Erika. I turn my own and shine it at trees, trying to catch a sign of anything.
We head down into the woods, trying to stay together, but soon the three of us are spread apart by at least twenty feet. I can only spot Amanda and Erika's locations by the light of their flashlights. I tread through the snow, but my small figure makes it hard for me to do so.
"Find anything?" I call out. I get a chorus of 'no' as my answer. Sighing, I go back to shifting my flashlight through the dark. A chill runs up my spine, and causing my body o shake. My flashlight wavers towards the ground, and I see the red in the snow. I shine my flashlight along, and see a thin trail of blood going off into the woods.
"I got something!" I shout. Amanda tells me to stay in place and the two of them come rushing over. I keep my flashlight shining on the trail, not daring to move it. Soon enough, Amanda and Erika are by my side. Erika shines her flashlight in the trees, while Amanda shines her off in the distance. "Hello?" I call out.
Snow crunching comes from our left. We spin, hands on our weapons. I quickly shine my flashlight back and forth, but the only thing we see is a rabbit.
"It was probably just some wounded animal." Amanda says through clenched teeth. "Kameryn isn't back. What fools we are."
"No we're not." I say. "We aren't fools. We're people hurting. We miss Kameryn and somewhere inside, we all want to believe that Kameryn is alive. We need to accept the truth though; Kameryn isn't coming back. As much as we want her too, she isn't."
"I don't want her to be gone." Erika whispers.
"None of us do." Amanda sighs. Even in the dark of the woods, I can see her blinking back tears. "We all want Kameryn to be alive. That's why we came out into these woods so easily tonight. Despite the fact that we believed she would be here, we all knew deep down she wouldn't."
"Let's go back." I say. We turn to head back, but a giant crack from behind us causes us to turn around. I quickly grab a knife and throw it, ripping the cloth of Janessa's jacket.
"You actually had the guts to show your face again?" Amanda questions Janessa. A smirk flickers on Janessa's face. "I want to see you again." Janessa teases.
"I'm going to kill you for what you did to Kameryn." Amanda says. "I'm going to make your death as painful as hers was."
"Not so fast." Astoria says from our right. "Do you really want to cause her more pain?"
A whimper comes out from behind us. Ciri appears, her arm wrapped around Kameryn's neck. I can't help it as a gasp escapes my lips at the sight her.
Even in the dark of the night, I can see how beat up Kameryn is. Dried blood covers half her head, and I can see it stained in her blonde hair. Her right eye is swollen and closed up, and looking down, I can see her left leg is positioned at a funny angle, probably broken from the fall. Her lip is cut, as is most of her body.
But that doesn't matter right now. Kameryn's alive.