* Please Review! Thank you for hanging in there with me! This has been rough but Im getting better! Thank you again for the well wishes!*
Once in the house, Van slammed and relocked the door, knowing it would only buy them a little bit more time. But every second counted, right? Tires screeched from outside, making Van and Avalon dart through the dining room, around the kitchen to the first set of stairs. With their hands locked up tight, they ran down the stairs, around the landing and down the second set. Van pulled Avalon off to the left and through the darken rooms of his old basement and over to a corner in the back. There were boxes and piles of junk around the basement so the couple crouched down behind some things and wrapped their arms around each other.
Seconds later, the sound of a door being kicked in made them jump and Avalon cried out. Van threw one hand around her face and covered her mouth, while bring his mouth to her ear, whispering and urging her to be quiet. He sushed her with his breath a hot bust against her skin. She grabbed at his wrist with one hand and his shorts with the other. He pulled her back and in between his legs.
" It's okay, just be quiet." Van whispered over and over again. " It's going to be okay."
Gideon stood in the doorway of the house with a frown on his face and sweat coating his hair. He looked to the wall at his right, glaring at the alarm system as it blared out it's cry for help. He looked back into the dark house, rage having completely taken him over. His body started to shake with the anger. His hand gripped at the gun he had brought with him until his knuckles blanced. In a swift, fast movement, his arm came up. He smashed his elbow into the alarm system, silencing it at once. His muscles tensed hard.
" Avalon! It didn't have to be like this!" Gideon's yell echoed through the house, reaching the couple in no time. Tears slipped down Avalon's cheeks to wet Van's hand as they hid together. He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her back to his body more. She held onto him tighter, still in shock at the events of the night. Her dad, the one who wiped her tears in the middle of night, held her when her first boyfriend broke her heart, had hit her with a gun and knocked her out. The man who taught her how to ride a bike with no training wheels and taught her how to swim had tried to kill her boyfriend. Her brain was reeling with disbelief. " This is your fault! We could have just left and started over but now it's all ruined! And for what! A stupid, useless laker who will never do anything with his life!"
" Someone called the cops. They will be here soon." Van whispered. Avalon nodded slowly with her nails digging into the skin at his wrist. " It's going to be okay." Her hand opened then closed again on his shorts. He squeezed her to comfort her, pressing his lips against the soft skin under her ear before he continued to mutter to her.
" You have ruined everything! For a boy! A stupid boy! You could have had everything and anything you wanted! Now it's all over!" Gideon yelled.
" He's in the kitchen." Van whispered. He pulled her back and into the dark more. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried hard to control her crying. Her stomach jump as she sob. Her chest heaved as it rocked through her. How had her life come to this? How did her dad go from a loving father to a killer who was now hunting her down in the darkness? Where had things gone wrong? Nothing in her life would ever be the same again, even if they got out of the house alive. Life as she knew it...was over.
" I loved you!" Gideon yelled. " I saved you! I gave you the life that was taken away from my baby! You ungrateful bitch! Abby would have never done this to me! Never! She would have never wanted to leave me for a boy! Thank you, Daddy! That's what she would have said! I will never leave you, Daddy! That's what a good daughter says!" Gideon rounded the steps and frowned. He looked down over the railing and turned around and looked into the empty living room. " I will find you and when I do, I have no choice but to kill you! Do you think that's what I want! Do you think that's a choice I am happy with now! No! But there is nothing else I can do!"
Van's legs tighten around Avalon's sides as they stayed crouched together. She couldn't do this. She couldn't stay in the dark, crying and hiding from Gideon. There had to be something of the man she had known left in him. There had to be and she was sure she could bring him out and save them all. He was just sick, he just needed help. What kind of daughter...person, was she if she didn't get him help? She took a shaky, deep breath through her nose then pulled Van's hand away from her mouth.
" I have to go out there." She whispered.
" Are you fucking crazy! He's got a gun! He said he has to kill you!" Van hissed. She turned between his legs and grabbed at Van's face. Keeping her eyes shut, she brought her face in close to his. His breath brushed across her cheek as his hands came to her ribs. " You can't go." He whispered in the a plead.
" I have to go. He won't hurt me." She whispered
" Baby, listen to me," Van said quickly and gently. " he's a killer. He killed those other women, your mom. He tried to kill me. He's lost his mind." Van's voice was changing and there was nothing he could do to stop it. It had lost it's calming, reassuring whisper as more and more fear leaked into it. He knew he was pleading with her but he didn't care. She needed to understand this was not the Gideon she had known. This was someone else.
" It's okay." She whispered before pressing her lips against his. " Just let me talk to him."
" No! No, Avalon, stay here!" Van whispered even though she was already pulling away from him. He grabbed at her quickly, his eyes flying open. His hands tried to close around her arms, needing to keep her with him. Desperation was starting to take him over. She had to stay with him. They just needed to stay where they were and quiet until the police arrived. If she left him, Gideon would find her and kill her. Van couldn't lose her, not her. Not the first good thing to come into his life since before his dad's accident. He needed her too much to lose her now.
" I'd be okay." She whispered, pushing his hands away from her. Her fingers squeezed his and then she was gone. Van's hands grabbed the darkness. He cursed and stood up quickly, listening to everything. He patted around in the darkness, jumping when his hands landed on a VCR.
" Avalon!" Gideon yelled from his spot on the landing.
" I'm right here, Daddy." Avalon said. She stepped out of the basement and stared up at him from the bottom of the stairs. Gideon's arm shot up as he took aim at her with his gun. Avalon blinked but refused to jump in fear. She needed him to see her as he always did, as a strong young woman.
" What are you doing down there?" Gideon asked.
" I was hiding. You scared me, Daddy." She said. Gideon frowned and shook his head.
" You betrayed me." He said.
" You hit me with your gun and tried to kill Van." Avalon said. " I got scared."
And so was Van. Gideon had lost his mind, why couldn't she see that? He understood that she looked at him like he was her father and she loved him, but Van loved his dad too and could admit that he wasn't the man he used to. Van knew the moment his old dad had left and his new dad had taken his place. As Van listened to Gideon and Avalon, he crept through the dark room, gripping the VCR in both hands. He really didn't want to shot her dad, didn't want to kill him but he knew he had to do something to protect his girlfriend. If he could just buy them enough time to get them outside, they could hide in the woods until the police arrived.
" Why didn't you just listen to me!" Gideon yelled. " You have ruined our entire lives!"
" I know and I'm sorry but there is still time for us to leave. We can sneak out of the back door behind me, get in the car and drive away." Avalon said. Gideon's arm faulted a second before he started to lower it. She nodded and held her arm out to him. " Please, Daddy. I don't care about that other guy, Randy, I don't even know him. I don't remember him. There's only you. I only remember you, I swear. I was so self when it came to Van. I should have listen to you. You have never given me bad advice before. I don't know what I was thinking or doing. I guess I was just caught up in having a boyfriend."
" You were stupid." He snapped, making her nod.
" I was and I'm sorry." She agreed. " But I can see that now and it won't happen again, I promise. You are right, you have always given me everything and I was ungrateful." Gideon sighed but tucked his gun into his waist before he started down the stairs.
" You will do what you are told from now on. No more boys, do you understand?" Gideon said. " We need to go to Mexico and you will not talk to Van anymore. You won't call him or anything. You won't even think about him."
" I understand." She said as she nodded her head again.
Her throat threaten to close. Her eyes started to burn again. She did love Gideon and things would never be the same between them but she had to make him think differently if Van had any chance of getting out of there alive. She would go with Gideon, disappear into the night with him then start planning her escape. She would leave him as soon as she could. That way, Van would live, she would be free and Gideon won't have to spend his life in jail. He was a bad man who did horrible things...but he was her father. He was sick, not evil. Yeah, she would leave with him tonight but as soon as they stopped to rest, Avalon would leave. She would contact Miles, come back to Van and Gideon could live his life out in Mexico.
" I'm serious, Avalon. No boys. You see what trouble this one has caused us?" Gideon said. She nodded and took a step back as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
" I understand." She said.
" Where is Van?" Gideon asked.
" Right here!" Van snapped at the same time he stepped out from the room. He swung the VCR he had been holding as hard as he could, hitting the other man in the face. There was a sickening crunch a second before Gideon groaned and fell back. " Let's go!" Van grabbed Avalon's hand again. They both whipped around quickly. Van grabbed the door knob and threw it open. " Run!" He yelled as they took off.
Gideon's head spun then pounded as stars burst out through his vision. With one hand shaking, he reached up and touched his nose, knowing right away it was broken. Hot blood poured down his skin and leaked into his mouth. He spit hard, letting the spittle and blood mix as it dripped off his chin. He pushed himself up with one hand and took aim with the other.
" Avalon!" She looked back at a shot ring out. Van felt her crash into him hard. He stumbled but turned to see the flashing red and blood lights from the front of his old house. Sirens were screaming into the night air and Van felt a rush of relief. They were saved. The police were there and Gideon won't be able to hurt them anymore.
" Van." Avalon said as she turned back around to face him. She had a hand pressed into the left side of her body. Her eyes were wide as she pulled the hand away.
" Oh shit." Van whispered as blood dripped from her fingers. She looked up at him in complete shock before her eyes rolled back and her knees gave out. Van grabbed her as fast as he could. " Help!" Van yelled out as they sank down to the brush. " Someone help us!"
" Van!" He heard Miles yelled out.
" Freeze! Gideon Weathervane, dropped your weapon!" Another officer yelled.
" Help, please!" Van yelled, looking up towards the hill as some officers surrounded Gideon and others ran towards him. Van looked back down at Avalon as she half coughed, half gagged. Dark red blood started to bubble up and out of her mouth as she stared up at him.
" He...shot...me." She whispered.
" I know, hang on! Please! They are here! Help is here!" Van was saying quickly. He pressed one of his hands over her wound, looking back up as Miles reached them. " She's bleeding! She's been shot!"
" Keep her talking!" Miles yanked a walkie talkie out from his belt and barked orders out for an ambulance while he came to his knees.
" Avalon!" Van yelled, looking back at her.
" Keep pressure on the wound!" Miles ordered. " Avalon, sweetheart, I need you to talk to us. You're going to be fine but you need to keep talking. Tell me how he managed to keep you hidden all these years."
" We...moved." Avalon turned her head away from Van and started to cough again, whining and crying as more blood coated her tongue, the taste of old pennies filled her senses. She spit then closed her eyes and turned to face Van.
" Sweetheart, open your eyes." Miles was ordering but his voice was fading out.
Avalon sighed and looked at Van. She thought she smiled but couldn't be sure. He was talking, she thought. There was no sound coming out of his mouth even though his lips were moving. She closed her eyes again and marveled at how the sharp, burning pain she had felt before was fading and fading fast. She jolted hard suddenly. Avalon groaned, opening her eyes again. Why couldn't she hear what Van was saying? Was she dying? Where was Gideon?
Her eyelids were growing heavy again and this time, she couldn't stop it. She let them close, whining when Van shook her again. Why did he have to do that? She frowned as weights settled on her arms and legs. This was heaven. No pain, no gun shot sounds, nothing but blessed sleep and she was going to welcome it. She needed to welcome it. She was tired and she just couldn't fight it anymore. She knew she was supposed to but for the life of her, she couldn't remember why.