'Stowaway', Montauk
It was after midnight, Jack and Ava were already in bed and ready to fall asleep, when they received an alarming call from Charlotte...
"Jack? Thank God! Excuse the late disturbance, but I don't know who else I should ask for help."
"It's all right. What is it?" He sat up and brushed his hair from his forehead as he whispered, "It's Charlotte," to Ava.
"Daniel is totally wasted! I have no idea how much alcohol he drank, but he's completely out of his mind! He grabbed a baseball bat and went over to the beach house. I'm standing in front of it and can only hear how he is smashing everything to pieces. I'm afraid to go inside. Please Jack, I need your help! Someone has to stop him before he hurts himself!"
Jack was already out of bed, grabbing his pants, as he listened to her agitated words. "Did you call Emily?"
"Should I?"
"I don't know." He frowned. "It's her house and her stuff he's destroying right now." He quickly glanced at Ava, who had opened her eyes wide at the mention of 'destroying'.
"It's okay. I'll call her. She currently stays at Nolan's place. I hope she doesn't sleep yet."
"I quickly change and then I'll come over," he promised. He hung up and let out a sigh. "Did you hear that?"
Ava nodded as if stunned. "He's freaked out. Just be careful!" She warned. "Perhaps it would be better to call the police for help."
"I don't think that's necessary. If Charlotte is right and he is completely wasted, he won't be up on his feet for long." He gestured to the room next door. "You stay here and watch out for Carl." When he saw Ava protest, he added. "Besides, I'd rather have you stay out of this."
She nodded, reluctantly. "You call me at once, if you've overpowered him, promise?" She pleaded.
"I promise." He quickly dressed and then bent down to give her a kiss. For a moment, he hesitated before taking the gun from the nightstand, which he had bought for the purpose of defense only, and put it in his jacket pocket. He saw Ava's concerned look. "Don't worry. It's just in case of an emergency. I have no intention to shoot him."
Charlotte was waiting for him in front of the beach house, as she had told him, her arms wrapped around her slender body. "Do you hear that?" She asked anxiously. She flinched as she heard the sound of splintering glass.
Jack nodded. "I'm going in now, okay? You'll stay here until I allow you to enter. Did you understand that?" He looked at her urgently.
Charlotte nodded. "I... I've reached Emily," Charlotte said haltingly. "I've never seen him like that before. I'm really scared..." She stopped in the middle of the sentence as a low groan reached her ears. She looked frightened at Jack, who thought the same.
Fortunately, the door wasn't closed so that he could enter unhindered. He held his breath for a moment, aghast at the terrible sight that greeted him. The living area looked as if it had been hit by a bomb. The entire furniture was destroyed. He heard something crunch under his feet and noticed that it was shards of glass. It was only now that he noticed that there was broken porcelain and glass scattered all over the floor. He went further into the room, then paused. In a corner, between glass shards and ruined furnishings, Daniel lay motionless and bleeding. After Jack had convinced himself that he couldn't put up resistance, he pulled the unconscious Daniel out of the shards and examined his injuries. He looked up as he saw someone beside him. "I told you to stay put until I allow you to enter!" He said, looking at Charlotte with a reproachful look.
"Oh my God, Daniel!" She fell down on her knees next to him. "Is he...?" She didn't finish the sentence, but cast Jack a fearful glance.
He shook his head. "Don't worry. He's just unconscious. And the injuries are also not so severe that he could bleed out. They're mainly superficial cuts." He looked around. "Is there some sort of bandage here?"
"Yes, upstairs in the bathroom." She ran as fast as she could, grabbed the box and ran back down. Worried, she watched as Jack taped up Daniel's wounds, which were primarily on his arms and hands. Only then did she look around. "What did you do?" She whispered to her unconscious brother.
Both looked to the door as Emily and Nolan entered the beach house.
While Nolan was mainly shocked about the state of the furniture, Emily's concern was immediately directed to Daniel. "Is he hurt?" She knelt down next to Charlotte and Jack and carefully touched the bandages.
Jack nodded. "He must have stumbled and fallen and then landed in the shards." He gestured to the place where he had found him. "The injuries are not dangerous. I think he passed out because of the alcohol and not because of the fall."
Nolan bent to Emily. "You worry about his health?" He shook his head. "Did you see what he did to your furniture?" He rolled his eyes.
But Emily was not interested in the condition of her furnishings at the moment. She couldn't avert her gaze from Daniel, who looked as if he was sleeping peacefully. Almost tenderly she brushed a dark strand of his hair from his forehead.
"Earth to Emily!" Nolan gently touched her arm. "Did you hear what I said?"
She nodded absently. "Can we take him upstairs to the bedroom?"
"That's what they mean by speaking about 'the eyes of love are blind'," Nolan said, sighing. Together with Jack, he managed to carry the still unconscious Daniel upstairs, where they put him down on the bed in the bedroom.
"I'll stay with him," Emily explained, who had followed them upstairs.
"And what if he wakes up and starts to rampage again?" Nolan asked worried.
Jack made a dismissive hand movement. "I don't think this will happen any time soon. It'll probably take a while before he slept it off."
"All right," Nolan replied. "But call immediately, if you need my help if he threatens you."
Emily nodded and then looked at Charlotte. "You should go back to the manor." And directed to Jack and Nolan. "Thanks for your help! But I can manage alone now. You should go home as well to get some sleep."
When everyone had left the house, she took off her shoes and laid down right beside him. It was so good to be close to him again, to feel his warm body, to hear his steady breathing. Carefully, she moved closer to him and pressed her body against his chest. When he wrapped his arm around her waist and she felt his lips on her neck, she reflexively held her breath. Had he awakened, or was it just the familiar habit that he wanted to be close to her? She turned to him carefully, so she could look at him directly. His eyes were closed. So he was still asleep. Only for the last time she wanted to kiss him before she left. She leaned forward, pressed her lips gently against his and then flinched as he muttered her name in a slurred voice, "Em-mily..."
She quickly jumped out of bed and stared down at him. From the moment Charlotte had told her about her talk with Daniel and the disastrous outcome, she had made the final decision to leave the Hamptons and go to Paris. That he had also tried to destroy their home was the last proof she needed to realize that she had lost him. Her marriage had failed. In spite of the fact that she still loved him and he apparently felt attracted to her, she couldn't stay. She pulled the farewell letter she had written to him from her trouser pocket and placed it on the pillow beside him. Perhaps it would answer some of his questions. Determined, she wiped the tears from her cheeks, which had formed in her eyes unnoticed. "I love you!" She whispered before she gave him a last kiss on the cheek. Then she ran down the stairs, stopped short to examine the damage caused by his senseless rampage and then opened the door and left the beach house.
