ooo a jellybean: Thanks for the reaction posts! made my day haha :]
Guest (2): No problem, thanks for sticking around whoever you are, mysterious reviewer! :)
Samantha P: I felt a chapter was long overdue. I'm really glad you notice the differences that she makes with the episode. Initially I wanted to create original plotlines, but thought that the best way to pick up on Cru Ella's impacts was to make connections through actual episodes.
XKaterinaNightingaleX: AHH! No one shot her! Sorry for my bad descriptions that make things confusing. She turned to Dave who said sorry because behind her someone else had hit her with the blunt end of a gun. I hope that soothes your tumultuous emotions, and sorry again for not making sense. Enjoy!
TimbreWuulf: No, no... I didn't die just yet. Yep, just super busy and trying to find the time to fit this in!
I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter! Please leave a review, and sorry for the late updates. It most likely will be a little slow this month... sorry :\
23
For a moment I thought I was dreaming when I heard voices, but I quickly realized who they belonged to. I kept my eyes shut because I didn't want them to know I could hear what they were saying.
"I'm not trying to cause anything between you kids," I heard Rufus say. "The infected act like their normal selves to get away with it. They only get violent when they really want to start mixing blood and spreading their virus. I'm just trying to make sure we're all safe."
"I know…" Dave said. "I just wish she never got infected."
"I don't know," Zach responded. "Maybe the reason she was getting so violent was because we were kind of… distrusting. I mean if I were in her place, I would probably get pretty pissed too."
"I thought you said an infected person attacked you." Rufus pointed out. "You kind of were in her place."
"Not really," Zach said solemnly. "I mean I really thought I got infected. It was kind of an understood thing, so I was willing to do whatever it took."
"But with Cru… She says she's sure she didn't." Dave pointed out.
"And we can't trust her." Zach finished.
"I don't see why not." I said startling them somewhat.
I opened my eyes and Rufus pointed his gun at me. I don't know why, but I didn't even care to tell him to put it away or explain to them the big mistake they were making.
All of a sudden I felt a shooting pain in my head, right where I remembered Rufus hit me with his gun. I clutched a cloth that was already there against it and tried sitting up. Dave rushed to my side to stop me and I could see his left eye was bruised.
"Take it easy." He advised, but I was sure I could hear a hint of hostility in his voice. "Your head was bleeding pretty bad." He lay me back down and went back to stand next to Zach who was looking through a microscope.
"Nothing yet." Zach said.
"How long's it been?" Rufus wondered.
"An hour and a half, give or take." Zach replied.
"I don't want to wait here for another two and a half hours." Dave slumped himself on a seat and rested his eyes. "This place is starting to get to me."
"Looks like we're gonna be here for quite some time. I'm gonna find rooms with beds a person can actually sleep on." Rufus said heading out the door. He stopped and faced Dave. "You want to be in charge of keeping a gun on her?"
Dave kept his eyes closed and shook his head.
"I think we can manage without any guns pointed at each other for once." He said.
"Suit yourself." Rufus said with a shrug.
I rested my head back, and closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes, I was in the car and the sun was just coming up.
"You're up," Dave noted.
I sat up and softly touched the cut on my head.
"Are you okay?" He asked. I responded with a very heavy nod.
I turned to face the window watching trees and the occasional car zipping by.
"We didn't want to hurt you," Zach explained. "We just wanted to be safe, that's all."
"I know," I replied not taking my eyes off the road speeding past us.
I knew I had acted irrationally when they wanted to check my blood, but I didn't really want to talk much to them.
All I could think about was when we found Mrs. Rhodes and how I thought that she couldn't help going completely hysterical because the two people she'd loved most in the world had tried hurting her. In the end they'd got their job done. They turned her into one of them, poor woman.
Zach and Dave were talking amongst themselves about something that sounded kind of important, but for some reason, I just didn't want to listen even though I knew I probably should've considering my role in this universe. I could feel them glancing back at me from time to time but I wanted to avoid any eye contact. I wanted to sink back into the leather seats of the car and disappear.
I was actually doing quite well at making myself feel somewhat invisible when all of a sudden the car came to a screeching halt and my candle brand started feeling strange. That unusual redness started to form around it.
"What's wrong?" Zach asked.
"Cru!" Dave yelled.
"What!" I cried.
Both brothers spun around and then looked at each other in bewilderment.
"What?" I cried again.
"What happened?" Zach asked.
"I don't know." Dave muttered.
"Where'd she go?"
"I don't know."
"Well, do you think she's coming back?"
"I don't know, Zach." He growled this time.
"Oh, very funny." I said in response to their childish game. If they thought this would make me forgive them, they had an awful way of apologizing.
"Cru!" Dave yelled again looking around. "Where'd you go?"
"Maybe we should check outside of the car." Zach tried. "It's a little farfetched but it's worth a shot."
Dave just shrugged and they got out of the car. Frustrated, I got out too slamming the door behind me.
"You know," I started. "You guys are kind of starting to piss me off!"
"Ella!" Zach called. "You out there?"
"Come on you little dog eating freak!" Dave hollered. "I said I was sorry, alright? Where'd you go?"
"Do you think she went back?" Zach asked turning to his brother.
"Maybe." Dave replied with a sigh. He paused. "Probably."
I looked at the both of them, and was such an idiot it took me thus far to realize they really could not see me.
I started panicking. Like really panicking. What was going on with my stupid brands, and why was I invisible to the only people I had been visible to 100% of the time?
"Do you think she left because of us?" Zach asked. "Because of what we did?"
Dave looked to the ground and kicked a rock to the other end of the street, turning around back toward the car.
"Yes." He replied climbing in.
Zach sighed and got in too, and they sped off before I could get in.
My panicking had now been amplified to twice as much as the level it was before.
The Savages were gone, and I was stuck in a supernatural universe, invisible to everything and everyone, taking any chance of hitchhiking out of the equation. Not to mention my head was still killing me since Rufus hit it with his gun.
As I was standing in the middle of the road, clutching my leather jacket around me, I started thinking about what Bobby told me about my brands and how they would start getting these "special abilities".
Maybe that's what was happening at this moment. Maybe my superpowers were kicking in. The only thing now was to figure out how to use them.
I somehow managed to disappear just by thinking about it. Maybe that's how they worked. Maybe all I had to do was think really hard about it and I would be visible again. What good would that have done me now that there wasn't anyone on the road that could see me?
I needed to get back into the Impala, or better yet, back to where we were headed: Bobby's house.
Only I didn't know how. When I was transported into Dave's dream it wasn't because I wanted to be there. I never thought about wanting to get sucked into his dreams before falling asleep, but I did get sucked into them nonetheless.
I did remember falling asleep in his arms and questioning whether that was the place I needed to be, and feeling sure that it was. I was wrong though, because I was transported elsewhere. I was transported into a scenario that I had seen on the television screen.
By some strange instinct, I closed my eyes and started thinking hard about how I wasn't supposed to be here, in the middle of the street, and how I was supposed to be with the brothers. I felt a little different but when I opened my eyes, I was still in the same spot.
I took a deep breath and started over.
Closing my eyes, I started to think about where I was meant to be within this universe. What was I supposed to be doing at this moment? After the boys came back from River Grove where did they go? What did the TV screen show?
I remembered the boys called Bobby and told him about Zach's infection. Instead of watching the brothers continue driving, I remembered seeing Bobby go to a computer that was probably older than I was and search something related to Zach's strange immunity to the virus.
That was what I had remembered seeing so I thought to myself that that must have been where I was meant to go.
All of a sudden I heard Bobby's voice sounding a touch more authoritative than usual.
"Whatdya mean you lost her?"
My eyes flew open. I was in his house. This was magnificent.
"I'm gonna kill you when you get here!" Bobby yelled slamming the phone down. "Balls."
He turned around and stopped dead once he laid his eyes on me.
"Hi," I muttered giving a half-hearted wave.
He strode toward me and gave me a strong hug, and once he pulled back, he rubbed my shoulders.
"Where've you been?" He questioned. "Are y'alright?"
I nodded. He looked down at my head and his face dropped.
"I almost forgot about that," I said to mostly to myself, lightly touching over the spot where I was hit.
"What happened?" Bobby wanted to know. He took me to the kitchen and sat me down.
"Nothing," I lied. "I got attacked by one of the infected people and I hit my head."
"You didn't get infected did ya?" He asked grabbing things from the cabinets. "Well obviously not otherwise you'd be eatin' my brains right about now." He quickly said without waiting for me to defend myself. "And of course, your such a sweet young thing, you wouldn't be able to hurt a fly."
I wanted to cry because of how awesome he was.
He got a few things wrapped up in a towel and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. He unrolled it to reveal a pair of tweezers and some cotton balls.
"I'm just gonna get rid of that dried blood that's stuck in your hair." He explained standing behind my chair and grabbing the tweezers. "Sit still. I don't wanna hurt you."
I obeyed as he began plucking at my scalp. He paused every now and then to blot it with some cotton balls, and began muttering to himself about how unreasonably strong demon-zombies were proving to be. He only stopped when the phone rang, and when he returned he looked distraught and somewhat angry but he continued plucking with his tweezers.
It still hurt like hell, but it was all right because he had some old swing-era music playing that soothed me.
"This probably ain't what you want to listen to," He said heading to the record player.
"No no!" I assured him. "I like it." He looked at me dubiously. "Really, I do."
He shrugged and continued asking me questions about how I randomly turned up in the middle of his living room. I simply told him how the abilities from the brands were starting to kick in, and how I used them to transport and become invisible.
"Wait a minute," He said stopping with the tweezing. "You can go back to being invisible whenever you want?"
I nodded making a smile spread across his face.
"Well what are we doin' here?" He wondered. "You got shoppin' malls to rob!"
"I didn't realize you guys were known for your shopping malls." I said.
"We're not, but there's a whole place one town over that's full of 'em. It's easy to find because it takes up about a whole baseball stadium."
He not-so-gently dabbed rubbing alcohol on my wound and put everything away, grabbing me by the hand and leading me to the door.
"Now, I don't go through town much, mainly because they're all a bunch of sons of—never mind. But you ought to go and get yourself some nice clothes."
He was honestly so much more excited about this than I ever was.
"You want me to drive there by myself?" I asked.
"Well why not?" He wondered. "I have to stay here in case the boys get back and you're fully capable of drivin' yourself. You do know how to drive don't you?"
"Well, yea but—"
"Then I don't see what the problem is." Bobby shoved keys into my hand then paused. "Unless you don't want to."
"No, I do, it's just—never mind." I said as he led me out the door.
"Go on. Tell me," He encouraged.
"I just, I don't know. I guess it was more fun when Zach was around."
Bobby chuckled, then his expression slowly dropped and he wrapped an arm around my shoulder.
"I know you didn't get attacked by some infected person, Ella." He said. "Rufus just called me while I was takin' care of your head, and he told me what happened."
I was about to say something to let him know that it wasn't a big deal and that I'd be fine in no time, but he insisted on continuing.
"On behalf of those idjits, I want to apologize." He said.
"You don't have to—"
"Yes, Ella, I do." He sighed. "Because no doubt those four years you've been stuck on that other side, you've been dyin' to get back for God knows what reason. But I can see it in your eyes that you never felt more at home than you have here."
I smiled as he leaned down and began talking into my hair.
"And it's a goddamn shame that those boys took a single shred of that away from you." It was a miracle that he could see it. He pulled back from our embrace. "Now go do somethin' so that you can have some fun without them."
I kissed his cheek and walked over to the pick-up truck climbing in. He gave me a wave as I drove off towards the outside of town before I realized I had little idea of where exactly that was.
Luckily, it wasn't that hard to find the shopping center Bobby was referring to, and with some empty plastic bags conveniently placed in the back of the car, all I had to do was turn invisible.
I closed my eyes, thinking about vanishing into thin air until I could feel the candle on my hand tingle. I assumed this made me invisible so I got out of the car, empty bags in hand, and walked inside a lingerie store plucking expensive things off the racks and shoving them in my bags.
No one seemed to notice, so I took that as a sign that it worked. It was confirmed once I walked out and a few security sounds went off. Everyone looked around, but they couldn't see anyone entering or exiting the shop so they just shrugged it off as I continued my way out and to another store.
Again, as I was walking past clothing racks, I was looking for durability over style, but wanted to make some sort of compromise between the two. Why not look good kicking ass? God knows Zach and Dave Savage managed just fine.
Instead of being confined to just one store due to time, I was able to change things up a bit with my wardrobe. I even shoved a leather bracelet and some rings into my pockets.
Bobby was right. This was so much more fun without some guy hanging around.
When I ran out of bags to shove clothing and shoes in, I decided to call it a day, and headed towards the car. Reminding myself to pick up a toothbrush and shampoo before returning to Bobby's, I made one last stop, and helped myself to a chocolate bar too.
After my unhealthy indulging, I rushed back home dumping my things in the room I had slept and changed in before. I grabbed underwear, a t-shirt and some shorts along with my "toiletries" and jumped in the shower, scrubbing at my head to get rid of any of the other blood. It was a relief being clean again.
After yanking off a number of tags, I threw on my clothes and rushed downstairs to let Bobby know why I had rudely charged into the shower before at least saying hello to him.
When I found him he was oddly enough in the kitchen shuffling through some pots and pans, it sounded like.
"Hey, Bobby." I said walking in a little gingerly.
He turned around and smiled.
"You look a lot better." He said. "Less tired." He turned back and put his hands on his hips. "I was just gettin' out some things to make an apple pie. The problem is I don't know the first thing about makin' pies." He sighed sadly. "My wife used to make 'em real good. All the time too. She knew how much I loved her cookin'."
"I'll make it." I volunteered.
"Oh no darlin', I wouldn't make you do that." He said turning back towards me. "You go on and relax. You've had it rough."
"No really," I insisted making my way towards him. "I remember learning back home because I knew how much Dave loved pie. I guess I thought if I made enough I would come back here." I pulled out a few dusty mixing bowls, and leaned over to preheat the oven. "Silly, isn't it?"
"How can somethin' so delicious ever be considered silly?" Bobby said making me laugh.
It was nice having him around.
"I've got it covered in here," I assured him. "Why don't you go into the front room and watch TV or go into the study and do a little more of what you do best?"
"If you insist…" Bobby said, dragging his feet to the other end of the room with a bottle of beer in his hands. He took a swig of it before opening the door to retreat to the next room.
Baking the pie was actually proving to be quite soothing. The cinnamon apple aroma soon flooded the room, calming every anxious nerve I had in my body.
I got lost for a moment, and had this image of my mom humming to herself while she was cooking, and her dark hair had been tied up in the most perfect bun. As she swayed to her own tune, I could see the dangling pearl earrings my father gave her sway with her.
I assumed my memory was biased, and remembered the food having smelled absolutely delightful. I had kept banging a fork on the table insisting she give me food at that moment, and she'd turned around and knelt down beside me saying,
"You have to be patient, love. I promise, the longer you wait, the more delicious the food is going to taste." And she was right.
I must've been four at the time.
I snapped back to reality, and realized I had been humming myself. I smiled to myself liking the trait I shared with my mother, and continued to hum, adding an unnoticeable sway as I worked.
After about a half hour, I was setting the dough on top of the sea of apples, and using a fork to seal the circumference. I opened the oven and slid the pie inside, still humming to myself when I heard the door slam and a couple pairs of boots trudge in.
I didn't have to think hard to guess who it was, but I knew for sure the brother's had arrived when I heard, "I smell pie."
"I'm going to go to the bathroom to wash my hands." I heard Zach's voice say. "Still got a bit of dried blood on them."
I was about to go out and let them know I was still in this universe but I was stuck washing some dough off my fingers. I heard heavy shoes approaching the kitchen just as I was turning the water off.
"Hey Bobby, are you making pie without me?" Dave's voice asked. All of a sudden he stopped and I spun around.
"I was in the car the entire time," I told him. "For some reason you couldn't see me, but I think it has to do with my brands. In fact I talked to Bobby about it he could tell you more."
Dave just looked at me with his eyebrows furrowed and he took a few steps closer, meeting me only halfway, so I walked up to him.
"I got stranded in the middle of the road and then I think I transported here or…something. All I know is one moment I was with you and—"
"Don't do that," Dave told me. "Don't leave like that. You scared me."
"Sorry," I said not very apologetically. "Maybe I wouldn't leave if you didn't keep treating me the way you do." I sighed and shamefully looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry." I repeated, meaning it this time. "I didn't mean—"
"No, it's okay," said Dave. "If anything, I'm the sorry one."
There was a silence that extended to a very uncomfortable point.
"I have to check on the pie," I said retreating to the oven.
"Yea, okay." He said with a nod. "I have to go check on… Zachie."
"I heard my name," Zach said entering the room. "Ella! What happened?" He strode towards me and wrapped his long arms tight around me. "I thought you were gone for good this time."
"Impossible." I assured him. "I've no better place to be."
"I'm surprised you still think like that even after everything we put you through." He said.
I was about to tell him to forget about everything that had happened just so that he could stop reminding me, when I heard Bobby's footsteps approaching.
"Ella, that pie is sure makin' me hung-" Bobby stopped once he saw the brothers standing there.
"We just helped ourselves in." Dave said.
Bobby just looked at him and for a moment I couldn't tell what the expression on his face was until the split second before he came charging toward the Savages.
He was enraged.
"Bobby!" I cried before he could attack any one of them.
"Jesus Christ," Dave muttered under his breath. Both him and Zach had staggered back quite a bit once they saw how violent Bobby was about to become.
"Bobby, what—what's wrong?" Zach asked.
"I could kill the two of you!" He yelled his face redder than I had ever seen. "This poor girl has done nothin' but help your good-for-nothin' asses from the moment she unwillingly stepped foot into your sorry lives, and you repay her by giving her a near concussion!"
"You told him?" Dave cried. "What'd you that for?"
"She didn't tell me a damned thing!" Bobby spat. "If you really want an idea of the kind of person she is, I think you ought to know that she lied to me about what happened to her head, blamin' it on some infectious loon, just so that she can make you two look better!" Bobby angrily began pacing, securing his baseball cap on his head. "And here you are, gettin' angry because you thought she'd told me about what happened." He muttered. "I'm angry because she didn't tell me what happened and the funny thing is that the only person who has a damn right to be angry in this room is Ella, and she hasn't even said a word yet!"
"Please," I begged. "Can we just stop talking about this?"
I looked around the room, Dave had his arms folded but was avoiding any kind of eye contact, as was Zach who had shoved his hands in his pockets. Bobby on the other hand was still trying to catch his breath from his speech and was looking at the boys expecting some sort of answer for their behavior.
"Look," I started. "I get it, now. They needed to check my blood because… I don't know, because I was a possible threat. They were just trying to be safe, it isn't their fault. It's in their blood to be extra cautious especially when they're both together. That may be when they're at their strongest, but it's also when they're the most vulnerable." I paused and glanced at all three of them. "I shouldn't have gotten so angry." I said. "Rufus wouldn't have had to hit me with his gun, and none of this would've happened. So, I'm sorry."
"I can't believe you're apologizing to us." Zach said.
"It definitely doesn't feel right." Dave added.
"I just want to get rid of this tension." I explained. "I like it better when none of us are angry at each other. If I'm not angry anymore, I really don't think anyone else should be." I turned to the apple pie I had taken out of the oven and set it on the table. "So, I suggest we sit down, eat pie, and forget about it."
"Sounds good to me." Dave said. He turned to Zach who nodded in agreement.
"Alright, fine." Bobby said bitterly. "But only because Ella's got the heart to forgive you." He paused as though he suddenly remembered something. "And I got somethin' I need to talk to y'all about." He said rushing out of the room.
The rest of us took a seat and waited for his return. When he did come back, Bobby slapped a folder thick of papers onto the table.
"About them brands of yours." Bobby said taking the seat next to me and opening the folder up. "I found a few informative things on what's happenin' to you startin' with your abilities."
"Like what?" I asked too eager to start digging in to the apple pie like Zach and Dave were.
"Here," Bobby said pulling out a sheet of paper that had messy handwriting sprawled across it. "I copied this down from one of my old books on ancient symbols. It was a miracle I found anythin' on brandings, so we got pretty lucky."
I examined the sheet but could only make out a few words, "feather" being one of them.
"What's it say?" I asked.
"Your feather brand allows you to transport through significant events that had already been revealed to you before you arrived." Bobby explained. "I won't lie to you. I have no idea what that means."
"Well whatever has already been revealed to Ella before she even arrived. That means whatever she watched on TV right? I mean, it has to. That's the only thing that makes sense." Zach said.
"If you ask me," Dave joined in. "None of this really makes much sense. How is she supposed to go to what's already been 'revealed' to her if she can't even remember it all!"
"He's got a point." I said turning to Bobby who in turn shrugged.
"Don't look at me, I'm just the messenger." He said.
"Maybe you just transport to what you remember." Zach proposed. "Or maybe you don't need to remember."
"That thought kind of scares me." I said. "What if I don't know what to do or—"
"Holy crap." Dave said cutting me off. I turned to him to see a forkful of pie in his mouth. "Cru, this is…heaven."
"Thanks?"
"You are welcome." He said digging in even more.
"Well why don't you try remembering something right now and see if you get transported?" Zach suggested returning us back to the appropriate topic.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Well, that's gotta be up to you." He replied. "Apparently, you know more about us than we do ourselves."
"Right," I said still struggling to think of something.
"Think about what happened right after Dave and I came back from the Croatoan virus."
I took a deep breath remembering the intensity of the moment when Dave was almost forced to shoot his brother and the flood of relief everyone felt the moment they realized Zach didn't have to die. I had already transported to where the next "scene" was, which was Bobby's house, but there was something that was bothering me.
"I'm missing something." I said. "A couple things actually."
"Like what?" Zach wondered.
"Give me a second." I said closing my eyes.
Bobby had gone to his computer, and looked into Zach's possible immunity to the sickness, but there was something else that made the viewers believe that Zach was actually somehow incapable of being harmed by the demonic virus. The viewers somehow knew he was special.
Suddenly images of dead bodies sprawled across the Impala came flashing in my mind. There was Pam clearly bleeding out of her throat in the back seat, and Sarge was hunched over the steering wheel mostly covering any wounds that had been inflicted on him.
Duane, however, was holding a chalice of their blood, his eyes an unquestionable demon black, whispering a chant until it was clear he received some kind of a response.
"Yes, Father," I remembered him saying. "The younger Savage is immune to the virus, as expected. All participating subjects have been taken care of. No further tests should be necessary." He paused as though there was someone talking on the other end. "We'll meet again soon."
My eyes flew open and I looked at a startled Zach.
"Duane was the demon who first spread the Croatoan virus." I said making Zach shift uneasily.
"Son of a bitch." Dave growled his mouth full of pie, making it a little hard to take him seriously.
"How do you know?" Zach asked.
"I remember watching a scene with him on TV." I explained. "He killed everyone else, and used their blood to make some sort of demon call." I turned to Zach. "There's something… Different about you."
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"We were right the first time." I told him. "You'd been exposed to the virus, but you're immune to it for some reason."
The sound of Dave's fork clanking on the plate startled me. I spun around making a face at him, but his gaze was sternly glued to the floor.
"This is good." Bobby observed. "Is that all you're missin'?"
"Hang on, Bobby." Zach said. "Is there something wrong with me?" He wondered desperately.
"No!" I cried before any one could jump to conclusions. "Nothing's wrong with you, but I think for some reason the yellow-eyed demon has made you immune to demon blood." I paused. "Don't take what I say too seriously, but it's almost like it's somehow a part of you."
Dave set his plate down, and stormed out of the room. Bewildered by this unreasonable behavior, Zach followed his brother out.
"I thought I said not to take it to seriously." I mumbled.
Bobby inched in as though he was waiting for me to tell him some kind of a secret I had been avoiding mentioning because of the brothers' presence.
"Forget about them for a moment," He advised, "and try rememberin' what else's missin'. The sooner you find out, the sooner we can tie up some loose ends."
"Right," I said closing my eyes, and thinking back to the immediate event after Bobby's little search.
The picture of one brother angrily storming away and another following after was starting to look vaguely familiar to me, only, from what I could pick up, the roles had been reversed. Why had Zach been so angry with Dave? It was unlike him to act upon his anger. The only times I remembered seeing Zach getting especially angry was when there was some sort of dispute with John, or a disagreement over the yellow-eyed demon.
I stopped and looked at Bobby.
In that case, it had been a bit of both.
"What's wrong?" Bobby asked.
I didn't answer, and instead headed outside where the brothers had gone.
"I don't get what's wrong, Dave!" Cried Zach. "And I can't unless you—for once in your frigging life—talk about it!"
Dave was seated on the hood of the impala, and Zach was behind him, trying to reason with him about something. I stomped down the stairs, noticing that it had already gotten dark out, and went directly up to Dave who was avoiding eye contact by staring directly at the ground.
"Tell him what this is about, Dave." I demanded. "Tell him, or I will."
"What's she talking about?" Zach wondered.
Bobby had just come out and waited on the porch as I tried to squeeze the information out of Dave.
"Go on," I encouraged authoritatively. "He's bound to find out isn't he? Better late than never!" Dave remained silent. "Dammit, Dave! Tell him what John told you before he died!"
Before Zach could react to what I had just said, Dave turned to face him and raised his hand up to stop Zach from saying anything.
"He told me to take care of you, Zach." He started.
"Yea, so?" Zach replied. "He's told you that a million times and you've always taken care of me."
"I know, but this time he said it differently." Dave told him. "He said I had to… save you."
"Save me? Save me from what?"
"He didn't say. He told me that nothing else mattered and that if I couldn't that I—"
This was it. He was so close to just saying it and the fact that he was practically choking on the words just made everything about this moment even scarier.
"That you what?" Zach's concern was beginning to turn into frustration.
Dave took a deep breath before continuing.
"He told me that if I couldn't save you, that I'd have to kill you."