Chapter 6: If I Had Known
It's probably morning and no longer night by the time they make it back to the house, arms linked and exhausted. In the dim lights of the street lamps, Carrie sneaks sideways looks at Phil, but gets no answers aside from weary smiles of reassurance that don't quite reach his eyes. The grass is wet with condensation and they leave their boots at the front door, opening the door quietly and creeping inside, as the lights are not on in the main room and everyone appears to have retreated to bed, the form of the black box barely visible in the glow of the moonlight.
Carrie gives Phil a firm hug, feeling a little uncomfortable that no one stayed up for them, but considering the time of day and how tired everyone must be, she tries to push these negative thoughts aside. He insists on sleeping on the couch (PJ and Chris might be happy to share the small bed in the guest room but three would really be pushing it) and Carrie bids him goodnight, planting a soft kiss on his cheek, which seems to make him smile a little more.
The stairs creak awfully, even if this is a new apartment, and it takes her an age to get to the top without waking everyone up. Too drained to even change her clothes, she makes her way down to the end of the hall, grinning at the prospect of sharing the big king bed with her two favourite boys.
Later on, she'll look back at this moment and realise that she should have known something was wrong- Charlie's pyjamas were still thrown on the bathroom floor, the silence was lacking the usual rumble of Alex's snores, but as she walks, there is nothing on her mind but the soft embrace of a bed and the prospect of a better tomorrow for them all. And so, it is not until she reaches the bedroom and blindly makes her way to the bed, that she notices the lack of bodies in the bed, the cool welcome of unused sheets, the absence of the shallow exhalations of sleep. It takes her a whole minute to consolidate this fact in her mind before she suddenly jolts upright and darts from the bed, not bothering to be quiet as she flicks on the light switch and confirms her suspicions. The bed is empty.
"Phil!" She calls his name continually as she runs down the hall then the stairs, and he meets her at the last step, grabbing her shoulders.
"They're not there." Her voice is high-pitched and she coughs once, then tries again. "Charlie and Alex, they're not in their bed, have you seen Chris or PJ yet?" Phil shakes his head and they both stumble through the dark to the guest bedroom, before switching on the light to discover the bed was made and unused.
Phil feels a cold dread setting over him. It's happening again and this time it's all of them, gone in the middle of the night without a word. What if he and Carrie hadn't left? Would they have gone too? There's no sign of a note, yet… Taking a deep breath, Phil steels himself. Carrie is shaking beside him and he winds an arm around her shoulders and squeezes. He needs to be strong, stronger than he feels, if not for himself then for her; he's no use as a mournful mess now.
Trying to find the right words to comfort her, Phil is about to suggest they make a cup of tea when suddenly Carrie stiffens and grabs Phil's hand so tightly that her fingernails dig painfully into his skin. Her eyes wide, she leans in close and whispers, "Can you hear that?"
Phil closes his eyes and listens. He hears something, voices? Before he can say anything, Carrie drags him to the staircase, muttering something about nowhere being safe; they got the others, when he suddenly tugs on her arm, stopping her.
"Where are you going? Let's just wait here and see what happens." His tone is scathing and he doesn't even bother keeping his voice quiet and Carrie claps a hand over his mouth, raising her eyebrows in indignation.
"Phil! There is someone at the front door. You can hear them, yes?" He nods once. "Okay. So we don't know what's going on with our friends and there are people," There are suddenly scraping noises at the front door and Carrie gulps, "There are people breaking into the house so you are going to shut up and-" There is a loud clunk and the door handle begins to rattle. Pulling Phil along behind her, Carrie darts into the next room and ducks under the table, shuffling forwards on her knees so they are both obscured by the thick cotton tablecloth.
They came to a rest in the middle of the table not a moment too soon, as there was a click and the door creaked open. Carrie lifted her hand off Phil's mouth, pulling him close to her side as they tried their best to breath quietly.
Loud footsteps sounded, coming closer and closer to the table, before coming to a halt right in front of their hiding place. Carrie's hair is brushing the side of Phil's neck and it's all he can do not to reach up and brush it away or move slightly to the left, but he doesn't dare risk making their presence known.
"I can't believe we left this, Boss would be so pissed if he found out!" The first voice has a rough, Scottish accent and his friend does too.
"Well good thing he ain't going to find out, 'innit! Bloody kids were stronger than we was told they'd be, they cant blame us for having to do two trips!" There is a small noise as the box is lifted off the table and opened to ensure the contents are still there. These men are completely different to the one's Phil encountered before, they lack in finesse and competence. One of the sets of footsteps starts to walk away, but the other calls back to his partner- "What about those shoes them? I'm telling you, they weren't here when we came before."
There is an exasperated sigh from near the front door. "Forget about those bloody shoes! This house is all messy- we were a bit occupied last time! It's nearly four and people are already awake, we musn't be seen, remember? They said that's the most important!" The man near the table makes a noncommittal noise but joins him at the door and a few moments later the door is closed, locked, and the footsteps fade out of earshot.
Phil counts to thirty seconds before deciding to move. Remaining silent, he motions for Carrie to stay put and slowly lifts up the edge of the tablecloth, peering out into the dim. He can't see anything (or anyone) and so he moves out from under the table, making his way to the window. Through the gap in the blinds he spots a large, black van speeding off down the street. With a sigh, he opens the front door quickly to see no one walking or driving left on the street and, closing it again, calls out to Carrie.
"They're gone, you can come out now."
She crawls out, her white face matching Phil's, and quickly rushes over to join him. He can see that her hand is shaking slightly but smiles with pride when she speaks to him with a firm, determined voice.
"Someone is apparently after us, all of us. We need to leave, now."
More suspense! I'm sorry about all the tension, but we are only uncovering the mystery as fast as Phil and his friends do! I loved reading about what you guys thought might be happening, please send in more and tell me what you thought of this chapter! No one has guessed it yet :D Special love for NeverlandNat, guest, PomegranateRide, Pitato, windrunner123 (I enjoyed your idea! Someone should write that), illputyourmuminabox (ehehe good confused I hope!), just-another-writer-22, NicoleLovesPhan- you make me actually finish these chapters and post them! More soon I promise n_n