Fifty Two
Mila
A door slams hard and loud. I quickly jumped up and ran over towards the window. My mouth dropped open as I saw Hal's car on the street. He walked over to the trunk and opened it up. I didn't stay to see what he pulled out. I turned around and grabbed the dress off the small chair in my room. Somehow, I managed to make it down the steps and slip it on without killing myself. I ran into the kitchen and saw Lira standing in front of the stove.
"Hal is home!" I whispered loudly to her. Her eyes bugged out her head and she turned towards the counter. The time on the microwave said 2:45. He was early…really early. Lira stirred the pot again before snatching the apron off.
"Go into the backyard and pull the clothes down off the line. Hurry up before he comes in," she whispered back to me. I nodded and ran out into the backyard. I had just stepped off the porch when I heard a door open. My hands shook as I started pulling the clothes down off the line. Hal was home from work early and this couldn't have been a good thing. I had been in Arizona for exactly three weeks. It hadn't taken long for me to figure out how things were done around her.
Hal ruled his house with an iron fist, literally. The first week I was here, every time I broke a rule that iron fist would get me in line. It didn't take long for me to learn the rules. Lira was a mess literally. I could tell she felt bad that she had brought me into this. One night after a particularly bad beating from Hal, she broke down and told me everything. She had left my dad because she was on drugs. He told her that she couldn't be around me.
Hal was at the rehab center. She had fallen in love with him and when they got out, she moved in with him. Within a few weeks, Hal had changed and by then it was too late. The more she talked and told me, the more upset I became. Lira's was in a full breakdown as she kept trying to explain herself. I didn't understand why she came back to Hal. She could have stayed in La Push with me and we would have been ok. I grabbed the last of the clothes of the line and grabbed the basket up.
I walked in the house and headed towards the stairs when Hal called out for me.
"MILA! Come in here!"
My breath caught in my throat as I turned and slowly walked towards the living room. The TV was on some news channel. I walked into the living room and stood near the door. Hal motioned for me to come closer to him. Lira was kneeling on the ground near the other end of the couch. I slowly walked over and stood waiting. His eyes were still on the TV as he took a swig from the beer bottle he had in his hand.
"Come over here Mila," Hal said "Sit next to me." He took another swig of beer from the bottle. I looked back at Lira who was still sitting in her spot on the floor. I slowly walked over and sat on the couch next to him. His eyes never left the screen. "Finish your laundry." He jerked his hand towards the basket on my lap. Slowly, I sat the basket down and started to fold the clothes.
"Sir, I need to take the pot off the stove," Lira said. Hal mumbled for her to get up. "Go get some beer from the store."
Lira paused and looked over at me. I looked up at her. I quickly shook my head no. Hal had told her to go…alone. I didn't want to stay alone in the house with him.
"Mila, go get your jacket. We-"
"I told you to go...not her. She needs to finish her chores," Hal said. As soon as Lira had said my name, I tried to get up. His hand wrapped around my arm, tightly. Lira looked at me before looking back at Hal.
"Sir, she could come with me. She needs to learn how to shop for you."
"I said no! You know what happens when I repeat myself." Hal said. Lira looked at me once more before turning and going to get her purse. The door being shut was the loudest sound I had ever heard. Hal still had my arm. I dared not to move. "Finish up," he said before dropping my arm. I sat down and went back to folding the clothes. Once that was done I gathered them in my arm.
"I'm going to put them away sir," I told him before standing up. I walked over to the stairs. My heart dropped when I heard him on the steps behind me. I kept my eyes ahead and didn't dare turn around to look at him. I reached the top of the stairs and headed towards his room. I prayed he would go into the bathroom but he kept right behind me. I walked into his room and over to his dresser. Even though he was married to Lira, he didn't share a room with her. Normally we weren't allowed in his room at all but I had to put his laundry up.
Slowly I walked over to the closet and pulled it open. I grabbed the hangers from each section and started to place his clothes. Hal's closet was like his room; spotless and overly organized. Each article of clothing was separated by color, shirts, and pants. I hung up his blue shirt and pants; then moved to grab the hanger for the red shirt that was next. I didn't hear him walk up behind me until he was right behind me. He slowly moved his hand up my arm making me freeze up.
"Keep working," he whispered in my ear. My hands started working on auto pilot. When I slipped the hanger into the shirt, his other hand went around my waist. I swallowed the vomit that was threatening to come up. As I reached to hang the shirt up, I felt his fingertips go to my side. I closed my eyes and his hand reached around to the front of my dress. The shirt hung up in front of me and I went to grab the next hanger for the yellow shirt.
His fingertips touched my legs. My hand wrapped around the hanger. The fabric of my dress slowly rose as his hand went higher. The vomit threatened to come back up again. Hal's breathing got shallow as he lifted the dress higher. I grabbed the hanger and waited for what was next. As his lips went to my neck, Embry's face popped up in my mind. Before I had a chance to think about it, I swung around with the hanger. Hal screamed out as I dug the hook into his hand and pushed him off of me.
He fell to the ground and I ran past him. I knew the front door was locked so I ran to the back door. I yanked the door open and ran out into the yard. A wooden privacy fence was around the yard. I ran towards one of the corners and jumped on top of the small bucket I had hid there. I had been waiting for the chance to get out since I got in there. I ignored the pain as I pulled myself over to the top of the fence. Pain went through my body as I fell to the ground. I heard Hal yell out my name as I got up as fast as I could. I didn't know where I was but I knew I needed to get away. I had landed in the backyard of the house directly behind Hal's. I ran towards the front of the house and looked around. There was no one outside really. I thought about running to another house for help but decided against it. I turned left and ran as fast as I could.
As I ran, I realized that Hal lived in a subdivision. All the houses looked damn near alike and I had no idea which road was the main road to get out. I made another right turn and almost cried in relief. I could see a main road ahead of me. I started running towards it. My feet were throbbing with every step. I didn't have on any shoes. I reached the main road and saw a store. I ran towards it. When I ran in the clerk looked over at me.
"Please you have to help me. Call the police please."
"Calm down," he said. The man walked from behind the counter and over towards me. He wrapped his arm around me and led me towards the back of the empty store. He walked me into a small office and had me sit down. "Please call the police," I said to him as I tried to catch my breath.
"What's wrong young lady?"
"I need the police. I need help!"
"Alright. I'll call them." He told me. He turned to grab the phone when a bell sounded. He turned and held one finger up before walking out the room. I sat and waited for him to return. A few minutes passed before he came back in the room. I looked over to him in the doorway. His eyes met mine before they turned away. He stepped to the side and my heart dropped when I saw who was behind him.
Hal stepped into the room and over towards me. I shook my head no as he reached out for me. My legs went up, trying to kick him away from me. His arm wrapped around my wrist and he pulled me up from the chair.
"Please…no…please help me!" I cried out as Hal lifted me from the chair.
"Mila…Mila…Mila. You need to come back home." He said leading me towards the door. The clerk had turned his back on us at that point. The tears were streaming down my face as Hal dragged me to the door. His car sat near the exit. He threw me in the front seat before walking to his door. He slammed his door shut and pulled away from the store.
"I try to be nice to you." Hal said staring at the road "But you still haven't learned."
I closed my eyes as he drove back to the hell house. We pulled up and he yanked me out the car. I opened my mouth to scream when the front door opened. Lira stood in the doorway and shook her head no. As soon as we got in the house, the hits came from everywhere. I dropped to the ground, still crying. Hal's feet picked up where his fists had left off.
"Put her in the basement," he said to Lira. Lira quickly came over and helped me up. She lead me towards the basement and unlocked the door. We made it down to the basement. Lira let me go and walked over to a wooden bookcase. She grabbed a bottle of something and a rag before coming back over to me. Whatever she put on the rag stung a bit as she dabbed at my face.
"Mila you are making this hard on yourself. Just follow the rules and everything will be alright."
"How could you do this to me?" I asked her "My life was just fine without you. You could have left me there. You said you loved me Lira…you said you loved me" I tried to say something else before I felt the darkness coming on. I welcome it. It was the only place where I could see Embry.
Embry
The ringing of the phone jarred me out my sleep. My eyes popped open and I sat up in the bed. It took me a while to get my bearings. The ringing was still going. I looked over at the clock and saw the time. Blue numbers stared back at me. It was 3:52 in the morning. The ringing stopped and I fell back on my bed. I needed to get back to sleep. Sleep was the only place where I could see Mila. It had been twenty one days since she had left. Twenty one days and I still had no clue where she was.
Her phone was still going to voicemail. I had left so many messages the mailbox was full. Caleb had gone back to Michigan looking for Mila or Lira but so far he hadn't had any luck. Alice was out of the country and Nessie had no idea how to get in contact with her. She said she was hoping that Alice would peak in and see she was needed; then she would come straight home. The phone started to ring again. I groaned before getting out of the bed.
I walked into the kitchen, where the phone sat on the wall ringing. The shrilling pierced the quietness of the house. I walked over and yanked the phone off the wall. "WHAT?!" I yelled into the receiver.
"Embry?" a soft voice whispered into my ear.
My heart skipped a beat. It wasn't Mila I was talking to but it was a woman.
"Who is this?"
"Mila is in Litchfield Park, Litchfield Park Arizona."
"Lira?" I asked confused "Lira is that you?"
"Litchfield Park Arizona," the voice whispered again before the line went dead.
"WAIT!" I yelled out. I didn't get an answer. I hung the phone up and ran out the door. I ran over to Jake's and started pounding on the door. Jake was a hard sleeper and I wasn't even sure he would hear me knocking. I pounded harder. The door yanked open.
"What the hell Embry?" Nessie asked me. I pushed past her and walked into the house.
"Litchfield Park. Where is Jake?"
"Huh? Jake is patrolling right now. What is going on?"
"I need to talk to Jake," I ran out the back door and phased before stopping at the forest line.
Jake! Jake! Jake where are you?
Embry? What the hell bro?
Get back to your house now. I know where Mila is.
What how do you know that?
I started thinking about the phone call.
I'm coming back. Call everybody else.
I phased back and ran back into the house. Nessie was standing in the kitchen typing at her computer. I grabbed Jake's phone and started calling the pack. I had talked to Sam and Paul when I heard Jake howling. He did it again and I knew I didn't need to bother anybody else.
"Litchfield Park is a small city not too far from Phoenix. How do you know she's there?" Nessie asked. I was about to tell her when the back and front door opened. Jake came in from the back, Paul and Sam walked in from the front. A few minutes later the rest of the pack came in.
"Someone called and told me. I think it was Lira. She said Mila is in Litchfield Park Arizona."
"Ok even if she is there, how exactly are we going to find her? The city has over 3,000 people living in it."
"We should be able to smell her when we get there," Colin said.
"That's only if we get somewhere she's been. We have a name but we don't know where to start looking," Brady said.
"We need Alice or somebody who can do what Alice does?"
"I'll go to my parents and tell them we need to find her now," Nessie said walking out the room.
"So do we wait or go now?" Brady asked
"What kind of question is that? He's going now right?" Sam asked.
"Of course I'm going."
"Well I've been lots of places but never Arizona." Jake said.
Nessie came back in the living room. She hung up her phone and looked at us. "My dad is leaving to go look for her. My mom is booking the flights for us now."
"Flights for us?" Sam asked.
"I figured everyone would be going. There is no way I'm letting you guys go alone. Besides I've never been to Arizona before."
"You guys don't have to do this…really. I've already put all of you through too much. I can't ask you guys to come with me to find Mila. I don't know what she's dealing with in Arizona."
"Em, we're a family. Mila is family. We can't let you deal with this alone," Sam said putting his hand on my shoulder. The rest of the pack came over and stood around me. I shook my head before the tears started falling down. The guys came over and all hugged me.
"We're gonna get her back Embry," Nessie said from the other of them. "And this time, we're not losing her again."