Joanshea: Do we know that? Do we?
Pixie1913: Well, it is a thriller, so I'm glad it's thrilling, lol.
RJRMovieFan: Sometimes minimalism is necessary.
Malexfaith: For serious.
Guest: Well, for starters, there has been some murders.
FromTumblr: Interesting you should say that.
Guest: One word chapters only!
Andiclauds: Don't we all want that.
Trixxalexx: Like an emergency exit seat.
Guest: Done.


Arrhythmia


I'm sending a raven,
With blood on its wings,
Hoping it reaches you in time,
And you know what it means.
Cause out here in the darkness,
And out of the light;
If you get to me too late,
Just know that I tried.
- Sam Tinnesz


"Heads for the woods, tails for the town?" Beca asks.

Just flip it. Aubrey nods. She's never been a gambler – never understood the appeal of Vegas or Atlantic City. She gets anxious just betting fake coins on the games Chloe plays on her phone. Here she is now though – gambling Chloe's entire life on ten cents and Beca Mitchell's luck.

Beca tosses the coin high in the air then catches it in her palm.

Aubrey taps the edge of the flashlight on the ground in front of her.

There is a miniscule red dot on the ground about five inches from Aubrey's knee.

Beca slaps the coin down on the back of her other hand.

Aubrey reaches forward and touches the droplet with the very tip of her pointer finger.

"Light?" Beca asks.

It's wet. Aubrey uses her thumb to smear the liquid across her finger. It turns to an orange-ish rust color. Blood.

"Aubrey, I can't see."

Aubrey shines the light across the ground. There is another drop about a foot away – one slightly larger. And then several splattered haphazardly like someone flicked them off a paintbrush.

"Earth to Aubrey Posen."

"They're taking her into the woods." Aubrey grabs Beca to help herself get up. She has to keep a hand on her until she's sure she isn't going to go right back down to the floor – then her fingers go immediately to her ribs. It still feels like Luke's knee is lodged directly beneath her lungs – or maybe that's what the knowledge that Chloe is bleeding feels like. They'll never find her in the woods.

"Are you sure?" Beca asks.

Aubrey nods.

Beca slowly stands and looks at where Aubrey is pointing the light, then slowly reaches down and picks up their things.

Aubrey is prepared to run – down the tunnel, as far as she needs to. Who cares if it hurts? She doesn't need to breathe. She sprints forward roughly three feet before she's able to get a better view of what exactly she's looking at here. It isn't just a few drops of blood on the floor. Handprints line the left side of the wall – some clear, others smeared – like someone smacked each one of them on before immediately moving on to the next one. She halts then stumbles back, straight into Beca.

"We…" Beca pauses, breathing too heavy to speak, "We don't know that this is Chloe's."

Who else's would it be? Aubrey slowly approaches the wall.

Beca doesn't budge.

It's fresh blood. It isn't even starting to congeal. And there is a lot of it. Aubrey follows the prints on shaky legs.

"Why would they be finger painting the wall in Chloe's blood?" Beca asks, finally following her, "They don't need any more scare tactics. We're already scared."

"They aren't painting with Chloe's blood," Aubrey answers. The tunnel forks again, and this time, she has no question about which way to go. "Chloe is." She's the smartest airhead that Aubrey has ever met. "Chloe!"

Answer, Chloe, answer.

xxxxx

"You know, your mother used to be a beautiful woman?" James Posen said, "Absolutely stunning – a strong woman. At least she can still bake one hell of a birthday cake, am I right?" He chuckled.

"Why did Aubrey have to make her so messed up with post pardon whatever?" JJ, her eldest brother, asked.

Aubrey did her best to ignore them – studying the plants on the ground, keeping an eye out for poison ivy, oak, and sumac. "Why are we going this way?" This wasn't the direction they usually took to shoot targets. "There is no path here." She pulled a branch to the side to walk through a tight area.

"There's no path here," JJ mocked her in a whiney voice, "My girly shoes are getting dirty."

Aubrey released the branch and let it snap him in the face.

"Ow!" JJ cried, "You hurt my face!"

"Your face hurts me too." Aubrey smirked, proud of the clever insult.

James grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her off to the side. "Act your age," he snapped, "You just turned nine, not five."

And some birthday it was turning out to be.

"Hey, I'm five!" Liam pointed out, "I don't act like Aubrey, right?"

Aubrey heaved a sigh. "I don't understand why we're going this way. We've been walking forever."

"Do your girly feeeeet huuuurt?" JJ asked.

Aubrey clenched her jaw and glared at the ground. Her feet did not, in fact, hurt – nor did she care about the dirt on her shoes. It didn't make sense that they would veer so far from the trail. Her father always warned her to stay on the path – and now he had them trekking through the middle of nowhere.

"Aubrey's feet hurt. Aubrey's feet hurt," JJ sang, "Aubrey is a girl, and her feet hurt." He jogged past her, shoving her on the way, then turned to walk backward. "You're a giiirl."

Aubrey clenched her fists and drew her shoulders back, snarling at him.

"I said knock it off." James grabbed her by the back of her collar, choking her as he yanked her to the other side of him.

I didn't do anything. Aubrey rubbed her neck when he released her. "Yes, Sir," she acknowledged his words, looking up at him.

"Girl." JJ made an ugly face at her, accompanied with gagging noises.

"Girl," Liam copied him, making the same sounds.

"Shut up," James commanded them and took a drink from his beer can.

"Yes, Sir," they both said in unison and fell into silence.

"Are we almost there?" Aubrey asked.

"Speak one more time, Aubrey," James warned her.

Aubrey quickly looked away from him and held her tongue. She didn't want to be outside all day. She didn't want to shoot targets on her birthday. She wanted to go home and play with the American Girl doll her mother had sneaked into her room early that morning and helped her find a hiding place for. It wasn't really a secret – and least not from her father, who had supposedly helped pick it out. Rather, they hid it from her brothers, who had a habit of 'accidentally' breaking her toys when they were 'just looking at them'. She never even received that many toys to begin with, seeing as her father thought they were a waste of time and money – except for army men and GI Joes, which only her brothers had. But she only had one more year of being a child, and so this doll was a gift for that. She didn't really know how to play with it, but the desire to sit in her room and brush its hair was overpowering – and it was making her grumpy enough to act out. Maybe this was also why she wasn't allowed to have too many toys.

"Aubrey, stay here and watch your brothers," James said, "I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Aubrey blurted out. She quickly realized her mistake and took several steps back in case he swung at her.

"To piss." James shook his head. "Do you need to go with me?"

"Oh." Aubrey sat down on a log. "No."

JJ burst into laughter – and Liam laughed with him, just to laugh.

Aubrey stared at his back until he walked away then glared at her brothers. "I might be a girl, but you're stupid," she informed them after a few moments, once she was sure her father was out of hearing range, "How does it feel that a girl is smarter than you?"

"You're not smarter than me," JJ said.

"I know what your report card said," Aubrey informed him, "I saw it."

"No, you didn't."

"You know what the 'D' in reading stands for?" Aubrey asked, "Dumb."

JJ's eyes grew wide. "Were you in my backpack?!"

Aubrey wrinkled her face. "Your backpack is gross." She wouldn't touch his backpack with her mother's rubber cleaning gloves on. "I saw Dad sign it."

JJ half-growled, half-screamed as he stormed over to her.

Aubrey lifted her leg and pushed him back with her foot against his stomach.

"Dad!" JJ yelled, "Aubrey kicked me!"

Aubrey rolled her eyes. "I can kick you." She leaned back and jammed her foot against his leg.

"Dad!" JJ yelled again.

"Dad?" Liam called.

Aubrey leaned sideways on the log to look around JJ at the direction their father disappeared to. He couldn't have been that far out of hearing range."Daddy?"

"Did he go home?" JJ asked.

Aubrey sat up. "Daddy!"

Nothing.

Aubrey and JJ exchanged a look.

"Maybe he had to poop?" JJ suggested.

"Gross."

JJ threw his hands in the air. "Everybody poops!" he informed her, "Except maybe you, cause you just throw everything up out your mouth! Haha, your mouth is your butt!"

Aubrey gaped at him, offended. "I am going to kick my foot so far up your butt, you're going to have to throw it up out of your mouth." Their father was gone. Realistically, no one was stopping her.

"Where is Dad?" Liam asked, running over to them. He turned and threw his arms around Aubrey, nearly knocking her off the log. "I'm scared," he whispered in her ear.

"Don't be scared." Aubrey eased him back, placing her hands under his arms. "I'm still here."

Liam nodded then hugged her again.

Aubrey stood up and took Liam's hand.

"Sissy, do you think a bear got him?" JJ asked and grabbed her other hand.

A bear?! Aubrey swallowed the sick feeling forming in her stomach and shook her head. She would have heard a bear, right?

"A coyote?" Liam asked.

"Do you think Dad is dead?" JJ asked.

"Dad would fight off a bear or coyote," Aubrey answered. He would never let one kill him. "I'll find him, and everything will be fine."

xxxxx

"Why are you here?" Aubrey asks. Her legs don't want to carry her any farther, and it takes all she has not to slow down or collapse into the wall. They should check the map again, for distance purposes, but if she stops, she might never restart.

"I'm sorry?" Beca asks from a few inches behind her.

"Luke took Jesse," Aubrey says, "But you're down here, looking for Chloe. You don't care about Jesse?"

"I do!" Beca snaps and then calms herself, "I do care about Jesse."

Aubrey remains silent.

"I care about Jesse."

Aubrey isn't sure if Beca is trying to convince her or convince herself.

"Chloe just…" Beca pauses. "She just matters to me more, okay? You matter to me more. They're running you down, Dude. You don't think I want to be up there looking for Jesse too? I love Jesse. I'm just not in love with him."

But she is with Chloe.

A small amount of blood is smeared across the ground with a clear handprint beside it. Chloe must have fallen – and then got back up and kept going. The misery stirring within Aubrey is indescribable.

"They want us to follow her," Aubrey changes the subject, "Why else would they let her leave a trail like this?"

"I don't know, but Hansel and Gretel was my least favorite fairytale," Beca murmurs.

"Mine too."

xxxxx

"That's his beer," Aubrey said, walking hand in hand with Liam and JJ in the direction their father had gone. The can was sitting on a rock – upright.

"I dare you to drink it," JJ said.

Aubrey ignored him in favor of looking around.

"Liam, I double dog dare you to drink it," JJ told him.

Liam tried to step toward it, but Aubrey tightened her grip in his hand. "If you want someone to drink it so bad, you drink it," she spat.

JJ stared at her for a moment then released her hand.

"We're not supposed to drink that!" Aubrey yelled at him, regretting her previous words about trying it.

"What if Dad is playing hide and seek, and he's watching?" Liam asked JJ.

That was a good point. What if their father had purposely disappeared and was watching them to see what they would do?

"James Junior!" Aubrey scolded him, "If Dad isn't already watching you, I'm going to tell!"

JJ picked up the can and peered inside of it with one eye open. "It smells like butt." He tilted it to his lips and took a sip – then spit it out immediately, spraying beer and saliva everywhere. "It tastes like butt!" He whined and spit more, drool clinging to his lips. "It's gross! It's gross!"

Aubrey sighed and let go of Liam's hand. She walked over to JJ and grabbed the can, then threw it off to the side. She would have to come back and clean it up later. They couldn't just litter. For right now, she knelt down in front of JJ and used the front of his shirt to wipe off his mouth. "How do you know what butt tastes like?"

"Butt-eater," Liam giggled.

JJ raised his hand to hit Liam, trying to twist it out of Aubrey's grip when she grabbed it.

"Dad will be mad if we're fighting!" Aubrey told them, "We have to find him."

"At school, my teacher said if you get lost, you should just stay where you are!" Liam announced, "You don't move!"

Aubrey frowned. That was a good point too. Were they supposed to stay still? Or should they track him? They weren't technically lost…

"Look, there's a footprint!" JJ shouted and pointed.

Aubrey grabbed them both by the hand before approaching the footprint to look at it. It was definitely her father's boot. She knew it well from tracking animals with him through the mud. "We should follow him." If they stayed put, he might just leave them there - and camping did not sound appealing at the moment.

"Like Hansel and Gretel!" Liam said excitedly, "And…" He looked at JJ then at Aubrey. "Did they have a other brother?"

Aubrey shook her head. "You mean another."

"Oh." Liam frowned. "JJ, you can't come. They don't have a other another."

What? Aubrey looked at the tree tops in exasperation.

"I was born first, after Aubrey," JJ argued, "So you can't come."

"Everybody is coming," Aubrey spoke through gritting her teeth. Now she really just wanted to go home. She pulled them through the brush, keeping an eye out for all the things her father taught her to look for – prints, broken foliage, anything out of place. Aside from a few boot prints that disappeared once they hit more grass and leaves, everything looked how it should to her.

"How are we supposed to find him?" JJ asked, "I just wanted to shoot my gun. I can't even do it, cause he has it."

Did he even take their guns out of the car and strap them to his bag? Aubrey stopped at a tree and let go of them to slip her backpack off. "I'm going to see if I can see him from up high." The lowest branch was only about a foot out of her reach. "Help me up."

"I don't want to," JJ said.

Liam got down on the ground and wrapped his arms around both of Aubrey's legs. He let out a loud groan. "You're too bigger!" He pushed her into the tree rather than lifting her off the ground. "You're a giant!" He released her, panting. "I can't do it."

JJ moaned and knelt down on the ground, lacing his fingers and holding out his hand.

Aubrey stepped into his hand and grabbed the branch, then easily pulled herself up. The rest of the branches were closer together. She tested each one exactly as her father taught her to make sure it wouldn't collapse under her weight, and climbed up until she could see farther. Her father sat on a rock in the near distance.

"Do you see him?!" Liam yelled.

"He's to the west!" Aubrey shouted down, and began to lower herself back to the ground one branch at a time.

JJ looked around, studying his surroundings, before finally positioning himself facing west. He looked up at Aubrey when she was about halfway down. "I'm going to get there first." He took a few hesitant steps.

He wouldn't. No, he definitely would. He would get there first and claim he did all the work – that it was him who found their dad. He would get the credit. He would get the pat on the back. The 'good job'. And Aubrey would get the lecture on not being good enough – when it was her who was smart enough to climb the tree.

"JJ," Aubrey warned him, climbing down faster.

JJ looked between Aubrey and the direction of their father – and then he bolted west.

xxxxx

The tunnel dead-ends at a ladder identical to the one they found on fourth street. Above, the rain clinks against the metal plate covering the hole.

Aubrey turns and takes one of the bags from Beca to make it easier for her to climb. "Stay close."

Beca nods.

Aubrey turns and looks upward. They're screwed once they get out of the tunnel.

"Do we have a map of the woods?" Beca asks.

"It wouldn't matter if we did," Aubrey answers. Chloe could be anywhere – any direction, and it's dark and raining. She grabs the first rung she can reach and pulls herself up the ladder. It feels higher than the previous one. Blood smears the first few rungs then tapers off the higher she gets. Maybe the bleeding is stopping? At least Aubrey knows she's still conscious – because no one could pull dead weight up this ladder.

xxxxx

Aubrey leapt off the final branch, grabbed her backpack, and took off after him. "Liam, let's go!" she called back. If she had to let JJ get there first just to go back for Liam…

Actually, Liam was doing a fairly good job at keeping up.

Aubrey picked up the pace then lunged. They both went toppling to the ground. "I always do everything, and then you tell Dad you did it!" she yelled, wrestling to keep him down as he fought to get up. She overpowered him quickly and sat down on him to keep him from getting back up. She was just going to have to figure out how to let go of him and run without him grabbing her. He hit and clawed at her, and she was forced to grab both of his hands.

"Get off, Aubrey!" JJ yelled, "Liam, help!"

Liam jumped on Aubrey's back, right on top of her backpack, and the weight of them both sent her falling sideways.

Aubrey screamed in frustration as they flipped her onto her back, and JJ crawled on top of her with Liam helping to hold her down. "Stop it!" She hit and kicked, flailing around, her backpack digging uncomfortably into her back with each movement. "Stop!"

"You're a baby!" JJ hit her flat-handed on the face. "You're a girl! Girls can't win fights!"

Aubrey punched him in the stomach.

"Ow! Liam, get her hands!"

"I can't!" Liam yelled, struggling to grab Aubrey, "She's too bigger than me!"

"It's just bigger!" Aubrey snapped, hitting him too, "There is no too!"

"She's bigger than me!" Liam corrected himself, "Hey, you hit me!"

"Get off of me, or I'll do it again!" Aubrey warned him.

"No!" Liam brought his fist down on Aubrey's face. Hard. Too hard. He gasped and stood up.

JJ raised his hand to smack her again, then stopped mid-air. He quickly climbed off of her, his eyes wide.

Tears stung Aubrey's eyes from the pain. She propped herself up in her elbows then touched her nose. It was wet. She pulled her hand back, and stared in shock at the bright red blood on her fingers.

"Aubrey, are you okay?" JJ whispered.

Aubrey wiped her face below her nose. Blood covered her entire palm.

Liam hid his entire body behind JJ, peeking around at her.

Aubrey didn't know what to do. She sat there, letting the blood run down her face, onto her shirt.

"Should I get dad?" JJ asked, his voice shaking.

Get dad. No. JJ wasn't going to go get their father and tell him that Aubrey was just lying on the ground hurt. Aubrey cupped her hand over her nose, not that it stopped the blood from spilling all over her, and slowly got up. She found their dad, and she was going to get to him first. She glared at them then headed west, her expression stuck in a permanent state of not-quite-crying, chin trembling beyond her control. She needed to get to him now more than before.

JJ and Liam trailed silently behind her.

xxxxx

"I can't…" Aubrey grunts, trying to balance herself and push away the metal lid covering their exit. "It's too heavy."

"How did someone else do it?" Beca asks.

They must have threatened Chloe into helping. Or it was already open before they took her.

Aubrey swings herself sideways, straddling the ladder rail with one foot on either side. "Get up here and help me," she demands impatiently. The bars are wet and slippery with water, and she isn't sure how long she can hang on without slipping.

Beca climbs up and positions herself the same way as Aubrey around the rail on the other side. They push away the lid together.

Rain immediately hits Aubrey in the face. She ducks her head downward and tries to blink it out of her eyes.

"Shit." Beca wipes her face with her sleeve, "Aubrey, go."

Aubrey climbs around onto the ladder correctly, then hoists herself out of the hole, onto the forest floor. She turns and offers a hand to Beca, helping her pull herself up.

They're in the middle of nowhere.

Aubrey pulls her hood up over her head and turns in a circle. Even with the flashlight, it's nearly impossible to see anything.

"Which way?" Beca asks.

Aubrey doesn't know.

She doesn't know.

xxxxx

Aubrey felt sick. Really sick. Blood was everywhere. She tried to keep her mouth closed, but then she couldn't breathe, so she was forced to taste it. They should be close. She used her free hand to push away branches from the bushes, only looking back on occasion to make sure JJ and Liam were still following her. She hated them. She absolutely hated them.

Her father was still sitting on the same rock she saw from the tree. "What the hell happened?" he asked the moment he saw her.

"They punched me," Aubrey mumbled through her hand.

"No!" JJ yelled, bursting through the bushes, "She fell!"

Aubrey shook her head.

"Get over here," James demanded, "Let me see."

Aubrey approached him and moved her hand, trying not to look at the blood dripping from her fingers.

James shook his head at her.

"She fell," JJ said and locked eyes with her, "But I climbed a tree and found you!"

No. "Wha-" Aubrey couldn't even get out the word.

"Are you lying?" James asked.

JJ shook his head. "I climbed it."

"Good job," James said.

Aubrey crumbled. She opened her mouth to tell him exactly what had happened, but instead threw up all over her shoes.

"But that wasn't what I was asking. Now tell me which one of you hit her," James demanded.

"She fell!" JJ exclaimed, "She did!"

Aubrey stopped gagging and gasped for breath through her mouth.

"Who hit you?" James asked.

Aubrey looked at him and then at JJ and Liam. She locked eyes with JJ and they shared a look.

"Fine," JJ said quickly, "I hit her."

Aubrey could see the terror flood out of Liam's body.

James stood up. He grabbed Aubrey beneath the arms and placed her down on the rock. Not saying a word to JJ, he took off her backpack and threw it at him – followed by each of her vomit soaked shoes. "Are you wearing a shirt under this?" he asked, grabbing her sweatshirt.

Aubrey looked up at him and just nodded.

"Lift your arms."

Aubrey did as she was told.

James pulled her sweatshirt off and used the sleeve of it to wipe some of the blood and vomit from her mouth. "Hold this on your face."

Aubrey took it and clutched it against her nose.

"Get her stuff," James commanded JJ.

"Ew! Her shoes have throw up!"

"Get. Her. Stuff."

JJ quickly gathered it up.

"Go to the car." James picked Aubrey up to carry her there as the boys walked.

Aubrey wrapped her legs around his waist and placed her head on his shoulder. "I climbed the tree," she finally told him, "I found you."

James ignored her. "Look at her," he told JJ.

JJ looked up. "You hit her sometimes!"

"Like this?" James asked.

JJ didn't answer.

"Daddy, I found you!" Aubrey told him louder, "Not JJ!"

"You don't hit girls," James continued, "What are you? A woman-beater?"

"No!" JJ yelled, "No!"

James grabbed him by the hair.

"Ow!" JJ shrieked.

"You don't hit a girl." James shoved him to the ground.

Aubrey buried her face inside her sweatshirt and curled into him for comfort. Her stomach still hurt, and she gagged again before she could stop herself, vomiting into the sweatshirt and down the front of her t-shirt.

"God damnit, Aubrey." James grabbed the sweatshirt from her and threw that at JJ too. He rubbed her back until she was done puking all over both of them, then pinched her nose shut with his fingers. It hurt, but she knew better than to pull back. "Close your eyes and stop looking at the blood."

It wasn't the blood making her sick. They all knew that. But Aubrey closed her eyes anyway.

He started patting her thigh with his other hand. "And stop crying before I give you something to cry about."

Aubrey nodded and wiped her face.

The walk back to the car took ages – even being carried. Everything smelled like blood and vomit, and it was the worst mixture of smells Aubrey had experienced in life thus far.

"I don't want to sit by her," JJ said when they got there, "She smells. She's making me want to throw up. I already have to carry her stuff!"

James ignored him and opened the back door behind the driver's seat. "Don't touch anything."

"Yes, Sir."

James buckled her in as her brothers begrudgingly rounded the car, and Liam was forced to sit beside her after some pushing and shoving.

Aubrey looked at her hands for a moment then closed her eyes like her father suggested so she wouldn't have to see red anymore. Don't cry. Don't cry.

The back door shut and the front door opened, then the car started.

"You know what you're going to take away from this, Aubrey?" James asked, "That you didn't give up. You kept going through the pain. You kept on keeping on."

Aubrey opened her eyes again. "Did I do a good job?"

"Tomorrow you'll do it again," James announced as he closed his door and put the car into drive, "You don't learn to track by climbing around in trees like Tarzan. You think apes are going to take care of you if you get lost, Aubrey?"

Aubrey looked up at the ceiling through blurry vision. He knew she had found him. He knew. Tears started to fall.

"All three of you, you'll do it again alone," James said.

"No!" Liam panicked.

JJ began screaming and kicking the back of the seat in a white hot rage.

It would be fine. Aubrey would go home and play with her doll – and then tomorrow, she'd keep on keeping on. She would do it correctly, and he would tell her she did a good job. She could do that. That was easy enough – especially without her brothers. No matter what, she could keep on keeping on. Just keep on keeping on. Just keep on keeping on. Just keep on keeping on. She shifted uncomfortably as the words refused to leave her head.

xxxxx

"Maybe we should go back to town," Beca suggests, "We can't find her like this."

How dare she?

Aubrey spins around. "No." She cannot, she will never leave Chloe in the woods like this – alone, hurt, scared. "We keep on keeping on."