Grace's head hurt as she was lying down on the bed. She kept hearing some beeping sound, which was starting to get annoying. She couldn't move around because she was in too much pain, and he could hardly open her eyes. She could tell that the room was bright.
Bright...
Why was the room bright...
As if awoken by a sudden jolt, she bolted upright from the bed and immediately began to look around the room. Her eyes, still adjusting to the bright light, began to hurt. Despite not feeling much pain, she quickly sprang out of the bed. A sudden gasp beside her made her jump up and scream. She felt a tug on her arm but quickly pulled it away. As she turned her head toward the gasp, she saw the face of a woman whose expression was genuine concern.
Grace, however, was panicking and started to back away from her. She couldn't recall how she had ended up in that room or who the woman was. The Panic rising within her was palpable. Her mind raced as she tried to understand what had just happened.
The woman's voice was soft and reassuring as she spoke, "It's okay, it's okay. I'm here to help." Despite her words, Grace didn't listen. Her eyes were fixed on the door, and she bolted through it as soon as she saw it. Her feet throbbed with pain, but she could feel the comfort of something wrapped around them, protecting them from the hard, cold floor.
As she ran, she passed by many people, their faces blurring together in a chaotic mass. Her heart raced in her chest, and her Panic grew stronger with every step. The crowd seemed to close around her, their presence suffocating her in the corner.
"Get away from me!" she yelled at them as they kept getting closer to her. They tried calming her down by reassuring her that everything was okay and safe, but she wasn't listening. She turned down another hallway and was blocked by a dead end. She could only stare at the people surrounding her, crowding around her as she started crying.
"Enough, everyone back away from her now," a man's voice rang out. Everyone instantly followed what the person said, and he walked towards her slowly. He crouched down to her level, a little bit away from her. "It's all right there. There's no need to worry," he spoke kindly to her. "You're in the hospital, and we're going to take care of you," he said reassuringly.
Grace was afraid as she looked up at the man before her. He was tall and muscular, with a kind face that tried to put her at ease. Behind him, another man with tan skin and short hair stood, observing her intently. The tan man in front of her slowly approached her and crouched beside the man wearing a doctor's coat.
"Hey, don't worry. What's your name?" he spoke softly, trying to comfort her.
"Embry, please let her..." the doctor beside him tried to intervene, but Embry paid him no attention and continued talking to Grace.
"My name is Embry. I know you're scared right now, but we're here to help you," Embry said as he crawled towards her. "We heard what happened with that scary man and we wanted to help you. I was actually one of the guys who found you and brought you here. They just want to make sure you're okay."
Grace remained silent but gazed up at him, appearing less frightened than earlier yet still displaying a sense of fear in her eyes. It took a couple of minutes for her to eventually calm down enough for both of them to approach and assist her in standing up. Embry then guided her back to the room she had been in previously.
The doctor noticed Grace was in pain whenever she walked and asked if she needed more help. She shook her head and crouched into Embry's arms. Embry noticed her discomfort and asked if he could pick her up. She nodded, and he helped her, feeling her shaking as she hid her face in his chest. When they reached the room, Embry gently laid her on the bed. The doctor started to check her over, but she flinched at every sudden movement they made.
Grace was lying on the hospital bed, her arm bandaged and the IV reinserted after she had ripped it out the first time. The doctor carefully checked her vitals when a sudden loud ringing from Embry's phone startled her. She cried out and jumped back from the doctor, her heart racing.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was my fault. Please, it's okay," Embry quickly apologized as he answered the phone, trying to calm Grace down.
The doctor, noticing Grace's distress, kindly asked Embry to take the call outside. Embry nodded and left the room, but not before reassuring Grace that he would return soon.
Grace watched as Embry left, feeling a bit more at ease. She relaxed as the doctor finished examining her, grateful for his gentle touch and soothing words.
Embry walked out of the room, his phone ringing in his hand. He answered the call and said, "I can't talk right now, guys." His friends on the other end sounded concerned and asked him what was happening. Sam, in particular, was worried about Paul's imprint.
Embry explained, "I have to go back in there. She just woke up, and she needs moral support right now." He looked back at the door he had just left and took a deep breath.
Sam was confused and asked, "What do you mean she just woke up? Is she okay?"
Embry sighed and said, "Yeah, she just regained consciousness about an hour ago. She was extremely panicked and ran out of the hospital room, with the whole hospital staff on her heels. It took me and Carlisle a couple of minutes to calm her down completely."
In the background, Embry could hear his friends rushing to the phone, knowing that Sam would put them on speaker. They were all concerned about the situation and wanted to do what they could to help.
Sam quickly said, "We're on our way. Paul has already left the house and should arrive in about 10 minutes. I'm pretty sure the police station was already called, so wait for them too."
Embry nodded and waited for Paul to arrive. It only took him five minutes to burst through the hospital doors, looking concerned but determined.
Embry greeted him and started to explain what had happened. He emphasized the importance of maintaining a calm demeanor around her, especially now that she was easily scared by even the slightest movement. Paul nodded and followed Embry to the hospital room where she was being kept.
As soon as they reached the door, Embry and Paul took a deep breath before Embry opened it. They were surprised to find Carlisle inside with a group of police officers, including Charlie.
The girl appeared intimidated as the police officers talked around her, trying to get answers. Tears welled up in her eyes as they continued to speak to her, but she looked over at both Paul and Embry.
"Hey, is everything okay?" Embry asked as he walked into the room. The police officers looked at him and suggested it would be better if he left, but the girl looked up with pleading eyes. Carlisle noticed this and spoke up on her behalf.
"It would be better if he stays in here with her. He managed to calm her down earlier when she panicked after waking up," Carlisle informed the officers. The officers nodded in agreement, and even Charlie signaled him to approach. Paul followed Embry, never taking his eyes off the girl. Embry stood beside her bed as the officer began asking her questions.
"What is your name?" the officer asked kindly. The girl could only look up at him in fear and then looked over at the rest of the room, who only had soft smiles to indicate that it was safe. It wasn't until Embry lightly grabbed her shoulder and told her it was okay that she spoke.
"Grace," she spoke silently, looking away from the officer. The officer wrote something down and then asked her for her last name, but she didn't answer until Embry rubbed her shoulder. "Chavez," she said softly.
" all right, Grace Chavez, thank you so much for your cooperation. You're so brave," Charlie said as he was next to the officer, asking her questions. " can you tell me how old you are?" he asked her.
Again, it took her a couple of minutes before she responded until she did. " I don't know," she said quietly.
" what do you mean you don't know honey?" Carlisle asked her. " do you not remember when your birthday was or do you just not remember how old you are... How about you just tell us what year you're born."
" I was... I was born in February 1st... 1991," she said silently again, more hesitant than before
" so that means you're 17." Charlie smiled at her, but when he said that, she instantly looked at him, panicked, and burst into tears. All the officers were surprised at this Sudden Change and tried to reassure her that everything was okay. Paul was instantly in panic mode, wondering what set her off.
"It's all right, it's all right, there's no need to worry, you're okay here. What happened?" the officer spoke as he put a hand on the bed. She continued to cry, and it took Carlisle and Embry a minute to calm her down, both seeming to get through to her better than everyone else in the room. Paul just stayed silent as he watched his imprint cry.
After a while, when she calmed down, they continued the questioning.
" all right honey, I know this is terrifying, and you don't want to relive this..." Charlie spoke kindly to her again, not wanting to set her off but knowing he had to ask the following questions. Grace could only look up at him with fear. " can you tell me who that man was?" Grace just shook her head violently. She turned her head away from Charlie and started grabbing at her head. Embry was quickly at her side again, reassuring her that everything was fine. Paul even approached her and told her he could get her some water if she wanted, and she just shook her head.
" with he your father," the other officer spoke. She shook her head and let tears fall. " is he someone related to you?" Again, she stayed silent but continued shaking her head.
"We found a couple of things in his truck. Can you tell us what they were, at least?" the officer spoke again. She looked up at him with tearful eyes and nodded slightly after her small Panic dissipated. The police officer was not in his head and started to tell his partner to take out the pictures that they had. In the photos, they found a couple of things.
The first picture was a picture of a hammer. The other was a picture of a hydrogen tank and a couple of balloons right next to him, all black. Next to that, a puddle of blood was quite noticeable all over the truck floor and walls. The following picture was of a small set of clothes and other clothes and chains. Grace could only stare at them momentarily before turning her head away and burying it into Embry's arm. Paul was slightly jealous but now wasn't the time, especially with his vulnerable imprint.
" please..." she started to mumble.
" I think that's enough for today gentlemen. She needs to rest and she has a lot of healing to do," Carlisle spoke up. " also I want to get her situated with her new Guardians who I'm pretty sure are already on their way," he said as he looked over at Embry who indicated yes Sam was on his way.
" all right that's completely fine we don't want to push her more than she needs to but if she says anything at all please let us know," the officer spoke up as he got up from his seat. Just as they were about to leave, they hurt her Mumble something.
" where are they?" she mumbled quietly as she looked up from Embry's arm.
" where is who honey?" Charlie asked
" the boys... Where are they... Are they safe?" she asked them. All the people in the room looked at her, confused, wondering who she was talking about.
" the boys who are the boys?" Charlie asked her, stepping in again.
" the boys in the basement?" she asked. Charlie instantly shut up at that and started questioning her more about them.
" were there more people with you?" he asked her. She nodded silently and looked at everyone in the room. " can you tell us where we can find them? We know they're in the basement, but where?"
" I don't know... He never let us out..." she said quietly as more tears came. " I wasn't even paying attention when I ran away... I'm so sorry," she said as she started to cry. That's when Paul finally had enough, went to her side, and hugged her. She was sobbing into his chest as she hugged him. She didn't expect that herself, but the heat he admitted calmed her more when she hugged him. Embry backed away as Paul hugged her and told her many reassuring things that nothing would go wrong there.
By the hour, the entire Forks Police Department was knocking on houses and checking the woods to see if they could find anything of the boys Grace had mentioned. When Sam got to the hospital, he was instantly taken to a side room by Carlisle, who started to explain the situation to him.
Grace had explained that she was in a basement for about three years, give or take a couple of months, with about six boys with little food and hardly any water other than Warm Soda. Which was oddly specific, but it still didn't take the fact that it was atrocious.
Grace had even gone into detail as she sobbed about how the man treated them with beatings on The Daily and how whenever any of them disobeyed any of his orders he would punish them even more so.
It had gotten so bad that Carlisle was worried about one of the children Grace had mentioned who could no longer use his legs. Carlisle even asked her more questions about him to see if he got any medical attention and she just stated that she did not and that the most medical attention he got was from her and the older children.
Carlisle had also told Sam about how Paul was treating the situation. Of course, right away, Sam was worried that Paul would burst into a rage about hearing how his imprint had lived her life the last couple of years, but according to Carlisle, he stayed completely calm. Of course, he got angry in certain parts of her story, but his temper did not waiver into anger, just pure concern. Paul had even made himself comfortable in her room, allowing her to get comfortable with his presence.
It was apparent that the girl was afraid of everyone, but when Paul came into the room and comforted her after she broke down, she started to warm up to him even more than she did with Embry. Sam was relieved and started to sign all the paperwork on custody with her. They had tried to find her parents, but it seemed they were in another state. And would need to be found before they proceeded with anything else. In the meantime, Sam would get temporary custody over her until they found them.
The moment Sam was done and out of the hospital and meeting Grace, he seemed to let out a breath and ordered the rest of the pack to go into the woods and find the house she escaped from. He later joined them as he talked with Carlisle about what would happen next.
Once they reached the spot where they had found the girl and the man, they quickly started sniffing around the Earth to indicate what direction they were coming from. It wasn't that hard to find, considering there was still Blood on the ground from when Grace had cut up her feet trying to run away. They followed the trail back and were sent to a house that looked completely normal. They had known the house owner before he died two years ago and were surprised that the trail LED back through there.
Quickly, Sam faced back and started to approach the house. The house was locked entirely inside and outside, stopping them from entering. They didn't want to break the locks just in case the police came and they accidentally destroyed any evidence, so Sam quickly called Charlie.
" hey Charlie, I'm sorry to bother you. It's about this case with the Grace girl." Sam said through the phone as he stood in front of the house with the rest of the pack around him in wolf form.
" hey fam how can I help you?" Charlie greeted him
" well, I was just driving by to see if anything seems familiar from when the woman was attacked, and we were actually right next to Old Man Joseph's house. We were actually just walking past it when I noticed that one of the doors was really weird. We approached it, and it had a huge padlock on it. We just wanted to make sure everything was okay, considering nobody has moved in here." Sam said as he looked at the pack, indicating them to return to the woods and transform.
" you said old man Joseph's house down by the river?" Charlie asked him.
" yeah, old man Joseph... We were trying to see if we could help with the case by remembering any small detail, and we actually came up to the house and found a completely weird." Sam stated as he looked at the house once more. The house itself was very run down. It was still livable, but it still needed work. The house was also very far away from the main road, about 5 minutes driving, and it was a wonder how Grace was able to run so far and fast to try to get away from the man.
" all right, I'll get some officers down there with me," Charlie stated before hanging up the phone. Sam nodded to the rest of the pack, who was already behind him in their human forms. Jared instantly walked up to him, waiting for orders.
" Jared I want you to go inform Carlisle that he might be getting the boys that Grace mentioned," Sam stated. Jared just nodded his head and quickly rushed off to make the call. The rest of the pack was still around him as Charlie and two police cruisers came in from the distance.
" all right, I believe it would be better if you guys backed off a little." Charlie said as he pushed them a little bit back, all of them doing so without question as Charlie and those four officers went in the direction of the house.
The officers had their guns out as they approached the house, and there was, in fact, a padlock on the door, which they quickly broke before entering. They announced their presence in case anyone was inside and rushed to the house, pushing past the doors. The inside of the house smelled nothing but beer and alcohol as they walked through.
Outside of that, everything in the house looked completely normal.
There was a couch in the living room with a dining room table behind it, indicating that it was connected to the dining room. The table itself had eight chairs. Right next to the dining room was a kitchen with a small table in the center of it with the surrounding appliances around it. They immediately noticed that all the windows were completely blacked out with spray paint. Along with that, they also had baby-proof locks on them. When he looked back, they also found that the front door was baby-proofed entirely with an entirety of locks on it, along with the back door as they looked through the house.
When they went to the second floor with their guns up, ready to fire in case they were attacked, they noticed that every room outside the primary bedroom had a baby log. They broke all of them and went into the rooms first. They went into the one without a baby lock in the main bedroom. That room had a king-size mattress in the room with a bunch of furniture all around the room. There were piles of clothes everywhere, but they didn't find anything strange, so they continued on after checking the closet.
Then they went to the second room right next to the main bedroom with the baby lock and quickly broke the lock and entered the room that looked like a child's room with two beds. There weren't any toys inside, and the room was painted blue to indicate a boy. In the room, they noticed that the beds were attached to the wall and had chains on them, but nothing was attached. They went to the next room and found nothing but a mattress on the floor and a chain connected to the wall. After that, they decided to go to the other side of the house, where the other rooms were on the second floor.
The first room they checked had another set of twin mattresses with the same thing chains on the wall connected close to them. The room after that had only one bed and was much more significant, all of the rooms previous being blue, including this one. But the last one, the one that was closest to the main bedroom with a bright pink room. And this was the only room with a bed frame around the bed. Like the others, the room had a chain attached to one of the walls, but this one was much shorter and only allowed enough distance for the bed.
They didn't find anything else so they searched the bathroom on the other side of the second floor before going downstairs. In the bathroom, they didn't find anything weird outside of the window that pushed outwards and was painted black and had a little bit of. Blood on the railings wasn't much thought considering how they knew Grace had escaped because she had explained to them and sealed off the area.
They went back to the first floor to see if they could find any hidden doors, but they didn't find anything. Charlie, at this point, decided to call the investigative unit to see if they could find anything, considering they didn't see or hear anyone else as he was walking through, though he didn't want to tamper with evidence and quickly went outside where Sam was waiting.
" did you find anything?" Sam asked him, concerned as the rest of the group was as well
" we didn't find anything but we're going to get that investigative unit here in a couple minutes so it's better if you guys cleared out." Charlie spoke to Sterling," and thank you for helping us find this house if it wasn't for you guys we wouldn't have been able to find it so soon."
" were you able to find the boys Grace was talking about in the hospital?" Sam asked.
Charlie shook his head before responding, "There isn't a basement here. We looked up and down all over the house and couldn't find anything."
Sam was in deep thought. This was strange, considering whenever they asked her about the boys with her, she always said they were in the basement. Maybe she was crazy. Possibly, she was drugged the entire time she was here. Or maybe her three years of being here got to her, and she imagined those six boys being with her. Sam quickly shook his head, not wanting to think badly of her.
" it doesn't make sense. I know old Joseph had a basement," Seth said, making everyone Look at Him.
" what do you mean, son? How do you know for sure," Charlie asked him, concerned.
" I remember Mr Joseph once asked me to help him move some stuff out of the basement. I was there for hours helping him." Seth said as he was in deep thought.
" if we take you in there you think you can point it out for us." Charlie, after the young man, Seth, Shrugged his shoulders and answered yes. Quickly, Seth was brought into the house with his older sister for moral support, and as he walked in, he was shaken by how different it was from before.
"This is so weird. This isn't how the house looked like the last time I was here," Seth said as he looked around the room. The walls have been torn down and rebuilt, and the house looks completely different than when he was there almost 2 to 3 years ago. " I don't get it. The door should be in the kitchen," Seth said as he walked into the kitchen. He always remembered that he snuck in a little cookie that Joseph always got him for helping him whenever he went into the kitchen.
" it's all right son this isn't your fault," Charlie spoke, but then all of a sudden, Leah got the idea to sniff around the room.
She could smell a lot of beer all over the house, but she could also smell two scents: the girl's smell and the man who was chasing her and whom she killed with the rest of the pack. She walked to the living room and sniffed the entire area. She could tell that one side of the scent was headed toward the top of the house, where she was told that Grace had escaped, and the other was heading from the dining room area. She looked around the dining room area just as Seth and Charlie were about to walk out.
" wait hold on" Leah spoke. " I remember being here too and yeah the basement door was in the kitchen but since they rebuilt some of the internal structures I remember it's not in the kitchen now it should be around here," she spoke as she stood in the middle of the dining room. She was lying. She had never been in the house, but she could smell where the girl had first appeared from.
Charlie looked around the room as the officers waited to see what would happen. Sam had also decided to come in the house just in case anything was wrong and they needed assistance with anything. All of them watched Leah as she walked around the dining room. And then, all of a sudden, she stopped in front of a small bookcase by the wall.
She paused for a moment before she pointed.
" there that's where the door should be," she spoke as she stared at the bookshelf. The police officers pushed her back and quickly went to the bookcase. At this point, more officers and investigators had already appeared outside.
Sam quickly guided Leah and Seth further back but not out of the house as the police officers moved the bookshelf and found an old door that was completely locked. The police officers took a minute before they finally opened the door and slowly opened it.
