Page 136 of Hurry Up And Wait

“Isla! I’m here!”

I raced in the direction of her voice, but just as I saw her, she was snatched before my very eyes. A hooded figure wrapped a skeleton claw around her mouth, dragging her backward into the mist. I couldn’t reach her, no matter how hard I ran.

Pain shattered across the back of my head and I collapsed on the ground. Blood pooled around me, gushing from me as I stared down at my hands that were rapidly filling with blood.

Her blood.

I knew it was hers without even seeing her. He’d killed her and it was all my fault. If only I had taken Shawn’s threats more seriously. If only I hadn’t been so pigheaded and listened to Kavanaugh. But I had protection. IKE waswith me, and Bowie was with Riley. So, why wasn’t she safe? What more could I have done?

I stumbled to my feet, only to slip and fall in the massive amount of blood surrounding me. It grew by the second until I was drowning in it, swimming in a river of blood to save myself. On the banks, I saw Kavanaugh, standing with his hands in his pockets as he watched me struggle to stay alive.

“You should have listened to me.”

“Help!” I shouted, reaching out a bloody hand to him. “Please!”

“You didn’t trust me to take care of you. You didn’t believe me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late for sorry. Look at what you’ve done. This is all because of you.”

I tried to cry out to him, but the lump in my throat wouldn’t allow me to call him. And then he vanished, slipping from the bank of the bloody river. I was drowning now, choking on the blood that spilled from my sister’s veins.

It was all my fault. All my fault. All my fault.

I jerked upright in bed.Sweat coated my skin and soaked my sheets. For just a moment, all I saw around me was red. It was on my skin and in my bed. But when I brushed it away, there was nothing there. Heart pounding, I scrambled from the bed and turned on the light, staring around the room for the river of blood.

“It’s not there,” I whispered. “It’s just a dream.”

Brushing my sweaty hair from my head, I pulled it up in a ponytail and sat in a chair by the window. The darkness outside scared me. I never used to be afraid of the dark, but now, closing my eyes terrified me. Would I always dream of my sister dying? Would Kavanaugh always be there, taunting me about how I didn’t listen to him?

I glanced up at the sensor on the window. Solid red. No one was in the house. Riley and I were safe. But what happened when we left the house? What would happen when Shawn tried again? Would we ever really be safe?

“Can’t sleep?”

I looked over at Riley standing in my doorway. “No.”

“Me neither.”

She trudged into the room and flopped on the bed, then grimaced and sat up. “Your sheets are wet.”

I shrugged, knowing I didn’t need to go into great detail with her. “Bad dreams.”

She nodded. I knew she understood. I heard her dreams also. “Have you talked to Kavanaugh?”

I shook my head. “Not since the hospital.”

“What are you going to say?”

That was assuming he ever wanted to speak to me again. It all seemed ridiculous now in the big scheme of things. I knew once the terror of the other night passed that Kavanaugh’s betrayal would wreak havoc on my brain, but for now, all I really wanted was to hold him. I wanted his scent wrapped around me as he held me in his arms and told me everything would be okay. And I knew that was selfish. I knew that it would be using him in the worst way, but that’s what I needed right now.

“You know, you could call him. He would come over.”

“That wouldn’t be fair to him.”

“Don’t you think he’d want to be here?”

By the look on her face, I already knew what she thought. And maybe it would make her feel better if I did call him. Bowie couldn’t be here. He was in the hospital. We had a team here watching over the house, but that wasn’t the same thing.