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Hang in there, Red.
The storm had gotten worse by the time we crossed the threshold of the party, and Dorian and I nearly got sideswiped by an ambulance half a mile away. There weren’t a lot of properties out here, but apparently something had happened at one of them.
“I finally got a text out to Thatcher and Wells,” Dorian huffed, tugging his hood down. He was out of breath like me, and our hoods had been pointless. We were both dripping wet, and the only reason our cell phones had survived was because we’d shoved them down our fucking boxers. Dorian tapped the phone. “I told them where we were, but my texts to Sloane and the kid failed.”
He’d attempted to contact my sister and Bru since they’d be with Fawn, and I’d been desperate and tried Fawn myself. My shit hadn’t gone out either and…
“Hey. We’ll find her,” Dorian said, squeezing my arm. “We’ll split up. Cover more ground that way. I’m sure everyone’s together.”
I was sure they were all together, but what he could never guarantee was that everything was fine. It wouldn’t be.
Not in this.
The house fucking rattled, and the only reason no one inside was freaking out was because they were drunk and partying, unaffected. Storms didn’t get to them the same way it did to Red.
I’d seen firsthand what the torrential elements could do to her. She shut down, and Dorian barely got the words out before I left him. I folded into the fray, sending rapid texts to Fawn along the way. They were texts I wasn’t sure would go through, but I tried anyway.
Me: I’m at the party.
Me: It’s storming, and I needed to make sure you’re okay.
Me: Please answer if you can. I just want to help.
In what way I could help, I didn’t know. I just know I’d been there during one of her shutdowns, and after, she hadn’t been so scared. I prayed that my presence here would make things better and not worse.
“Have you seen a redhead?” I asked random people. They were too busy partying and shit to give me the time of day, and I had to shake a few people. “She’s got bright red hair. Freckles. She might be wearing something that shows her tattoos. She’s got a koi fish on her shoulder and watercolor flowers down her arm.”
I left out how perfect they were and what they allowed her to mask, her vulnerabilities. Fawn liked to come off as this confident ball breaker, but she had a delicate layer she never addressed. She hid from it and never let people see when she needed help.
She was like me in that way, the pair of us so goddamn alike. I never let people see my weaknesses either, my vulnerabilities…
The group I talked to had no information, and the next, the same. I went from room to room out of luck and with no sighting of Red, Bru, my sister, or Bow. I was beginning to wonder if Dorian and I had made it to the right cabin. With our phones’ reception being spotty, our navigation hadn’t been the best. At some points, we were literally running blind.
“That girl who came with the crazy dude? Yeah, I’ve seen her,” some guy said after I gave him Fawn’s description. The whole “crazy dude” comment set off alarm bells, but my focus quickly transferred when he pointed directly above. “Pretty sure I saw her go into a room upstairs. Last door down the hall.”
That was all I needed, my steps quick. I found a stairwell, and the cabin crashed with so much thunder I nearly grabbed a wall. The storm could be heard a lot louder upstairs, and I wondered if she’d even still be here to find. Who knew when that guy had seen her.
That was if it was her.
I almost hoped I didn’t find her. Actually, I internally prayed that I didn’t, and that she was back at the Reeds’. Maybe the storm hadn’t reached the Reeds’ house yet despite it being so close. I reached for all kinds of hope in that moment because I didn’t want to see her.
No, I didn’t want to see her like this.
I didn’t even have to call out for her in the end, because the instant I opened that door at the end of the hall, there Red was. She was tucked tight in a corner on the floor, her head down and her arms curled around her legs.
And she was shaking.
Red…
I rushed to her, another thunderclap behind me. The room filled with so much light, lightning. It was so bright for a moment it appeared as if someone flicked on a light switch, and the walls thrashed with waves upon waves of rain. “Red?”
She didn’t hear me. I was standing right in front of her, and she didn’t hear me, her head down. That last crash of thunder had her digging her nails into her arms. There were already marks there, red trails. She was on the cusp of drawing blood, and I hunkered down. “Red, look at me.”
Her head shot up, probably because I was so close. Her eyes flashed wide, and she backed into the corner so hard. She backed away from me, and my chest felt slammed, socked.
Instantly, I backed away, but when the room filled with light, absolute terror filled her eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she shook her head. “No…”
But she wasn’t speaking to me. Her head whipped around every which way, like the walls were literally crowding around her. Another thunderclap hit, and she croaked out a noise like a wounded animal. It was screechy and horror-filled and made my stomach clench violently. She sounded like she was in guttural pain and had no means or hope to stop it.
