All that’s left is me and the consequences of everything Mami’s done.
Exhibit L: Phone Call Made at 11:42p.m.on October 31
– Emilia Soto to Millcreek PD
MPD:911, what’s your emergency?
ES:My daughter, she… She went away with some friends for the weekend, and I haven’t heard from her. I’ve been texting and calling, but she hasn’t responded. It’s not like her…
MPD:How long has she gone without contact?
ES:About six hours.
MPD:And do you have any reason to suspect that something might be wrong?
ES:She sounded nervous. Before she left. I don’t know these kids she’s with and I’m just worried that they… I’d feel better if someone could check in on them. Make sure they’re all right.
MPD:We can send an officer by if you think there might be underage drinking involved, but we can’t do much else besides that, ma’am.
ES:They’re definitely drinking. I saw the bottles in her bag.
MPD:All right. Do you have an address?
ES:127 North Albee Way.
MPD:All right. We’ll send an officer to check things out.
ES:Thank you… thank you.
28
If I thought the quiet was unsettling before, it’s nothing compared to the silence after Mami leaves.
As soon as the door closes behind her I focus all my attention on Kai. Grab my phone with shaking hands and try to shine as much light on him as I can to see if he’s bleeding. There are no open wounds from what I can tell, but he must’ve hit the banister hard enough to make him pass out. I’m not sure how long it’ll last, and whether the hit to his head could have more severe consequences, but I do my best to wake him. Shake his shoulders, cry out his name, apply pressure to his chest. Every remedy I can think of to make his shallow breath come faster. But nothing changes.
Across the room, Kiki’s breath is so quiet I can barely hear it even when I press myself as close to her as I dare. Both of them are running on borrowed time.
I search the cabin for the missing car keys. Open cabinets and drawers and look between sofa cushions for anything that can help get us out of here. It doesn’t hit me until I’ve pulled out all the couch cushions that they may not just be missing, but taken. I suddenly remember the wide-open front door when I came downstairs. Mami had been in the house. She took the keys because she knew we would try to run.
This isn’t like last time. When Mami lashed out at those boys, it was the heat of the moment. A case of temporary insanity. She was overwhelmed by her grief and being let down again and again and again by the systems that should’ve protected her. Should’ve protected Joel. But tonight, she thought this through. She waited outside and watched us like we were her prey. Waited until the others made their move to lash out. Waited to pick everyone off, one by one. Had she known from the minute she heard what Carla was planning that she was going to kill her? Or did she know as soon as she saw that axe in the driveway?
She had to, I realize as I stand alone in the dead-quiet living room. She could have just come and taken me home. Embarrassed me in front of everyone and grounded me for the rest of the year. But there was never any knock at the door. No calling of my name, even when I was in trouble. She never even stopped to consider that she didn’t have to hurt them to save me.
At first, when I hear the crunch of something on the dirt road and the snapping of twigs, I assume Mami is back. Either to finish me, or to take me home, and I don’t want to find out which.
“Kai, come on,” I whisper to him, trying to get him to wake up again. I loop my arm through his, trying to hoist him up onto his feet, hoping the movement will jostle him awake.
If we can hide somewhere in the cabin, maybe she’ll turn back around. Give up on the search. But Kai doesn’t wake up, and moving him is harder than I thought. Light as he might be, he weighs a whole lot more when he’s nothing but dead weight. I’ve barely even managed to get him into a sitting position when I hear a voice call out.
“Hello?”
A deep, gruff voice. A stranger. The stairs up to the cabin creak under his weight as he approaches, light from a flashlight flooding the living room as he steps up to the cracked wood of the door, fiddling with the knob for just a few seconds before it flies open. I flinch at the sudden brightness but don’t let go of Kai to shield my eyes.
“Hel—”
The stranger cuts himself off with a gasp, the light stuttering as he drops his flashlight to the ground.
I realize then what he must see. Me, covered in blood, moving an unconscious body. Another person bleeding out on the floor. And the axe Mami left behind.
