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I can hear a man’s voice coming from deep in the house, but I can’t make out what he’s saying. If this was a few months ago, I would have rushed in without a thought and probably gotten myself killed. Now I have Carson drilling into me that I’ve been taking too many liberties with my safety, and I know he’s right. There’s a fine line between being brave and being stupid. What I’m looking at right now is something that I have no way of handling.
Suddenly, I remember Violet’s car parked in the driveway. Unless she went somewhere and left her car, she’s in there. My heart catches in my throat and I freeze, not knowing what to do.
Crash.
The sound of glass breaking from deep in the house seems to snap me out of my indecision. I immediately drop the heels in my hand, along with my purse, and take off at a sprint across the lawn. I don’t stop running until I make it to Carson’s front door.It sounds like Oliver’s got that obnoxious kids’ station turned up to eleven, so I pound frantically on the door.
“Carson! Carson, please open up! Carson!” It feels like it’s years before the door opens, but logically it was probably more like fifteen seconds. The door swings in and I’m filled with relief at the sight of his concerned face.
“Bianca, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?” He starts moving his hands over my arms, presumably looking for injuries, but I shake him off. I don’t have time to catch my breath but manage to gasp out, “The door was open. Everything’s broken. There’s blood. So much blood. Please.” His face morphs from concern back to his serious cop face, and it starts to calm me down. He pulls me inside quickly, scanning the street behind me.
“Please, you have to hurry,” I beg. “I think Violet’s in there.”
“Fuck.” He turns to the small safe he keeps by the door and punches in a code before pulling out his badge and a heavy looking black gun. I can’t take my eyes off it. What if something goes wrong, and he accidentally hits Violet? What if the guy in there has a gun and Carson gets shot? Either one of them could get killed. I feel like I’m going to throw up.
He bends over slightly so we’re eye to eye, forcing me to look away from the gun in his hand. “Bianca, listen to me. I need you to stay here with Oliver. As soon as I walk out of here, I want you to lock all the doors and windows, then call nine-one-one and tell them what’s going on. Take Oliver to the playroom in the middle of the house. Don’t open the door for anyone but me, understand? Can you do all that for me, Bianca?”
I just nod my head and look out his window back toward my house. This is taking too long. “Bianca, do not leave this house. I’ll go get Violet.”
“Please. You have to make sure she’s alright. She has to be okay.” I clutch his sleeve, but he just nods his head at me, thenwalks out the front door, moving towards my house as quickly as possible with his head swiveling back and forth, gun held low.
I do as he’s instructed and make sure all the doors and windows are secure. I go to grab my cellphone but quickly realize it’s in my purse that I dropped outside. I say a silent little prayer of thanks that Carson is one of the only people left in the world with a home phone and quickly dial nine-one-one. I’m so out of it I’m not even sure what exactly I told them because honesty, I have no fucking idea what’s going on over there. I did remember to tell them that there’s a police officer in the house though so at least they won’t shoot him. Right?
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I’m tempted to sit and stare out the window to find out what’s happening, but I know that if there’s shooting, a window is a dangerous place to be. If something is wrong with Violet, Carson is the best chance I have of saving her, and he doesn’t need to be worried about me doing something stupid. Plus, I need to find Oliver and make sure he’s safe, away from the windows, and if possible, oblivious to the chaos that’s happening next door. I head toward his playroom and say a little prayer that maybe Violet isn’t in the house after all.
The cordless phone is still in my hand, and I can hear the emergency operator telling me to stay on the line but I don’t have time to sit there on the phone with her, I’ve got to make sure Oliver is safe. Once I’ve found him I try to paste a smile on my face so he won’t know anything is wrong.
“Hi Bianca!” He runs over to me and wraps his arms around my legs. I reach down and return his hug while trying to keep my hands from shaking. “You don’t have any shoes.” He’s practically shouting over the radio that’s playing but I don’t want to turn it down. I don’t want him to hear anything that’s happening next door.
Oh god, I really do think I might throw up.
I slowly lower myself to the floor and ask him to show me what he’s playing with. He goes off on a long tangent about his new set of construction trucks Carson bought him.
“That’s awesome, kid.” I have no idea what he’s saying to me, I’m just glad he’s distracted. I’ve never been so scared in my life. When people talk about having an out of body experience I wonder if it’s like this. I’m here, sitting in the room with Oliver, but I feel like my heart is next door. I can’t seem to focus on any one thing.
Oliver’s looking at me funny again and I don’t know what to say so I just give him my best fake smile and stare blankly at the wall. A few seconds later I hear two sharp cracks and my breath catches in my throat.
A scream almost escapes me, but I manage to hold it back for Oliver’s sake. I think up until this very moment I wasn’t entirely convinced there was anything really dangerous over there. At the very least, I was in a deep denial, but the sound of gunshots cracking through the air have brought everything into sharp focus.
Oliver just continues to play with his toys, not even seeming to have heard the sounds that caused my heart to stop dead in my chest. I can’t just wait here, I have to go out and see what’s happening. What if Carson and Violet are hurt and they need my help?
“Oliver, I want you to stay in this room, okay?”
He shrugs at me like it’s no big deal. “Okay.”
“I’m serious about this Oliver. You stay in this room and only come out if your Dad or I come to get you, understood?” His eyes are big, and I know it’s because I never speak to him this way, but this is important. I’ll apologize for my tone later. He nods and I slip out of the room, closing the door softly behind me.
I just make it to the kitchen window when I start to hear the sound of sirens approaching. You would think they would be acomfort to me but instead I’m just stressing over the fact that nobody has come out of the house yet. It’s taking everything inside me to stop myself from throwing the front door open and sprinting over there, but I promised Carson I would stay put. That I would take care of Oliver. Oh god, what if something’s happened to him? What if those shots were someone shooting him and not the other way around? I’ll never be able to forgive myself for sending him in there.
Two squad cars come screeching to a halt in front of my place, one halfway up the driveway and the other right in the middle of the street. Officers exit both cars, guns drawn low, and running in a crouch towards the front door. It’s only then that I hear Carson’s voice shouting. He’s stepping out of the front door, his badge held high and his other hand up in the air.
He’s saying something to the other officers but I can’t hear any of it because all I can see is the red splashed across his shirt. Fortunately he’s standing and he doesn’t seem hurt. The other officers are rushing past him into the house, if he was hurt they would be stopping to help him, right? That’s when I remember Violet.
Where the fuck is Violet?Shouldn’t she be with him? I clutch the window frame so tightly I’m afraid that I’m going to splinter the wood. It’s then that Carson sees me standing in the window and he jogs over to me.
“Are you okay?” I manage to get out, though the words are thick in my throat.
