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"Split up. Right the fuck now!" Korren's roar has me jumping out of my horrified stupor. He takes off to the other side of the parking lot, telling the parents on his way to search for her.
"Come on, love." I pull Nolan along with me, attempting to silence the thundering of my heartbeat out of my ears. "Let's go look around the building; maybe she just got turned around." Even as I say it, I know I'm wrong.
He follows behind me in a numb trance, probably reliving that night seven and a half years when Eve was gone.
"Nolan. Focus," I snap when we round one of the alleyway corners. I need him to help me look for something... anything. "Baby! Look at me." I drag his face close to mine, bending down a bit to look into his eyes. "Help me look for our girl... please." My voice cracks under the weight of uncertainty.
"Yeah, okay," he whispers, a tear falling from his eye. I watch as he blinks away some of the fog and reward him with a kiss.
Gripping his frozen hand in my sweaty one, I pull him slowly behind me into the alleyway crammed with dumpsters. Looking around, I notice an exit sign halfway down the pathway. "She could have gone out that door," I murmur. Silence meets my hopeful pondering.
Glowering, I pause my slow steps and turn around. "What's wro-" I pause, terrified about what made my love look so completely and utterly fucking terrified.
His face is whiter than a sheet, with a sickly sheen. My breath catches. Nolan's mouth is wide open, his bottom lip trembling, and his eyes are completely fucking bloodshot, overflowing with tears.
"Wha-what?" My broken whisper comes out hesitant. He isn't looking at me; his eyes are trained on the ground behind me. Unmoving. Not blinking. My chest feels like it's about to rip open and leave me as nothing but a puddle of desperation and heartbreak.
I don't want to know what he's looking at. My eyes release their own tears, my heart and soul weeping at what I might find behind me.
"Hey! Did you guys find anything?" Amiri and Korren round the corner and come to a stop beside us. I watch their hope fade, only to be replaced with all-consuming fear.
"Nolan... what's wrong?" Amiri's gentle tone registers with his frozen mind enough for him to point past my hip.
I squeeze my eyes shut, wishing like hell that this is just a nightmare. That I won't find whatever is behind me. Whatever is making the love of my life completely shatter in front of me, is just a dream, and I am still at home, wrapped in a blanket with my family on the couch, napping without a care in the world.
"No." Korren's broken whisper zaps the strength out of my knees. I have never heard him sound so defeated. "No!" His roar has my eyes flying open when he shoves past me.
Nolan is still frozen in front of me, and Amiri doesn't look much better. I take a shuddering breath that does nothing to calm the terror coursing through my veins.
Slowly... I turn.
At first, all I see is Korren on his knees a few feet away, but then... my heart stops. The blood freezes in my body. My muscles and bones give out, sending me crashing to the ground, scrambling to get to Kor.
"No, no, no, no, no. NO!" Trailing tears behind me, I crawl toward our protector. The man who I know will stop at nothing to keep us all safe. Korren, the same man who is hunched over, sobbing like he has lost everything that matters in this cruel world.
The very same man who has Eve's heels clutched to his chest. Our tattooed brute whose knees are soaking up the small spatters of blood surrounding a fucking syringe.
"She- she's gone," his splintered whisper is punctuated by Nolan's piercing wail behind me. A sound that takes my soul and rips it to shreds. It's a sound that resonates in each one of us. Because... Eve's gone.
Again.
Chapter 2
Evelyn
A stabbing pain in my hip has my consciousness rearing its ugly head. It is fucking ugly because whatever the hell is going on... I want no part of it. My head feels like it's getting repeatedly hit with a sledgehammer, my stomach won't stop rolling, my eyelids feel glued closed, and something is seriously jabbing me in the side.
Groaning past the cotton feeling in my mouth, I attempt to move my arms. The best I get, though, is a twitch of my fingers. My entire body feels like it's finally given up.
What the hell happened?
Thinking back, I don't remember drinking a ton last night or throwing another pool party... no we have been too focused on the court cases. The court cases! My eyes shoot open to find myself in the trunk of a moving fucking car.
It all comes rushing back in rapid fire, making me gag. I whimper and swallow the bile back down. Brent and my dad's sentencing... walking out without Jo... retching in the bathroom... the crowd... fresh air... then... A sob bursts past my lips.
I failed. I fucking LET him take me!
Tears run freely as I think about all the ways I could have tried to save myself. But I didn't. I stood there and let him take me. When it counted the most, I couldn't be who everyone thought I was. Strong. I finally found a life worth fighting for, and I just fucking stood there.
