Submerged

Chapter 10: Heading Straight Home

Cole rushes out of the library and calls Ben's name throughout the noise.

"Ben!" she screams. "Ben!"

But the tidal wave of screaming men and women overwhelmed her senses. The sounds of a pistol reloading scared Cole as the man aims his gun at the fleeing crowd and fired five rounds at them.

Desperate to dodge the bullets, Cole shoves people away from her path and runs forward.

"Ben!" Cole called again. "Ben, where are you?"

Her boots kept running until she sees a small puddle of blood slipping out of a dead man's chest.

Two more dead bodies came thudding behind her; just the sight of them made her sick. All of a sudden, Cole hears a voice.

"Cole!" someone yelled. The person had a quiet English accent, almost as if he is whispering.

A young man wore a dark suit, had one green and one hazel brown eye, and his skin is very pale.

The boy smiled as he sees Cole's brown eyes in the chaos. She races over to Ben and wraps her arms furiously around his neck.

"Ben!" Cole sobbed happily. "You're okay."

He hugs his friend very briefly and grabs her by the hand. Together, they charged towards the grieving party goers.

After the firing diminishes, Cole peeks to over to her shoulder and sees Colonel Jones and his buddies raising their firearms at the deranged man.

"What's going on?" Cole shrieked. "Who is this guy?"

Ben grunted as he ducks through the crowd, still holding my hand.

He then notices most of the party guests scrambling out of the doorway. Before leaving the mansion, the friends ushered a few survivors out of the door.

"Come on," Ben insisted, taking an elderly woman outside. Her white dress is now covered in someone's blood and her black stockings were torn.

Her clouded blue eyes stared into ours and thanked us dearly.

"God bless you, kids." She wept.

Cole touched her fragile cheek and advises the old woman to call the police.

Soon afterwards, ten other survivors poured out of the mansion. While the guests stood cold and alone on the lawn, Cole hears three gunshots inside the house.

Alarmed, she races back to see three corpses, all lying dead on the ballroom floor: an African-American, Asian, and Puerto Rican men had their backs covered in their own blood. Meanwhile, she sees a bullethole outside the gunman's head.

It seems to her that he killed himself, but why?

Much to her surprise, she sees the blood oozing out of Colonel Jones torso.

"Colonel!" Cole screamed in anguish.

She rushes to his aide and rummages into her purse for her cellphone. But that's when a wrinkled hand stopped her arm from doing so.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," he whispers.

Confusion appears on her pretty face; Cole didn't understand why he would refuse her assistance.

"Why not?" she asked. "Your bleeding!"

Colonel Jones sighs as his hands lurked back into his pocket.

But instead of the photo from earlier, he gives Cole a mysterious locker key. It seems rusty, almost looks it's been there for five years.

The more Cole examines the key, the more curious she becomes.

"What does it hold?" she asks, dropping the key into her purse and closes it.

But instead of answering her question, Colonel Jones lean over to Cole's ear and whispers a strange number.

"3...1...3." he mumbled.

"313?" Cole started to say. "What do you-"

Colonel rests his head against the floor and lied still.

On cue, Ben rushes over to my side and pulls my arm.

"Cole, we need to go." he insists.

"The police are coming."

However, Cole pushes him away and tries to resuscitate Jones.

She knew resuscitating is meant for drowning, but Cole didn't care.

"Cole," Ben said. "Cole, stop it."

She ignores him and continues to revive him until Cole sees the blood on her hands.

All of a sudden, Ben yanks Cole's hands away from Jones' chest.

"What are you doing?" Cole yelled. "He's hurt, I have to save him-"

"No, you can't!" he yelled. "He's dead!"

Hurt by his words, Cole slaps Ben across the face.

It left a streak of red blood as well as a minor bruise.

Calmly, he wipes his left cheek and stares at her: it's as if the slap didn't touch him.

"Look," he began. "You did everything you could to save him."

Cole glowered at Ben then back to Jones' corpse.

Why did he have to die? she wondered.

"This is all my fault," Cole moaned. "Three people died tonight because of me-"

"Look at me," Ben commanded. "This wasn't your fault, someone planned this: and we're going to find out who."

Cole takes him by the hand and walks Ben out of the mansion.

The former couple hugged each other briefly, held hands, and together they walked out of the mansion.

Police cars, ambulances, and news reporters swarmed around the once beautiful mansion. Cole looks everywhere for Harry, but he is nowhere to be found.

Cole thinks about taking a taxi, but Ben insisted on walking her home.

She never realizes what how terrible he is at playing a gentleman. Nonetheless, Cole accepts Ben's offer and lets him walk her home.

They headed straight down the dark path and continued going right, until they saw their quiet neighborhood.

With a turn of a key, Cole and Ben entered Cole's house as they quietly shut the door and went upstairs into her bedroom.

Willow is nowhere in the living room, she's probably sleeping in her bedroom.

"You can use my shower," Cole offers when they march upstairs.

"I also have some clothes you can borrow."

A corner of Ben's lips uplifted.

As soon as the duo went inside the room, Cole politely closes the door and unzips her boots. Despite the chaos in the mansion, their clothes seems to be in tip-top shape.

Although none of them had a speck of blood, Cole's dress and Ben's suit both look ruffled. Soon after the duo took their shower, they privately changed into their nightclothes and headed off to bed.