Pomp And Circumstance [COMPLETE]

Chapter Fifteen

The trees had only the past few weeks before started to grow back their leaves. That was the main difference. But in the dark, the highway looked the same. As Darcy sped south past the city, she wasn't in the driver's seat, in her car, Eli sitting in the passenger's seat.

She was sitting in the back seat of Henry's SUV. Henry was driving. Lois was in the front seat. They were whispering back and forth on the drive down, the street lamps zipping past them as they took the same route, less than a year earlier.

Darcy had insisted she go with them. He was her brother, she claimed. Henry and Lois didn't have an argument against that. Darcy sat in the back while they sent worried whispers to each other and reassuring smiles back at her. Everything is going to be fine, they said.

"Everything's going to be fine."

Darcy's eyes came back into focus, the rear headlights of the car ten lengths ahead of them fading back into view. Darcy glanced away from the highway for a second. Eli was watching her.

"Everything's going to be fine, Darcy," he repeated.

Darcy could hear the lingering "I promise" he wanted to tack on to the end of that sentence but she knew there were no promises when it came to Gina.

She could be at the Cape house, simply enjoying being back in the place she grew up. Or the house could be burning down to ashes. Darcy's head was running all possible scenarios while also reliving that horrible night ten months ago. It was a miracle she managed to drive at the same time.

They rode in silence. Darcy stared straight ahead. She could feel Eli's eyes every time they moved from the road over to her.

Henry called, confirming that he and Lois had left the dinner. They would meet Darcy down at the Cape. Then silence. Marianne called. She confirmed that her spare key to the Cape house really was gone, she couldn't find it anywhere. She wished Darcy good luck then hung up. She called back three minutes later and confirmed that she was getting into her car now and she would meet them down at the Cape.

And then nothing. It was just Darcy and Eli, sitting silently in her car as they raced toward the unknown.

Halfway through, Darcy's breathing started growing shallow with each passing mile. Her hands gripped the stirring wheel as if for dear life. She focused on her breathing. She ignored the images of burning houses playing on repeat in her head.

"Darcy."

Darcy didn't answer.

"Darcy. It's okay. Everything's going to be okay."

Darcy forced herself to meet Eli's eyes. He nodded. She nodded. She kept trying to breathe deeply. Eli shifted and laid his hand down on the center console, palm up, open, waiting.

Darcy looked at it and then back to the road. It lay there empty for a long moment before Darcy tore one of her hands from the stirring wheel and placed it in Eli's. He squeezed her hand once, then twice, the pressure reassuring.

It was not lost on Darcy's muddled and panicking brain that it wasn't her brother that was currently in trouble that night. It was Eli's. That Eli's main worry in that moment wasn't his younger brother doing who knew what. His main worry was Darcy, his focus on her. Darcy had already lived through this nightmare. Eli's own version was unfolding before them. And yet, she was his priority.

Darcy could see the house from down the road. Her worst-case scenarios were becoming reality as a glow lit up the night sky half a mile away. None of their neighbors were down on the Cape yet. The season hadn't begun. The Bingley house was the only one currently occupied. And Darcy could only pray that the glow and the noise greeting them as they rolled down the quiet street was coming from the lights of the house and not from flickering flames.