Fear Games

10. The Truth About Josh Mitchell

EDEN

Things were peaceful. Too peaceful. None of us had heard from the new killers, and that was more concerning to me than I wanted to admit. My kids liked to try and say that maybe the whole nightmare was over. Kael was keeping something from me—mother's intuition told me so—but I didn't bother pushing to try and figure out what that was, exactly. As long as my kids were safe, that was what mattered. While everyone seemed to be safe these days, there was a unnerving feeling I had that something big was coming...that we all needed to brace ourselves for the inevitable attack.

I had finally reached a point where I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to figure out what was going on, and I wasn't going to just sit around and wait for something terrible to happen. The police were completely useless, so it was time for me to take efforts into my own hands. That Friday afternoon, when school was over, I dropped my kids off at home, told them I was going to Rachel's, and left.

When I arrived at Rachel's house, I saw her car was in the driveway, as was Emerald's. I parked on the street, got out of my car, and walked up to the house. Rachel's son answered the door before I could even knock. Seeing him standing in front of me immediately reminded me that he had been sleeping with Jax, which was still an issue that Rachel and I needed to figure out a resolution to. As far as I knew, she hadn't said anything to him yet. I felt awkward even standing in front of him knowing what he was doing with my dead husband's son.

Calix smiled at me though, and said, "Hi, Eden. Are you here to see my mother?"

I returned the smile, hoping he couldn't see how uncomfortable I felt. "Yes, I sure am. Is she around?"

He nodded. "She's just in her room lying down right now. She's improved a lot, recovering from the gunshot wound and all. She can actually get out of bed without hurting herself now."

"Perfect," I said. "May I come in?"

Calix let me inside, and he called up the stairs, "Mom, Eden's here to see you!"

Rachel's voice came down the stairs, "Send her up!"

I walked up the stairs and found Rachel's room, and her door was wide open. She was lying in bed, remote in hand, watching something on her television. She greeted me with a grin and said, "Hey, E. What's up? What brings you all the way over here?"

I said, "Do you mind if I close the door?"

"Not at all."

So I shut the door, walked across the room, and took a seat on an empty chair in the corner. "Listen, Rachel, we need to talk about something. I need your help."

"Is everything okay?" Rachel asked. "You haven't heard from the killer again, have you?"

"No, but that's exactly what's concerning me," I said. "There's no reason things should be this peaceful. Our kids were kidnapped and thrown into a bunker, for God's sake. And then everything just...stops? For what purpose?"

"I've found it pretty suspicious myself," Rachel said. "It's like we're just waiting for the new killers to do something."

"My point exactly. I think it's time that we take matters into our own hands. Because I refuse to sit back and wait for something terrible to happen."

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "And what do you propose that we do?"

"I think we should go to the bunker," I said. "It's been a crime scene for a while now, so the killers obviously aren't there anymore. But maybe we can find something that the police haven't told us about, or something that they've missed."

"Eden, are you sure about this?" Rachel asked. "The last time you and I went to St. Paul's, I got shot and ended up in the ICU."

"That's because we didn't go prepared. This time we'll go with weapons, with guns."