𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬

42 | I'll Race You to the Finish Line

TOM
    

I can't think straight.

I try to focus on just one thing at a time but I feel like a million thoughts are clouding my brain and the only word I can manage to say right now is 'fuck'. It's like witnessing a car crash; it's horrifying to see but you can't look away.

Nothing feels real. With the tornado of things spiralling around my mind, I basically have tunnel vision on Harrison. All I see is him, all I think about is him, all I hear is him.

I see Harrison holding Robyn's body close to his chest on the carpeted floor. There's no blood, there's no broken bones. She just looks asleep or unconscious, yet she is unresponsive.

I think about how he must feel. How would heartbroken he must be shaking his wife and begging her to wake up; waiting for the impossible.

I hear his almost silent screams over the loss of Robyn, sounding like the air had been sucked out of his lungs. I hear his breath shake as he cries, clutching her close to him as he strokes her hair lovingly.

"Haz we- we need to find Oliver," I tremble, trying to focus on the second missing person in this situation.

I know it sounds bad, but Robyn isn't going anywhere. We need to find Oliver and we need to find Priya. If there's any chance of finding his son alive, we needed to act fast and we needed to act now. He just rocked back and forth on the floor, cradling Robyn as she laid peacefully in his arms. She wasn't beaten, she wasn't shot, she looked as if she was simply drugged and passed away in a hazy state of unconsciousness. Honestly, I didn't think Priya would have shown anyone mercy.

I repeated myself again, watching Haz press his cheek against the top of Robyn's head, sobbing quietly as he apologised to her over and over. He told her how she didn't deserve this, how she was never anything but good in this world and that he would do anything to bring her back to him.

And it broke my fucking heart seeing that. It made me realise that without Robyn, Haz only had The Family for him. He lost his parents as a teenager, he lost his mentor Jack and now he had lost the love of his life.

So I'm not letting him lose his son too.

I moved to the cupboards, swinging the double doors open and tearing through every drawer, shelf and alcove. I threw things behind me as I rummaged through every nook and cranny desperately searching for the baby. It pained me to even think, but Haz was right about the fact we hadn't heard Oliver crying. It made us assume the worst.

I moved to the next room, the last room upstairs that we ahndt checked. I sighed as I opened the near empty cupboards given it was a guest bedroom. My heart rate started to rise higher than I thought was possible, beating out of my fucking chest and echoing in my ears.

Seeing Haz weep on the floor holding his deceased wife made me think about the situation at hand even more. What if Y/N was next? What if the next room I searched had her body laying on the floor peacefully as if she'd taken a poorly timed nap? What if I couldn't wake her? What if she didn't look as peaceful as Robyn and she was brutally injured and covered in blood?

Running down the stairs I stopped abruptly when I saw the bathroom light on at the other side of the house. I tried to hold my racing breath to stay quiet, conscious that what I could find might be my worst nightmare in reality.

I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I knew that I had let Y/N separate from Haz and I and she had died in that time. I wouldn't sleep until I caught Priya, torturing her every day for as long as I lived. If she had killed Y/N, I wouldn't give her the easy way out by killing her too. I'd let her live every day wishing she wasn't alive.

My gun was hanging from the strap on my shoulder before I held it in front of me. I crept down the hall quietly, conscious that both Y/N and Priya were unaccounted for alongside Oliver. I had no clue where any of them were.

I stopped when I heard a mumble behind the door to my left, leaning closer towards it as I recognised it as the gentle cries of a baby. I turned the handle, swung the door open and pointed my gun into the room although it was empty.

The room was completely empty.

Once I had turned the light on I looked around the laundry, seeing Oliver delicately stirring in a pile of blankets and clothes in a washing basket, turning his little head towards me as he saw me standing above him.

Sighing in relief, I picked up the entire basket to move it. Whether Y/N, Robyn or Priya had put him here, I needed to put him somewhere safe whilst I continued my search for Y/N and Priya. It felt wrong carrying a baby in a basket down the hall and up the stairs to his father, but seeing Oliver was the only thing that pulled Haz's attention away from Robyn.

He was still holding her when I walked in, whispering to her quietly as he wiped his tears. He was a wreck and I knew that he would happily die next to her than continue fighting against Priya tonight. I placed the basket next to him and cupped the side of his face caringly.

"Stay here with him, keep your gun close and remember; he needs you alive," I said to Haz, leaving the room and heading back downstairs.

It wasn't until I heard the gunshot when I started running straight towards the bathroom  where I had seen the light underneath the door switched on beforehand. I held the gun toghtly me as I tried to open the door, the handle barely budging from the lock. This is where the panic started to kick in, especially when I heard a second gunshot from inside. And a third.

I stepped back and kicked the door. I kicked it again. And again. And then the lock busted and I lunged inside aiming at the two bodies opposite me. I saw Priya in the bath, her arm draped over the side as red water dripped from the edge. And I saw Y/N staring up at me on the tiled floor, her eyes filled with relief.

We were both together and we were both alive. If only I could say the same about the others in the house.

"Are you hurt?!" I asked, rushing towards her and falling to my knees as I inspected the cuts on her arms and the deep red water whucj had stained her clothes.

"I'm okay Tom, she's gone... She's dead," she smiled, tears now streaming down her face as she threw her arms around me in a warm embrace.

"She didn't hurt you? You promise?" I said clutching the back of her head and holding her against me.

"She tried to grab me whilst I held her under but- I'm safe, I'm alive and I'm not hurt," she said breathlessly, hugging me tightly as she cried.

"But the gunshots... And the locked door... I thought- I thought she killed you," I said with my voice starting to break and tears welling in my eyes.

"I locked the door so you and Haz couldn't come in and stop me. And the gunshots... Well I just got angry and shot her after she was already dead," Y/N sighed.

Still holding her tightly I stood up to bring us both to our feet, looking her up and down to make sure she wasn't injured badly and just brushing it off to make me feel better. But she was okay, she was here with me and she was alive.

"Did you find Robyn and Oli? Are they okay?" She asked quietly, pulling me closer to her as we walked slowly from the bathroom and down the hall together. She was nestled against my side, holding my arm like a koala.

She seemed so happy and relieved to have rid Priya from our lives once and for all. And now I had to break the news. Fuck.

"Oliver is safe and with Harrison right now. But Robyn- She uh, she didn't make it."