Lakehouse

Chapter Six

There's a lot of screaming before the line is finally cut.

Almost as soon as I agree to Levi's request of finding our parents, I hear a loud bang and Levi cursing under his breath.

I squeeze Theo's hand, taking the phone from my ear and turning on the speaker setting. I toss the cell onto the counter, the sound of whatever is happening echoing throughout the room. We sit, speechless, listening to the line with our hands intertwined. Theo, of course, is only doing it to help settle me down, because I feel like I'm about to explode.

Suddenly, there's a deep, masculine voice yelling at Levi. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Talking to someone on your goddamn phone?"

There's shuffling, and the same man muttering swears, until I hear a loud bang and Levi screaming out in pain.

"Levi!" I yelp, covering my mouth to keep from crying. Theo wraps his spare arm around me, pulling me towards him and rubbing my back. I know he's scared, too, by how fast his heart is beating inside his chest as I lie against it.

"I love you, Sadie," my brother whispers, before the line finally goes dead.

Theo and I just sit there, my head still leaning against his chest; our hands tied together, my breathing heavy. Little did I know that a moment so pleasant could suddenly turn so terrifying. I feel so empty and shaken, like I just lost half of myself. I did, to be honest. I have relied on and loved Levi for so long that the fact that he's gone is so surreal. Right now, as I sit here, I feel so numb. So useless.

My brother is out there, being beaten by some mad man, and I'm sitting here crying about it. I'm not helping. I'm not doing anything to save him. I'm not calling the police, or rushing home to talk to Lou and O'Brien about what Levi said.

I'm just sitting here. Moping.

I sit up, untangling our fingers and taking a deep breath. Calming down is my only option right now. I look at Theo, whose eyes are filled with fear and concern, and try to give a small smile. It doesn't really work, though-they form in a straight line instead. I doubt I will be able to smile any time soon.

"What do we do?" I whisper, my gaze falling to my hands, which have managed to fold together.

"I don't know." He bites his lip. "If they're doing that to Levi, who knows what they're doing to Cara. I can't even imagine..." He shakes his head, trailing off.

I place my hand on his shoulder, watching him shutter. I don't know if I'm at an advantage or a disadvantage; I know that Levi is alive and able to speak and move, but then again, I heard him get beaten. I heard him scream and cry, and I know that he's in trouble. Theo, though, doesn't know what happening to his sister. She could be dead.

"You should go," Theo suddenly says, his voice cracking. "Do you want a ride?"

I don't argue with him. "No, its okay. Call me if you want to talk, or something."

He nods, and I stand from the stool. My entire body feels hollow, like it could collapse any minute. I want to collapse. I want to just fall down and never get up, and cry a river until there's nothing left, and shed my skin because I don't want to live in it. Nothing feels right. Being here, hearing Levi's voice, just being me... it doesn't feel right.

I grab my cell phone off the counter and drop it into my jacket pocket, shoving it all the way down to the bottom. I don't want to see it. I also grab my backpack off the floor, make my way to the door, and slip on my shoes. Then, I step back out into the cold, allowing the frost to make me physically numb once again.

By the time I get back home, my nose is nipped and my ears are frozen. I sniffle as I walk through the front door, sighing as the warmth overtakes me, just like when I sat in Theo's car. The house smells of coffee and sugar-Lou must have been baking. That's what she always does when she's nervous; she does something productive to keep her mind off of whatever is keeping her nerves up. I'm surprised she didn't call me back after I hung up on her. Maybe she gave up on trying to deal with me. Maybe I was right; maybe she's going to give me up like everyone else did.