Hellbound ⇢ The Edge Of Winter {Bradley Baker}

Chapter 19 - It Was The Fire.

"Brad, he's dead."

Bradley's eyes widened and they shifted over to Carson, only to find her staring at the floor, her face showing no emotions, yet her eyes were utterly filled with fear. She was trying to show this didn't affect her. Probably for poor Caleb's sake.

"Listen, you can't wait," Bradley spoke, turning back to his brother.

"I'll... I'll figure something out and come find you. You gotta go."

He turned to Carson again.

"You need to go with him."

The blonde looked up, confusion lighting up her features.

"Brad, Caleb's basically half of me, and he barely fit. I might be small, but I'm not that small."

Before the boy could reply, there was a noise outside the door.

All three heads snapped towards the entrance of the room, and even the wood surrounding them seemed to be holding its breath as Elliot spoke.

"What's going on in there?" He said, his voice slightly muffled by the door.

"N– nothing. We're fine," Bradley replied, his eyes glued towards the exit.

"You feeling ok?" Elliot asked.

Carson scoffed silently.

"Oh, sure. Now he cares about out health."

"Better, thanks. We're ok," Bradley spoke a little louder, praying that Elliot hadn't heard Carson.

"I'm chopping a bunch of wood, so it's gonna be warm in here in a couple minutes."

Carson's eyes widened visibly, as if she'd heard they were about to get murdered.

When no reply came, Bradley lowered his voice, frantically averting his speech to Caleb.

"Say something, say something!" He whispered.

"G– great. Thank you," the younger boy stuttered from under the floor.

"Hey, uh, how's Carson doing? Her throat healing ok?"

The girl's head snapped up in a second, pure fury in her orbs as she opened her mouth to yell at the man, but Bradley immediately wrapped his arm around her face, placing his hand in front of her mouth so no sound could come out.

"Yeah, yeah she's fine," Bradley said loudly, wrapping his other arm around Carson, keeping her back pressed against his chest when she started throwing a fit, struggling to get out of the boy's grip.

"She, uh, she's asleep right now."

Carson stopped moving, holding her breath against Bradley's hand as the three listened, Elliot's steps getting farther and farther away from the room. Once they heard the front door close, Carson grabbed Bradley's hand, taking it away from her mouth, but not touching the arm that was keeping her still. She knew just as well as he did that if he released her when she was still this angry, she would probably break through the window and punch Elliot until he passed out.

"Ok, ok. The keys," Bradley said, using his free hand to dig into his jacket pocket. "Here, take these. Find their truck and go get help, ok?"

"I– I can't–"

"Hey, hey, shh," the older boy cooed as his brother's eyes widened.

"Hey, I know you don't wanna go on your own, but you have to, ok? You don't have a choice. Ok? You gotta go, you gotta get help, ok?"

Bradley took a breath, both Caleb and Carson looking at him slightly wide eyed.

"It can't be far," the boy breathed, almost as if he were muttering to himself rather than the other two.