Chapter 23
The Start Of The Next Great Adventure
Chaos.
Again, it was pure chaos.
But this time, it was a mixture of happiness and fear – happy because the baby was on his way, but fear because we didn’t know if we would lose Ryan or not.
“How is she?” John asked, wiping his forehead. “How long have you guys been here?”
“As long as you all have been gone,” Nathan said.
“How could you three be so stupid? You know you should have had someone else with you. Now that…” Kate looked up at the television again. “…and you’re covered in dirt, dust, and blood…” She reached forward with a tissue she pulled from her pocket to wipe John’s face, but her eyes grew wide again. “Wait…where is everyone else? Where’s Ryan?”
My eyes filled with tears as my throat constricted. And the next thing I knew, I was trying – unsuccessfully – to cry quietly into John’s shoulder as I held onto him. Seeing the dust and blood that covered his shirt only made my tears flow heavier. He was still shaking as he told them what happened and wasn’t on the news.
“So she did this? Braewyn did?” Kate whispered, rubbing her hand on my back.
“Yeah,” John growled out. “Vince left before anything happened, taking a helicopter to who knows where. And the book and pages are gone now, destroyed when Braewyn decided to blow the place up, along with herself.” He went on to tell her about what happened after and all I wanted to do was not relive it through his words. When he got to the part of the floor above us collapsing and what happened to Ryan, I clutched him tighter. “He’s in surgery…but we won’t know anything else for a while.”
“And Jude?”
He shook his head. “He didn’t make it.”
I sucked in a lungful of air, squeezing my eyes closed to try and rid my mind of the image of Jude, crumpled on pavement below as I hung on that support beam…but it didn’t work.
Kate wrapped both of us in her arms and kissed our cheeks. Smiling at me, she reached up and wiped away my tears with her thumb. “Your parents are here somewhere, Emmy. We’d all gone down for some breakfast and they…”
“Emmy! Jason!” Mom’s voice called from the end of the hallway. “What are you…?”
Jason and I cut her off before she even finished, running into her as we both wrapped her in a hug. It caught her off guard, making her stumble back into Dad, who we pulled into it also. I was crying still, holding onto her with one arm and Dad with the other. Mom’s arm tightened around me as Dad kissed the top of my head.
A hug from Mom and Dad can make you feel better in an instant.
“I’m going to kill you two,” Mom whispered, and I could tell she was crying, too. “Both of you…sneaking off…”
“We’re sorry,” Jason and I said at the same time.
“And then…when we saw what was happening on the news…”
“We’re just glad you’re okay,” Dad finished.
“You are okay, right?” Mom said, pushing herself back to look at us. “Besides the cuts and bruises and Emmy’s wrist…you’re okay?”
“As okay as we can be right now,” Jason answered for the both of us.
***
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Wistful Remembrance (Wattys 2014 HQ Love Award Winner!)
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