Petal Peak (undergoing major editing)

Chapter Four

Ryman met back up with Rachel when he noticed a missed text from Emma on his phone. "Sorry Rachel, but there's something I must go deal with now."

Rachel glanced at him. "Again? Tell Emma to stop being so needy." She groaned. "Because we got work to do."

He sighed. "I know it.. I just have to take care of this slight problem." He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "I'll be back before you know it, find us a spell to practice on when I get back." He turned away and walked off.

***

The charred room was almost black and still smelled strongly of thick smoke. It was mostly silent, except for the occasional sound of someone coughing.

Small footsteps walked slowly into the room, glancing around. It took her a moment to see the still unmoving form laying in the corner.

Then when she did, she quickly ran over to the figure. When she got close enough, she could tell that it was a man laying on his side.

She knelt down beside him, shakenly feeling his neck for a pulse. It was faint.. She got one but it was so faint that she thought she was imagining it. "Can you hear me?" She asked, lightly shaking him. "Sir?"

She glanced around. Nobody rarely even came in here, so how would she get him out? She figured he probably needed some fresh air. She sighed. Since no one was around to help her, then she would have to drag him out herself.

***

Emma was sitting on the couch waiting,  when the door swung open, and Ryman strutted in. "I was at work, this better be-" he trailed off when he got close enough to see that Emma was not alone.

Emma laughed. "Your so funny, Dom! I forgot how funny you were," she glanced over at Ryman. "Hey, your home! Look who decided to visit us," she nodded towards where her sister was sitting.

Violet waved at him. "Hello again Ryman!"

Ryman glanced from Emma to Violet, then back again. "So this was the big emergency? Your sister, her friend, and her little sidekick?!"

Chris glared at him. "Hey, I'm not her sidekick! It's good to see you too, bro." He spat out the last part.

Ryman glared at him. "Is it? Is it really?!" He rolled his eyes. "You know, that sassiness is going to get you in trouble!"

Emma cleared her throat to get Ryman's attention. "Besides threatening your brother, we have things to talk about."

Ryman glared at her. "Like?"

Emma exchanged a look with Violet. "Like Shawn and Eddie," Violet answered crossing her arms.

***

She had gotten the man out of the building and out into some fresh air, then she leaned over him to make sure he was still breathing.

She patted him down, looking for a phone, wallet, anything. "Can you hear me now?" She asked softly. She pulled the wallet out of his pocket, then flipped threw it. She had easily found his license. "...Shawn Lewis.." She said, then she started looking for any numbers that she could call, but there wasn't any.

She pulled her bag off then searched threw it until she found her bottle of water that she took with her everywhere and something soft that she could use as a rag.

She poured some water on the rag, then ran it over his forehead, mostly to wash off the smudges on his face from the fire. "Open your eyes for me," she whispered softly. "Please?"

She started humming some tune that she probably couldn't name.

***

Ryman glared over at Violet. "What would I know about them?" He asked. "Except for they are both pipsqueaks."

Emma sighed. "We think you know where they are, so start talking."

Ryman glanced at Emma. "Emma, baby.. are you accusing me of something? All of you?" He asked. "I told you where Shawn went. He left town."

"Really.." Emma held up the phone. "Then why was his phone in your desk drawer?"

Ryman opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. "What are you saying, Em? You think I did something with him?"

Violet walked over to stand beside her sister. "That's exactly what we think."

Chris and Dom also joined them.

Ryman growled. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about.. because I haven't seen either in a while. I did talk to Shawn, but I have not seen nor talked to Eddie since he disappeared."

Chris glared at him. "Tell us the truth, bro. What did you do?"

Ryman narrowed his eyes. "I don't want to hurt you since we're family, but I'm warning you." He reached over and grabbed Violet's wrist, then roughly pulled her to him.

"Ryman..." Emma took a step towards him. "Don't do this.."

Ryman flashed her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, sweetheart." He waved his hand and used his powers to knock everyone else down. "Come on, Vi." He pushed her towards the door, glancing back to make sure no one was following him.

"Emma!" Violet called as she was pushed out the door.

***

He slowly opened his eyes when he heard someone humming, then glanced around until he saw the woman. "I'm dead, aren't I?" He tried to quickly sit up, glancing around. "You're an angel, aren't you?"

She smiled. "You're finally awake. You're a heavy sleeper, you know that?" She chuckled when he started panicking. "Aww, you're cute when you're scared; but I hate to break it to you, you're not dead.. at least not yet. And I'm not an angel."

He took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Then, who are you?"

"I was passing through when I heard something in the building, so I had to check it out. Even though curiosity did kill the cat," she chuckled. "I'm Ciara Walker by the way. And you're Shawn Lewis, right?"

He thought a moment. "I think so.. but follow up question, how did you know that?"

She chuckled again. "Maybe I'm a psychic.. just kidding. I looked on your driver's license. I was searching for a phone that I could call someone with that had the numbers in it of people that would know you, but you didn't have one. Did someone steal it?"

He rubbed his forehead, coughing. "Uhm.. something like that, I think." Truth was, he couldn't really remember what happened to his phone. Did he leave it somewhere? Or did someone take it?

***

Dominic pushed himself to his feet, then helped Emma up. "You alright, Em?" He asked her, in which she only nodded.

Chris slowly pushed himself up. "Ryman's powers seem to be getting stronger," he observed, staggering slightly.

"Violet's is too," Dom said softly. "We need to go and find her."

Emma just silently listened to them, absently nodding along. "But where do we start looking at?" She paused a moment, thinking. "Eddie always seemed to know things before we did."

Dom glanced at her. "I didn't know he was a psychic?"

She shrug. "No one else does either, not even him. But he's saved me numerous times before I knew that something was about to happen. So we need to find him. Maybe we could help us find Ryman and Violet."