CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: THE AFTERMATH
A.N. // Thanks for 3k on this story<3 Can't believe there are only two more chapters after this one -- also apparently some people actually skip prologues and epilogues ??? who could do such a thing. a heinous crime is what that is. ok I'll shut up now here's the chapter
I'm at Freed's, in the cellar and my phone is about to die. I've already called 911. Listen, it's Tommy. It's Tommy. He had Malee down here, and I'm pretty sure he had Ethan, too.
It's Tommy.
It's Tommy.
It's Tommy?
He's driving, but he's not comprehending any of it.
How could he, yet?
All he hears is 'It's Tommy,' over and over again, her distraught voice echoing the words in his mind.
Tommy, his practically lifelong best friend? A kidnapper? A torturer? A murderer?
And is she okay? Are they okay? He speeds up, hands gripping the steering wheel tighter as time goes by. He doesn't know how she is, because the phone call ended as suddenly as it began and she's not answering now.
She's not safe, and it feels like he won't get there in time.
What if I'm too late? What if the police are too late? What if something happens, what if...if he...if Tommy-
He feels sick, and he's not sure if it's due to the anger or the fear, so he settles for both.
When he reaches Freed's, he realizes he's arrived not long after the cops, as she seems to just now be stepping outside and following a man holding Red in his arms. Her front is splattered with what he assumes is blood, and she appears to be crying.
He wastes no time, leaving the vehicle running.
When she catches sight of him, he's already before her, pulling her into a fierce embrace, not caring how blood has now transferred onto him, though he does briefly wonder whose it is. He's afraid to ask whose it is.
Mikaere returns the hug just as tightly, not aware of how they're both shaking.
But he sees his left hand's slight tremor as it reaches for hers, and he feels hers violently trembling as she squeezes his for comfort. Running his thumb over her hand, back and forth, he feels the relief at her safety before the anger starts to course through his veins.
"Are you hurt?"
"Vaughn, I-" Her voice breaks off into a sob, and she hates how she sounds, but she's too exhausted and taxed to care.
"I'm here, I'm here," he mumbles into her hair. "You're okay, now. You're safe." Over and over, and it soothes her enough until she suddenly pulls back.
"Red," she says, starting to appear worried, looking around. "Red needs help, and the police said they would bring him to the emergency animal hospital or something, I-"
"Alright, alright, let's go," he tells her.
He has to focus on her, on Red, on the situation at hand.
He can't allow himself to think about Tommy, or whose blood he now has smeared on his jacket, or the specifics of what just happened.
He's afraid of what might happen if he were to do so.
So he takes her hand once more and leads her to his truck.
Focus on getting to the animal hospital. Focus on one thing at a time.
Mikaere, Red, hospital. Nothing else.
...
He's back to ignoring headlines.
They're too sickening, and they always read the same. And there will be no follow-up, because after what he did to Ethan, murdering Perry and the cook, Benny, and attempting to murder Mikaere and Malee, Tommy got himself shot and killed.
The man who was his best friend for as long as he could remember.
The man who once was a boy riding his bike down Vaughn's long driveway, nearly tripping over his own feet to tell him the exciting news of the day.
The boy who was the reason Vaughn had ever gotten a larger friend group and had grown in confidence over the years. The boy who supported him in all he did but called him out when he thought he needed to. The boy with whom he had the most fun, reckless trips.
The boy he told everything to, and the man who apparently told him nothing at all.
The man who had them all fooled.
Vaughn well knows that the smartest psychopaths can hide who they are with such effectiveness it makes them dangerous. But never would he have considered Tommy to be anything but genuine.
He never thought Tommy would have the capacity to keep someone locked in chains for eight years, torturing him the entire time. He never thought he could hurt and kidnap an innocent woman, going to such great lengths to move her vehicle back to her apartment and concealing his prints, just in case. He never thought he would brutally kill two people. He never thought he would try to hurt Mikaere. He never considered he might hate him for eight-year-old events.
The aftermath has taken its toll on Vaughn, and he wants nothing more than to disappear now. He's been gutted, it feels like; Is this what Caesar felt?
He just can't believe what's become of the man who used to be his best friend, nor does he want to. But he forces himself to rise each day and not to get wrapped up and focused on himself, his self-pity, and pain again. No. Not again.
Eight years ago, he ran from it all, but he won't this time.
This time, he will do as he said he would and stay. Stay and work through it, because life involves facing all of those hard decisions and circumstances that arise. He will stay for Siara. Stay for Mikaere. Stay for Jasmine, Zeke, and everyone he has yet to meet.
Even as a crucial character in his life has destroyed himself and made a mess of their memories, he will stay.
It doesn't mean it's not hard, though.
He struggles to keep focused on anything else throughout the day and catches himself overthinking every detail. Could he have known? Were there any clues? How could he have missed anything so awful?
He thinks back to the day Malee went missing, and their jokes about Tommy's bandana that eventually was removed to reveal her scratches at the base of his throat. Now he looks back and feels sick at the memory and the sound of their shared laughter.
It all overwhelms him, and when Freed's inevitably closes, he feels nothing.
His father handled the news as Vaughn assumed he would. "I always knew there was something off about that kid," he had said, but Vaughn can still hear his past words of comparison that say differently.
Why can't you be more like Tommy, huh? He's so confident and well-spoken. He'd do great in sales, or in your future place at the business if you don't start to speak up. You can't go through life being so quiet. Especially if you want to be successful, alright?
He remembers every shining, polished word he told to Tommy's face at family dinners. He remembers the pats on the back, and the fishing trips, and the ski resorts.
The memories consume him the most when he's trying to sleep, especially on the first week following everything. With the events so fresh in mind, reading the reports and knowing that Mikaere was there through it all. That his so-called best friend had inflicted that terror on the woman he loves and her friend, her dog, and killed two others - he felt as if he could not ever let it go.
And on one restless night that week, when he's left wondering if there was anything he could have done, trying to find ways to accept it all - she calls.
It's late, and he wouldn't have expected her to be up as well, but when he picks up she sounds wide awake.
"I just needed to hear your voice," she says.
And he's relieved because she seems to be able to voice everything he's insecure about saying. Everything he's afraid of saying.
And he's so in love but how could he ever tell her, now? After all that's been done, it feels like his chances have been lost.
Maybe one day she'll feel the same way. And if she does, there he'll be, ready and willing to make it work if it meant she'd stay.
He tries not to read too much into late-night phone calls, or any of their time spent together, with their moments of walking side by side and the brief brush of their hands. Or when he goes to glance at her and sees she's already looking at him. After all, it's been a traumatic experience for them, and she needs a friend. So a friend he will be.
He's eager to help her in any way he can, even as he's breaking over the circumstances himself. After all, even if it was his best friend revealing his true identity, he was not there firsthand. He was not in chains as Malee and Ethan were, or covered in blood as Mikaere was. So he puts forth the effort and reaches out.
Does she need anything? Does she want to get coffee with him the next morning? How is she doing?
And she almost always accepts his invitations, because they do help. To have a friend - someone who really knows what she has gone through.
And in return, she tries to help him, too. He's putting forth the effort, and she knows how exhausted he must be from all that has happened.
So she tries to make him laugh when they have coffee, and she always makes sure to hug him goodbye. She wants to help him the way he's helped her.
But at the end of it, she's always left wondering if it's normal to blush so much. To have her heart beat so fast. If it's okay to smile at almost everything he says, especially considering the circumstances.
She always ends up pushing such questions away, though, too. Even if Jasmine has told her she was just looking out for her and she can make her own decisions. Even if she has a slight hunch that he feels more for her. Working out her feelings means addressing them, and until she wants to do that, it's safer to be friends.
Friends.
Mikaere wants to keep herself through all of this. She wants to stay open to learning and trying new things; She doesn't want the fear of being hurt to cause her to shrink back.
But she also knows she will never blindly trust anyone again as she did with Darren and Tommy. Two people, she considered to be friends, who are now both gone from her life. One dead, and the other just dead to her.
She and Malee didn't talk about it the first week. It was too difficult.
But eventually, they began to, during the second week after, and soon Jasmine joined in, showing up for recurring movie nights at their apartment.
She often would show up bearing homemade soup, or handmade toys for Red, who seemed to be fast at recovering from his injuries.
He was always overjoyed whenever she arrived, tail wagging violently from his spot on the couch.
...
With Jasmine's distrust of men already, her friends admittedly assumed she would take this just as hard as they did.
And she almost did. While Vaughn and Siara had grown up with him and had always known him, she had made the choice to trust Tommy and be his friend. And he ended up being so much worse than anything her anxiety could have conjured up.
Jasmine heard his voice every time it was quiet. Every little insignificant memory her mind could recall was suddenly coming alive, and all she could do was drown it out with work, loud music, and sleep.
She began to doubt just how good she was at reading people, going over everything painstakingly, wondering if she ever could have really known.
At least at first.
Because then she realized it was a waste of time, and that everything that had happened had already happened. It was all said and done, and Tommy was dead, and Ethan was getting what he needed.
It was over. And so there was no point in dwelling on it. There was no benefit.
And like Vaughn, she had grown in one crucial way since Penny died.
Eight years ago, she had stayed in the wet, despondent city for her loved ones. She had stayed because it had been all she had ever known, and she was afraid of experiencing anything else. She was afraid of the potential for violence to be inflicted on her and afraid of ever being hurt as Penny had been.
But now, she just wants to go. She feels the sudden urge to push past the suffocating shell she's been living in and leave behind everything to really live.
She's tired of living in fear of the unfamiliar - how much happiness has it really brought her so far?
None, she realizes.
She has enough money saved up, and she has nothing and no one holding her back.
Her family and friends, of course, she will return to visit. This place and all that it means to her will continue to have its importance, and she will not let this city be ruined for her because of two men's horrible actions.
But she does want a vacation, at least. A taste of what a life somewhere else might bring her. Then she'll start making long-term goals.
She wouldn't want to go alone, though, she realizes. She'll have to see if any of her real friends want to go with her.
But this sudden realization of wanting a new life, and granting herself the freedom to want it, has brought her a sense of calm that she knows will help her through any of the coming challenges.
Bad things happen everywhere at any time. She might as well have the risk of a bad experience somewhere tropical, she reasons.
And as she begins to make plans over the following weeks, she finds she's feeling just as excited and joyous about an adventure as she was when she was a kid.
She even stops to pet a stray cat walking down the street one day.
She thinks Cat would be proud.
...
The inevitable fatigue begins to fade after the first week, and staring off and moving slowly becomes attempts at casual conversation through faked smiles. Vaughn knows there will come a time when he will once again smile honestly, whistling random songs from the radio as he goes about his day. But he's not there yet.
The wedding is now in a week, and the somber attitudes have been formally replaced with excitement out of necessity. Weddings are supposed to be a joyful time, after all, and time does not wait for pain to pass.
Mikaere's days are spent working, learning, planning. Trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life and where she wants to go. Does she even want to go anywhere yet? She's quite content here, even after all that's happened. She briefly wonders if it's because of Vaughn, and her friends.
When she has free time, she looks forward to outings with Vaughn, and evenings with Malee, Jasmine, and a recovering Red, who seems all too well given what Tommy had hit him with.
She's only hung out with Siara and Zeke once since everything happened, and she's looking forward to their wedding. From what she's heard, it will be a very nice, scenic location.
And her outings with Vaughn have been restorative, in a way.
Her mind flashes back to their walks down Juneau's roads by his cabin. The easy spring breeze that messed up their hair. The wildflower he had decided to randomly pick and gently put behind her ear. His casual shrug when she raised an eyebrow at him afterward.
Their trip to get dinner at a local restaurant one night. The door he held for her, his arm over her head, and his kind smile when she met his eyes. His back muscles flexed as he stretched while they waited to be seated, and her embarrassed blush as she looked away. Their banter as it began to slowly return that night.
Their games of chess at the cabin. Their cooking, and their glances. Their attempts at resuming their normalcy.
Because they both need slow, steady, and safe. They need thoughtfulness, and trust, and peace. They both need happiness, and that is what time spent together gives them.
...
A.N.// Next Sunday both the final chapter and epilogue will be up. Thank you for reading and being here for every update :)<3