Chapter 26
"Getaway Car."
Running had never been my strong suit, except for today that was. I had no idea how far I had gone, but I knew I was pretty far away from where I had been before, and slightly closer to Toby. I could see the giant flames Toby had created. The glowing orange radiated off of the trees.
Toby was still nowhere to be seen. But he had to have been close, because I could see smaller fires trying to compete with their older counterparts as they grew from the trees.
That was my first stop. I covered my face with my shirt as I grew closer to the smoke filled area. Every step made me feel like I was getting farther away from Toby. Who knew where he was? But I couldn't give up. I had to be there for him.
It was really hot, too hot. My skin became sticky with sweat, as it ran down my forehead, arms, and neck. I couldn't wait to get out of here, but you needed to keep going.
Every part of your body wanted to either collapse on the floor and breathe in all the smoke, or run away, and get as far away as possible. Maybe move to a different state? But I need Toby for that, I don't care what Natalie said, we can fix this. Make this a happy place, perfect to raise a family.
Every breath I took hurt. The smoke was sickeningly sweet. It made my throat feel raw, and I was trying to protect my face with my shirt. I couldn't imagine what it would be if I didn't have something to cover my face up with.
Finally I stood at the fresh fire. The flames rose up the trees, as they ate away at the bark and leaves. There was no more grass to cushion my feet, as I walked.
Wait? I looked at a silhouette of a man. Could it be? Toby? I took a few cautious steps towards the man. It was! It had to be! My steps turned antsy, and my pace turned into my speed walking.
I held my hand out to Toby, to grab onto his shoulder. There was a giant smile sprawled across my face. "Ah!" I jumped, my mouth opened and inhaled a giant gasp of smoke. I doubled over and coughed it all out. My eyes watered as I coughed.
When I was done I looked up. That wasn't Toby. That was a tree, burned to look like Toby. With a few small coughs I turned away and started looking around, the feeling of despair flooded through me.
How was I supposed to find Toby in the mess? Trick question. I couldn't and I wouldn't, because the only thing I could see was the blaring red flames that were going to surround me.
"Y/N!" Was someone calling my name? I couldn't hear over the fire. "Y/N!" There it was again. I desperately flipped around trying to find the person calling out to me. "Y/N!" They called out a third time, and finally my eyes landed on a real human figure.
"Toby?" I called out. It definitely looked like Toby, but I couldn't see him very well. "Y/N! What are you doing here?" They were getting closer, and closer. Finally I could see the colors of their clothes and hair and everything I needed.
"Toby!" My heart jumped a beat when I saw him, and his brown hair. I took a step towards him, and then another one. Before I knew it I was in a full on sprint towards Toby. Even though my lungs and legs burned I couldn't stop.
Within seconds I was feet away from Toby. My hands reached out to wrap my arms around him. When I reached him, I collapsed in his arms. I held him in a tight hug, with my arms wrapped around his neck. He returned the hug, and placed his hands on my waist.
"Toby..I'm sorry but, I couldn't just leave you. I need us to get out of this together!" My words came out in a fast blur, I looked up to Toby with tears in my eyes. Who knew if it was because of the smoke, or I was just being emotional.
My eyes glanced over Toby's, trying to find any form of answer. He looked down at me, he didn't seem very happy. "Y/N, that can't happen." He said, my eyebrows furrowed together. "What? Why not? This was the plan, we do this so that I get left alone, and you can live a normal life." He shook his head, his hands moved to my shoulders to hold onto me, as if he was scared he'd lose me. "It won't work. I'll never be able to live a normal life, and neither will you if I'm still in your life."
This day just kept getting worse and worse, didn't it? "I've already told you, we can't be together." I didn't know what to say, all I could do was stare up at Toby, hoping he would change his mind. Words of nonsense ran through my brain as I tried to gather something to say. "But I want us to be together."
A few tears ran down my cheeks, who knew love could hurt so much? His face softened as he saw my expression. One of his hands came up and wiped the tears from my cheek. "I wish we could be."
Toby leaned down and kissed me. Finally the moment I had been waiting for, but it hurt so much more than I expected. His lips were warm, and softer than expected. The kiss mixed with my salty tears. My hand cupped his cheek, and his free hand came up to cup his hand.
I pulled away from the kiss for a breath of air. I opened my eyes to see Toby, I wanted to smile, and tell myself it was going to be okay, but I couldn't. My gaze shifted away from Toby to behind him. There, standing tall and mighty was the Operator himself.
My heart stopped, and the color from my skin faded. Toby furrowed his brows in confusion, and looked back. His mouth fell open. This was something we didn't account for.
The Operator looked different this time. Scarier. Tentacles were sprung out from his back, and he actually had a mouth. It was crooked, and looked like someone had taken a pair of scissors to his mouth.
Toby immediately moved in front of me. Stadic filled my ears, and I immediately covered them with my hands. More tears came to my eyes, this time from the pain and the ringing through my ears.
I wanted to grab Toby, and pull him away from the monster, but I just couldn't. It was like my hands were stuck to my ears. I just couldn't pull away from them. "You.." A twisted voice came out of the monster, that only made my ears hurt more. Toby fell to the ground onto his knees.
"Toby!" My voice came out as I strained yelp. I wanted to move to him, and help him, but I just couldn't, my body was frozen, and the only thing I could move was my mouth. "You.." It said again, it stayed still with us, the only thing that was moving were its tentacles.
"You did this." Its voice was raspy and like static. "You did this.." It repeated. Every word got harder to hear, my eardrums felt like they would burst any second. Tears ran down my cheeks. I wanted to yell at it, scream, anything to get it away from Toby and I.
"Go away." I managed to say, even then my voice was weak, and made me sound like a scared little kid. Toby's body shook, was this what he always went through? It made me angry, like I had never been before.
I furrowed my eyebrows, and my frown turned into a scowl. Was this an effect of the operator? "You'll regret it." It said slowly. Its mouth never moved, it was like it talked to us through our minds.
"I'll regret it?" I mumbled, while I looked up at the monster with more hatred than I had ever. I needed to find the strength to move. My arms were sore like I had done an intense workout the day before. I tried moving my hands away from my face, but they were suctioned to my ears.
Even if I couldn't see its eyes, I could see it was watching me, and my every move. It was a struggle just to move my hands a couple inches from my face, it was a workout.
Finally my hands popped away from my head, and I fell out of my kneeling position. I landed on my hands, little sticks and rocks stuck into me, but that didn't matter, I could move! Without a second thought I reached for my gun, and shot the being in the chest.
It screeched, and started moving towards me, swiftly and without moving its legs. My eyes widened, and fear finally kicked in. I started scooching away, almost crab crawling away from it. It made noises that I couldn't understand as it moved towards me. Like it was mumbling a spell. I wouldn't be surprised if it were trying to curse me.
Finally it stopped moving, and jolted back? I looked around my surroundings to find the culprit, and I found I was sitting dangerously close to a spike of fire. Was it afraid of the fire? It looked over at it. Its large tentacles dodged, and hid from the fire around it. Mom had been right.
Without warning it loudly screeched again. I winced and quickly covered my ears. I looked around as it continued its temper tantrum. Finally Toby stepped out of view. He looked exhausted. He had skewered his hatched into the creature's back.
Toby sprinted over to me and grabbed my hand. He launched me up from the safety of my seat. "We have to go, right now!" He yelled as he dragged us deeper into the forest fire. I inhaled the smoke, and suddenly I could feel it again. My eyes welled up with tears, and I started another rough coughing fit.
I looked back to see the tentacles following us, but they kept dodging the fire. And every so often they would disappear if they got too close. They were dropping like flies. Maybe we would actually get out of this.
Suddenly Toby stopped, and I slammed into his back. I roughly turned back, but all the tentacles had disappeared. I looked back, and saw Tim, out of breath. "You traitor!" He quickly yelled, inhaling a breath of smoke, but somehow it didn't affect him. "You did this!" He yelled again, as he pointed to his mask, which had melted to his face? Ouch.
Toby remained silent. He ignored the clearly not sane man infront of us as he rambled on and on. Toby flicked his head from side to side, like he was expecting something. "Leave, Tim." Tim furrowed the one eyebrow we could see. "Leave? I'm not going down with you, Tobias. Get on the winning side." I scoffed, a little louder than I should have. Tims eyes flicked over to me. "Do you have something to say? Miss.Rogers." The nickname threw me off. I looked over to Toby, but quickly looked back at Toby. "Yes. Clearly we're 'winning' this thing. You 'master' is scared of fire."
Tim laughed slightly. "What?" The words started flowing out of my mouth before I could stop myself. "Are you saying you're going to stop us? Do you think it's brave for sending his dogs after us?" Tim stopped laughing, and his smile fell into a frown.
Toby's hand slipped from mine, as he grabbed his remaining hatchet. I took it as my sign to grab my pistol, even if it wasn't my fight. Suddenly, Tim flipped a strap around his body to reveal a shotgun, which had been hidden behind his back.
My eyes widened. Neither of our weapons were a match for him, maybe I shouldn't have talked all that smack talk. My expression seemed to bring joy to Tim. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he just wouldn't.
Even if it wasn't a wise option I raised my gun, and pointed it at Tim. Tim looked over to Toby with an amused smile, I had never seen him like this before. Tim aimed his gun, pointed right at Toby. I could feel my heartbeat up my throat. But he couldn't do anything, if he shot Toby, I would shoot him.
Hastily, Tim switched his aim from Toby to me, and fired. Two gunshots fired into the air. One bullet split through the skin in my thigh. I yelped out in pain, and fell to the ground. Suddenly the smoke caught up with me, and I started wheezing in and out, trying to get air.
Tim on the other hand, had been shot in the shoulder. He quickly dropped his weapon, and the strap caught it. He held onto his shoulder, as he looked at Toby and I with hatred.
Toby ignored the chance of death, and quickly ran over to me. "Where'd it hit you?" He said with panic coursing through his voice. "My leg! My leg!" I said quickly, through coughs.. I couldn't even pinpoint the pain any more. Everywhere hurt.
Toby looked back, and Tim had disappeared. He looked back to me, a sad expression crossed over his face. "It's all going to be okay." I couldn't understand how he could say that. I felt like I was dying, and there was a good chance I was.
He grabbed my back and legs, and picked me up bridal style. I wrapped my arms around his neck, just in case he would let go.
I didn't know where he was taking me, all I knew was I had to trust him to some extent.
Finally he stopped walking, and he placed me down on a tree. He hovered over me. "Y/N? Can you hear me?" He said softly. I nodded. "Yes." I crooked out, as I got used to talking again. "I need you to do something for me." He whispered to me. I nodded, as I waited for him to continue talking.
"Forget me." My eyes widened, as his words came out in slow motion. "What?" I said slowly, and he looked away with guilt. "I need you to forget about me, live a good life. Move away from this horrible place. Get married." My eyes flicked between him. I wanted to tell him that I couldn't, that I loved him. I wanted to say a whole speech, but I couldn't. I was just too tired. "I can't." Was all I managed to say. He furrowed his brows in a way that told me he expected this. "Y/N, this really Isn't up for disgustion. We can't be together. I have to go." My chest hurt as he talked, there was nothing I could do to make him stay. "But I love you." I said, as a last resort, but he was already up, and walking away. Before I knew it, cloudy dark splotches filled my vision, and I was out again.
I woke up, like I had woken up from a horrible nightmare. And it truly had been a horrible nightmare. My skin was sticky from sweat, that made me want to take a long cold shower. But at least it was all over.
I looked around at my surroundings, but I definitely wasn't in my room, and my outfit definitely wasn't my own. I was in a hospital gown. I was in a hospital room, and I was hooked up to a bunch of machines, monitoring me.
The door creaked open, revealing a doctor or nurse with a messy bun, and glasses. She looked at me and smiled. "Ah, Y/N you woke up." She said in a cheery voice. I furrowed my eyebrows. "What happened, why am I here?" My voice sounded like a grouchy old man. She looked at me with a sympathetic smile. "We found you in that giant forest fire." Suddenly it all came rushing back to me.
Toby. Where was he?
Right. He left me.
"You have a few minor burns, nothing to worry about." She said calmly. "You did inhale a good amount of smoke though. Your throat will hurt for a while. Oh, and that nasty shot on your leg. We need to keep you here for a couple of nights, just to monitor you." I nodded.
"Some people might come in to talk to you. They'll just need to ask you a few questions about the fire. I think they said something about gasoline." My heart jumped as the word, we're they onto me? She turned to me. "But I'm sure you had nothing to do with it." All I could do was smile and nod.
Three Months Later.
"I already told you, I was taking a break from work. I didn't start that fire." I sat in an interrogation room, with Seth sitting opposite to me, as he fired random questions. "Y/N you have been at the scene of, what is it now? Three crimes, in the past 6 months of you living here." I furrowed my brows. "I'm not going to say I did a crime I didn't do." Every lie made my heart speed up, and my mind race. I was scared he could read it. Seth sighed, and placed his hand on his head. "Listen Y/N. I really want to believe you didn't commit arson, but you were one of the only people there."
It was a fair argument, and he was right, I did do it, but this guy was a real pain in my ass. "Do you do this to the ten other people who were saved from the fire?" I asked quickly, and defensively. "That's none of your business." That meant no.
"Why do you think it was me? I had nothing on me, but my gun." He groaned. "Y/N, that's the problem. You had nothing but a gun, no camping equipment, snacks, or anything. Plus we couldn't find your car anywhere."
"I've already explained all of that to you. I got lost, all of my stuff was burned in the fire." The detective took a long breath. "Alright." He said as he stood up. "We're done here. Go home Y/N."
I did as he said, and as quickly as I could I left the building. Bee, the best neighbor anyone could ask for was waiting outside for me, as I cruched my way over to her.
I got in the front seat of her car. Ivan sat in the back seat, playing with a pair of toy airplanes. "How'd it go?" She said, with her normal smile. I smiled back. "How it always goes."
In the past three months my life had been turned upside down by that singular man. Every other week he would call me in, because he thought he had another thing on me. Does he ever actually have any evidence? No.
Even after the roaring fire stopped, he didn't. Arson was his biggest concern. Not the plenty of kids who had never been found before the fire.
I guess I couldn't blame everything on him. A good chunk was my fault. I mean I did start the fire. But that was never really my biggest concern. There was my leg and my throat. I got back to sounding like my normal self in a few weeks. But I was still stuck hobbling around, because it was taking a lot longer to heal.
Even then, that wasn't what I normally thought about. No. Instead I was consistently checking my windows, walking around parks, and going anywhere I thought I would see Toby. He couldn't be gone. He was somewhere out there, I knew it. I hadn't seen him yet, but that was okay. Because I would see him again.
"Y/N?" I snapped out of my thoughts, and hummed in response to Bee. "Your lease is ending soon right? Do you want to move in together?" Suddenly Toby was out of mind, as another chapter of my life opened.
Eagerly I accepted, and Ivan cheered in that background, because 'aunty Y/N could play more with him.'
TO BE CONTINUED
Final Chapter!
I really hope you guys like this book as much as I did. I just want to know that I will be making another one somewhere in the near future, so follow to know when that book is posted. (It'll be about Jeff the killer. No he's not going to be as horrible as he was in this book.)
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XOXO