Frisbee.
They played Frisbee, enjoying the heat of the sun. Everyone was playing, apart from Dustin, who had chosen to drink his vodka alone.
Taren excelled in the game, his speed and skills impressed Ruth and Amanda. A moment after, thunders warned them as lightning flashed, clouds making its way to cover the sun.
"I think we should go."
Emily hurried to the tent, Taren following behind her. As they started to collect their things and detached the tents, a loud groan of thunder echoed, a drop of rain fell straight at Taren's nose.
He grabbed Emily's bags, and offered his hand to her, his eyes seemed getting clearer.
"Hurry up, guys!" Ruth shouted as rain poured, all of them jogging towards the front gate.
Emily clasped his hand, his warmth ran through her, travelling up her neck. He helped her inside the car and threw the bags on the trunk. The weatherman wasn't bluffing, now they knew it.
"Put on your seatbelt, Taren," she ordered as she drove away from Camp Garden.
- - - - -
"Crap, I can't see," she murmured to herself as she focused her eyes on the road. The heavy rain tapped her windows, the light fog made it impossible to see the road clearly. It was as if they were inviting trouble to get them.
"No one's ahead, just drive straight," Taren said.
"How would you know that?"
"I have good eye sight," he answered with a smile. "Just trust me."
The howl of the wind was quite terrifying, tall trees swaying like they were about to crack any moment now. As she looked ahead and followed the wild bustling of tree, her heart skipped a beat at the sight of it finally snapping, the body hitting the ground with a loud thud.
She stepped on the break, bracing herself, staring at the log hindering their way home.
"Crap! Crap!" she frowned as she patted her chest to calm her wild heartbeat. "Now we're stuck!"
Taren unfastened his seatbelt and ticked off the lock.
Emily grabbed his arm, eyebrow on a raise. "What are you doing?" she asked slowly.
"Getting that log out of the way."
She smiled at him. "You can't carry that log just by yourself. We have to call- "
But Taren was out of the car before she could even finish her sentence.
"Hey, Taren!"
He jogged towards the fallen tree, another gushed of wind blew the area. Rain poured on him, the drops were a bit heavy on the skin but he didn't care. He carried the log as if it weighs nothing, getting it out of the way just like what he had told her. After putting it on the side street, he hurried back to the car, his shirt dripping.
Emily's eyes were wide at the sight of him.
"You can do that? How... how did you..."
The moment the cool air hit Taren's skin, he shivered, hugging himself to ease the coldness. Emily instantly turned off her air conditioning and pressed the heater.
"Hang on," she started to drive again, her speed attracting accident.
Two police cars were parked in front of the mansion, a black BMW too, making her confused. The lights were flashing, like the one seen in the movies. Emily slowed down and turned at Taren who looked puzzled too.
"Stay here," she said and got out of the car, putting her hoodie on.
She approached them and saw Peter talking to one of the police.
"What's going on?" she asked.
Peter looked relieved upon seeing her. "Emily."
"What's going on?" she repeated.
"Ms. Martin," the thin police chimed in. "We were alerted by your security system, three hours ago, at ten in the morning. We were trying to call you but you're not answering your phone so we called your father's secretary."
"Someone broke into my house?" she said and looked at Peter.
He nodded, face worried. "It's better if we let them have an investigation."
She thought for a moment. "Did you catch anyone? I mean... the burglar?"
"We don't know who it was," the police said. "Can we go inside and check the tapes?"
"Uh, yeah, sure."
She glanced back at her car trying to see through the black tint on her window to see Taren. But she couldn't make him out from her spot.
Leading them inside, she saw the front door torn, the camera in the living room was ripped off its place in the ceiling.
Max hurried towards her, jumping and barking, telling her something she couldn't understand. She smoothen his neck and embraced him, soothing the restless dog.
They all watched the recorded tape, all of them quiet and focused. As the front door blasted open, a stranger girl with a black hoodie jacket and a mask covering her face, walked straight at the camera and did something. A moment after, camera one lost its signal. Some more minutes passed, the stranger wandered around the mansion, spraying some black tint on each camera to conceal her.
"Report this to Mr. Altaran," Emily said as she fished out her cellphone from her jeans pocket. "I want this taken care of."
"Do you have any place to stay for tonight?" asked the officer.
Another officer came in, gently tapping the door to get their attention. He showed them a black hoodie jacket, the exact thing the burglar had on.
"I found this," he uttered.
"That's mine," Emily said, a frown on her forehead.
The two officers looked at each other.
"You mind if we take this?"
"Why? For what?"
He put it in a plastic and sealed it.
"Ms. Martin," called the other police officer. He pressed the replay button, the video showing the stranger girl wandering around the mansion. He then gently pointed the image when he pause the recorded video. "Can you confirm it is the same jacket?"
Emily narrowed her eyes and made out what the burglar was wearing. Same jacket as hers. "So what if we have the same jacket? Besides, mine was in the laundry room for weeks now."
He said nothing, blank face, enough to tell her he wasn't buying her story.
"Are you insinuating that I was that girl?"
He shrugged his shoulder. "I'm not saying anything."
"Why would I broke into my own house?" she argued, blood rushing through her system. "This is bull."
"Ms. Martin, we are not concluding anything here. We were just alerted by your security system that someone broke in. We were trying to get to you but you weren't answering your cellphone so we went here to check what's going on. Following your late father's protocol, if we can't contact you, we get to Mr. Ramirez, his secretary. So now, we're all here."
She just stared at the officer.
"Now, let me ask you," he continued. "Who's that girl?"
Emily crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you asking if I'm that girl?"
He nodded.
"No."
"Then we'll have to conduct an investigation," he stated. "We'll contact you as soon as possible. It's best if you stay with a relative."
She excused herself and called her father's lawyer. She told him what had happened and he advice her to just go with her mother's place for a moment.
"No, I can't."
"Emily," Atty. Forte said, "it's best if you stay with her just for tonight."
"But- "
"You've asked for my advice, now I'm giving it to you."
She exhaled, the stubborn part of her wanted to oppose but she had no choice but to take that advice. The nearest hotel in Elton was a two-hour drive, not to mention the heavy pouring of the rain.
Taren.
She almost forgot. She packed some clothes and headed straight outside, looking for her car.
"Everything okay, Emily?" Peter asked.
"Yeah, I hope so," she replied, Max trailing behind her, barking.
"You sure you wanna stay with your mom?"
She put out a sad smile. "Just for tonight."
Peter nodded and closed the gap between them. "I had a lead on your father's experiment."
That made her heart pound. She instantly shot a look at her car, still couldn't make out Taren's presence inside it.
"He's here in Elton," he whispered.
"How did you know?" she asked.
"Someone in Autumn confirmed that he saw the guy in one of the restaurant's bathroom."
Another heartbeat skipped but Emily displayed her puzzled face.
"I'll let you know as soon as I got news."
She just nodded. "Thanks, Pete."
Emily put on her hoodie over her head and crossed the street, hurrying towards her car. Max jogged behind her, tail lowered down, hating the cold rain. She opened the car and let Max jump in. When she climbed in the driver's seat, it was clear that Taren wasn't there.
"Taren?" she looked around her car. "Come on, you can come out now."
There was no response. Max shook his body, spitting away the wetness in his hair.
Emily closed her eyes and slapped the steering wheel, feeling tired and anxious. First, her ex-boyfriend turned up and ruined her day. Second, someone broke into her house and third, she had no idea where Taren went. Everything seemed to go under her nerve, annoying the crap out of her. And she didn't like being hassled like that. Not when her father wasn't there to take care of things.
Taking a deep breath, she composed herself and calmed her nerves, trying to drown everything that happened.
"Taren?" she called out in whisper. "Please, come out."
Max braked too, calling out to him.
Heavy drops of rain hammered her window, the only noise her ears could hear. Resting her head on the back seat with closed eyes, she waited some more for Taren.
But she knew he had left.