Chapter 14: Crashing Down
Sure, I probably shouldn’t have gone after them myself, I shouldn’t have done this so soon, when I only had half a clue where I’m going. But you see, when someone you love is taken, you don’t always think carefully, you just go by instinct and emotion, and hope that everything words out for the best. “Take a right turn up here,” Tristen said and I did, not even thinking as I turned the wheel.
“What next?” I asked, my sights set on the road as I pushed the gas pedal as far as it would go, a small voice in the back of my mind telling me that I should be careful, but it was far quieter than any other thought ranging through my mind.
“Are you okay?” Tristen asked, and if I had been paying attention, I would have seen how tense he was in the car, or how tightly my fingers were gripping the steering wheel.
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t be doing this. I mean, let the police handle this, it’s their job.”
Wise words, should I have been in a mental state to understand the logic of them. “What if they’re too late? What if he’s hurt, or scared, or thinks that we just abandoned him. No, I’m not putting him through that, he deserves to have some happy times with the family when the only thing he has to worry about is that Julia will ambush him with another hug or that Mom got the numbers mixed up on the microwave and that his dinner was still mostly frozen. I won’t let him go back to that life when he’s too scared to do anything, too panicked to trust anyone, I can’t let him go back.”
As I said this the speedometer showed that the car’s speed was nearing triple digits.
I never knew how fast this old car could go until I nearly pressed the gas pedal through the floor. It’s funny, you’d think during that time I’d be frantic, yelling, wanting to tear someone’s head off.
But no, at least for that brief time, my focus was unbreakable as the buildings flew by us like the clouds soar by while flying in a plane.
“Another right here,” Tristen said. I firmly gripped the wheel and turned it, bringing my car into what would be oncoming traffic during the day to maximize radius of the curve thereby making it so I didn’t need to slow down as much.
“What next?” I asked, the softness in my voice something that seemed to shake him. Tristen then went through some swipes on the tablet while trying to answer my question, so I just focused on the road in front of me.
“Um, looks like they’re taking the highway now, they’re speeding up too.”
“Three miles.”
“Huh?”
“That’s the range.” Even driving as fast as I could, the speed ups and slowdowns were too much for me to be able to keep in range if they ended up getting to the highway in time. We’d been lucky so far, the amount of time that it took to get out of the plat made them slow down. There weren’t going to attract attention to themselves by speeding now, no, they’d already won.
Or at least that’s what they probably thought.
I wondered what Jace was thinking.
Did he think that I’d forgotten about him?
Did he think that I’d just leave him?
Did he think that I was lying when I said we were his family?
I blew by a car that was going too slow, dodging the couple other cars that were out on the roads as we got to the busier streets. If I had been smart, I would have been worried about the police finding us, but I didn’t.
“It looks like we’re getting closer to him,” Tristen said.
That brought some relief to me, but not enough, not nearly enough. As long as that crazy woman had Jace, he wouldn’t be safe. All those things that he told me, the memories, and the night when that strange song got to him, he couldn’t go back to a world like that; I wouldn’t allow it.
“How much longer until the highway entrance?” I asked.
“Looks like another mile if you keep taking this road.”
I thought about the streets, if there’d be a quicker way to cut through this neighborhood. But no, that would be too many turns, and the cars parked along the street would make it hard to go as fast as I needed.
We soon made it to the freeway, and while there were a couple more cars driving through than our small town, there wasn’t enough to keep me from pushing my car as fast it would go. We were heading in the direction of Brookings, a route I had taken many times before. I knew every curve in the road and every bump caused by poor construction. Normally I didn’t drive too fast, only speeding a little bit when I got the chance. Although this night, nothing could have been fast enough. The car started shaking, vibrating in ways that were sure to be a bad sign.
“They’re 2 miles straight ahead,” Tristen said.
“Hold on Jace, I’ll be there soon.”
“Just be careful, Caleb,” Tristen said. “I know how you feel, but Jace wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself over this.”
Looking back, Tristen was probably saying this for his own safety as well. I mean, any other time if I was with a 16 year old trying to do 100 miles an hour down the highway with a car that’s older than I was, I’d be worried too.
“I know what I’m doing,” I said, far surer of the plan I didn’t have than I should have been. All I cared about what finding them, catching up to Jace. What I’d do after that, well, I’d figure that out when I got to them.
The miles flew by us, the car’s shaking getting worse as I tried pushing as much speed out of it as I possibly could. But then I saw it, a large black van that would look like an ordinary vehicle any other time.
“That’s it,” Tristen said as I slowed my car so I would just blow past it.
“He’s in there then?”
“Yep, I’m sure of it.”
“Good.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
It was at this point the pure focus I’d put into finding Jace faded away.
Here I was, driving down the highway at breakneck speeds dressed in my pajamas going after some heavily armed and dangerous criminals, all because of the love of my brother.
It would be stupid to do anything, but would the point of this be if I just ended up tailgating some kidnappers? What good would that do?
“We have to get them to stop,” I said.
“How?”
The simplest answer would have to be to force them off the road, use once of those fancy police spikes to give them four flat tires, but it wasn’t like there were any random police blockades nearby. And it wasn’t like I could do much to their large van when my car could barely fit two people. I ended up pulling up on the right side of the van, acting like I was going to pass it hoping to get a look into the van, hoping to at least see Jace.
However, there Ren was, and she gave me a look while as she rolled down her window, obviously recognizing me. She grinned at me, and this smirk told me how crazy this idea really was. “Caleb, that’s a gun.”
Sure enough, Ren had brought her gun out which I could barely see against the dark of the night. I saw her release the safety on it, and a shot was fired just as I slammed on the brakes forcing the bullet to miss us.
“That was too close,” Tristen said.
By point she had to know that we had some way to track Jace, and that secret was the only advantage we had over her. With Ren’s skill with the gun, she could probably just pop one of my tires, which would make it impossible to keep up with them, so we might lose Jace forever. And even if I just stayed out of range, they’d know that we were following them.
So, what should I have done?
I still don’t know.
But I did the first thing I could think of.
I sped up, not willing to let them get away, this time coming up on their left, that way I’d be safe from Ren’s gun. They had started to go faster, but it wasn’t enough for them to get away from me. I had to stop them; that was the only thing on my mind and the only thing that mattered. I locked eyes with the driver, as if telling him that I wasn’t going to give up. Going even faster now, I got in front of them by barely a foot, and then I pulled over in their lane and slammed on the brake while also throwing on the emergency brake, causing their van to slam into my car at full speed.
The impact and the sudden stop threw me forward, my chest banging into the steering wheel along with my head hitting something. The sudden impact made it impossible to see straight as my car started spinning off to the side of the road. I tried to keep my car going forward, but it they wheel would barely move, instead the car found its way into the guardrail on the side of the road. I saw smoke coming from their van’s engine, obviously damaged but it was still going. And despite the fact that I wanted to run after them, chase them down on foot if my car couldn’t, the sudden dizziness and sleepiness became too much, so I passed out.
…
That’s the story.
I know, you were hoping that everything would go back to normal, that Jace would become a part of our big happy family and everyone would get their happily ever after. But if it all turned out like that, I don’t think I’d be writing this.
It’s been three weeks since Jace was taken from us, I’ve been in the hospital recovering from the injuries of the crash since then. The police have been here, have taken statements, asked questions, and went to investigate how Jace even entered the foster child system. I don’t know all the details of why yet, I’m hoping I will eventually though. I noticed some teen who seemed to just be a visitor of the hospital drop what appeared to be an FBI badge before scurrying to pick it up. I thought he might be investigating this case but he never talked to us.
The police tried using that tracking app to find Jace, but we imagined that Ren found the device on Jace and destroyed it.
Where is Jace now?
I don’t know.
Is he okay?
I don’t know.
Will I ever get to see him again?
I pray every night that God would let it happen.
But I don’t know.
The good news is that Mom’s okay, or at least she will be. Thanks to Julia, the damage done by the bullet wasn’t that bad, and they got her to the hospital quick enough to help her and she went back home a couple weeks ago. Tristen was bruised pretty badly in the crash too, but he only needed a couple days in the hospital. Since then he’s been bringing my school work to me and tried to keep me connected to the outside world. It’s amazing, it was my stupidity that ended up getting him hurt, but he won’t even let me apologize. He’s said something about knowing how it feels to lose a part of the family before trying to change the subject
And I’ve been writing this, the life that Jace and I had together. I’m writing this so you know about it, so that you know what he went through, and what he still is. More than that, I’m writing so that I might be able to find him again. Wherever Ren took him, I’m sure it’s someone not easy to find. But maybe, if you know about him, know his story, then they won’t just be able to hide in plain sight.
I’m also writing this for myself. If I had told my parents about Jace’s rampage, maybe something could have been done to save Jace. I’m not making that mistake again. This is the truth, every ugly secret I hid, every stupid decision I made, it’s all here.
So, there you have it, the story of Jace. His story, my story, the story of this family, whatever you want to call it. At least, the story so far. For stories rarely end where the book stops. But they have to end somewhere, and where I’m at now, it’s all I know.
A/N: Yes, this is the final chapter of this story. I’ll be honest, when I was first writing this chapter, I didn’t think it would be the end, but things came together, and it really made sense, especially when thinking about why Caleb would detail is life with Jace like this. I’ll be honest, I was wanting a happier ending with this, and didn’t like the ideas I came up with that involved Jace dying in the climax.
However, there is a good chance this story will get a sequel. What exactly will happen in it, I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait and see.