“Then why would you say it like you don’t love me?” I whisper through jumbled thoughts. Emery Hastings never made sense, no matter how serious the topic was.

“Because I don’t like lying.” he stares at me intently. “And even though you would think I don’t love you, I would still be telling the truth.” I roll my eyes and turn my head to stare back at the ceiling.

“Are you going to remember any of this in the morning?” My eyes wander to the left to look at Emery, who’s grinning ear to ear.

“If I don’t, don’t remind me.” I grab one of my pillows and smack him with it as hard as I can. He laughs, covering his face as I continue to hit him with it. He grabs it and puts it back where it’s supposed to be as I glare at him.

“You’re mean.”

“Well, you’re nice.” My face scrunches in confusion at the compliment. “Can I change something?” I shrug at his question and he continues. “Can we just forget the bad things that happened between us, and act like we are right now for the time we have left?”

I avoid his eyes and sigh sadly. “You know you can stay here after your probation is up, Emery.” My heart begins to ache like it had been off and on our whole time together. “It’s obvious that you don’t want to.”

“River,” he murmurs, wrapping his left arm around my waist protectively. He pulls me into him and stares into my eyes. “I do, I really do. But I can’t do that to your family.”

“My dad offered,” I retort. “You wouldn’t be doing anything.”

“You don’t understand,” he sighs, closing his eyes. “Now that my dad knows where I am things are just going to get worse.”

I brush his dark hair out of his closed eyes. “He hasn’t done anything. It’s fine.” Emery shakes his head no. “Please, just stay. For me?” My eyes are pleading, and by his facial expression I can tell that it’s extremely hard to say no to me.

“We’ll see,” he sighs, tightening his grip around me. “I’ll think about it.” Mary walks out of the bathroom as our conversation grows quiet. Emery stretches his arms out and yawns. “I guess it’s time for bed.” He climbs off the bed as I sit up. “I’ll be on the couch.” He presses his lips lightly to my forehead then moves them to beside my ear. “I love you.”

I smile up at him as he pulls back and waves to Mary before leaving my bedroom. We crawl into bed and throw the covers overtop of us. Mary doesn’t say much as she’s too lost in drunken thoughts while I lean over the bedside table and blow out the candle. Snuggling deep into the mattress, I wish I let Emery sleep with me. Or at least, I wish he still had the mattress at the end of my bed.

“Do you think we will ever find love?” I ask, brushing Silver outside of the barn beside Ocean and Patch.

Ocean’s expression looks like something along the lines of disappointed. “Why would you even ask that?”

Shrugging, I brush Silver’s back. “Well, for starters we live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, and we are homeschooled.”

“Don’t be silly, River,” Ocean scolds, dropping her brush and walking to my side. Her arms are crossed as she faces me. “Someday a boy will turn up for you.”

Someone laughs darkly, and as I turn to the left, I see Mr. Hastings. He’s wearing his dirty faded white and stained wife-beater that barely covers his beer belly. He smokes a cigarette as he stops a few feet away from us.

“Get out of here,” I snap, my hands clenching into fists. “You’ve hurt Emery too much!” My words only make Emery’s father laugh harder.

“He will get what he deserves.” A gun appears in his right hand, and he raises it to point at Ocean. Then, there’s only a loud bang.

Gasping, I jerk straight up in bed, holding my heart and trying to suppress the scream that’s threatening to release in my throat. After I’ve calmed down, I realize that something woke me up, and it wasn’t from my dream. Looking over to Mary, I see she’s still fast asleep. I bet she passed out right away, and there’s no waking her up now.

My feet touch the cold floor as I walk towards my window. The storm had stopped, but lightning still flashes in the distance. I decide that Emery probably was getting something to drink, and bumped into something, and walk back towards the bed. I’m almost there when I hear the horses.

I wipe the foggy window with my hand and stare out it in shock. Silver and Patch are running out of the barn and across the field. Time seems like it slows down as they run like something is chasing them.

“Wake up!” I scream, grabbing a sweater off the floor and scrambling towards the door. “Wake the hell up!” Mary groans behind me as I run down the stairs, still screaming. I flick on a light to see if the power is on, and when it is, I turn every single one on in my path.

“What’s wrong?” Emery asks, leaning against the doorframe into the kitchen. He looks half-awake as he yawns with half open eyes.

“The horses are out!” I yell, putting on my shoes as fast as I can. “Go get Mary and come help me!” He nods and bounds up the stairs as I grab the emergency flashlight off the counter. King comes running and barking as I open the back door. Together, we burst into the night.

The horses are too far away to get without the truck, but first I would need halters. Besides, figuring out why they were running through the fields would ease my questioning mind. I whistle for King to go round up the horses and he bounds into the field at incredible speed. On my own, when I reach the barn, a creepy feeling works its way up my spine and settles around me.

The barn doors that were open when I looked through my window are now closed. Flicking on my flashlight, I gently press my fingertips to the wood. Pushing gently, the doors squeak eerily as they slowly swing open. I take a deep breath and tell myself that I’m getting worked up over nothing. Leaning my head into view of the barn, I see that the lights are on. Someone has to be here.

“What’s going on?” I jump back from the doors at Mary’s voice. Turning around angrily, I see she’s standing on the porch beside Emery as she clutches her jacket tightly in the breeze.

“Something’s not right, call your parents,” I call to her, but she only shakes her head.

“I already tried! I didn’t bring my phone, and yours isn’t working!” My heart starts to beat rapidly in my chest. All the blood fades from my face as realization hits. Someone’s here and I have a feeling I know who it is. I could go back to the house and lock us inside, but it’s already too late. Someone could have easily sneaked inside while I headed out to the barn.

“Go get help!” I yell to Mary, who nods. I hold my breath as she runs into the house to get the keys. There’s a moment of silence when I wait for the piercing scream, but it doesn’t come. I exhale loudly as she runs towards my truck.

“Try the phone again!” I yell to Emery, who nods and walks into the farmhouse. With shaky hands, I aim the flashlight inside of the barn. From scary movie watching experience, I know that I just broke quite a few rules. Splitting up on our own, going into the barn by myself, and sending Mary to get help weren’t the best ideas. However in the middle of nowhere, I don’t really have many other options.

I hold my breath again as I look around the single isle of the barn. I see no one, so I take a quiet breath and step inside. Judging by the open stall doors, I know for sure that someone let them out. The horses can’t undo a lock all by themselves. I’ve seen videos of a horse doing it before, but that was very unlikely. Besides, two of them being able to free themselves seems impossible.

I know I shouldn’t say anything, but the silence is killing me and making things worse by the second. “Hello?” I call gently, trying to hide the fear in my voice. Every slow step I take feels worse than the one before. “You better leave; the police are on their way!”

I get no response as I take another step. Looking around cautiously, I can hear my heart beating in my ears from the adrenaline pulsing through my veins. I know I should check the loft, but I wasn’t feeling adventurous enough to check it by myself. My body starts to turn around to go get Emery when I scream.

Everything is moving too fast for me to comprehend what’s going on. Strong arms wrap around my torso, pinning my arms down and forcing me to drop my flashlight. It makes a small thump and rolls a few feet away. Instinctively, I wiggle, kick, and scream to escape the man that’s holding onto me.

“Oh shut the fuck up!” The man screams, pushing me forward. I stumble a few feet away and turn around to face Mr. Hastings. He points a silver pistol towards me angrily, ready to shoot at any given time. “Emery is going to die tonight, whether you attempt to stop me or not.” My heart is beating so fast in my chest that I feel like I’m having a heart attack. Emery’s father’s face is a clear sign to me that he’s been drinking an awful lot, and making him mad doesn’t seem like such a good idea. But I need to stall him until Mary gets help.

“My friend went to get help!” I yell, trying to slow my breathing in the fear that has settled inside me. “And Emery is phoning the police!”

Mr. Hastings laughs, and reaches into his back pocket with his free hand. When he removes it, he holds his palm open towards me. “That won’t be happening.” In his hand, is a bunch of wires and the reason why my phone isn’t working.

“You won’t get away with this,” I snap, clenching my fists together at my sides. “You better leave before you get caught.”

He only shakes his head as his grip on the gun trembles, obviously from his lack of sobriety. He looks like he’s about to respond, but he doesn’t get the chance. Emery kicks open the barn door and stands there, facing us in pure shock and hatred, holding my dad’s shotgun.

“Emery!” I cry out, as time slows down. My footsteps feel too slow as I run towards him, my arms outstretched. Without thinking, I knew I had to get him out of here; I have to save him. If only we could get out of the closed space and run away, we would be safe.

My fingertips are about to reach him when Mr. Hastings grabs the back of my collar, yanking me back. His left arm wraps around me while his right shoves the cold metal of the pistol to my right temple. There’s a clicking noise of metal against metal, as he pulls back on the hammer, signifying that he’s ready to put a bullet in my head.

Emery holds the shotgun steady, aiming it directly at his father, but we all know he can’t shoot. I’m being used as a human shield as his father holds me in front of him. Emery’s eyes are wide, full of worry and hate.

“Put down the gun, Emery,” snaps his father, shoving the gun harder into the side of my head to make a point. “Or I’ll kill her.”