Chào các bạn! Vì nhiều lý do từ nay Truyen2U chính thức đổi tên là Truyen247.Pro. Mong các bạn tiếp tục ủng hộ truy cập tên miền mới này nhé! Mãi yêu... ♥

Chapter Ten

Mackenzie had been watching television when the doorbell rang, the loud sound echoing through the house. She had gotten off of the sofa to get the door, but her Aunt had beat her to it. Mackenzie watched with curiosity as her aunt ran to the door, opening it in haste.

Mackenzie walked over to the door, standing behind her aunt. From her position she could see two men who were at the door, both of them in police uniforms. One man was older, his hair greying while the other man was younger, his blonde hair pushed back from his face.

Mackenzie's eyes widened when she was the guns which hung on the policemen's belts, and she had to remind herself to breathe for a few seconds. Ever since she had seen Christopher pointing that gun and since she had seen Christopher shot, Mackenzie had always been deeply unsettled by the sight of a gun. She told herself that they were the good guys, the people who help, the people who wanted to help her sister, and that calmed her down.

'Did you find her? Did you get Christopher?' Her aunt almost yelled, anxiety clear in her voice. Mackenzie's hand came to rest on the back of her Aunt's leg, the presence of two new people in the doorway still unsettling the girl.

'Do you mind if we come in?' The older cop said. This caused her aunt to pause for a moment before hesitantly speaking.

'Follow me.' Her aunt told them, but as she turned she saw Mackenzie, sending a weak smile to the girl.

'Mackenzie, why don't you go up to bed, it's late.'

'I want to hear.' she replied, looking back at the cops.

Her aunt glanced at the cops before turning her attention back to the little girl. Her expression was sorrowful as she spoke, 'Go up to your room honey.'

Mackenzie wanted to know what was going on, but her Aunt refused to tell her anything the entire afternoon and she doubted that this would be an exception, so she nodded hesitantly, turning and walking up the stairs. She was going to go to her room, but instead she went into Rosalie's room. Rosalie's bed was bigger than hers, and Mackenzie was always jealous of that. Mackenzie jumped into the bed, pulling the warm blankets up to her shoulders.

The door to the bedroom was slightly ajar, and Mackenzie sighed as the door opened further, figuring her aunt was going to make her go back to her room, but instead of her aunt, Mackenzie's dog appeared.

The little white puppy ran into the room, stopping at the edge of the bed and jumping up and down in excitement.

'Snowy!' Mackenzie smiled, reaching down the side of the bed to gather the puppy in her arms and pulling it onto the bed with her.

The puppy curled up to the little girl, the two of them getting lost in the big blankets that covered them. Mackenzie stroked the puppy's soft fur, 'Don't worry, I'm sure Rose is ok' she cooed to the little dog, but what she said was more to reassure herself than the animal.

<><><><><><><><><><><><>

'What's going on? Please tell me that you've found Rose,' Lani pled with the cops who were sitting opposite her at the small dining room table. Lani's hands were resting on the table, her fingers moving nervously as she spoke.

The older cop glanced at the younger one before speaking, 'We haven't been able to locate either the cabin or Christopher Bryant.'

That was good and bad news as far as Lani was concerned. It gave her hope that her niece was still alive, that they hadn't found any reason to suspect that she had been harmed. Lani still wished that it was better news, news that would put her to ease. She wished that the cops would have just told her that Rosalie and her friends were safe, but instead all she got was more uncertainty, more reasons to worry.

'You can't find the cabin? Doesn't Sadie's parents have the address? Or her brother?' She asked, remembering what Rosalie had told her about the cabin being owned by Sadie's family. Lani felt a sudden pang, as she wondered whether Sadie was alright. They were just kids, up at that cabin, they deserved safety, not tragedy and hardship.

The cop shook his head, 'We were unable to get in touch with them until tonight, and by the time we found the address it was too dark to start the search.'

'Too dark?' she said, eyes wide. She wondered why on earth they weren't able to drive in the dark. The police force was not made up of old women who couldn't see at night. 'Couldn't you just drive up there now?'

He shook his head sadly, 'The roads in those woods are dangerous at night, but Sadie's brother is going to come with the search team at first light.'

Lani put her head in her hands for a few moments before bringing her eyes up to look at the cops. 'So what you are saying is that my niece is stuck in the woods all night?'

The young cop leant forward and she assumed his expression was supposed to inspire reassurance but it was actually the epitome of uncertainty, 'Miss, we don't know if Christopher Bryant even knows where Rosalie is. We have no reason to believe that she is in any immediate dangers.'

'He's right' the older cop said, 'She is in a group, there is safety in numbers.'

The young cop nodded his expression finally becoming more reassuring as he spoke, 'The odds are that even if Christopher Bryan holds a grudge against her, he has just gotten free. His thoughts are most likely on avoiding capture more than finding Rose. By morning we will be at the cabin, and we will be able to bring Rose back to you, safe and sound.'

Lani nodded. What they were saying did make sense. 'Ok, thank-you officers.'

'It's getting late, we should let you get some rest' the older man said, 'We will be in contact with you the moment we find your niece. There's a patrol car outside your house, if you have any problems go straight to them or call us.'

Lani nodded.

'We can see ourselves out.'

The two cops left the room, both sending reassuring glances to Lani.

The second that she was alone, tears filled Lani's eyes. Lani had promised her sister that if anything was to happen to her that she would care for her children. She took that promise seriously and when she was called, late one night, and told that her sister and brother-in-law had been murdered, she instantly told the cops that she was on her way to get the children.

Rosalie had been in shock, not saying anything, just crying and holding her sister close. Mackenzie was confused, asking for her parents, which only caused Rosalie to cry more. Lani had taken them both to her house, cared for them, became the only family they had left, and Lani was determined to give them the lives that they deserved.

Lani felt like she had failed. The thought that Rosalie was out there somewhere, hurt and alone was what scared Lani the most.

She told herself to calm down, that what the police said made sense, Rosalie was probably fine.

The thought was somewhat reassuring, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to breathe easy until she was sure that Rosalie was safe.

Lani walked around the house, turning off the lights as she did.

Eventually she made it up to Mackenzie's room. She opened the door quietly, as not to disturb the sleeping child. Lani looked over the room, but saw no sign of the child.

'Mackenzie?' she asked, pulling back the covers on the bed, but the girl wasn't there.

Panic rose up in Lani's chest and she panicked, what if Christopher had hurt Mackenzie?

Running, she ran into her own room, searching it, but coming up with nothing. Next she ran to Rosalie's room, swinging the door open and taking a deep breath.

Nestled between the sheets lay a sleeping girl, a puppy asleep above the blankets. Relief washed over Lani as she pressed a soft kiss to the girl's cheek. She quietly left the room and walked to her own.

She tossed and turned as she tried to sleep, her thoughts on Rosalie.

Rose has to be alright. She just has to be.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>



Rosalie thought of Mackenzie as she laid above the blankets of her and Benjamin's bed. She wondered if Mackenzie was alright, whether their Aunt was putting her to bed on time and whether she was missing her. She wondered whether her Aunt was aware that Christopher was out of the mental institution. Rosalie felt the immediate need to write the correction authority a strongly worded letter about the security of their facilities.

She assumed that someone must have noticed that Christopher was missing, meaning that someone must be looking for her. They knew that Christopher would hold a grudge, and her Aunt had told Rosalie that before letting him go that the authorities would give her notice. Rosalie received no notice, so he must have escaped.

That did provide some relief, if he escaped then someone must be looking for her. Maybe they wouldn't be stuck in these woods all night.

Hopefully.

Rosalie felt some relief to know that if Christopher was in these woods, then there was no way that he was able to hurt Mackenzie. Rosalie decided she would rather die herself than let harm come to her baby sister. That was also true to her friends, but she couldn't control that.

Even if she did go out into the woods, offer herself up to Christopher, the odds were he would still hurt her friends, and Rosalie was not willing to take that chance.

Rosalie decided to have a shower, letting the warm water wash away her stress. She got off the bed but as she made her way to her suitcase to get her clothes she heard yelling.

It was only for a few seconds before the voices became hushed again.

She wondered what on earth Parker and Benjamin would have to argue about right now. She walked to the door, slowly opening it. Parker and Benjamin's voices were louder now, but she still couldn't hear what they were arguing about.

She walked silently down the hallway, passing Sadies room as she went. She wondered slightly why Sadie hadn't come out to see what all the commotion was about, but decided her friend was probably too upset to worry about it.

The paused at the top of the stairs, being able to hear the words clearly now. A part of Rosalie wondered whether she should have just gone down stairs and spoken to them, but there was something that made her pause at the top of the staircase, listening to what was said with open ears and a curious mind.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Parker was sick of arguing with Benjamin. He wanted to tell Sadie and Rosalie. They deserved to know the truth.

Benjamin wasn't listening to him, so Parker resorted to using volume to make him listen. 'Rosalie is upstairs right now blaming herself Ben!' he screamed, and Benjamin put a hand over his mouth.

Parker pushed the hand away, 'what the hell!?'

'She is going to hear you!' Benjamin stressed.

'Yeah, well, sorry Ben, we can't really step outside to talk about this because there is a CRAZED SERIAL KILLER OUT THERE!' Parker yelled dramatically, swinging his arms around as he spoke.

'Would you please shut up?' Benjamin sat on the sofa with his head in his hands.

Parker huffed, sitting down on the adjacent sofa.

'Don't you think I want to tell her?' Benjamin brought his eyes up to meet Parkers, 'I want to tell her, more than anything. It hurts me so much when she blames herself, but I just can't.'

Benjamin looked torn, in fact, his entire face screamed it. Parker felt sympathy for him, sure, but Rosalie deserved to know the truth.

'Why can't you tell her?'

'She will hate me Parker, all she will see is that I lied and I broke her and Chris up so that I could be with her.' Benjamin said with pain in his voice.

'That is what you did though,' Parker said as gently as he could.

'Yes, but there's more to it than that, you know that. You remember how he treated us, how he treated everyone except her.'

'What we did,' Parker spoke steady and calmly, 'caused him to go into a downward spiral that ended with him killing her parents. Now Deon is dead, and by the looks of it, he is going to try to hurt us. That's on us Ben, not anyone else.'

Benjamin sat up straight, looking Parker in the eyes.

'I know' he said sorrowfully, gently biting hit bottom lip, 'W-What we did, it was terrible.'

Parker looked down at his hands, a fresh wave of guilt flowing over him until his eyes went blurry with guilt ridden tears. Maybe Rosalie was better off not knowing, not knowing that the people closest to her were the ones which had a hand in destroying her life. They had deceived her, kept secrets from her for over a year and if they told her now it would only further her pain. Parker understood that now. Rosalie didn't deserve any more pain, she had already been through a lifetime of it.

Parker was going to say something, in fact, he opened his mouth to say it, but as he looked up to speak to Benjamin all that he saw was the girl standing behind him.

Parkers mouth opened and closed a few times, his eyes wide, as he realised what he had done.

Rosalie knew.

She stood behind Benjamin, fresh tears streaming down her face, but her eyes, they weren't sad. Her eyes held a fire and an anger that scared Parker. He had never truly seen Rosalie angry, but her expression, the betrayed way that she was looking at them both, it broke a piece of his heart.

What have I done?

Feel free to drop a vote and/or comment, I would love to hear how you're liking the story so far and if there's anything I can improve on.

Any scenes that you're particularly looking forward to?

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro