"Yes," Gabriel says, jumping up and down. He pulls my hand toward his playroom in the back of the house. The floor-to-ceiling windows view the backyard and the big pool Ethan put in right next to the enormous play structure the guys spent a weekend building last year. The worn hammock remains in the yard. No matter how tattered it gets, they refuse to get rid of it.
Placing Aubrey down, I sit on the plush beige carpet in the middle of the room. Gabriel goes on and on about all of his toys while Aubrey brings me one doll after another. I kiss her sweet little cheeks every single time. When she finally brings her last doll over, she turns and sits in the middle of my legs, gibbering the whole time. I’ve missed so much by not being home, but watching these two grow up is what I missed the most.
Even though I saw them during our regular FaceTime sessions, it’s not the same. I hear the rain start, and I look outside the window and see that the dark clouds have taken over. "It’s raining cats and dogs," Gabriel says, and I laugh at him, knowing Grandma taught him that.
"Why don’t we go take a nice bubble bath?" We clean up the room, then I walk back to their bathroom. By the time they’ve finished their bath, I have to put down four towels to clean up our splashing. I tie my hair on top of my head as I dress them both and then walk back into the kitchen to warm a bottle up.
While I wait for the microwave to beep, a huge clap of thunder makes me jump. I laugh, thinking I’m being silly. Rainstorms are my favorite, but I don’t like the thunder and lightning that go along with them. "That was a big one." I look out the kitchen window but can’t see anything since the rain is coming down so hard.
I’m rocking Aubrey to sleep when thunder claps again, and this time, I see the lightning through the windows.
The lights flicker, but the kids are oblivious to the fact a storm is raging outside. I place her in bed and check on Gabriel, who is fast asleep.
I close his door just a touch and walk back to the living room starting to clean up when the lights flicker again. I walk to the kitchen, looking for candles in case the lights go out.
The lightning outside is intense this time. It lights up the whole sky, the rain not letting up, and now it sounds as if little pellets are hitting the windows. I find the candle at the same time I hear a soft ticking. Tick. Tick. Tick.
I look around, walking to the back door to make sure it’s locked as another round of lightning starts, this time with a roaring sound of thunder first. "Someone is getting their asses kicked tonight." I walk toward the front door, where I can still hear the ticking.
A tree branch is swaying from the wind and hitting the front window. I turn off most of the lights and sit down when it sounds like two rocks being crushed together fills the whole house, and the lights go out.
"Great," I say to myself, getting up. I’m ready to send Ethan a text to tell him that we are fine when the thunder starts again, but this time, there is also banging on the door.
I drop the phone as my hands go to my chest. Making my way through the darkness, I slowly head to the front door. The streaks of lightning give me some light as I get to the door and look out the peephole.
All I see is a black lump. My head screams at me not to open the door while my hands reach out my hand going to the lock and turning it.
I start to pull it open, and it’s pushed in by someone bent over. I scream, not sure what to do. The lightning gives me just enough light to see that the man is bloody. His face is bruised and battered, and he has blood everywhere along with dirt. His dirty white shirt is soaked through from the rain, and parts of his shirt are pink from the blood. My heart pounds in my chest, the fear creeping in as I look to turn and grab the kids. I back away from him as he crashes into the table in the hallway, the vase of flowers crashing down now at the same time as the thunder strikes again.
He holds up one hand, and I can see the dripping blood. "Oh my god."
"Help." It’s the only thing he says to me before falling to the floor in front of me.
Chapter 2
Mayson
"Help." It comes out in a whisper as my legs finally give out on me, and I fall to the floor. My knees hitting it with a whack at the same time as another clap of thunder fills the air.
"Oh my god," I hear the woman say, and I try to see her, but everything is blurry. I lift my hand, but it just falls to the floor when the darkness starts to suck me under.
"Ethan," she says his name frantically as I try to place the voice. "Ethan, someone just came to the house. He’s bloody, and he’s lying on the floor. He’s not in good shape." The sound of rain fills the room, and I can see the flickers of lightning as I try to make my way back up to the surface.
I hear her running around, and I wonder what she’s doing when I hear the door close with a slam, making her yell and the phone clatter to the floor. "It’s okay," I try to tell her, but the only thing that comes out is a moan.
I feel her beside me, then she rolls me over to my back, and a gasp escapes her. "Can you hear me?" She leans over me, and I want to tell her I hear her, but nothing comes out.
All the adrenaline coursing through me from the past three hours suddenly wears off, leaving me in a heap in the middle of Ethan’s house.
Crawling in the middle of darkness, I scan the area until I know where the path opens. Finding the tree big enough to take cover in, I slowly rise to my feet, ignoring the slicing pain in both legs from where he stabbed me. My body molds to the tree as I swallow, and the sky opens up in a downpour. The water falls through the trees right on me, soaking the shirt on my back and causing my jeans to mold to me. I take a step forward, and my knees give out on me. "I will not die here," I tell the universe as soon as the thunder claps back.
"There is blood everywhere,” the voice says, and I have to wonder if anyone else is with her. "Who are you?" she asks me, and I can only imagine the state of my face with the dirt and grime mixed with the blood that is surely pouring out of my cuts.
"May…" I start to say, but another roll of thunder comes through, and the darkness chases it.
She picks up my arm, her fingers going to my pulse. "It’s barely there."
"I’m right here!” I scream at her, but nothing comes out. Not even a groan this time.
"I’m right here,” I chant over and over again, but this time my body fades further and further away from her voice. "I’m right here."
Chapter 3
Chelsea
Lightning strikes again as he looks up at me with one eye. The other one is swollen shut. His mouth tries to move, but no sounds come out. His arm comes up again and then crashes down.
My heart hammers in my chest as I find the source of the blood. His white shirt is soaked with a big red stain on his side, and I pull it up to see he’s wounded there. "Can you hear me?" I ask him, my voice shaking as I take deep breaths to stay calm. I lift his shirt higher and see he’s got bruising but no other open wounds. He has one piece of cloth tied around his leg, and his legs have bloodstains on them, too. Hearing the sound of rocks crunching under tires makes me look up. The wind blows through here, slamming the front door, and I look around to make sure I don’t see Gabriel.