Chapter 22 – Ted
Online college courses might not be the path that I thought I would find myself on, but here I am. I’m feeling excited about this new possibility. It feels like a fresh start. One that I might not deserve, but a second chance none the less.
Of course, I hate everything that I left behind, especially Chloe, that hurts every single second. I’m doing what I can to make something of my life. For my father, for my mother as well, she needs something to remind her that there can be life after tragedy.
To be fair to my mother, she’s doing okay, better than I thought she would be, but there is still a lot of sadness there. I’m so thankful that my mother hasn’t blamed me once for the deaths of my family. I might blame myself for all that’s happened, but she doesn’t think the same. I keep expecting her to yell at me, to scream at me for being a bad person and making stupid decisions, but she hasn’t. My mom has been focusing on trying to make sure that I am okay through all of this. She’s doing a great job. I am moving in the right direction and doing something good with my life. She keeps reminding me that I don’t need to look over my shoulder anymore. We’re safe here now.
“Business,” I muse to myself. “I can get a business degree. I mean, there is a lot that I can do with that.”
I click to sign up to the business course classes, and take a moment to continue looking at other electives, because I don’t just need to do one. I have time now. I can do a business major and a …. Hmm, what kind of minor? Maybe something creative.
“Argh!” A scream coming from the living room where I know my mother is watching TV rockets through the house and immediately makes my blood run cold. Every time I think that I might be safe, something reminds me that they are still out there looking for me.
How did they find us? My brain screams at me as I leap to my feet, knocking everything to the floor around me as I go. My mother doesn’t like mess in her house, but right now that’s the last thing on my mind.
“Mom!” I cry out, expecting the worst. All I can see in my mind’s eye is blood again. So much blood. I can’t lose my mother. She’s all that I have left. I won’t be able to live without her, I need her. “Mom, are you…”
The shock doesn’t wear off when I run in to the living room to find her where I left her, in front of the TV, engrossed in what’s happening on the screen. My paranoia tells me that someone is here somewhere and that we’re in trouble. My eyes dart everywhere, I try to find who I’m searching for, the guy with the gun probably…
“Mom, what the hell is going on?” I manage to gasp out. “I’m about to have a heart attack here…”
“The… the TV…” she stammers back while pointing at the screen. “Look on the TV…”
She sounds like she’s having a panic attack or something. I don’t understand. I turn slowly, a little freaked out, and I finally adjust my eyes to the news report in front of me. It takes me even longer to figure out what’s being reported.
“Oh my God.” I clap my hands to my mouth. “Is that… Chloe’s picture?”
She’s gone missing. She was reported missing by her friend when she didn’t call her when she said she would, and then again when she didn’t turn up for work the next day. According to this story, it took the police a couple of days to take the report seriously, despite the fact that Chloe is never the sort to just not talk to her friends and not turn up to work. And now… they are reaching out to the media to see if anyone knows where she might be. This is bad, really bad, and I know who’s to blame.
“Mom, they got her,” I insist, about to scream out with agony. “She’s gone. They killed her.”
She’s crying, she hates this just as much as I do, but I still don’t see blame in her eyes. I wish that she would just scream at me and say terrible things to me because I need someone to justify how I’m feeling.
“She… she might not be dead,” Mom insists, in an attempt to calm me down. “They aren’t worried about getting rid of bodies, are they? This gang, I mean. They didn’t care when it came to your cousin, or your father. I don’t think that they hid your uncle either. He was found far too quickly. Plus, there isn’t any reason for them to kill Chloe, is there? What if this is a trap?