“Where are we going?” I ask as he finally leads me away.
“To where no one can ever find us.”
“Just you and me?”
“Just you and me,” he confirms.
Outside, the heat of the sun warms my face. I forgot how good that felt. Collin tugs me further until we walk onto the beach. The sand wiggles between my toes as my feet sink into the grains. Oh, I love the sand.
“Are you listening?” Collin asks.
The sound of crashing waves booms suddenly, startling me. My eyes instinctively close as I listen to the water come and go.
“Listen harder, Jules. Listen past the waves.”
What am I supposed to hear?
Is it a baby? There’s something wailing. No. Screaming.
POP!
As much as I can, I curl into myself. More gunshots fire, but I can’t tell from where, except that they are entirely too close. There’s yelling, but I can’t distinguish anything.
“Clear!”
I jump a foot off the couch when someone gently touches my shoulder.
“Julie?”
With a hesitant look, I fall apart upon seeing the police officer.
“You’re okay. I’m going to take this duct tape off, okay? Paramedics are on the way.”
I hold my wrists out and he begins to slowly and painfully remove the tape. He motions to my mouth next and I nod.
“I need you to sit up, sweetie,” he says softly.
Oh. With a wince and a whimper, I manage to do so. By the time I’m free of the tape, the paramedics have arrived and they are working on removing the cuffs.
“How did you find me?” I ask the officer, who remains standing nearby with a watchful eye.
“We’ve been receiving tips of sightings, but nailed a location when a neighbor recognized him from the photo your boyfriend had blasted on the media and called it in.”
Collin shared Dwight’s photo too? Thank god. He just saved me.
“Can you call him?”
The man, about my dad’s age, smiles. “Already done, sweetie. I imagine he’s finding a way down here as we speak.”
I despise how long it took for me to go to the media. Struggling over that decision was stupid, but within hours of Julie’s and Dwight’s pictures being blasted, I got a call that it seemed Dwight had been sighted in Florida.
Florida.
Julie might not even be in North Carolina. How am I supposed to find her if she’s not here? I’m slowly losing my mind. I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up; not to mention, there’s no telling what is happening to Julie.
We made it through the first round and I don’t remember any of the experience. There’s a short break before we enter the second round. I’m hoping that’s when we’ll find Julie. My first day of rest involves a lot of thinking about going to Florida and figuring out how to hunt her down myself. The guilt is eating me alive; I can’t take this anymore and I need to find Julie.
But then, I get a phone call.