Real Girl (Aston Creek High 4)

What the fuck?

I look down to find a glass of water has fallen to the carpet, it’s knocked over with a crack in the glass, sitting on Skylah’s jacket which I pulled off her last night.

My heart rate starts to increase. Something’s wrong.

“Sky?” I call out, hurrying out to the living room. There’s no sign of her and so I start checking the rest of the house. “Babe? Where are you?”

The kitchen is empty and so is the bathroom and by the time I reach Blake’s bedroom, I’m practically running. I throw his door open. “Sky?” I call, hoping she came in here to crash, needing the comfort of her brother while he’s busy in the hospital trying to heal.

“What’s with all the noise out here?” Shay questions, groggily stepping through her bedroom door, looking pissed to have been woken so early.

“Sky’s not here,” I rush out, pushing past Shay to look in her room.

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean she’s gone. I just woke up and she’s not here,” I say, starting to double-check every room I’ve already been through. “Her glass of water was dropped on the carpet, her knife on the floor, and her door wide fucking open. I’m telling you, Shay, he’s got her. He fucking took her.”

Shay starts shaking her head and begins furiously looking around her home. “No. I refuse to believe that,” she demands. “She’s got to be around here somewhere. Have you called Damian or Nessa? Maybe she’s with them. Maybe she went to see Blake.”

Devastation starts to cloud me, making it impossible to think straight. There’s no way. She wouldn’t just walk out of this house to visit her friends. She wouldn’t be that careless, especially with Lucien around. She knows what’s at stake.

I race back out to the living room and to the front door of the house. The locks aren’t locked, the bolt isn’t bolted, hell the door isn’t even shut the whole fucking way. She’s been through here. Sky would never leave the house without locking it, not unless she was taken…

Fuck.

I throw the door open wide and rush out into the yard, looking up and down the street, desperately searching for any sign of her.

What have I allowed to happen? She was taken right from under me. I told her that I’d keep her safe. I promised her. She put her faith in me and I let her down. I was supposed to protect her.

I failed her.

I start rushing up and down the street for any clue, sign, or hint that this is all just some sort of misunderstanding. She can’t be gone. I fucking love her. What am I supposed to do without her? How am I supposed to breathe without her?

I get a few houses down by the time I pull my phone out of my pocket and press it to my ear. I don’t even remember selecting a number to call but apparently, I did as it starts to ring.

Blake’s sleepy tone cuts through the phone only a few short seconds later as I hear Shay’s wailing sobs coming from the curb behind me. “What the fuck, man? Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Is she with you?” I rush out.

“What?” he grumbles on a yawn. “What are you talking about?”

“Skylah,” I demand. “Is she with you?”

“No,” he says, his tone sharp and demanding, suddenly not so sleepy. “What do you mean is she with me? It’s six in the fucking morning. She should be at home.”

“Just please, tell me that you know where she is,” I beg, feeling my desperation coming to haunt me. “I don’t even fucking care if she left me. If you’re just trying to protect her because she doesn’t want me to know where she is, then that’s fine. Just let me know that she’s safe. You’re the only person she’d go to. I just…if she’s not here and not with you, that leaves only one other option and I’m not ready to believe that…I can’t believe that she’s gone.”

“FUCK,” Blake yells. “Please tell me you’re fucking with me? Tell me this is a joke. Does he have her?”

“This isn’t a fucking joke, man,” I say, my eyes growing watery as I drop down into the curb, not giving a shit about the chill in the air as it seeps into my bones. I’m fucking numb anyway. What’s a little cold weather going to do? “She’s gone. Her knife was on the ground, a glass of water dropped at her bedroom door, and the front door was left cracked and unlocked. She wouldn’t just walk out and leave the house like that. She was taken.”

Blake goes quiet, the only clue that he’s still on the line is his heavy breathing that comes in sharp, fearful gasps. “She can’t go back there,” he whispers, his tone filled with agony. “If he doesn’t marry her off first, he’ll fucking kill her.”