ICE (The Benders Series) (17 page)

Kenna had forgotten how observant her friend was and quickly backtracked.  “There was an accident. Then a fight broke out and… I just need to know if everyone is okay,” Kenna stammered, stretching the truth as if it were an unbreakable rubber band.

“I’m calling the police,” Britney rejoined as she proceeded to dial her cell phone.

“No!” Kenna argued as she approached the girl. “You can’t do that!”

And just when Britney was about to hit call, her phone began to vibrate.

“It’s Bryce,” she said before answering.

“Let me talk to him,” Kenna insisted as she reached for the phone.

Not pleased, but unwilling to argue further, the furious girl handed her the phone. Kenna answered as swiftly as possible, “Bryce?!” she practically screamed into the device.

“Kenna?” It was Bryce. He was alive, but she could hear his pain though he tried to hide it with his words. “Are you okay?”

The girl heaved a sigh of unmatchable relief. “Are you okay? Is Jon okay? Bryce, I was so afraid,” she said as went into a meltdown. In an instant, she had crumbled to the floor and the tears came pouring from her eyes.

“We’re… alive,” he answered as she continued to sob. “But everything is still blurry. But that’s better than black.”

Kenna couldn’t talk anymore, and she handed the phone back to her friend.

“Bryce, do I need to call the cops?” Britney interrogated right off the bat. “What the hell happened to Kenna?”

Kenna couldn’t hear the rest of their conversation over her cries. She wouldn’t have even known that the discussion had ended if Britney hadn’t wrapped her arms around her as she kneeled next to her on the floor.

“Are you okay?” she asked sympathetically. “Do you want me to call your dad?”

“No,” Kenna managed to say through her weeping. “What did Bryce say?” she questioned as her sobbing softened into more manageable crying.

“Nothing that I believe,” Britney warned. “He said that you and Jon were experimenting, and his mom freaked out at everyone when she caught you. Again, I don’t believe a word of it. And you can bet that I’m going to beat Jon’s ass for whatever he did to you. Mark my words,” she said with an unprecedented snarl that Kenna would have never guessed could come from her mouth. “No one messes with one of my friends. I forbid you to see him.”

Kenna put her head down and saw her half-naked self once more. She truly was a horrific sight, so horrific that even Britney went crazy at the view. “I don’t think his mom would approve anyway,” Kenna said with a nod. “I just don’t know how to go home. I really think my dad will kill someone if he finds anything out,” she said as the tears came once more.

Britney squeezed her again, then took her friend by the shoulders and stood her up. “I have a few turtlenecks that you can borrow until you are ready to tell him,” she said in a friendly and motherly fashion. “But I don’t recommend lying for too long. Parents have ways of finding things out. It’s best that he feels that you trust him.”

Kenna acknowledged the statement with a brief nod. She then proceeded to clean herself up and throw on one of the shirts that Britney had agreed to lend her. After the tedious process and a long talk with her friend along which ended with Britney’s permission to go, Kenna drove home to where her father was already waiting for her.

INTERLUDE TWO

At first, I thought it was a voice inside my head telling me to go downstairs. But then, I thought I heard screaming.

I stopped what I was doing and waited in silence, hoping that the silence would remain.

It didn’t.

There
was
screaming.

Not ecstatic screaming.

Save-me screaming.

I jumped instantly from my lounge on the couch and dashed toward the basement where I knew the cries were coming from. Kenna was in trouble. Someone had to do something. If my mother hadn’t been shopping, she would have been the obvious hero of choice, but with her gone, there only remained us three brothers.

And when I got to the basement door, there they were. Dax and Graham. Standing there. Almost like they were protecting the opening.

“Guys, can’t you hear that?” I questioned immediately though I was out of breath from my sprint.

“Hear what?” Dax asked quite feloniously.

“Yea, I don’t hear a thing,” Graham added with a smirk.

I gave them a grim look. Could they really be that deaf?

When Kenna screamed again, I knew that they were lying and that they were indeed guarding the entrance. No one could have missed her cries for help, even from the floor above and behind a closed door.

I clenched my jaw and made an attempt to push past the pair. If it was going to be me to go attempt to help Kenna, then so be it. But as I moved towards the door, Dax held out his arm and shoved me backward. Though it wasn’t a hard push, it was evident at this point that they had no intention of letting me through to help Jon and Kenna.

“What gives?” I shot at him as I stepped forward again.

He again stopped me. “Bryce, it’s a suicide mission to go down there. Let what is going to happen, just happen. We’ll say none of us heard a thing.”

I glared. I felt my face forming an intense and furious expression. “The three of us could maybe stop whatever is happening. Let’s all go,” I suggested quickly, hoping it might be enough to sway them.

But neither one of them budged.

“Give it up Bryce,” Graham said with an evil twinkle in his eye, one that I wished I could have punched right out of him.

“Just let me go, then,” I insisted. We all heard her scream out again, and I knew time was running out.

“Sorry,” Dax laughed when I tried to push past them once more. “Let’s be real. After today, there will be one less flame to worry about.”

“And better, one less Jon. He’ll be shipped off tomorrow once mom finds out,” Graham added with a malicious chuckle.

I didn’t know what to do. At this point, though, I realized that I didn’t have much of a choice. “Fine,” I agreed as I let my tightened shoulder muscles relax. I turned and acted like I was conceding their argument. And just when I hoped that they’d begun to let their guard down, I flipped around and extended my arm to let out a fierce blade of ice.

Although neither of them necessarily saw the move coming, they both managed to dodge the ice, leaving me with an unfortunate two on one scenario. Normally, I would have dueled them with my bending, but I knew my odds of victory in such a case were low. I mean, maybe they were higher than a me vs. Jon scenario, but I still felt like I had hardly any chance at beating them by just bending.

As a result, I did what neither of them could have predicted. Before they could conjure up their ice and blast me down, I charged them with full and unrelenting speed. My first move was to land a quick but forceful gut-punch into Dax’s stomach. And with him leaning over to catch his breath, I met Graham in a classic football tackle. With him on the ground, I rolled until I was on top of him. And when I was, I managed to pull off a few facial jabs before Dax recovered and tackled me off him.

But he was no match for me. For once in my life, my size seemed to be giving me an undeniable advantage. With everything happening so fast, I hardly realized that I was once again on top landing harsh blows to my older brother. I didn’t even realize that his nose and mouth were bleeding or that Graham had stepped back to propel ice in my direction. Out of sheer instinct, I managed to dodge his bullets and even pull up Dax as a shield.

With those bits of ice striking him, I knew Dax had no strength left to fight me. And with it just being Graham and me left, I was suddenly the higher seed.

As we stared off, I realized that there was no sense in fighting him. I had to save my strength for the real threat…Jon. With that thought in mind, I managed to hear another of Kenna’s wails. As a result, I pushed past my brother who was honestly scared of me at that point and made my way into the basement.

Here goes round two
, I told myself as I hurried down the stairs.

They were in Jon’s room, so I made my way down the hall and burst through the doors, completely unaware of what was about to happen.  With adrenaline rushing through me, I had hardly any time to take in the scene before me, though looking back on it, I wish I could erase the memory from my mind.

Though it was dark, I could tell that Kenna was on her back in bed while Jon sat on top of her. He was clearly wrestling with her jeans as she tried to fight him off with whatever strength she had left.

Luckily, Jon hadn’t even flinched at my entry. I raced towards the bed and lunged at my brother with enough force to knock him off the girl.

“Run!” I hollered as I fell alongside Jon.

He was growling and raging as he hit the wall beside the bed. Before I could recover from the collision, Jon gave me an elbow to the gut that knocked all the wind out of me.

But as usual, I wasn’t his target. Kenna was.

He left me and proceeded to catch the half-naked girl and throw her harshly to the ground. But with my epinephrine seeming to hit its peak, I flew off the bed and managed to knock Jon off her once again.

“Run!” I shouted as she slowly got up from the floor. She seemed to shake herself off for a second then suddenly bolted toward the door.

Seeing her attempt to escape again, this time, Jon rolled on top of me and struck me twice in the face. I could feel the blood running from my nose and my mouth. But when he stood up to chase Kenna, I grabbed him by the leg and pulled him downward. It was just enough to trip him up and give Kenna enough time to get out of the room.

And apparently for Jon, out of sight meant out of mind. And much to my misfortune.

He let out a frightening growl as he realized he had been defeated. Though he remained on all fours from my tripping him, he was just as dangerous and threatening as ever.

I, too, was still on the ground and breathless from our brief battle. And when he turned swiftly back to me, like some kind of raging animal, I knew that the battle was far from over. Before I could
even flinch away from him or bring my hands up to bend or defend myself, he pounced on me.

I could feel my face beginning to swell as he landed blow after blow. I knew that it wouldn’t take long for him to literally break my face. I had to do something.

Though I had managed to move my forearms up to defend my face from taking direct punches, I knew I would need my hands to take some sort of offensive. Almost instinctively, I shot my right hand downward and hit him right where I knew it would hurt him most.

He let out a pained shriek, and his punches momentarily ceased. I quickly tried to get up, but he was on me again in less than the blink of an eye. This time, he was throwing his elbow and knees into my ribs as I began to cry out in pain.

At this point, however, I at least had some idea of how to weaken him. Though my ribs were cracking one by one as he landed his powerful thrusts, I still had enough strength to pull my knee up and jab him harder in his weakest place.

This time, it was enough.

As he howled in pain, I gave him one more forceful kick. He howled again and began to fall backward from his position over me.

Seeing this as my opportunity, I gave him a swift shove off me.

And when he fell onto his back, I knew that this would be my chance at escaping him.

I bolted for the door, my adrenaline taking over again. I could hear him getting to his feet, but didn’t turn to see him. I flew out of the room and up the stairs and out the front door. I dove toward the side of the house where I hid, praying he wasn’t following.

And to my surprise, he wasn’t.

I didn’t know where he was, but he wasn’t outside.

I heard my breaths begin to slow, but as they did, I became overwhelmed with pain.  With every breath, I ached to scream. It felt as though my lungs were being stabbed from the inside out.

I curled into a helpless ball as I heard my breaths begin to deepen. As I lay there, my head began to swirl, and my vision went blurry.

And suddenly…everything went black.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Dead.

Kenna could have died.

Bryce could have died.

Who knows who else could have died?

But they were alive. Somehow Jon’s rage hadn’t resulted in any of their deaths.

When Kenna arrived home and saw her father sitting at the kitchen table, arms crossed and eyes staring angrily into the abyss, she knew that he already knew.

“Dad?” she heard herself ask. “Sorry, I know I missed curfew by a few…”

He held his hand up to signal that she should stop talking. Without hesitation, the girl stopped in her tracks, fearing what was to come.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t go over there and burn all of them alive?” he asked through clenched teeth. He came out of his trance and stared hard at his daughter unable to hide his impending rage. “One reason?!”

“Dad!” she cried as she ran to him and hid herself in his arms. He had stood up when she came and now held her tightly as she cried into him. “I’m so sorry,” she cried as she clung tightly to his shirt. The waterworks came flooding once more along with a heaping helping of nasal mucus.

“Do not apologize!” he yelled, his soul getting more and more crushed as he held her there. “He’ll burn in hell for this,” he said under his breath as he tightened his hold of the girl.

Kenna shook her head violently. “No, no,” she blurted. “It was my fault, Dad. Please, it was my fault.”

At the words, he grabbed her by the shoulders and tore her off of him so that he could make eye contact with her. Kenna, however, could not lift her head to face him, the guilt too overwhelming. “This is not your fault,” he said sternly. “It is NEVER the victim’s fault,” he repeated as his grip on her shoulders intensified.

She did her best to brush them away as she fell into his arms once more. “You don’t understand,” she managed to breathe through the persistent tears. “He warned me, Dad. I just didn’t listen,” she continued to sputter and cry as she tried to explain her responsibility for the incident.

“Kenna!” he shouted this time, growing angrier as each second passed. “This is
his
fault. If he had an ounce of control or an ounce of respect or love for you, this would NOT have happened!” She wept harder as he ranted. “You are NEVER to go near him again. Do you understand?!”

Unable to accept such a consequence, she tore away from the man. He, of course, grabbed her by the arm to stop her. “Leave me alone,” she begged as she flung her arm out of the hold and sprinted out of the kitchen and into the privacy of her bedroom.

Bedrooms.

They suddenly took on a whole new meaning. What to her was formerly thought of as a place of love and innocent mischief was now a place of unrivaled regret. Like she had so many times in the past, she buried her face into her pillow and bawled until she only had energy left to sniffle. It was at this point that she managed to hear a slight knock at the door.

“Go away,” she warned, the crying choking her words as she spoke.

Her warning was not heeded as her dad came through the door and into her safe haven.  He didn’t say anything at first as he took a sit at the edge of her bed.

He cleared his voice before starting the conversation. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I know it’s late, and you’ve been through a lot today, but there are still a few matters that we need to discuss.”

She didn’t respond or bother to acknowledge his existence. He reached over to sentimentally squeeze her foot, and at this, she flinched her limb away from him.

He sighed at the gesture. “Kenna, I love you. You are my daughter. Imagine if this happened to your child. Could you possibly sit back and do nothing?” She was without response again. Though he could see that she was in no mood for talking, he continued. “I need to know what happened,” he said softly. “And I need you to take that sweater off.”

She turned to him and glared. “If you don’t cooperate, I will not hesitate to call the police, Kenna,” he threatened, simultaneously sympathetic and severe.

Kenna turned away from him and stared into her pillow. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said calmly.

“I understand. I’m sure you are embarrassed and afraid. But I need to know how far things went in order to proceed in any way,” he replied equally calm.

She couldn’t argue that she was incredibly embarrassed and incredibly guilty. She didn’t know if her father could handle the whole truth.

“Will you hate me?” she asked as her face scrunched up to cry again.

“Kenna,” he comforted as he got closer and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You know that I love you no matter what.”

She didn’t know how to begin to explain. How could she possibly tell him everything? And how did he even know anything had happened?

“How do you even know?” she questioned, changing the subject with the idea.

“Mrs. Colewell called,” he answered swiftly.

“And what did she say? What did she tell you?” she interrogated. “Did she say how Jon and Bryce were?”

Kenna could tell that her concern for the brothers somewhat infuriated the man. “I don’t know why you would be worried about them, but to answer your question, yes, they are both alive. But apparently Jon is in quite a state, not that it matters. And Mrs. Colewell wanted to see that you were home safely and still living as well.”

Kenna couldn’t imagine ever receiving such a call as a parent or the anxiety he must have been feeling as he waited for her to return home. “Is that all she said?” Kenna asked.

“That’s the gist of it. Obviously, she indicated that an altercation had taken place. Which is why I need answers,” he went on to say. Then, the man broke into tears himself as he covered his face with one of his hands. “Kenna?” he asked. “Did he rape you?”

She immediately sat up and met him in another embrace. But this time, he was weeping, and she was comforting. As they sat there while her father regained some composure, Kenna wondered how to answer such a question.

“No, he didn’t,” she said, her voice still strangled by the intense emotions. 

At her reply, the man burst once more into to tears as he held her tighter. This time, they were tears of relief instead of sorrow.

A few minutes passed before he could once again gain composure. And once he did, they found themselves sitting next to each other in silence, both staring into the nothingness of her room ahead of them.

“So what happened then?” he asked as he wiped his face. “I still need to know what happened.”

Kenna nodded as she felt herself coming to terms with everything. “We were kissing,” she started. She glanced at him to see if there was a reaction and there wasn’t. She knew how disappointed he would be as the story continued, but was compelled to be completely honest. “We were kissing on the couch. But, it’s difficult for Jon to kiss me, I’m too warm usually. But things were getting better. He was getting more used to me, I think. So, we were kissing, for a whole minute actually before he stopped.”

She paused, and her father weighed in. “Not uncommon. What happened next?”

Kenna sighed. “He said he was getting too warm. He said that sometimes, when he gets too emotional or too hot, he goes into rages where he can’t control himself, and when he does, he could hurt people…or worse.”

“But he still thought being with you was a good idea?” her father interrupted, his anger shining through for a moment. “Sorry,” he corrected quickly. “Continue.”

“Well, we decided to just stop then. But later. We decided to go to his room and take a nap,” she explained. She glanced his way again and could see tears of hurt and disappointment forming in his eyes. She continued anyway. “And we were just cuddling, but then we started kissing again.”

“Kenna…” she heard him whisper as one of his legs began to bounce.

“I know,” she said. “I’m so sorry, Dad.” All the emotions and the guilt came flooding once more as she felt herself reliving those moments with Jon. He put his arm around her as she began to cry again.

“It’s okay,” he consoled. “Then what?”

Kenna sniffled. “He stopped again. And said he didn’t think he could take anymore,” she explained as she wept harder and harder. “But I begged him for more, Dad. It was all my fault.”

“No,” he said as he pulled her towards him to embrace her again. “It’s not your fault, Kenna,” he whispered. “It’s not your fault.”

“He couldn’t stop, Dad. After that. Just suddenly, he went crazy. I tried to push him away, but, but he was too strong. And I screamed, and I tried to get away, but I couldn’t,” she sobbed. “I was so scared.”

Her father was almost violently rubbed her back as she spoke, doing what he could to control himself. He waited for her to quiet before asking, “Then how did you get away?”

“Bryce,” she answered, still hiding her face in his chest in shame. “He jumped on Jon, and I ran. I just left him there, Dad. After he saved me, I just left him there. And then I went to Britney’s because I didn’t have a shirt or, or, a phone and I had to call Bryce, I had to.”

“Shhh,” he instructed. “It’s over now. It’s over.”

She continued to sob, and his rubbing began to cease.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he kissed her hair. “How bad is it?” he asked, touching the turtleneck to indicate that he knew what it was hiding.

Kenna shook her head and lifted it to face him. She pulled down the collar of the sweater and revealed the bruises and bite marks that covered her neck and the tops of her clavicle.

The man turned away almost instantly at the sight. Kenna could see he was fighting hard to control his fury. “And other than that and your face?”

Kenna swallowed hard and lifted her shirt to show the scratch marks that began near her chest and came down all the way to her pant line. She covered herself swiftly after he’d seen the damage.

“Don’t kill him, don’t kill him.”  She could hear him muttering under his breath as he stood up to pace the room. Kenna watched as he shook and bit his nails to maintain his restraint.

“How can you really think that it wasn’t my fault?” she asked through glistening eyes from her sit on the bed.

He looked at her with bloodshot, tired eyes. “It’s not your fault that he lacks control.”

“But I dangled my hand in front of the alligator’s mouth. How could I not expect to get bit?” she said, somehow defending Jon through all the turmoil. “It wasn’t all Jon’s fault.”

“Kenna!” he hollered, unable to take more of the perceived nonsense. “If the only thing you can compare him to is an ANIMAL, then there is a problem!”

Her face began to tighten again and her arms folded around herself. “But I love him, Dad.” A few tears fell as she admitted it out loud for the first time.

The man stopped in his tracks and gave his daughter a deathly glare as she cried. “You will never see him again. Got it?” he warned, managing to avoid pointing an angry finger in her face. He approached her with open arms to hug her, but she pulled away and threw herself back onto her bed to cry.

“We’ll talk more in the morning,” he said remorsefully as he walked towards to door. “For now, I won’t press charges, on the condition that you stay away from each other,” he repeated as he stepped out of the room. “I love you,” he said as he closed the door behind him.

Love.

Kenna knew she loved Jon.

It was a feeling she’d never experienced in her seventeen-year-old life. When she was with Jon, she was so comfortable and so happy. She felt like she didn’t need her hair done when she was around him, like she didn’t need make-up or nice clothes or to hide any piece of herself. Sure, she liked to look good for him, but she knew that their relationship was so much deeper than that.

When he looked at her, she knew he didn’t just see a pretty face, but a trusted companion and friend. Jon laughed at her jokes, understood her insecurities, and showed her how wonderful and fun life could be. Though they had their arguments and even an unexpected split, at the end of the day, her heart was clinging to him, and she knew his was doing the same.

Jon even told her that he wanted to marry her someday. And what nineteen year old talks about something like marriage if he isn’t totally set on his feelings? And what elementalist tells his bending secrets if he isn’t sure that they’ll be safe? Or about his mother being raped? Or about her father being a flame bender?

Yes, Kenna knew that Jon’s love for her ran deeper than any icy ocean.

But she hadn’t even told him how she felt. Instead, she had hid her feelings. While he professed his love for her, she sat scared and anxious. If there was one thing that she regretted as much as what happened a few hours ago, it was not telling Jon how she really felt.

Kenna knew she loved Jon.

And now there was nothing, only guilt and shame and remorse. If she hadn’t pushed him beyond his limit, Kenna could have corrected her errored feelings of fear. She could have told Jon that she loved him and that she saw a future with him and only him.

Kenna wept as she thought about how drastically her life had changed from perfect to almost unlivable in a matter of one evening. But in her mind, she knew that things couldn’t be left the way they were.

If nothing else, she had to see Jon to apologize and to share her feelings. Even if their love couldn’t keep them together, he had a right to know that it existed.