Spoiled Secrets (20 page)

Chapter 24

(Chase Mitchell)

              As I sit here surrounded by my four best friends, I start to feel strange, as if something isn’t sitting right with me.  I have an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, as if some very bad shit is about to hit the fan.  In other words, I know I’m not going to be happy with the outcome.   Since Amber and the girls left, it feels like a piece of me is missing.  My boys have commented several times about how I look like someone has kicked my puppy.  But, I refuse to be baited into that stupid conversation.

              I pick up my phone to call Amber for the third time since she left.  Again, no answer.

              “Damn, dude.  How many times are you going to call her?”  Brent commented.

              “As many times as it takes for her to pick up the fucking phone.”  I snap my response.

              “Chill man, maybe she’s in the restroom or something.”  Cameron tried to calm my rising beast.

              “Sorry.”  I don’t direct the apology to anyone in particular.  Hell, I have been a grumpy bastard since my girl left me behind.  So, actually the apology is directed to everyone. 

              I pick up my phone to check it one more time.  I go even further by checking to see if my ringer is on.  Once I’ve checked and everything is okay I decide to send her a quick text.

              “
Have you made it home?”

              I sit with the phone in my hand staring at the screen, in the hopes that it was just an oversight on her part. Hoping, that I am imagining my racing heart.  That she simply forgot to check in, to let me know that she made it home safe.  But, I don’t get a response.

              “
Amber, are you okay?”

             
Again, I wait a few minutes and I still don’t receive a reply.  The dread building inside me is getting much stronger.  I know her as surely as if she were flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone.  If she said she was going to call me, she would have.  I get pulled from my inner turmoil.

              “Bro, why don’t we bounce and do a quick drive-by to see if her car is in the driveway. That way, you will have a little piece of mind.”  Brent suggested.

              “Yeah, maybe she got really tired when she entered the house and went straight to sleep when she got there.”  Jazz added.

              I look down at my phone one last time.  Upon expelling a quick frustrated breath, I decided to take them up on their suggestion.  I’ll just do a quick drive-by, I tell myself.  Yes, I understand that these are stalker tendencies, but something is urging me into action.  This unresponsiveness is not in my girl’s character.  

              As we all lumber out to my car my phone rings.  Finally!  I don’t look at the screen to see who it is.  My only thought is that,
she made it home
.  Because I was so amped and relieved that my phone actually rung, I answered it harshly.

              “
Why did it take you so long to call me?
” 

              “Chase?” 

              I’m caught off guard by my mother’s voice and the hysterical crying in the background.  My mind goes into overdrive.  First, I have no idea where Amber is and now mom calls with an uncontrollable inconsolable Peanut, in the background. 

              “Mom!  What happened, what’s going on?”  I ask frantically.

              “Chase,
I don’t know!  She started screaming and hollering, demanding that I call you, RIGHT NOW!”  My mother sounds freaked out.

              “Mommy….please let me talk to my brother!  Please mommy, it’s important.”  Came Peanuts tearful voice over the line.  I hear movement on the other line as the phone is transferred into her possession.

              I stand stock still by the driver’s side door of my whip.  My friends are all staring at me trying to figure out what the hell is going on.  I lift my index finger to tell them to give me one minute.  Simultaneously, I hear sniffling on the line and my heart constricts. 

              “Peanut, baby girl what’s wrong?  Did you have a bad dream?”  I look over at my friends and they are all giving me indulgent smiles.  They all know me so well, they know that Peanut’s my world.

              “Shhhhh…stop!”  I immediately quite.  That bad feeling starts to creep in again.  “She needs you…
she needs you now!
”

              My body starts to quake.  “Who needs me?”  But, I already know.  I hit the top of my car to get everyone’s attention.  “Get in the car now, or else I’m leaving your asses!”  I bark out.

              “Chase, I seen it.  I seen it in my head.  I just know!”  She starts to wail on the line. 
Oh shit! 

              I fumble with the keys trying to insert them in the ignition, but my hands are trembling so bad they drop to the ground.  I start to shake uncontrollably as my thoughts run away from me. 
Was it a wreck?  Is she somewhere in a ditch?  Is she hurt?  Is she dying?  Please GOD not another one; please don’t take another person I love away from me!
In some calmer part of my brain that I have been denied access too, I comprehend that Jazz has reached over to pick up the fallen keys.

             
“Chase….Chase….”  Peanuts squeaky vulnerable voice penetrates my rattled brain.  “Please don’t be quiet on me.  You hear me big brother?  I can feel you in my heart, I’m beeping faster. I don’t like when you make my heart beep faster.  It means that you’re scared and you’re not supposed to be scared because you’re my, big strong brother.  You beat up and protect what’s yours…. Please don’t be scared!  He said you must think soft to help her.”  Peanut whispers in the phone. I hear the phone rustling.  “
Mommy, I don’t think I used the right word…I don’t think I said it the right way.
”  She says in a frustrated tone.

              “Do you mean the last part?”  I hear my mother in the background.

              “Yeah…I mean yes.”

              “Did you mean, he should think in a calm manner?  That he must approach the situation cautiously and level headed.”  Mom tries to help her with her words.  I hear Peanut huff and more phone rustling.

              “Mom is using too many big words that I can’t say, whatever they all mean. Did you hear her?  Just think soft.  I think you know what I mean.  Soft, Chase!  That’s what my voice said.” 

              She’s trying to calm me and I appreciate it all the more because by me freaking out, it only incites her more.  I take a deep calming breath.

              “Chase, you ready?  You thinking softly, now?”

              “Yes, please Peanut, tell me where she is.  Is she hurt badly?”

              “The voice in my head, the one you told me not to be afraid of, told me to get up and call you, RIGHT NOW!  I seen her house, I think she’s there…but…he said, not all the way. 
Chase, I can’t explain it right…
”  She starts crying out of frustration.

              “You’re doing good princess!  Just try to explain it the best you can.”  I keep up the conversation as I zip through traffic, surpassing all speed limits, wishing that a police car will pick up my trail.  But, in case I don’t come across one, I ask Jazz to call 911 as I provided the address of Ambers home.

              “She needs a doctor…he said…Ummm, quickly…he’s holding her soul for you.”  My heart stops. 
Her soul
? 

              “You did good baby girl.  Thank you, for having mommy call me.  Now, I need you to go back to bed and I’ll see you when I get there.”

              “Wait!!  Chase, tell Amber when she wakes up, that I need to see her. I think she’s sleep, I seen her eyes closed. So, when she opens her eyes tell her it’s important, I got a message to tell her.  He told me a message.  Can you remember that?”

              “Okay, I’ll tell her, now get to bed.”  I quickly disconnect the call. 
Her eyes are closed…what does that mean?
 

              I tried to hold in my hysterics while I was on the phone with her, but as soon as I disconnected the floodgates opened and every emotion known to man consumed me.

              I screech to a stop in front of Amber’s home.  I jump out of the vehicle and run to the front door and start to pound and ring the doorbell frantically.  I notice the foyer light has just been turned on, footsteps are fast approaching from behind the door and behind me.  I know whom the footsteps belongs too that are fast approaching from behind.  The one’s coming from behind the closed door is unknown, to me.  I am so amped up at this point that I tell myself, if the door isn’t opened within ten seconds, it will be opened involuntarily by my booted foot.

              What I surmised from the conversation with my sister is that, time is of the essence.  Time stood still as the door opened.  Both of Amber’s parents stood at the door in their night robes.  One looked confused to see me and the other looks shockingly pissed.  But, I refuse to give this asshole a second of my time. I will not take a second longer to decipher his pissed glare.

              As I look beyond them, my frantic heart goes into overdrive as my eyes land on the white carpet smeared in places with deep red blood stains leading up to Amber’s room.  I hear someone gasp behind me.  I shove past her parents, leaping two and three steps at a time.    

              “
Oh my GOD, my baby!
”  I hear Amber’s mother scream far behind me. 

              I’m guessing she has just noticed what had me running through her house like a mad man.  I hear footsteps pounding up the steps behind me.  But, I can give two fucks about anyone besides my girl.

              “Amber!” I yell out her name as I barge into her room, my frantic eyes cannot locate her. 

              Two doors!  One must be the closet and the other the restroom.  I soon realize that I have been left a horrific clue on which door to choose.  The smeared blood points me in the right direction.  I rush the door and what I see takes the breath out of me. 
PLEASE, NOT MY AIR!

                “Amber, NOOOOOOO!”  My anguished scream probably could be heard down the block.  I rush to the shower stall and fall to my knees.

              The cold water pounding down on me, doesn’t faze me.  The bloody water soaking my shoes and clothes does not compute.  All I can do is kneel and cry and ask GOD, why.  I’m so far gone for a while that I forget the most important part of Peanut’s message. 
He’s holding her soul!
  Could that mean that she isn’t that far gone as I first feared?

              I hear screaming and crying behind me, I pay it no attention.  I reach up with trembling hands and smooth her sodden hair from her face. Oh so gently, as if not to disturb her morbid slumber, I try to locate a heartbeat in her neck.  It’s – It’s – It’s there.  It’s faint, but it is most defiantly there. 

              I hurriedly scoop her into my arms; place a gentle kiss to her forehead, as I turn to exit the restroom. 

              “Hold on babe.  I’m here now!  Nothing else will happen to you.  Please hold on,
don’t leave me
.  Help is on the way.”  I whisper demandingly in her ear. 

              “
What do you think you are doing?
”  Mr. Wallace yells at me and positions himself to block my exit.

              “She’s not dead!  I felt a heartbeat.  It’s faint, but it’s there.”  I try to explain.

              “She’s DEAD!  Put her the fuck down, right now!”  He yells at me.  At that moment, right then, with the crazed look staring back at me defiantly, that look lets me know that he wants her to be… DEAD.