The Defender (The Carrier Series Book 2) (11 page)

I knew opening the door would be a very bad idea, so as the
unwanted tears flowed out of my eyes and down my cheeks, I stayed put and
prayed he would just leave.

“Ava. I…I…” but he never finished. I heard the back door suddenly
open and loudly bang shut, and then an empty silence filled my ears. A few more
tears slid down my cheeks and then I drifted off to sleep, dreaming of a place
where waves of beautiful brown river water soothed my soul and healed the
emptiness in my heart.

I spent a good portion of the next few days moping around my room
when I wasn’t studying or dragging my butt to class. I carefully avoided my
normal pathways to lectures so that I would have less chance of running into
Adam on campus. He never came by the house again, and I left my phone turned
off.

My friends tried to talk me into going here or there with them,
but I always declined. I was overcome with feelings of depression differently
than I had ever felt in my life before. All I wanted to do was leave this town,
head back to the Dells, and live with my parents until I figured my life out. I
still had gaping holes in my memory, and there was some incredibly beautiful
man haunting my brain almost daily.

Friday was Halloween. I’ve never had a good Halloween experience.
When I was growing up, my parents did not believe in fancy, store-bought
Halloween costumes. Instead, my mother spent the weeks before that special
night crafting, sewing, and hot-gluing costumes for my sister and me.

Usually they turned out okay, but one year, when I was eight, my
sister Laura got to be a very cool and scary witch, and I was forced to be a
Kleenex box. My mother found a large cardboard box sitting around, so she
painted it white with the word “Puffs” stenciled perfectly across the front.
Then she cut holes in the sides and top so I could wear the box with my arms
and head sticking out. To finish off the look, she added large pieces of tissue
paper around my head. It was hideous.

One year, Laura ate too much candy along the way and puked right
on my carefully bedazzled sparkly red Dorothy shoes. Another year, I tripped in
the dark on an uneven sidewalk and knocked my front tooth out. My face was
covered in blood, and I cried all the way back to the house.

On the first year my parents decided Laura and I were old enough
to go out on our own, we got lost. Crying and freezing cold, we sat on a curb
for what felt like many hours hoping our parents would notice we had been gone
too long. I really thought we were going to die right there on the street.
Almost two hours later, my parents drove by in our yellow minivan and scooped
us up. Right then and there I vowed that was my last Halloween trick or
treating.

From then on, I stayed home to hand out the candy and that was
fine enough for me. But for some reason in high school, my three best guy
friends (Ted, Aaron, and Joel) talked me into dressing as one of the four Spice
Girls with them. Why they all wanted to cross-dress and walk around town
begging for candy was beyond me, but I reluctantly joined them anyway.

That was a mistake.

Out in the Oak Lawn neighborhood we ran into the biggest bully in
high school, Anthony Vargas. Apparently high on drugs, he started stalking us
through the neighborhood yelling obscenities at us. My guy friends oozed
confidence and they had a talent for brushing off hurtful words. I, on the
other hand, was freaked out, sure Vargas was going to hurt us. Aaron swore he
would kick Anthony’s ass if he tried anything, and I believed him. He was the
quarterback of the football team, after all, and he had a good thirty pounds on
Vargas.

After a while we seemed to have lost Vargas, until we turned a
corner down a deserted and very dark dead-end street, and he jumped out of some
bushes right in front of a small, crummy looking house. He scared the crap out
of me, and I screamed wildly. But right in the middle of my panic, he grabbed
me from behind and wrapped his right arm across my chest. Suddenly the blade of
a pocketknife was half an inch from my face. He was much stronger than he
looked, and I dared not struggle with that sharp point so close to my neck.

“Vargas. Let her go.” Aaron’s voice held steady and determined.

“Screw you, Aaron. Why should you always get the best-looking
girls in school? It’s my turn, now.” He moved his face close to my cheek, and I
could smell his disgusting breath. I whimpered with terror and prayed that
Aaron would help me as silent tears streamed down my face.

“Vargas. Put the knife down…now.” Aaron was inching closer to us,
Ted and Joel right behind him. “We can be your friends. Just let Ava go.”

Anthony’s breathing quickened in my ear. “No! NO!” he screamed
through clenched teeth. “Don’t move!” I felt the tip of the knife dig a little
into my skin, and I let out a terrified moan.

My friends stopped in their tracks, hands up. “Okay…okay…we’re not
moving. Now put the knife down, Anthony.” I couldn’t stop the tears from
coming, and suddenly I was full-on sobbing. Aaron stared deep into my eyes.
“You’re gonna be fine, Ava.” I tried to believe him but somehow I couldn’t.

“Back off!” Anthony yelled. “I’ll do it! I’ll cut her throat so
neither of us can have her!”

That was the last straw. Aaron suddenly lunged at Anthony’s hips
and we both fell to the ground. I heard the knife clink down on the street near
the curb. Ted quickly grabbed my hand and pulled me up to my feet. Out of the
corner of my eye I saw Aaron and Anthony rolling around on the ground. Ted and
I ran as fast as we could around the corner and down the next street a bit.
This area was much more populated, with several costumed kids strolling around
us. I hugged him tightly, still hysterically crying, but so happy to be out of
immediate danger.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” Ted said, trying to calm me down.

We could faintly hear grunts and yelling from around the corner.
“Should you go back and help them?” I asked Ted through tear-streaked eyes.

“No. My job is to keep you safe.” He held on tight and I was thankful
for that.

A few seconds later we released our hug and looked down the
street. Joel and Aaron came flying around the corner. When they met up with us
Aaron yelled, “Let’s get the hell out of here!” So we ran down a few more
blocks to where our car was parked on the outskirts of the Oak Lawn
neighborhood.

It was there that Aaron finally pulled me into his arms and kissed
my head and face what seemed like a hundred times. “Ava. Are you okay? I love
you so much.” He pulled back and locked his eyes on mine. His right eye looked
bruised and puffy, and I touched it gingerly.

“I’m fine.” He pulled me in for another tight hug, and I said,
“Are you sure you’re alright? Your eye looks horrible.”

“I’ll have a black eye for sure. Don’t worry. It’ll make me look
tough out on the football field.”  

I felt so safe and comfortable in his arms.

“God, I can’t believe that asshole!” Then he pulled away and
inspected my neck. “Are you sure you’re fine? Should we go to the hospital?”
 

I was so glad he was my boyfriend. Someone who would defend my
life and fight for me. “No. I’ll be alright.” Then I caught sight of Ted and
Joel standing off to our left. “Thanks, you guys.”

“Yes, Joel. Thanks for having my back,” Aaron added.

“You bet,” Joel replied. “With your tackle power and my wrestling
holds, he never had a chance.”

“Ava, you’re like a sister to us! You know we’d do anything to
keep you safe.” Ted gave me a little pat on the back.

Suddenly a thought popped into my head and I laughed out loud.

“What’s so funny?” Ted asked.

“It just occurred to me. I wonder what it looked like seeing
Vargas get beat up by two spice girls!”

The boys joined in the laugh. It felt good to break the tension of
the scariest night of my life.

Aaron grabbed my hand and kissed me gently. “Vargas won’t be a
problem anymore.”

Now that I was in college, I didn’t have to worry about Halloween,
considering it was a children’s holiday. At least that’s what I thought until
my freshman year when everyone kept asking me what I was going to be for
Halloween. It was then that I realized that for the entire weekend, every house
party, bar, or dorm mixer is a costume party—an excuse for the ladies to put on
lingerie and headbands with little animal ears attached and strut around. Sexy
Kitten or Dirty Puppy were the most popular costumes at the kegger I was
dragged to last year. I’d seen enough leg and cleavage by eleven o’clock to
last me until the next Halloween.

This year my friends were pumped to attend the Freakin’ Scary
Costume Party held at the student center. Considering my recent mood, it wasn’t
very surprising to my friends when I told them I’d much rather stay at home
sitting on the couch in my pajamas eating popcorn balls and watching slasher
movies.

First prize at the party was two hundred dollars cash, and Elaina
was sure she was going to win this year. She had decided to go dressed as
Katherine Hepburn and actually looked pretty spot on. Kasie went as a Flirty
Fairy and Sharon borrowed her brother’s camouflage jumpsuit so she could go as
GI Jane.

“I’m not going,” I flat-out told them when my roommates asked why
I wasn’t ready to leave.

“Yes you are,” Sharon insisted. “It’s time you get out of your
funky mood. Come on.”

She grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me down the hall and into
my bedroom. Sharon scanned my closet and took out a blue strapless dress that
fitted my curves just right and hit a few inches above my knee.

“Put that on. I’ll be right back.” She left my room quickly as I
grunted unhappily at the dress in my hands.

My stomach twisted as I thought about what my friends were
pressuring me into. “You’ll be fine,” I tried to tell myself. “What could
happen, really?” But even as I tried to reassure my nervous stomach, my brain
suggested several scenarios where I wouldn’t be fine. Sharon came back as I was
zipping up the dress.

“Here.” She placed a red headband with devil ears on my head.

I looked at her. “What am I?”

“The devil with a blue dress on. Like the song!”

I heard Kasie yelling from the living room, “Come on you two! It’s
nine o’clock! We wanna go!”

“We’ll be right there!” Sharon left the room as I pulled out a
pair of red heels from my closet. If I was going to be forced to go, I was
going to look good. My phone rang from the table by my bed. I hadn’t remembered
turning it back on. I swiped the screen—
unlisted
. Unlisted? Maybe it was
my parents calling from Ireland. A smiled graced my lips as I accepted the
call.

“Hello?” There was silence on the other end of the line. I tried
again, “Hello? Mom?” All I heard was heavy breathing. “Adam?” Still more creepy
breathing. “Is this some kind of sick Halloween joke? Who’s there?” The
breathing continued, but no voice. “Well, if you aren’t going to talk, I’m
hanging up now. Don’t call me again.” I shook my head as I ended the call.

That was weird.

“Ava! Are you coming or not?” Elaina called.

“Okay, okay. Here I come!” I grabbed my purse and ran out of the
room.

The girls were waiting for me near the door and when they saw me,
they all had strange looks on their faces.

“What are you?” Kasie finally said.

“Devil with a blue dress on.” Their eyebrows were still crunched
up, so Sharon and I sang them a little bit until they all said, “Ohhhhhh.”

“That’s good!” Elaina chimed.

The night was clear but brisk, so we walked quickly down the
street to the back door of the student center. Next to the door there was a man
wearing all black and leaning against the brick wall of the building, arms
crossed across his muscular chest. I spied an earpiece hooked around the top of
his ear. He looked very serious and stared straight ahead as we passed through.
It seemed sort of odd to me—campus police were not dressed like that. Then I
remembered it was Halloween, after all, and this misfit was most likely someone
in costume.

We climbed the stairs to the second floor. Party music blasted
through the fire doors separating the stairwell to the banquet room, but it
couldn’t drown out the dread pumping my heart deep inside me.

Elaina pushed open the door to reveal an elaborately decorated
hall complete with spider webs, skeletons, black and orange streamers, and
spooky smoke billowing off the dance floor. There were tables of snacks,
freebies, and tons of costumed college students. The knots in my stomach had
tied tighter and I had a bad feeling in my chest.

Ug. Halloween.

We showed our IDs at the door, and made our way through the crowd
to the dance floor. I still felt weird. Not being able to see everyone’s faces
added to my uneasiness.

“Can we leave yet?” I yelled at Elaina.

“What? We just got here!”

I basically stood still on the dance floor while I constantly
surveyed the crowd. I kept my guard up and tried to avoid all the guys rubbing
up on me from behind, but the dance floor was packed and it was difficult. I
usually liked dancing, but I was definitely not in the mood.

“I’m gonna get some food,” I yelled over the loud music into
Kasie’s ear. She nodded in affirmation. Snaking my way through the crowd, I
finally stepped off the dance floor and walked right past the table of food. I
had no intentions of eating. Nothing would stay down until I was safe in my bed
and this crazy night was over with. In the hallway I took a deep breath of
fresh air. It was simply suffocating on the dance floor.