chapter 149 Forty-Seven

Evelyn's POV

The stream shows April walking through the hospital corridors with a gun in her hand. April

walks up the corridors before walking into a ward out of sight. The live stream continues to play

when you hear a bang. Ryland switches the TV off and all eyes go to me before I walk over grabbing

the remote from Ryland and turning the TV back on. My heart thumping against my chest as I flick

through the channels trying to find the news report again. Ryland tries to take the remote from me,

but I snatch it away from him. I need to know; I need to know what happened. Where Lana was, my

mind racing the cold tendrils of fear creeping into me, my stomach dropping as I break out in a cold

sweat instantly. My hands shaking as I clutch the remote before frantically flicking past the channel.

I press the back button, and a news anchor was standing out the front of the hospital. Police

blocking entry to the hospital behind her.

The flashing of police lights flickering against the building as cops were running around trying

to secure the hospital, people running from the building in complete chaos.

“What you just seen on screen was the wife of the well-respected constable Derrick Tanner. The

reports coming from inside is that a double murder, suicide. We believe the youngest victim of the

double homicide is the adopted daughter, fourteen-year-old, Lana Tanner. The girl has been

residing with Mrs Tanner while her husband recovers in hospital. It is not known what caused the

sudden these sudden events to unfold but it is tragedy we may never understand.”

Three images come on the screen, a picture of April, one of Derrick in his uniform before the

fire ravaged him and lastly a picture of Lana. Her beautiful face full of light, the picture-perfect girl

next door. My lungs restrict, my legs buckling underneath me as I stare at the screen. I could see the

news lady talking but no volume as went completely death to my surroundings. I couldn't hear a

thing going on around me. Couldn't think straight as I stared blankly into space.

This is my fault, I told Thaddeus not to kill her even though he wanted to. That was a mistake, I

killed the only sister I ever had because I didn’t want to live with the guilt of taking April away from

her. But April not only took her husband's life but that of Lana's before taking her own. I killed her, I

set off the chain of events that lead to her death, if only I listened to them. If only I never went to

that house. If only I told Thaddeus to kill her, Lana would still be here.

My breath coming faster in short puffs with the realization that just dawned on me. I killed her,

the closest person to family I ever had was dead. The person I was willing to kill for died because I

wanted to believe April still had good left in her, that her understanding was only tainted that she

wasn't to blame for her actions. Thaddeus was right, April deserved death, but Lana didn't deserve

this. This was never meant to affect her, I thought I was protecting her by letting April live because I

was afraid, she would end up back in the system, the system no child wants to be a part of. My

idiocy killed her. My failure to see what she was capable of killed Lana. The little girl I fought to

protect for an entire year was now dead, everything I did was for nothing but more importantly my

mistake killed her.

Orion POV

The moment Lana's picture came up on the screen she buckled, her legs going out from

underneath her, her nails digging into her palms so hard she was drawing blood. She looked hollow

as she continued to stare at the screen, eyes wide and a dead look on her face as the colour drained

from her face. The emotions coming from the bond told us how destroyed she was inside, yet she

didn’t say a word, was completely mute trapped in her own thoughts and guilt. She thought this

was her fault. Evelyn shut down, completely shut down. She was right in front of me but with the

look on her face she might as well have been a million miles away.

Thaddeus was a raging storm inside, the darkness creeping in. Ryland was the first to move. He

hesitantly walked over to her frozen form crumpled on the floor. We could all hear the erratic

beating of her heart as it thumped against her chest. The shallowness of her breathing like she

couldn't catch her breath. The tremble of her bottom lip before she bit down on it hard enough to

draw blood. Evelyn was breaking and none of us knew what to do other than stare at her.

Ryland reaches his hand out to brush her hair from her face and she moves away before

standing, the remote slipping from her hand and breaking apart on the floor, the batteries falling

out as she turned almost robotically, she was there right in front us, but nobody was home. Evelyn

moving more on instinct like a zombie as she walked up the stairs on auto pilot. She didn’t want

anyone near her. Didn't want us to touch her like she knew she would break if we did.

“I need to go; I can't be here” Thaddeus says, as the storm within him raged to magnitude

levels. He looks to the stairs wanting to go to her but won't risk exploding near her. He felt her guilt

hitting him along with his own. He never intended for April to kill Lana along with Derrick, he

wanted her to suffer but he never imagined in a million years that Lana would also pay the price for

what he implanted in her head.

“Go” I tell him and within a blink he was gone. He was a ticking timebomb on the brink of

exploding. Ryland looks to the stairs Evelyn's despair hitting us like a tidal wave as it crashed into us.

Racing upstairs she had locked the door. I twist the door handle till the handle snaps, falling apart in

my hand and we find Evelyn on the floor, broken. She was screaming inside, you could see it on her

face as she broke, tears rolling down her face, her face turning red and blotchy as she wailed, her

hands ripping out her hair as she lost it. Completely lost the plot.

Ryland grabs her hands stopping her from pulling chunks of hair out, her nails digging into her

delicate skin leaving scratch marks as she clawed at herself, like she thought she could claw away

the pain she was feeling inside.

“Orion do something” Ryland yells to me as she loses control. Ryland pulls her onto his lap

restraining her hands which were now digging into his leg above the knee as he rocked her, trying

to sooth her while she wept. Kneeling beside her, I grip her face, forcing her to look at me. Her eyes

red and puffy, dead as she stared back at me. She was completely distraught. I let the fog slip over

her, her breathing evening out, her tears slowing, and she still tried to fight against it, as her body

slowly relaxed, her hands unclenching. Ryland's leg bleeding with the little half-moon shapes of her

nails.

“Sleep Evelyn” I tell her, as Ryland brushes the hair sticking to her face from her tears. She

shakes her head trying to fight off the compulsion.

“Sleep Evelyn” I repeat, and she goes out like a light. Her eyes shutting as I force her to sleep,

her body going limp in Ryland's arms, her head rolling back against his arm before he stands,

clutching her to his chest and lays on the bed with her. I sit beside him, trying to think but coming

up blank. Death was something we were used to, eventually when you live as long as we do, you

lose everyone you have ever known that is the downside to forever, the curse of immortality.

Everyone you ever know will eventually die around you. But Evelyn never experienced that, she

never had family. Never stayed any place long enough to grow close to someone, so this was new

to her, this was devasting. The closest thing she ever had to family was now gone. Even Derrick after

what he did, couldn't break her, Thaddeus couldn't break her. Lana's death though, did. This broke

her, never have I seen her look so fragile. This was going to haunt her worse than that vile man

does.