This chapter is shorter than my usual ones because 1.) I want to post something for you guys, 2.) I need to leave because it's my mom's birthday and I'm already like an hour late, and 3.) I have stuff written after this point but I don't have it all finished and once I do, I know it'll be too long for one chapter anyway and it'll have to get split so this was the easiest spot I could find that I was happy with cutting it at. But know that because most of what will be chapter 35 is already written and I'll be finishing it once I get back from my mom's bday thing, it'll be out super soon. Either tonight or tomorrow based on when the bday thing ends so look out for that and I'm sorry I don't have it finished yet! <3
I also usually post songs with this but I am going to be rushing to get ready to leave as soon as I copy the chapter over to here so I don't have time for that right now (probably will add one later) but I was wondering if you guys listen to the songs paired with chapters or no? Because if not, I'll stop worrying about finding ones but if you do, then I have no problem continuing (:
____________________________
Lacey.
"What did you say?" Cameron asked, holding the phone with one hand between us as I drove through Melkin.
"Scully killed Dylan."
Annabeth was on speaker phone and she repeated her previous sentence but it still rattled my brain. The words didn't make sense. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. I wasn't sure if I was grateful or not that Cameron trusted me enough to have me be part of the conversation. Annabeth had called him only a second ago and I'm pretty sure I could have lived my next three minutes of life without hearing the words she'd just said. I think I would've preferred living in obliviousness for just a smidge more.
"You're sure?" Cameron asked.
Say no, say no, say no, I chanted in my head.
"If he didn't, someone else did and Scully somehow made it away but Cam... It's bad. It's really bad."
Cameron sighed. "You handcuffed both of them to the banister, right?"
Yes! Unless I didn't do it right but I know I did. I had double checked at least Dylan's was on tight and I'm pretty sure Finn could figure out handcuffing Scully. But if Scully had gotten free and Dylan couldn't - was it my fault if something happened to him? I had trapped him.
Annabeth continued, ignoring my inner freak out, "Yeah, but we left the key close to Dylan so he could get himself out when he woke back up. But he's still cuffed to the banister... I think."
"What about the pair you used on Scully?"Cameron asked. I didn't dare look at him. It was dark out by now. I needed to focus on the road. That, and I was too afraid to see what his face looked like right now.
"Travis said the beam we handcuffed him too is a little loose but it's still latched on. The half that was on Scully's hand was still locked too but Travis said it was really gross," she mumbled quickly.
"He wiggled out?"
"I wouldn't put it past him to break his own hand to do it if he had to."
There was a pause and out of the corner of my eye, I could see Cameron point to a street corner with the phone holding his hand. "Go to the house. You know how to get there from here?"
I sucked it up and glanced at him to see him looking at me, not the phone. I nodded, breaking slowly to make the turn in time and to not hurt Cameron's leg.
"No," Cameron said after the turn and I saw him still looking at me. He held his knee with one hand. "Get there fast."
His eyes didn't leave any room for argument and he didn't really have to tell me twice. They were at the Casey house where there was a dead cop. That wasn't a place I wanted to have any of them, my nerves were already starting to go crazy at the thought of something happening. More cops could show up.
My gut lurched.
More cops would show up.
Maybe not tonight. But I knew if Dylan had died here, then more cops would probably be sent in to handle the situation. It wouldn't just be a small team working out of a hotel. Melkin would be overrun with special agents. Cameron and Annabeth were still talking but I couldn't focus on them until a loud beeping came through Cameron's phone.
"There's someone else calling," Cameron said and my eyes glanced quickly at the screen as he lit it up but I couldn't tell who it was. "It's Travis. Isn't he with you?"
I squeezed my hands tighter. Travis wouldn't call Cameron unless something was wrong and like Cameron said, Annabeth sounded like he was with her. But I didn't echo Cameron's question or add ten of my own I had. I didn't want to give Cameron a reason to take the call off speaker.
Annabeth groaned as Cameron ignored the call and it stopped ringing. My stomach folded in on itself at his actions.
"There's something else," Annabeth said because my old boss possibly dying and a criminal that wants her and the guy next to me dead isn't bad enough, apparently. I bit my lip to stop from speaking.
Before Annabeth could continue, the beeping notifying another call was coming in started up again.
"He's calling again," Cameron warned.
I let a slow breath out to try to calm down. Everything was okay. All of my friends were safe and right now, none of the cops knew about Dylan, right? But what if Scully told someone? And where was he? And was he even alive? Maybe he didn't kill Dylan, maybe it was the Dacostas. Maybe they killed him too.
"Travis!" Annabeth yelled, stopping my thoughts. "I'm on the phone!"
"I don't care," I heard my boyfriend sass her from nearby in the background. I felt myself instantly breathing a little easier that he was okay and okay enough to be a jerk.
"Stop. Calling. Them," Annabeth stressed before there was a thud.
"No-Holy mothertits," Travis hissed.
A few more thuds sounded before Annabeth ordered a "Go be somewhere else."
"Are you there?" she asked, her voice louder now that she seemed to be speaking back into the phone.
I pressed my lips tightly together to hold in the question of what she did to him as I drove.
"Yes," Cameron answered, sounding just as removed from the situation as he usually did. It was just like Travis when he was in his moods.
Her voice quieted down, "Do you remember how Travis used to be?"
I clenched my jaw and focused on the dotted white lines in the road to stop myself from yelling at her to tell me right now what was wrong.
"When? He's always been a pain in the ass," Cameron answered and that wasn't helpful at all and I envisioned myself smacking Cameron's leg. Just a little.
"I puked when we saw the body," Annabeth paused. "Travis laughed."
I saw Cameron glance at me for a second as I pulled up to a red light. If he thought it was odd I hadn't asked any of my fifty questions by now, he didn't say anything but he also left it on speaker so I kept my hands away from his leg for the time being.
"Did you check him?" Cameron asked.
Confusion filled me because I'd assumed Travis had just been laughing because it was Dylan and he hated most people. But now that I thought about it, laughing was a bit too far, even for him.
"I asked Ben. He's been with him since he woke up and besides a few pain pills, he hasn't taken anything," Annabeth answered.
Cameron was silent so Annabeth continued. All this silence that I wanted to fill while yelling 'Pills?! You think he's taken pills?!' because what?
"I don't think he took anything but he's..." she paused again like she was thinking when I didn't want her to think, I wanted her to spit it out. "Loud again. Like teenager loud. Tom looks like he's two seconds away from spraying Travis with bleach. Just so you know what you're driving into."
What was wrong with teenager Travis? I met him when he was seventeen and he was perfectly fine.
"Okay," Cameron said when it was clearly not okay. "Did you call Finn already? He was out with Carlos."
"Yeah, they're on their way and Ben and I took out the cameras in front of the house."
"Okay," Cameron repeated and without saying goodbye, he hung up the phone.
The light turned green and I started driving again, and Cameron went back to holding his leg like that would help it from hurting when we went over the cracks in the road.
I bit my lip as I thought about everything Annabeth had said on the phone.
"We should leave," I whispered, "We should leave Melkin."
I peeked away from the road to look at Cameron for a moment but he was looking straight ahead, not saying anything which was annoying but expected at this point.
"Cops are going to come to investigate it if it was Dylan because they care more about him dying than they do a couple of gang members," I stated. "And what about Scully? We should all go."
"We should," he agreed calmly.
I opened my mouth for a second before closing it, not being able to pick from the assault of words that hit my brain all at once from him agreeing.
Two minutes passed that I tracked on the dashboard's clock for something to focus on other than the silent man next to me.
"What?" I asked, because I really, really hadn't expected him to agree with me.
"Shh," he said. "I'm thinking."
He didn't talk again until we were closer to the house and I went to slow down to park about a block away but he just pointed forward, telling me to drive directly to the house. Annabeth had claimed the cameras weren't a problem on the phone but just this morning we had gone through extensive lengths to not be seen, at least going in that is. But I trusted them. And I was also a little glad I wouldn't have to walk with a hobbling Cameron for a block in the dark with a Scully on the loose.
There were three cars outside of the Casey house when we pulled up. One I recognized as Annabeth's while another looked like the car that belonged to Carlos. I wasn't sure who the other one was for. I parked the car across the street from the house and looked out the window at the people outside.
Annabeth was seated on the curb of the driveway with her knees up and her elbows rested on those. Further up the driveway, I could see Ben and Travis illuminated by a porch light. They were standing close to each other and seemed to be talking to someone just inside the opened door of the house. Off to the side of them was Carlos leaning against the dark brick of the house. There was no sign of Finn or whoever the other car belonged to.
I turned the car off as we got out with Cameron using his crutches this time. Annabeth stood as we approached and crossed her arms, looking left and right down the road. I glanced up at the street lights that I knew for a fact had cameras on them, only to see slight smoke coming off of the devices. Just this morning we were avoiding being seen by those but it felt like it'd been days since then. I couldn't stop picturing Dylan knocked out, handcuffed to the banister before we left. If we had just left him there, without the handcuffs would he have been able to escape Scully? Maybe he could've called for help from the other cops while Scully was still knocked out and they could have locked him back up. Or at least detained him in some way again.
But instead, he had gotten murdered, supposedly by Scully, and there was no coming back or do-over for that.
My stomach lurched as we walked forward with Annabeth on the other side of Cameron. They were talking but I wasn't really listening.
I should've done something different. The whole reason I joined with Dylan and Owen in the first place was to get back here and help my friends. Cameron even mentioned things would be progressing as far as leaving this life behind today in his meeting. And what happened instead? More cops were going to be showing up, almost definitely. Maybe I should've been harsher on Scully when we went to visit him. Or reached out to Owen to tell him what Dylan was doing. Did Owen even know that Dylan had Scully out? I could've told the head of the special ops program and dealt with Dylan thinking I was a rat for it. I didn't have to handcuff Dylan to the banister and how much longer would my friends be stuck in this deteriorating town now because of this?
We walked up the front walkway to the door and the guys turned to face us but it was only Travis' tightened lips, narrowed eyes, and crossed arms that had my attention. He was angry. Guilt rushed over me like a wave as I let Cameron walk in front of me to get into the house. Annabeth stayed outside by the door.
I went to follow Cameron, keeping my head down when a hand reached out and blocked my path.
"No," Travis said.
"I'm sorry," I admitted because I wanted him to be free so badly and here I was, making it worse.
I tried to push Travis' arm to the side but he didn't budge.
"You're not going in."
"I said I'm sorry. I need to see," I told him. I wanted to see what I caused. I wanted to see how much damage Scully did and how many cops it would cause to come down here as a result.
"No."
"I get you're mad," I said, finally looking up at him and trying not to flinch at his glare.
I tried harder to push past him and nearly made it but he just grabbed on my wrist and pulled me back harder, away from the door. I fought against his hold and tried to peel his hands off my wrist as he tugged me down the front lawn. I managed to gain some ground only now and then and I felt myself getting angry at him. At Scully. At Dylan for doing this in the first place. At myself for making dumb decisions.
"Let me do this," I argued because I didn't understand what his deal was. Was he so angry I wasn't allowed to be in the know anymore? Maybe he didn't want me to be a Casey anymore. Maybe this was his polite way of kicking me out which I wasn't about to have so I fought to get back to the door harder.
Travis bent down and in one swoop, I was up in the air and over his shoulders, with his hands wrapped around my legs and my eyes on his back. I put my hands on his back and pushed myself up as much as I could to see him taking us further from the front door of the house.
"Travis!" I hissed. What was his deal?
"No."
"Put me down!"
"No."
"I'll kick you," I threatened, moving my leg slightly at the knee for emphasis.
"Concussion," he reminded me like I could ever have forgotten that or the purple bruising around his neck.
"You shouldn't even be here," I said because he should've been at home resting. Not out and about when we didn't know where the guy was that gave him the concussion in the first place.
I reached up with one of my hands and tried to find my jacket pocket which took longer than it should with half of my body hanging upside down. I grabbed onto my knife just in case that same guy decided to make a reappearance. I couldn't let him touch Travis again.
My gut jumped again as I thought of his neck. I wanted to see Dylan. I needed to see the guy I had used to work for just to see and make sure it was him. I wanted to see what could've happened to Travis. I could feel myself starting to panic with everything going on but couldn't stop. I knew somewhere in the back of my head that seeing Dylan would only make things worse right now but I couldn't think about anything else.
"Are you going to stab me?" Travis asked when my hands returned to his back, knife clutched in one of them. "You'd better make it count. You won't get a second chance."
His voice was quiet but it was rough. Like it was taking everything in him to stay leveled out and I thought about what Annabeth said, how he was loud. It didn't make sense.
I didn't have any intention of stabbing him so I didn't say anything as he put me down on my feet, holding my shoulders so I wouldn't go anywhere. It was dark but I could still see him clenching and unclenching his jaw.
"I need to see Dylan. I need to see what happened and if it's him."
"It's him," Travis said.
"Let me see him."
"No."
"Why not?" I cried out because why was he being so difficult about this? "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry about all of this and I swear I want nothing more than for you to be out of Melkin but I messed it up and I'm sorry."
"Lacey," he said as one hand came up to rest on my chin. I thought about bolting now that he only hand one hand on my shoulder but didn't underestimate his reflexes. "There are some things you can't get out of your head no matter how hard you try. It'll follow you around for the rest of your life. I can't protect you from everything but let me protect you from this."
"What?" I asked because his facial expressions and his words didn't match.
"I don't want you to see Dylan. It's too bad. I don't want it to ruin you."
"Annabeth said you laughed," I pointed out because on top of sounding caring and looking like he wanted to kill me with his eyes right now, he was always previously laughing.
His thumb brushed the edge of my jaw.
"Like I said, there are some things you can't forget. It brought back old memories and the laugh just kind of slipped out. It wasn't intentional. He's barely recognizable, you don't need to see that. Trust me."
"Cam asked what pills you were on," I added because if he was taking drugs period, but especially while recovering from a concussion, I was going to kill him before anyone else got the chance to.
Travis shook his head. "Whatever Hannah gave me."
I looked at him to see if he was going to say anything else about it because it sounded like there was more going off what Annabeth and Cameron had been talking about.
He sighed. "I'll explain it to you later. Okay?"
That seemed like an okay compromise but none of what he told me explained why he looked like he wanted to toss me into a pit of hungry alligators.
"Why are you mad at me?"
His glare hardened and he removed his hand from my cheek, as if he remembered he was mad again.
"Where's your phone?"
"In the car."
"Why is it in the car?" he asked slowly.
"Because it's off."
Travis let go of me and took a step back like I had smacked him. He gripped the ends of his hair with one hand and let out a deep breath.
"Why is it off?" His tone made him sound like he was talking to a toddler and I was getting offended by it.
"Not on purpose, I-"
He didn't wait for me to explain before the his hand was running through his hair and he cut me off. "You broke your phone?"
"No, Ca-"
"Do you have any idea how many times I tried to call you? I wake up, you're gone. You're out with Cam who can't even defend himself, much less you," he started snapping at me.
"I can defend myself," I added but he wasn't listening and just kept going.
"Then I find out Cam is letting everyone in the world know he's alive, and Dylan's ripped apart, and Scully is loose and I call you to see if you're safe and okay and find out where you are and your phone is going straight to voice mail! Do you know how many scenarios were going through my head?"
Ah. So there was where the anger in his eyes was coming from and seemed to multiple the longer he talked.
"Cameron took my phone battery out to put in his. I'm sorry," I admitted. "I didn't realize you would worry."
Last time I was here, I didn't have a working phone and Travis told me to use the one he gave me only in emergencies. So it didn't even occur to me that he might try to call me.
Travis let out a deep breath through his nostrils before looking back at the house. Before he got angrier or pulled out his own hair, I stepped closer to him and wrapped my arms around his chest in a hug. I put my face up against him, breathing him in and just squeezed tighter.
"I'm sorry. I'm okay," I said.
It took a few seconds before Travis wrapped is arms around me. He put his arms around me and rested his head on top of mine.
"I don't want anything to happen to you," he whispered.
I didn't respond immediately because I was too focused on the way his arms felt around me. Now that I wasn't angry and trying to get back to the house, I could feel his arms trembling slightly against me. Was that from the earlier events today or from seeing Dylan? I doubted it was from being angry at me because he didn't sound like he was anymore but I could definitely feel him shaking. Annabeth said she threw up when she saw Dylan. Travis didn't want me to even see the body. These were things none of them should have to deal with or see.
The way they dealt with things was to just take it, adapt, move on. But none of this was normal and they shouldn't have to deal with any of this. Guilt washed over me for a second but I tried to squash it because Travis wasn't angry at me for any of the Scully stuff and he wasn't trying to kick me out of the group.
"Travis?" I asked and he made a grunt of acknowledgment against my head. "Are you okay?"
I could hear crickets in the distance somewhere and it felt so wrong to hear something so peaceful when such terrible things were going on.
"I want to go home," he breathed out. I hugged him tighter as I realized I didn't think Travis would ever outright admit he wasn't okay and that scared me.
_________________
Please enjoy this meme that VeniLegiAmavi made that makes me crack up every time I see it.
I hope you guys liked it so far! Like I said up above, there's another part coming out super soon that is almost finished but I'm still in my pajamas and I have to go to my mom's for her birthday and said I was going to come over like an hour ago so this is all I can put up right now and the rest will be up after!
ALSO because I'm in a mega supersonic rush, I haven't proofread this much at all so if anything is the complete wrong word because that happens a lot or something is confusing, please let me know and I'll check it out when I get home.
I love you guys, thank you for reading! OKAY I REALLY HAVE TO GO GET READY. BE BACK SHORTLY WITH MORE! <3333 have a great day!