What was taking too long? Anna thought as she waited patiently for Zach to come out of the house. It had been possibly only a few minutes but to her it seemed like it had been hours. With a sigh, she opened the passenger’s door, ignoring the fact that she was disobeying Zach’s order, and stepped outside of the truck.
It was strange, she thought inmediately. There was no rush of homeliness that washed over her as she looked over the front doors that were ajar. The skies were gray and dark and grim. It seemed like a lonely day as the trees seemed to whisper something to each other. She heard it. Almost.
The leaves were hushing a melancholy lullaby as if reciting a song of death to her ears. Even the wind was singing a sad melody. She hugged herself as she felt the coldness of the breeze. It was dusk yet the sun was in no sight.
She couldn’t see any trace of sunlight from over the trees and over the skies and just that made it seem like the skies had lost hope for the sun to come. As if it was too late. Night was crawling over the horizon and she realized how unusually silent her home was.
She looked over the house once again. There were no lights turned on behind the windows at the first floor nor at the second. Outside, leaves were scattered everywhere as if no one decided to clean the place. It was unusual for her Grandmother to not clean the place before sunset. Lola wasn’t like the person to always forget things. In fact, she was always diligent, always the one to tend to her responsibilities faithfully.
Fear crept down Anna’s spine as goosebumps sticked to her skin. Something was terribly wrong, she felt. Just as she walked a few steps towards the front doors, a familiar brown truck pulled over behind Zach’s black truck.
Hearing the sound of engine, she turned and saw John and Ben getting out of the brown truck and quickly walking towards her. Frowning, she looked at both brothers, utterly confused. “What are you guys doing here?” she asked.
“Anna, don’t go inside,” Ben warned as he walked to her and John went straight inside.
“What are you talking about? This is my home,” she protested as Ben gently grabbed her arm and stopped her from going inside. “Ben, let me go.”
“This is for your safety.”
With that, she felt angry. He was trying to protect her from her own home? Was he on drugs or something? Pulling away from him, she stormed inside the house and quickly followed the growls echoing from the kitchen.
“You bästard! You killed her!” she heard John seething. Someone was killed?! she thought. It couldn’t be! It shouldn’t be! Panicking, she walked fast and saw Zach and John glaring at each other in the kitchen room.
“What’s happening here?” she questioned, seeing both their eyes darting towards her and immediately widening. Whether out of fear or anger, she didn’t know. It was funny how the two Alphas stood in the same room and looked as intimidating as the other.
“Anna–” John stormed towards her and tried to stop her from coming further into the room but it was too late. She froze in her tracks and witnessed it.
Her Grandmother was dead.
Her body was laid down on the floor lifeless and blood pooling beneath her corpse. Just the sight tore her heart into shreds in an instant. There was nothing left. She couldn’t breathe so she heaved as tears swiftly rolled down her cheeks without warning. The ground seemed to tremble beneath her feet and she felt herself shaking.
“No!” Her hands flew to her mouth. “No!”
Her knees weakened. She waited to meet the floor but strong arms embraced around her and she was too hurt to care who had dared to touch her. She was feeling everything all at once. The pain. The ache. The anger. The confusion. The chaos.
Before she knew it, she was being pulled against someone’s hard chest as strong arms held her tightly, never letting go. She embraced the comfort she felt in his arms and couldn’t help but pour her tears and all the pain she felt on his shirt. She clutched his shirt tightly and sniffed into the soaking fabric.
“It’s OK,” Zach’s deep voice whispered in her ear. “You’re going to be fine. Everything’s going to be fine.”
She wanted to believe him. Wanted to believe that everything was going to be fine and that this was all a terrible nightmare. That her Grandmother was not dead and she couldn’t be. Perhaps Anna would wake up soon. She just had to wait.
“You son of a bïtch!”
Suddenly, Zach was pulled off her and she was being pulled away by Ben. Confused, she looked around the room and found the corpse was gone. But there was still blood on the floor and it reminded her of the sight she had witnessed as her tears uncontrollably rolled down her cheeks once again.
“You dare touch her and comfort her when it’s you who caused this mess!”
She turned and couldn’t have heard and seen it wrong. Jake, out of nowhere, was pushing Zach against the wall. She was too wounded to care anymore. Heart turning cold as stone, she pulled away from Ben’s grip and ran away straight out of the house, not knowing that Ben followed after her and that John took care of the corpse.
Seeing her run away with tears falling down her face, Zach hardly pushed Jake off him, making the man stumble back a few steps. Zach fixed his shirt and started to follow after her but Jake stopped him. “I will not let you follow after her,” Jake warned. “This is not your place anymore. Lola’s death was caused by your foes. You destroyed Anna.”
“This is none of your business,” Zach hissed. “We will fix this ourselves.”
“You can’t fix this,” Jake retorted. “Death can’t be brought back. You just broke her heart and I’m not gonna let you do it again.”
Zach growled through gritted teeth, “Don’t make me kill you.”
“Kill me,” Jake demanded as he stood firmly without batting an eye at Zach’s deadly glare.
“Let’s take this outside.”
“Gladly.”
“Stop this büllshit!” John shouted from the doorway, stopping them. His eyes were burning and in panic. As if he was anxious about something.
“What happened?” Jake asked.
John brushed a hand down his face as if attempting to brush away his frustrations. “She’s gone.”
Zach didn’t wait for further information as he quickly rushed out of the house. There was a trail of smaller tires into the woods. He realized she drove her own car out of McQueen Subdivision. What was she thinking?
He walked to his truck and followed the trail into the woods. He took his phone out and called her in hopes that she would answer in spite of the circumstances.
She picked up at third ring and he couldn’t have felt any better.
“Zach.”
“Where are you?” he demanded.
He heard her sigh as she sniffed. “I need some time alone.”
“You can’t drive. You’re not thinking straight right now. You’re in a state of shock and depression. Come back. Now.”
There was a moment of silence before she answered, “I can’t.”
“Please,” he begged. And he never begged before, she knew that.
“Zach, I’m sorry. I need time and I just.. I just have to go.. Away from here.. Away from you.”
Was she blaming him, too about the situation? He felt the heavy mass at the bottom of his heart and knew not how tightly he was gripping the steering wheel. “Don’t leave me.”
“I’m sorry,” she spoke sincerely as she sniffed.
“I don’t wanna lose you,” he said honestly. “I love you.. I need you.”
“Do you love me because you need me?” she softly asked. “Or do you need me because you love me?”
Silence.
“Goodbye, Zach.”
She hung up. He threw the phone and fired the engine, running the truck faster than before. He drove as fast as lightning on the road as the skies had darkened and nightfall came. Until dawn came, he never found the end of her trail.