Never The Same

Chapter Nine

"Thanks for picking us up," I say to Luke.

"You could have called me yourself" he responds.

"I know, and I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't going to fix the fact you almost just got killed."

"I'm safe now. Isn't that all that matters?"

"I wish it did. But no. I don't want you doing these dangerous, life threatening, and frankly stupid things. There's someone out there ready to kill you."

"Asher would never kill me."

"How do you know?"

"How do you know he would kill me," I say and immediately regret, because it sounded better in my head than it did in actual words.

"Well, he killed for you."

"This is about Brooke, isn't it?"

"He killed her. That guy is a murderer."

"I'm not so sure."

His face softened. "What? What do you mean?"

"Miss Kent told me about an investigation she used to work on. The one where a girl was killed by this guy who let his friend take the blame. Oh no."

"What?"

"We need to go back in there."

"Are you crazy?"

"If Carter really killed Brooke, who's to say he won't murder the girls in the school? He's going to get away if we leave and no one can tell what he'll do next."

"We can't save them," Katie says.

"But that shouldn't stop us from trying," I reply.

"And what if something happens."

"My sister," I say quietly, but then get a little louder. "She once told me resisting meant that we might fail, but if we didn't we have already failed. So it's worth a shot."

"I sincerely hope you know this can get us killed."

"How? We have the gun."

"And he has a hundred minions."

"She's right," Luke chimes in. "The odds are against us."

"So let's change it."

"How?" Caroline whispers.

"The odds were against me when I was in there, but I got out."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that we don't take them on all at once."

"We can't save them," Katie yells. "They don't want to be saved."

"Because they don't know they need to be saved."

"We can't save them," she repeats.

"So what if we can't?"

"We risk our lives while trying to save theirs."

"Fine. Stay. I'm going back in."

"El," Luke says.

I walk away towards the building. No one stops me. They don't walk with me or say anything. They just let me go. And to be honest, I didn't expect anything more than that. I never thought that they would come with me. But that's okay.

I got closer and refused to look back when someone called my name. I heard a car start, but it didn't sound like Luke's truck. I stopped for a moment, but I wasn't going to surrender. I was only ten feet from the building. I couldn't stop now. I was too close.

"Ellie," Luke called. I looked back briefly.

There were no headlights on, nor exhaust coming from the back. Luke wasn't in the car, and I saw Katie and Caroline standing right beside him. It wasn't him driving, but I could hear the wheels speeding across the sand. And for a split second, I heard ticking. Luke came running towards me, and I knew he had heard it too.

He called my name again, but I didn't move. I couldn't. I was mesmerized by the continuation of the sound in my head. My body felt paralyzed, although it wasn't. I felt disoriented, more than I should actually. I tried to focus, but the more I thought about it, the more everything became blurry.

Luke tapped my shoulder gently. I turned my head slowly. A black van was driving in the distance. Sand was blowing behind it, making it barely visible. Out of now where, I see a lit match hit the ground and it goes up in flames. A line of some kind of flammable substance was leading to the warehouse.

Luke put his arms around me and forced me to walk. I turned my head back and looked at the building and the car. The fire was getting closer. Caroline and Katie were sitting next to each other by a far tree. I assume that's where Luke was heading.

But it was already too late. The sound of the explosion pierced my ears. Luke crouched to the ground and covered me, but I still felt the heat of the blasting fire. We were too far away for it to reach us completely.

"There's the van," Luke says and starts jogging towards it.

The clicking sound still filled my mind. "Wait."

"It's just sitting there. If we catch up behind him, he won't even know we are there."

"He knows. Just stay here."

For about a minute, the ticking sound became louder and louder. And the car started its engine and drove away slowly. Then the sound hit its maximal level. It didn't get any louder.

"It's driving away," Luke says while running.

"I can see that, just wait back here."

"Why?" Luke stops and turns back to look at me.

There's another small explosion where the van was parked. Although, it sounded like more than one bomb was put to play. And I heard a few more in the distance as the van drove away.

"That's why."

Luke goes towards the other girls, but I head towards the burning building. I put my hands up against a part that wasn't on fire. It felt hot, but instead of pulling away, I put my ear to it. I heard a distant scream. There were still girls in there.

"What are you doing," Luke calls to me.

"The van wasn't big enough to fit all of those girls. There are some still in there."

Luke walked towards me, but didn't say anything else. He put his arm around me and rubbed my back gently. We went over to the girls and got in the truck. I sat in the front with Luke. Katie and Caroline sat in the back.

Luke drove in the same direction as the van. While he was doing that, he also took out his phone and called 9-1-1. I saw the van in the distance, but as we got closer, a line of fire separated us from him. Luke stopped the car and continued the call.

"9-1-1, what is your emergency?"

"Hello," Luke says and looks at me. I shake my head with concerned eyes. "I would like to apologize in advance, but my two year old son accidentally dialed this number. Have a great day."

He hangs up the phone and we wait for the fire to go out. The van soon becomes unseen as it goes further to a place unknown.