Caged

34

Everything that happened after Caleb came into my room was a blur.

It was a collection of bits and pieces that formed a jumbled mess of memories in my mind. Little fragments that I tried my best to recall as time seemed to come to a steady stop, and I felt the air leaving my lungs with every minute that passed by on the highway.

I didn't really know how I ended up in the car to go back to the same place where I'd been taken.

The same place where one of the hardest goodbyes of my entire life had taken place a day before, and now I'd find out if that goodbye had been permanent.

It was the same place to which I was now returning to that would decide how the rest of my life would turn out.

They found a body, Caleb had said and now we'd find out who it was.

Caleb sat in the back with me while Ethan drove. His hand in mine was supposed to be a comforting gesture, but nothing would help me aside from Elijah.

Knowing that he was alive and okay was the only thing I needed.

Soon enough, the familiar fields began to come into view and I found my stomach twisting more and more with every mile that we drove on.

The only thing that kept me sane the entire ride there was repeating the same words to myself over and over again until they were engraved into my mind.

Elijah was coming home.

The site came into view as Ethan pulled to a stop, and my breath caught at the destruction that lay in front of us. It was piles of rubble and glass and dirt. Even the trees that had previously been surrounding the perimeter had fallen.

The entire thing was gone.

If someone was inside when the building crumbled, there was no way they would have survived and the realization made my heart rate skyrocket.

As Caleb gripped my hand with his own and pulled me out of the car, my eyes zoned in on a few people in the distance. One of them was crouching down. I recognized Kaiden, Roman and Alastair.

"Izzy," Caleb croaked, and I startled, my gaze snapping to his. I realized I'd pulled him back by tugging on his hand subconsciously and my feet had stopped in their path.

I couldn't move.

I didn't want to see because if it was Elijah, I would break in ways that I would never be able to come back from.

That would be it for me.

There was only so much a person could take, and I couldn't do it anymore.

I was outside, but I felt like there were imaginary walls caving in around me and I was suffocating. I couldn't breathe. Caleb followed me as I stumbled back another step.

"I can't..." I choked out, my eyes filling with tears and from the corner of my eye, I saw Ethan lingering behind to wait for us. I could feel his eyes on me. "I c-can't do it. I can't go there."

Caleb took a few steps closer, his hand squeezing mine.

"I'll be with you. All of us will be," he said quietly, his own voice strained and I shook my head.

"Elijah won't," I whispered, my voice cracking. "If that's him..."

Ethan spoke up this time and my eyes whipped over to him. He was watching me with a blank expression. "I'll go."

I blinked a few times and Caleb's hand loosened around mine as we both stared at Ethan in surprise.

Ethan's gaze flickered between the two of us. "You can stay here with Izzy, I'll go check. If it's not him, I'll walk back over and then...then, I guess you'll know."