The California Adventure

Chapter 14: The burning tide

Nate and Martin arrived home with dinner from El Pollo Loco soon after Villanelle quickly escaped into the night to not make any sound.

"We're home! We got dinner for you!" Nate called for his sister.

Nate walked into the living room only to find his sister and her friend wide-eyed and trembling.

"...Dad?"

"What's up Nate?" Martin asked, clearly happy at the moment. Nate then gestured to Ellen and Martin walked to see what Nate was trying to say. There sat Ellen and Charlotte wide eyed and shaking on the couch, not saying a WORD.

"Ellen? Ellen, what's wrong?" Martin asked.

It took awhile for Ellen to mouth the words about what happened to her and Charlotte. At first, Martin thought she was joking, until Ellen spilled the details about Laura's demise, and how the unknown assassin chased her to the house.

And after dinner, Ellen was the first to ask Martin the following question:

"Can we move back to Maine please? I really don't want want to live here anymore."

"The police will catch this psychopath, I promise," Martin tried to reassure Ellen, but she was having NONE of it.

"it's not just that, there's also everything being WAY too expensive, too many laws restrictive to anyone's rights, even me, and there's crime and earthquakes EVERYWHERE!" Ellen replied back, with tears threatening to spill.

It was true what Ellen said. Last Saturday, Nate slept through the WHOLE earthquake without noticing one bit whilst sleeping in.

"I'm noticing it too, but my job will cover up all the bills in no time," Martin assured.

Nate frowned. He knew Martin was no help to Ellen at all, so he decided to give his sister some comfort. And Martin gushed at this and took a picture of Nate and Ellen.

"That's going straight to the album book," Martin said gleefully.

But Nate was not having any of Martin's lack of empathy so he said

"Can you just take one moment to look at your daughter and all the immense pain that she is going through right now? Look at her!"

Nate wasn't kidding. Ellen looked close to breaking down herself. So was Charlotte.

Martin sighed. He knew his son was right. So he went over to his daughter and gave her and her friend a hug of comfort. Then he (eventually) offered some dinner for the pair.

Nate went to his room and laid down on his bed for a while. Then he heard:

DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!

Nate sat up and looked over to his computer. Samuel was on webcam calling Nate.

Nate got up and headed to the computer screen and answered:

"Hello?"

"Hey Nate! How's it going?"

"Not good I'm afraid."

"What's going on? What happened?" Samuel asked with concern.

Then Martin's voice reached in to Nate.

"Nate. Don't be up too late! Get some sleep!"

"Okay. Sorry, Sam, I have to go. I'll tell you what happened tomorrow," Nate responded before hanging up.

That was EXACTLY what Samuel asked Nate while en route to school today with DJ and Nate spilled the details about what happened last night with his sister.