The Road to Quinn Lake (book 1)

Chapter 7

     Emma awoke and ran down stairs. "Where's Brandon?" She asked in a frantic tone. " Why, Emma?" Her mom asked getting up from the kitchen table. "They just got an confession from the kidnapper! Now where's Brandon?"  Emma asked her mom again. "Get in the car, Emma." Her mother had never sounded more tense in her life. "Luke!  James! Get in the car; we just got a confession." Her mom rushing out of the door. They got to the station to see Brandon sitting in the waiting room. " Brandon, why are you here?" Emma asked. "I came here to get my name off the suspects list and a kid with a blue hood over his head came in. Then they told me to call you because they got a confession." He said looking a bit freaked out. "I'm sorry that I thought you had something to do with it." Emma said. 

     " That doesn't matter now. All that matters is that we figure out who did this." Brandon had time to reply before Emma had to go. " Emma, we need you to identify this man." A man from the back of the room said. Moving forward she knew that this could be the last of it; she could finally be free again. They went into a tiny room with a big glass window looking into a bigger room. Their was a figure of a boy about Emma's age sitting beyond the glass and he did in fact wear a blue hoodie. The boy wouldn't look forward, and the officer on the other side yelled at him to look up. That was when she caught a glimpse of him; he had scars on his face and grass and mud stains on his once white shirt. "Can I talk to him?" Emma asked after seeing his torn up appearance. " Do you know who he is?" The investigator asked looking at her in such a confused way. "I don't know if I do or not, but I do know that I want to talk to him." Emma had put her foot down on this one and was not going to leave without talking to him. "Fine, be careful. There are police in the room already, so you should be okay." He said with confidence, but that confidence was well faked.

      Emma walked in and sat down with a look around the room. "Who are you?" She asked looking him straight in the eye. "Noah, Adam's brother." He said putting his head in his hands almost as if he were trying to pray. "We both know you had nothing to do with this, so why are you here?" Emma whispered roughly. "Emma, Adam told me everything about you. He also told me that he was going to kidnap you, and I was going to take the fall. I thought it was just his twisted little mind, so I went along with it. Now, here we are." As Noah talked you could see his's fear from across the room.

      "I can get you out all you have to do is tell me where Adam is." Emma reassured him. " Adam left town last weekend, and he told me he was coming back tomorrow morning to start his revenge on you and Luke." Noah shook his head like he was ashamed to even talk about his brother. "If you know anything else, now would be the time to tell us." The officer in the corner finally spoke. "Nothing else, now can I go; I really don't like police stations?" Noah added getting up. "Of course, Noah. Emma are you coming?" The investigator could see the confusion on Emma's face. "Yeah, I'm coming." She said wiping her hair out of her face.

      The news traveled through the station before Emma was even out of the room. No knew what to do besides wait,so they did. Police cars gathered around the house and the lake; everyone had a job and knew exactly what they were doing. Well, everyone but Emma and Luke. They stood inside and watched the hours tick by. "He has to come at some point, so keep your head up." One extra cheerful lady said to them both. "Why is she so happy?" Luke asked kind of disgusted with the whole situation." Luke, people can be happy. I know we're both really bad at doing it, but some people are naturally happy." Emma replied rolling her eyes. Suddenly all you could here for miles away were gunshots. Emma jumped out of her seat and started to panic.

     An officer ran into the house to get both of them to the basement. Emma hadn't been in a basement since those awful nights so long ago. The thought of it made her panic even more and the room started to turn. "Emma, stay with me." Luke called to her noticing the panic getting stronger. It all turned to a blur as more gunshots were heard, but they seemed to get closer and closer. After the noise died down there was nothing. A man came into the basement to help them out, but he had this sort of relieved look on his face. "What happened?" Emma practically yelled at him. "We got in a shooting match with Adam and now he is at the hospital for minor injuries." The man said so simply as if all of this was normal. "We need you to talk to him. Emma, I know you can do this if you just think about getting he to prison." Emma couldn't move any more. "Okay, but what if I don't have anything to say to him?" She tried looking for a good excuse.

     "We all know you have something to say to him, so just let it come from the heart." He lead her to one of the police cars that wasn't blocked and practically pushed her in.  "Is anyone else hurt?",Emma tried he best to stop all conversations about Adam. "Your brother's a little scratched up and so are some others." He acted like these things happened everyday. The car ride took little time considering that the man drove like a maniac. Emma entered the hospital expecting tons of people, but no one had really bombarded the place yet. She snapped back to reality when the lady at the desk called her name. "Emma, how are you? I haven't seen you since... well never mind that why are you here?" Emma remembered that woman quite clearly;she had always tried to make her smile. "Hi, I'm fine. I have to talk to Adam Ross. Do you know where he is?" The lady instantly looked down at her check in paper. "Of course, just go to floor two and make a left. Room 235." Emma waved then went back to the task at hand. 

     She took a deep breath before she came to the door trying hard not to panic like she always did. Before she could knock both of his parents came out of the room; his mom was crying and his dad's face was extremely red. Adam had always told her that his parents never cared about him, but then again he probably lied about everything else too. Before Emma could move around the corner Adam's mom saw her and started walking towards her. "Hi Emma, I'm sure you remember me, I'm Adam's mom." Then she gave her a hug while his dad stayed behind in the other hallway. "Yeah, I do you were always very kind." Emma shook her head not really knowing what to do. "If you'll excuse me I need to get going." Mrs.Ross then grabbed her hand and whispered "If we knew he was crazy, we wouldn't have let him near you; I'm sorry." Then with that she left leaving Emma there dumbfounded by what had happened.

     Starting toward the door again a storm of flashbacks came to mind, and no one could deny that it hurt to think about. It wasn't only the bad memories either; it was the good times that hurt the most when everything felt normal. Emma knocked on the door blinking the tears away. She convinced herself that she had to stay strong, but many things are easily said then done.

    "Why are you here?" ,She heard Adam ask from the other side of the room making her jump a little. "I could ask you the same thing. You know Adam, you're not as tough as you think you are. Did you really think that if you kidnapped me I would just instantly decide that I want to be with you?"  ,Emma was just as shocked as Adam at that point.

      "I don't know what I was thinking, okay? All I know now is that now I'm going to be put in prison for being in love." He said as if it was a huge outrage. Emma had enough at this point. "No, Adam you can't love anyone. You don't know how to; you can't force someone to love you it just happens. It didn't work out; you and I both know that it never would so why are you putting yourself through all of this. Just give it up, Adam." No said anything for a long time after that. Emma was about to leave when she heard a voice call after her, "I can promise you that I'm going to find a way out of this. So, you and Luke better watch your back."