Deadly Double Love

Deadly Double Love 35

I don’t know how long Scott and I sat there, but when he raised his arms and removed them from around me, I felt better.

“We can get through this,” Scott said, looking into my eyes.

“I know,” I said with a little smile.

Suddenly I heard a groan come from my dad across the room. Scott and I hurried over to him.

“What’s wrong dad?” I asked. “Does it hurt?”

My dad said something I couldn’t make out.

“What?” I said. “You have to speak a little clearer.”

“Can’t.” He struggled to make the word.

“Why not?” I said, starting to worry. “What’s wrong?”

He brought his cuffed hands to his face and clutched his jaw.

“Can’t open.” The word came out of his mouth sounding garbled.

“He can’t open his mouth,” I said to Scott. “Why can’t he open his mouth?”

“I don’t know,” Scott said, sounding perplexed.

“It’s okay, dad,” I assured him. “You’re going to be okay.”

“Does anything else hurt?” Scott asked him.

“Back,” he said almost unintelligibly. “Neck.”

Scott and I looked at each other with scared expressions on our faces.

“Stiff,” my dad added.

I looked at Scott, hoping he’d know what to do.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” Scott told me.

“So what do we do?” I asked him.

“Until we figure out what’s wrong, there’s nothing we can do,” he said.

I nodded, disappointed. But it wasn’t really Scott’s fault.

I leaned over and squeezed my dad’s hand.

“Don’t worry, dad,” I said. “It’ll be okay.”

For the next few hours we sat around, bored out of our minds. I used my finger to draw little pictures in the dirt floor. I played rock, paper, scissors with Scott. I stared at the walls. I waited.

And then I heard a noise. I sat up quickly, suddenly alert.

“Did you hear that?” I asked.

“Hear what?” Scott said.

“It sounded like a twig snapping,” I told him.

“No, I didn’t hear it,” Scott said.

“There it was again,” I said as I heard it once more.

Scott listened and then the noise came again.

“I hear it!” Scott said.

“Maybe it’s a person!” I exclaimed.

“Help!” Scott yelled.

“Someone help us!” I cried.

“We’ve been kidnapped!” Scott shouted.

“Help us!” I said as loud as I could.

The noise came closer and closer and then a pair of hand removed the door from its frame. I grinned stupidly, so happy that we’d been found. And then we saw the face of our “rescuer.” It was Rory.

My smile quickly fell from my face.

“Thought you could escape?” Rory asked, raising an eyebrow.

None of us said anything.

“If I thought anyone would come here besides me, I wouldn’t have brought you guys here,” he told us.

I ground my knuckles into the dirt angrily.

“Don’t look so disappointed,” Rory said. “I brought you guys something.”

He swung his backpack off of his shoulder and opened it up. He pulled out a plastic grocery store bag. He tossed it towards Scott and the contents spilled out in front of us. Four granola bars and two water bottles lay before us, but we didn’t touch them.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Rory told us as he started towards the door.

“Wait,” I said. “My dad needs to have his leg cleaned and bandaged.”

Rory paused for a moment.

“I’ll think about it,” he said.

And then he was gone.