Dead Girl Walking ― Aaron Minyard

52. good grief

what's gonna be left of the world
if you're not in it?
― bastille

♦

AARON KNEW THE WORST HAD COME when his phone lit up with the text.

MARA: I love you too.

That was it. No explanation for where she was, no promise that she was safe. Just an answer to something Aaron had said months ago, something he'd told her she didn't have to say back— something he stopped hoping she ever would.

So why was she saying it now?

He didn't know, but every theory he came up with as she stayed missing was more terrifying than the next.

Maybe he could have talked himself down from the impending panic attack. Maybe he could have just taken it as a step back to where they were, to what they were.

But then Kevin ran into the waiting room from where he'd been trying to call Mara outside, his eyes wild and his breaths labored, and all but shouted, "They aren't here! We have to go, we have to get on the bus!"

Wymack faltered in the middle of his dozenth argument with the receptionist. "Kevin, what—?"

"I just talked to Mara," he said. "She's not here, Neil's not here. We have to go!"

Andrew gripped Kevin's wrist so tightly, Aaron thought Kevin would wince, but he didn't. "Go where?"

Kevin swallowed. "Baltimore. Their father—he took Neil. Mara's going after them."

"'Their'?" Dan repeated, staring at him. "What the hell are you talking about, their—?"

"I'll explain everything on the bus, but we have to go!" Kevin insisted. "We have to call the police, we have to—" He was panicking too much to get the words out in understandable pieces.

"Alright, everyone on the bus," Wymack ordered.

None of the Foxes argued or did anything less than sprint to the bus. Abby counted as Wymack started the engine, and as soon as she gave him the okay, he pulled out of the parking lot of the fourth hospital they'd been to looking for Mara and Neil.

Everyone gathered in the front of the bus, all eyes on Kevin.

"Kevin," Andrew said, his voice sharp. "Tell us. Now."

"Neil and Mara are twins," Kevin said.

"The hell they are," Allison argued immediately.

"There's no way," Matt agreed. "They can't be twins, they would have said something—we would have noticed—"

"They are," Kevin insisted. "Nathaniel and Elizabeth Wesninski."

I have a brother. Mara had told Aaron that, had handed out that secret as if there wasn't a lifetime of explanation behind it.

Every single puzzle piece settled into place like bombs hitting the ground. The eyes, the hair. Their connections to the Moriyamas, their strange dynamic.

They even had the same fucking birthday.

How could they have missed it?

How could they have been so stupid?

"Wh—" Dan's voice faltered. "Why didn't they say anything? Why would they hide that?"

"They hadn't seen each other since they were ten, since their mom took Neil and ran away," Kevin explained.