Only because you asked // Rafe Cameron

Chapter Thirty Four - Not everything is as it seems

The stormed had picked up its pace, and as the chaos caused by the police amplified, their boat was nowhere to be found in the time space of a blink.

Deputy Shoupe had taken his hat into his hands, a streak of sympathy glimmering in his eyes as he looked over to Pope and Kiara who had rushed their way down to the sight as soon as they heard.

The storm was getting out of hand, and the rain pounded onto the floor furiously with anger.

"Where are they?" Pope asked Shoupe, impatiently waiting for his response when Kiara managed to piece things together.

"They didn't make it kid, they couldn't have. The storm..."

"What do you mean they didn't make it?" Kiara exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock and fear.

There was simply no way that they were all dead. There was no way they had lost that many people all at once, all for something they never even did.

"Their boat, it got taken out by the storm."

Pope took a seat onto the bench, trying to process what he had just heard.

They had been snatched of four of their closest companions, the people that they would've done anything for. The people that were completely innocent had been the ones to suffer the consequences whilst the real monsters still roamed the earth, free of their actions.

"No...," Kiara sighed, trying to choke back her tears.

She looked up to see her Father standing in front of her, standing without the words to say so instead, he took his grieving daughter into his arms as his wife did the same for Pope. Their tears could've filled up a fountain, they could've filled up an entire quarry of water. They were only still children, they weren't meant to face such tragedies and complexities at such an age, burdened by the fear of becoming fugitives only to find out that four of the people they valued most in this cruel world had simply ceased to exist in a matter of minutes.

"No," someone spoke from
behind them, everyone turning around to see Mr and Mrs Alexpoulos. "No."

"My baby," Mrs. Alexpoulos sobbed out, grabbing onto a pole to stay steady as her tears simply just did not come out. She was too taken aback by the many people trying to inform her that her daughter had died, that she was simply gone.

Mr. Alexpoulos, who simply did not know which feeling to focus on, snapped his head abruptly to dart his eyes into the direction of Ward, spiralling into insanity. His eyes had grown larger, red with stress and sleep deprivation; there was no saving Ward now, he'd taken their little girl away from them.

"You," he began, walking towards Ward. "You murdered my daughter."

"I did not..."

"Her blood is on your hands!" Mr. Alexpoulos had dashed his way over to Ward, wrapping his hands around his throat as they both fell to the floor through the messiness of the attack. He began to choke him, his eyes still bursting with madness and shock from the news of his daughter's death.

Two of the police guards at the scene had taken him off of Ward, using all of their strength to hold him back. Mrs. Alexpoulos hadn't even tried to stop her husband; she too could not begin to express her loathing for the man that took their daughter away from them.

"You're an animal," Ward panted, straightening his shirt, "just as she was."

Lana's Father had picked up a glass from the table - underneath the tent the police force has set out so that they could camp out near the scene for further investigation - and he had thrown it towards Ward's way, ultimately hitting the pole behind him due to him ducking down just in time; emphasis on the 'just'.