Phoenix's Lies

A Grave Prognosis

Phoenix

The minute I hear Riv scream I stop with what I'd been doing. The others check what I'd said about someone possibly being there but I can't keep my head straight anymore. The sound of her scream echoed in my ears like a warning. Making me scream and shout for her even when all I got back was another scream. Followed by another one. All mixed in with the sounds of cars hitting each other on and off. Until the final crash when she screams once and the connection goes dead.

"Hey Nix you ok?" Hunt gives me a look. "There might have been someone there but whoever it is, was, is gone now." He gives me a look seeing the fear in my eyes. "What happened? Is Riv ok?" He gives me another look and those on the team who know about all of it also seem to stand waiting. Same with Ari who's come over now cheer practice is done. But I can't speak. Can't figure out what to say. "Nix, buddy talk to me. What happened on the phone to Riv? What did she say?"

I shake my head to clear it and try to formulate the words in my mind. "She-it was a normal conversation until she seemed to notice I'd seen what I told you about. She was the one who suggested you guys help me figure out if I'm finally losing it." Ari smiles once but it's like a flash of summer rain. "I was saying sorry for sounding like a crazy person before she screamed. Again and again. Until the noise goes and I lose her." I lost her.

Ari gives me a look. "Did she say where she was? Any other sound clues on her end?"

"She was on the highway and about to turn off onto the route here when she screamed the first time. As soon as she did I used an old app we had from when we were kids to track where she was. She ended up taking the back route but was being chased by a car, a Mercedes I think given what I could hear." I don't look up to see if Hunt believes me just carry on "I could hear one car following her since it kept hitting her when she screamed, probably in response to being hit, when a second car engine came into the sounds. As if it's in front of her. She kept trying to avoid both of them until they ended up tipping her over given what I heard before I lost her. I lost her."

"Ok if she went that way some of the old speed cameras might have picked something up." Ari sounds like she's trying to be calm but her hands shake, eyes darting side to side. "Look I'll get one of the others to pick up Lib and they can meet us wherever we manage to find and take Riv since if she's injured she'll probably need a hospital."

"Her sister too," I mumble, a leaden feeling coursing through me at the memory. Ari frowns. "She was picking up Lena from her dance class in Mountainview when the accident happened Ari. Lena was in the car with her." Memories of hearing how fast the car was going slammed into me. "Her sister was in there with her when the car crashed and she'd been going faster, I heard when she increased the speed after I....after I.....shit. Fuck no. No, no, no. NO!" I scream, tempted to punch something before Ari stands in front of me, forcing me to see her. "She went faster when I told her what I thought I'd seen. I'm the reason she crashed." I mumble, gripped with guilt as an ache shudders through me, burning in my chest as I swallow down a lump of tears stuck in my throat.

Ari shakes her head, eyes pleading. "No Nix, you weren't. You weren't in either car that hit her and she can handle driving fast. Yeah, the roads will have been slippery from yesterday's rain but she's been driving around the racetracks since she was about fifteen, the speed or being on the phone to you wasn't to blame for the accident Nix. Whoever hit her is and when we figure out who it was we'll deal with it. Until then don't think about it ok? We just need to find her and figure out what to do."

"O-ok," Her words do little to comfort me but I know that Ari is trying when she takes my hand and we move to leave. "Can you tell the others what to do?" I ask, my mind miles away on that dark road where I'm sure Riv's lying. Unconscious and alone.