The Ghost Of You

Chapter Seventeen

Riley

"Mum I don't want to keep moving around" Harrison complained as we got to the third motel of the week
I couldn't stomach staying in the same place for two long now knowing that he's watching us. He knows our movements, he knows about the kids
He has more ammo 

"Can't we go and see Dad? If you tell him about his uncle he could help us Mum" He said as I placed Sienna down on the bed after putting her to sleep
"Honey, if we could be with your Dad we would be I promise. But we can't. Not right now" I explained but it was useless 
Harrison only understood what he wanted to and this was not one of them..

In his head I'm the monster, I took him from his father when there didn't seem to be an immediate danger
But this is what I had been trying to protect him from this entire time.. And here we are

"How about we do some colouring?" I offered but Harrison shook his head staying on the sofa with his arms crossed
"Harrison baby, please" I pleaded making him sigh turning to look at me
"Can you tell me a story about Dad and you" he asked making me smile slightly 

Growing up, I had always picture being able to tell our kids about us. When everything happened I didn't think I would ever get the chance. But I wasn't planning on Harrison

"What would you like to know?" I asked patting the seat next to me 
"How did you meet?" He asked making me chuckle
"Believe it or not. Your Dad and I met through Dance, we dance together on a team" I explained
"At the beginning I did everything I could to avoid your Dad" I said making Harrison laugh
"Why? Was he stinky or something?" He asked

"Or something" I laughed
"Lots of girls liked him so I stayed away, I didn't have time for boys then" I said making Harrison roll his eyes
"Mum don't start with the whole Boys had cooties things, I'm four remember. I know we don't" He said making me chuckle kissing his cheek

"We had to do a duet together and your Dad wanted me to be his partner" I continued making Harrison smile
"How did he ask you? Was it sweet?" He asked
"Well, uh - He didn't really ask me. He just assumed I would be his partner before making me start practicing" I said 
"Dad sounds so cool Mum!" He giggled jumping about on the sofa a little bit
"Was your dance good?" He asked making me smile I nodded, before taking out my phone 

We all knew Miss Kate tapped most of our dances so we could learn from them and see how look as a whole
Every time she did, I made sure to take a copy so that I always had them

"Here you go" I smiled handing him the phone allowing the video to play

"Woah, that's you? And Dad? You both look to little" Harrison said making me smile
"That's because we were. Your dad and I were 16 there" I said
I hadn't thought about A-Troupe or my teenage years in quite sometime. I didn't have reasoning behind it, I think I had been so caught up in everyone going on that I couldn't spend the time reminiscing too much

I had to keep my head out of the clouds

"Can I see more?!" Harrison asked making me nod as I left him shuffle his way through all of the videos I had

--

I laid in bed with Sienna and Harrison later on, Sienna was out for the count but that wasn't surprising
She loves her sleep more then James at this point- I never thought I would say that 

"Have you spoken to Dad since we left?" Harrison mumbled sleepily as he started to drift off
"No baby, we can't remember" I said before hearing him sigh as he turned over
"I bet if you called him" He mumbled
"He'd answer" He said before laying completely flat behind Sienna with his arm protectively cuddling her 
Just like he always would do whenever she was sick

He fell asleep just shortly afterwards.. What he said kept replaying in my mind. I know James would answer if I called, that wasn't what I was worried about.. I was worried about the fact I would fall back into the trap of wanting him to help me
I wanted nothing more then to be able to depend on him, to think that he could fix this. That he could make it all go away 
But he can't 

Nobody can..

I pushed myself off of the bed heading over to the window of the motel that looked out on nothing but a stingy carpark. The type of one that I bet some sort of drug deal goes down in constantly
It's only temporary -  I keep reminding myself 

I looked down at my phone hovering over the few contacts I had saved in there. There was Daniel and Tanya. There was Emily's number from when I spoke to her the other week. I took it from James just in case 
Then there was James' number.. 

It would be late there Riley.. You would be waking him up..

Battling with myself I lock my phone to try and hinder the temptation of calling him. Glancing over my shoulder I could see both of the kids still soundly sleeping 
I couldn't do this on my own, I was running out of places to run to. I was running on empty constantly and it's affecting both of them 

"hello?" A sleepy voice said making my breath hitch. My body hadn't even caught on to the fact that I had called someone
"Hello?"  The voice said getting slightly irritated 
"It's 3am. This isn't a funny joke" He said making me sigh, I knew I would wake him up..

"Ri?"  James' voice said making me close my eyes
"Riley please, if that's you. Talk to me" He pleaded

Why was I doing this. Why was I giving us both the false hope that things would be okay, that things could be okay

"Please, I need to you know your okay" He said again softer this time
"I can't do this" I whispered before hearing a content sigh come from his end of the line
"You can Riley, you know you can. I know you can" James said making it sounds so certain
"Let me come to you. Let me bring you home Riley, you don't need to do this alone anymore" He explained but it wasn't true 

I had to do it alone, I didn't have a choice. If I brought him into this I could lose the kids

" I can't James, he already found us and sent me a warning. He had someone near Sienna. I can't let him near them" I said crying
"Breathe Ri" He said
"I promise you, he won't touch them. I've got you, I've got all of you" He said 
"Just tell me where you are.. Please" He pleaded 

"I'm not giving up on you Riley, I lost you once. You've ran away twice but I'm not giving up" He said confidently 
"We're working up a plan to figure out who it is that is doing this then I'll be coming to get all of you" He said but I shook my head

"Don't shake your head at me misses" He chuckled trying to make light of this but I couldn't see any light

"Ri" James said making me hum in response as I wiped away the last of my tears
"I love you" He whispered making me smile looking back at the kids

"I love you too James" I whispered