Shattered

Chapter 41: Wrong

TRIGGER WARNING: torture, gore and death in this chapter. proceed carefully

Violet's POV:

"I sat with my anger long enough, until she told me her real name was grief." – CS Lewis

The drive back to Santa Rosa was quiet, depressing, and exhausting. Yet, I couldn't sleep. Because it wasn't just the van was quiet. My phone was too. Kaden didn't call me back, or text me back, or contact me at all. I knew I hurt him by leaving but, fuck... I wasn't expecting him to be this mad at me.

Marnie and Farris both tried to engage me more than once while Lance drove. Courtney and Jackie were in another van with more of Jackie's friends and I was thankful for that. I didn't want to be around her, or really anyone, but I didn't have a lot of options.

We got back to Santa Rosa before sunrise but I couldn't sleep. I vaguely considered going to Kaden's Air BnB but after a lot of debating with myself, decided against it. He was upset with me and he clearly needed his space. Me not respecting that wouldn't help anything so even though it hurt, I ended up just going back to my apartment and trying to sleep.

It didn't work. Instead, I went down to Mrs. Fletcher's apartment once it was an acceptable hour to be awake. I didn't mean to cry on her but when I walked in she could tell something was wrong. I was so drained and tired from keeping it in at that point that all it took was her asking if I was okay for me to break down.

That solace could only last so long because I had things to do. Mrs. F made SpaghettiOs at lunch, something I highly discouraged given the diabetes but as she would often say, I'm old, let me do what I want before I die. She was very excited to present them to me in a bowl with crackers and apples on the side decorated to look like a smiley face. I didn't have the heart to tell her I wasn't much of an apple person, so I thanked her and ate with her before I left.

The flash drive was my next big priority and with still no response from Kaden, my heart broke a little more. Funny, I was at the point I didn't think my heart could break anymore but apparently it could, just in a different way. The only way I was going to stay relatively sane was staying busy so I made my way to our base outside the city where they were keeping Rich.

I used my keys and code to get into what looked like nothing on the outside but was a lot more on the inside. The outside displayed what it used to be. A psychiatric hospital that was old, barely standing, and off-limits for its instability. Inside, we'd cleaned it up. For safety and to better help all the shit we did in it, everything was metal. Metal floors, walls, ceilings, lighting that only came on when you walked down a corridor. The first step into the building didn't show all that, you had to go in, find the right door, and use the right key and code to get in. It was something I designed but Jackie and Chase did the work for.

When I walked in, I nearly got knocked over by someone. "Shit," Chase muttered, his speech slurring. He grabbed my shoulders and blinked a couple times before a smile formed. "Hey, it's the smarty pants," he said, poking my nose. "What's up, beautiful?"

"Wow," I said, stepping back. He reeked of alcohol. "I see we've jumped right into the healthy coping mechanisms."

He laughed and dropped his arm around my shoulder, offering a flask that I shook my head to. He shrugged and drank from it, wiping his mouth with his sleeve and sighing. "You know, you're really fuckin' cute and it's a good thing because your sarcasm is a bit much."

"Look who's talking," I scoffed, moving his hand off me and placing it against the wall because I wasn't totally convinced he could walk right now. "How wasted are you?"

"Not enough," he chuckled, lighting a joint, dropping it so it went out, picking it up and lighting it, then dropping it again. I stood there watching him fumble with it before he finally got it between his lips and grinned in victory, giving me two thumbs up. "Whatcha doin' here baby girl?" He asked. "Gonna fuck up Rich? Gonna look at that flash drive?"