STILL

Chapter thirty-five

Emma raced in Tom's car in a hopeless attempt to save her friend. She held onto the steering wheel with whatever force she had left; her hand trembled in what she can only assume to be fear, anger and grief.

"We shouldn't have left her." She pressed the gas harder.

"She asked us to leave her alone for a while, it's not like we could have just said no," Tom tried to calm her down.

"Well we should have!" She screamed as she made her way around cars. Distant honks traveled to her ears but she couldn't care less, she had to save Jenny.

"You need to slow down or none of us will make it out of today alive." Tom felt his side ache him, she drove too fast for his injury and hidden brusies. He shut his eyes closed and tried to ignore the pain he was in, he clenched his fists before he allowed himself to open his eyes.

The sound of sirens caught their attention, their hearts sunk to their feet as the dreadful red and blue lights crashed through their eyes. It all became too real.

"Do you think she made it?" Emma asked. She parked the car and looked at Jenny's apartment building through the windshield, she couldn't feel her own body.

"I know she did." Tom put his hand on Emma's shoulder. He assumed the absolute worst had happened when she looked at him, it was like it all got too real.

Tap
Tap
Tap

"You again?" His father's friend tapped on the glass window next to Tom.

"Officer Nathan," Tom blurted out, he hoped he wouldn't be there, but there he was. The officer bent down and rested his hands on the roof of the car.

"Why are you always at crime scenes now?" He asked suspiciously.

"It's hard to explain." Tom's eyes met the floor as he thought of a lie.

"The game?" He asked so casually. Chills ran down their spines, Emma's attention drifted to the conversation at the mention of the curse that killed four of her friends.

"How do you know about that?" Tom couldn't help but ask.

"I know Melissa," He paused. "I was there when they were invited to the game, I refused to go." He shook his head as he looked at the building in sorrow. "It all lines up." He looked at Tom.

"Yeah, the game." Emma held back her tears, she couldn't fathom the thought of Jenny dying, not now, not after everything that has happened.

"She did the right thing, calling you to call us," he said with a warm smile. Emma shot a look deep into his eyes, something wasn't right.

"How did you know?" Emma asked as she looked at him.

"Know what?" He said so innocently.

"That she called me, I never said that she did," she said. "When I called the cops, I said she was in trouble and gave the guy on the line her address." Tom limped forward to guard Emma.

Tom took a deep breath and looked 'Nathan' up and down before he finally gathered enough courage to ask.
"Aquilla?" His smile dropped. They watched the serious look on Nathan's face turn into a subtle smirk.

"I was convincing, wasn't I?" His eyes twitched. "I was wondering if you'd catch me or not." He scoffed.
"FYI if you tell anyone about me now, I will arrest you." He winked at them.

"Possessing him was easy by the way," Aquilla said in his own voice. "Almost like she was possessed before." He laughed at his own comment.

Tom held on to the knife in his pocket with anger all over his face. "I'm going to kill you." Tom gripped onto the knife only for Emma to hold onto his arm.

"You pull out that knife and you'll kill Officer Nathan. You'll be arrested and he will still escape," Emma said so bluntly, it was like she read his mind.

She watched his smile grow into a gentle laugh. "You're becoming smarter!" He pointed at Emma. Aquilla faced the floor for a second, that was more than enough for them to realize why he was there.

"I'm just here to let you know that Connor was the one who had the honor of... you know," he paused to block his own laughs, "doing whatever happened to her up there." He gestured at the building with his hand.

No no no
She's not dead
She's can't be

Denial rushed to their heads.

"It was a real mess upstairs." He laughed. "Imma leave you now." He let out a sigh. "A lot of drama is incoming." He walked away from Tom and Emma only for grunt in anger.

"Damnit!" He slammed his fists on the dashboard. Emma rested her head on the back of her seat, she tuned out Tom's outburst.

The force of Tom's hits rippled onto his stitches.

His groans brought her back to reality.
"Tom, stop!" She yelled in pain. "You need to stay still or your stitches will open." She couldn't bring herself to look away from the building's doors, she hoped Jenny would walk out in a weighted blanket, she hoped she would be carried out to the ambulance, she hoped Jenny would be found alive.
"He's just trying to get in our heads." She shook her head against all common sense.

Minutes of passed however they felt like an eternity. Their eyes were fixed on the door, no amount of waiting, no amount of hints could have prepared them for what they saw.

"No..." Emma blocked her screams as tears streamed down her face. her head fell onto the steering wheel as she felt her whole body ache her.

Tom couldn't look away, a black body bag was carried by two men into the back of a car. Tom shut his eyes along with the slam of the back doors of that car.

"We will win this." Tom put a hand on Emma's shoulder, all he wanted to do at that moment was calm her sobs.

People say grief is something you must process. But how could you process so much at once without breaking apart?

I'm still alive, I can still fight, I can still play, I can avenge their deaths.

Those words flew into Emma's mind and gave her enough strength to save her tears.

"I know we will." She broke away from the steering wheel.

Count on me... She remembered her words to Jenny only to realize she failed to keep her promise.