Burn My Paranoia One Last Time

35. Apologies

Carmen wiped away tears just as the police station became visible up ahead. The piercing ring of alarms snapped her out of her trancelike state, and she finally realized where she was when she saw Amber frantically dart out of the exit of the police station. Carmen quickly swung the door open as soon as Sloane screeched the car to a stop.

Carmen was surprised to see Amber without shoes. Amber's stockings were becoming soaked as she ran down the pavement. She clutched a heel in one hand while her coat and skirt flapped in the rainy wind.

Amber jumped into the car and shut the door before anyone could come to investigate the alarms. Sloane pulled out and blended into the fog-covered traffic just as a pair of officers finally came out of the exit. They looked around in confusion and frustration.

Amber sighed with relief as she sunk back into the seat.

"Are you ok?" Carmen asked hurriedly.

"What happened in there?" Shelby asked.

Amber surprised everyone, including herself, with a sudden rush of tears. "I'm so selfish," she cried. "I left Hayden behind, and now he might be dead."

"What?!" Everyone said in unison.

"We were investigating police files," Amber tried to calm her shaken voice. "Hayden has a cousin who got us in, but it looks like some of the officers were sent by the former detective came in to make sure we don't uncover anything about Rain. They turned off the lights, or maybe it was a power outage— I don't know— but they beat up Hayden," Amber choked back tears. "I couldn't even do anything. I abandoned him."

"Oh Hayden," Shelby gasped.

"You had to leave, otherwise who knows what they would've done to you," Carmen tried to console her.

"Carmen's right," Sloane added. "I don't know who this Hayden guy is, but surely his cousin isn't in on this whole covering up scheme is he?"

Amber wiped away her tears and brushed strands of wet hair back in an attempt to recompose herself. "I don't know," she said hopelessly. Amber hugged herself, shrinking into her shoulders with guilt. It didn't matter to her what everyone else said. She was so selfish. How could she have left him?

"I had a vision before we picked you up," Carmen interjected.

The car suddenly pulled to a stop on top of an empty hill. Rain tapped on the roof of the car as droplets rolled down the foggy windows, revealing a blur of trees. The windshield wipers in the front wiped away water to uncover a view of the cityscape lit up by a hazy pink sunset and red headlights. The vibrating hum of the engine went quiet when Sloane turned the car off. The pink tinted view of the city became blurred by thousands of droplets, and the rain only poured harder.

"This is a good place to lay low for a while. You know, in case the cops are still looking for you," Sloane shrugged while glancing at Amber. Her piercing blue eyes sent a chill down Amber's spine. Sloane's demeanor was almost too calm.

"Where are we?" Amber asked, casting a suspicious glance outside.

Sloane clicked her red nails on the wheel and smiled to herself as she remembered nights she'd spend here with Rain and Joel after clubbing. "Somewhere I haven't been in a long, long time." Finally, she turned back to face the girls. "Carmen, you had another vision. What did you see?"

"I think it might've been the night that Rain died," Carmen realized. She recounted the vision, all the way from the dark emotions that kept Rain awake, to her mother's judgement, to the distorted memories of running in the rain, to the morning she awoke in the graveyard. Carmen told the group about how Rain went to school that day but everyone seemed to ignore her.