Lost

Chapter 19 - Silence

Thud, thud, thud.

Loud knocks sounding from the front door startled Caleb awake.

He looked over at the little girl still tucked in his arm to see that she was still sleeping, much to his relief. Caleb had fallen asleep while he and Jodee watched some random kids show. He was worried for a second that maybe he fell asleep and left her alone, but she had also dozed off so that took that guilt away. It was also good as Jodee has had a really long night and needed the rest.

The persistent knocking had Caleb groaning as he got annoyed by whomever decided it could be a good idea to come to his house in the middle of the night. But, then again, one look at Jodee had him knowing that it had to be Ace. He was up in a second.

Jodee was clearly in a very deep sleep so she stirred a little as Caleb lifted her into his arms, but was really just a limp little doll. Caleb positioned her so that he was holding her close to his body while still being able to have a full range of motions — or mostly full. He grabbed the blanket Ace had brought with her and wrapped it around her small frame as she began to shiver.

"I'm coming." Caleb grumbled as a set of three knocks came for the third time and just wouldn't stop.

He briefly wondered why Ace didn't come right in because he had a key of his own and he knew where his friend kept the spare key in the front yard. But there wasn't much time to dwell on that.

Caleb was over to the door in a second, swinging it open as he went to greet his best friend, but his words seemed to be stuck in his throat at the sight of him.

Ace wasn't bruised or hurt, but he did have blood on him. His eyes were wide and bloodshot like he was some rapid animal that was about to be attacked. Ace's hands were shaking as they just kinda floated in the middle of the hair — he wasn't sure what to do with them. The blood was covering half of Ace's face and some of his left arm as well as some random spurts every now and again.

"Fuck. Are you okay?" Caleb managed to break out of the trance first as he started to rapid fire questions. "What the hell happened? Are you hurt? Is your mom okay? What the fuck happened?" He continued to ask the same question over and over and over again as Ace just nodded or shook his head, but the questions came so fast Ace's responses weren't really anything.

Ace made some sort of annoyed and angry noise with the back of his throat, effectively cutting Caleb off, before placing a hand on his friend's shoulder to also tell him to shut up.

Caleb gulped, nodding.

His friend didn't tell — or more like motion — anything else, but lifted his hands out towards the little girl in Cal's arms. Caleb immediately knew what he was doing, and handed Jodee over to her big brother. Ace cradled her to his body, looking at her sleeping face for a second before nodding and holding her as Caleb had previously, with her head resting against his shoulder. Ace set a hand on Jodee's upper back, breathing in and out as her breaths also rose her back up and down so that they were synchronized.

They stayed like that for a couple minutes longer before Ace nodded at his friend and walked inside. Caleb turned so that Ace could have a straight shot inside before shutting the door behind them and locking it once again.

"So... are you going to tell me what the fuck happened or not?" Caleb whispered harshly to Ace.

Ace rolled his eyes, shaking his head briefly before his attention turned back to Jodee.

She had finally woken up a little, sitting up straight in her brother's arms as she rubbed her eyes.

"Acey?" She asked slowly, the sleep leaving her body once she did in fact see that it was her brother holding her.