Chasing Memories

[42] Story

     "I'm not in the mood for bullshit, specs. I know you have her, so start talking!"

     "Stop, Cade! I'm here, I'm fine."

     It was not Elise's plan to fall into Cadence's chest, yet her body wilfully threw itself forward as she rushed down the landing. Cadence spotted her just in time to catch her in her arms, closely clutching Elise like a part of her being that had been long missing. There was no pain now, only bursts of pure love.

     Safely tucked in Cadence's chest, Elise tuned into the pulses of the girl's breathing, the hardworking drum of her heart. "You're here," she whispered as she looked up at Cadence's face, barely hearing the storm beyond the cottage. "How did you know? How did you get here?"

     "Tyre tracks and pure stubbornness. Did you really think a little knock to the head was going to keep me away from my favourite badass?" Cadence asked, and the trace of her fingertips wiped away the cold and aches that ravaged Elise's cheek. "I'm so glad to see you, Ellie."

     The crash had taken its toll on Cadence too. Scratches and scrapes covered her face, along with more than a little blood, muck, and metallic dust. She stood unaided without an issue, yet her gait carried a definite hobble, and she took a sharp suck of air when their embrace closed too tightly. In the moment, however, none of this mattered. Even through the worst hurt and hardship, Cadence was nothing short of beautiful.

     And then, with a crack of the floorboards, reality resumed its course. James moved for the front door, and Cadence pressed Elise against the wall, beyond his reach, before slamming the door shut. "No way, creep," she spat as she dug in her jacket pocket. Metal grated against metal, and the length of Matt's unsheathed knife glinted in her hand. She raised its edge towards James, her arms shaking. "You don't get to just walk away, not after what you've done to my best friends, my mum, me –"

     "Easy! Let's just calm down, alright?" It was a plea more than a request, but James' desperate expression whipped its snare around Cadence's rage. He stepped backwards, blindly separating Cadence and Elise from the others gathered in the sitting room doorway. "You've got this completely wrong. Everything I've done has been to help Florence, I promise."

     "Help her? How is dragging her out to the middle of nowhere in the middle of a storm supposed to help her?" While Elise lacked Cadence's free-flowing vitriol, her pain and exhaustion sharpened each other to cut through the dim shimmer of the yellow light. "Stop lying, James. You can't fool us anymore."

     James rubbed at his neck, ignoring the upturned collar of his wrinkled white shirt. "This wasn't how I wanted things to go," he began as he sent an apologetic gaze in Florence's direction. The woman scowled back at him, and he redirected his appeals to Elise. "I wanted the publishers to let Florence exit her contract early, but they wouldn't have any of it. Even if they received a firm diagnosis, they'd have found some way to keep Florence in their clutches."

     An incredulous scoff left Melody's lips. "So, go to the police or something," she sniped, flicking her dishevelled hair out of her face. "Start a social media hashtag for all I care. There are a bunch of things you could've done besides stealing our stuff, psycho."

     "And draw more attention to Florence's decline?" Rage crashed over James like a thrashing wave. His defensive posture crumbled, a combative self-assuredness assuming its place. "There are already too many people hounding her in her time of need. No, she asked me to keep her condition private, and I wouldn't dare break my promise to her."

     "She said that to you, but didn't say anything to me, her actual kid? Get real," Cadence said with a thrust of the knife towards James. He stood firm, and Cadence threw her shoulders back to match his stance only to be thwarted by a spike of pain in her side. "Spit it out. Are you planning to skim some money off the top of whatever Flo makes or something? Because I'm not buying the whole 'friend' shit you're spewing."