Their Bloody Rose

We Have to Find Her!

Logan had never driven so fast in his life.

They'd been pouring over the new messages Phillip had found when he'd been able to finally hack into Alonso's communications. The cipher had changed from what they knew so it was taking them a while to break it, but Phillip could tell something big was about to go down.

When Logan's phone had gone off with the notification that someone had activated Marissa's panic room his heart had started to pound as a deeply unsettling feeling of dread overtook him. He was already standing up, telling Eddie and Fiona about the notification and hustling them to the car when Joanie had called.

Then, like bricks crashing through glass, real terror hit all of them as they realized that there was a high probability that the plan in the texts they were trying to decipher was actually happening right now, and they might be too late.

Logan didn't stop for anything as he drove them back to their house. His knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel so tight and sweat was beading on his brow. Fiona was going back and forth between loading multiple guns and holding on for dear life as Logan swerved through traffic, while Eddie checked the tracking app that was connected to Marissa's bracelet.

"Her tracker still shows she's at the house," Eddie said with a strained hope in his voice, "so we know she's there at least."

"We just have to get there," Logan said through gritted teeth as he skidded through a sharp turn. They were just one more turn away from their road, Marissa was still there, everything would be ok. It had to be. She had to be.

The car came to a screeching halt in front of their house and all three of them were out and rushing inside instantly.

The front door stood wide open which immediately slowed their advance and put them on high alert as they stepped inside. It was eerily quiet in their house. They called for Marissa but there was no answer.

Fiona gasped and pointed at what looked like multiple large trails of blood coming from the living room and leading out the door they'd just come in. Guns drawn, they followed the blood.

When they rounded into the living room there was nearly an audible crack that reverberated through all three of them as their hearts broke at the scene before them. The room was torn to pieces. The couch cushions were strewn all over the floor, a lot of them with knife slashes and holes in them. Most of the smaller pieces of furniture had been toppled over. The coffee table looked like it had been crushed and the tv was on the floor shattered, looking like someone had been thrown into it.

But the worst part; the worst part was the blood. There were slashes and sprays and pools of blood everywhere. Too much of it. It made the room reek of death.

Logan frantically checked the tracking app on his phone again. "Her tracker still shows her here. We have to find her. Now!"

The three of them tore through the house searching for Marissa. They searched every room, every closet, even the most ridiculous little nooks and crannies, determined to find her. But to no avail.

Logan was coming back down the stairs to see if Fiona or Eddie had found anything when his shoe crunched on something near the front door. It was covered in blood and had just looked like a small pool of it at first but as Logan bent down to inspect it he realized there was a small silver chain inside. As he wiped the blood off the chain he knew what it was. His knees gave out and he dropped to the floor as his heart shattered into a million tiny pieces.

Fiona came back from her fruitless search and saw Logan on his knees by the door.

"No," Fiona whimpered as she saw what was in Logan's hand. "No it can't- she has to be here." Tears streaked down Fiona's face as she collapsed next to Logan in utter heartbreak.