Changed Time

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Sophie helped me out of the room and the second we got out our friends rushed toward us along with a lot of other motel residents, all wondering what went on.

"We need to leave before the police show up," I muttered to Wyatt. "Grab the Charger and let's get out of here before people start asking questions."

"What the hell happened?" Jessie asked, then her eyes averted to Walter and they widened. "Holy—is that the manager? What happened, Drew?"

I heard sirens in the distance. "We can't be here, I won't have anything to say to the police, and it isn't as if I can explain it sanely, so we need to leave, now."

Wyatt grabbed my arm and I almost broke down. "Drew, if we leave, we'll be suspects, and we'll be looking pretty suspicious. We can't draw attention to ourselves, now Sophie was there, just explain what happened," I really wanted to leave, to get away from Walter's old, limp dead body, and to get away from the also limp, dead body of the man who killed him. "Andrew!" Wyatt shook me by the shoulders until I stared back into his familiar green eyes. "You can't leave, you need to talk to the police."

"Where's Paige?" I asked only then realizing that she wasn't with them. "Where's Paige?" I pushed Wyatt off of me and searched the crowd of people.

"She's back at the room with Mia, Drew. She didn't want her to be out in the open," Wyatt said. "She's fine."

I was about to bury my face in my hands until I notice that they're covered in drying, crusty blood. Walter's blood.

I ran away from the crowd of people circling me, bombarding me with questions I don't have the answers to and I hurled the pizza I ate what felt like forever ago all over the parking lot.

A hand clasped my shoulder and I looked up to see Zach's worried blue eyes staring down at me. "You okay?" He was physically asking the question, but his eyes told me that he already knew the true answer to the question. "You need to sit down." He grabbed my arm and led me away from the insides I just threw up and sat me down in the middle of the parking lot. He took a seat beside me.

"I'll be fine," I told him, though I wasn't really sure that was true. "I need you to make sure that Paige and Mia are okay, and I need you to make sure that they stay in the room. Make them stay in the room, Zach." I stared at him hard, trying to make him understand how serious I was about it.

He nodded. "Okay."

He stood up but I grabbed his arm. "Don't let them leave until we get back and have your bow ready for anything."

He stared down at me with those blue eyes once again and nodded for the second time. "Okay." And I let go of him.

I watched as he walked back toward the room that Sophie and I had left not thirty minutes ago. I watched as he knocked on the door and I was overwhelmed with relief when Paige opened the door, safe.

But when Zach didn't go inside the relief floated away. Paige's head snapped toward the crime scene and then they landed on me. She pushed past Zach who reached to grab her, but failed. When he knew there was no way he could get her, he decided to go into the room with Mia, closing the door behind him.

Paige ran to me and I shook my head. "Go back, Paige. It isn't safe."

"Oh, shut up." She knelt down next to me and watched me with her gray eyes that are so intriguing. "Drew, what happened? You and Sophie left and when you didn't come back we just figured that you got caught up in a conversation with Zach and Jessie or something, but then we heard gunshots." She stopped talking, not able to make eye contact with me anymore. "I thought you were dead, that the murderers got to you or something."

I looked away from her, also not able to make eye contact. I stared at my blood covered hands, wanting to clean them, to get this ghost reminder off of me, but knowing that I couldn't. "Remember how I told you about those creeps who tried to take Sophie? Well, they got out and went after her again. Only, they are working for the murderers." That got her attention. Her head shot up and she stared at me. I gathered the courage to return her gaze. "Yeah. Apparently they grabbed her for them. Walter," I choked on his name, barely getting it out, "saved us. But Low Voice, the leader of the guys who took us, shot him before he could kill him."

Paige grabbed my hand, not caring that it was covered in Walter's blood. Her hand was so small in mine, but so full of warmth. "I'm sorry, Drew." She whispered softly. "I wish that we could have saved him."

I clenched my jaw. "That's the thing, Paige. We have this—this so called gift, and we can't even use it. I mean, all we see are deaths, and I just wish that once, just once, that we might see it before it happens so that we can do something."

She squeezed my hand tighter. "Drew," she said my name so softly that it was almost inaudible. I turned my head toward her and her gray eyes are so gentle, so understanding that for a moment, I get lost in them like a maze. "It wasn't your fault." I narrowed my eyes, but she let go of my hand and grabbed my face, forcing me to look into her eyes again. "It wasn't your fault."

"I want to save people, Paige. Not watch them die. I wanted to save that little boy in my first vision. I wanted to save Jamie. I wanted to save Olivia, and I wanted to save Walter, but I just can't. It's like—it's like I'm unable to do anything but watch them die." Tears were starting in my eyes. "I just want to save one person, to save one. I'm tired of being the Grim Reaper. I just want to—I just want to end this game."

"I know, but you did save someone. You saved Mia, Drew." I tried to look down again but she made me look again. "You saved my sister and that means that you beat them. This might be their game, but these are our lives, and we aren't going to forfeit that easily."