Robbers

thirty - three

// thirty - three //

It was difficult to see the road through a blurry vision of tears. Ella could scarcely drive she was crying so hard, but she managed to make it home without going off the road or crashing into another car. It was still morning when Ella turned into her empty driveway, bumping over the curb and sending a screech from underneath the tires as she did so.

She had driven home so quickly that she was sure there was significantly less rubber on the car's tires.

Jackson had gotten Ryan arrested. She knew it. She knew he had to have set the entire thing up, so that the police would be there with a warrant for Ryan's arrest right after he had given up the money. Jackson had been ahead of her and Ryan the whole time, and now Ella had no idea if he was coming for her, too.

'I just needed to tie up a few loose ends.'

They knew where she lived – Kurt had told her that much. And she had left Rosie home alone for hours on end.

Ella was bubbling over with panic as she threw open the front door, her eyes a sickly red color and vision darkened by tears. She screamed Rosie's name when she stepped over the threshold.

The house was silent, and Ella's heart was splintering inside her chest.

Her sister's name was running together now as she yelled for her, like watercolor paints blending into an ugly river of brown. A jumbled mess of vowels and consonants tumbled from her swollen lips, her voice cracking as she yelled for Rosie over and over. The kitchen was empty, the couches in the living room untouched –

"Why are you screaming?"

Ella spun on the spot and there was Rosie, standing at the top of the carpeted staircase. Her little sister was frozen in place, staring down at Ella with an expression that was a mixture of confusion and fear. Ella cried out and ran to her, stumbling up the steps unsteadily as quickly as she could.

Rosie nearly buckled under the weight of her sister, her tiny form disappearing beneath Ella's arms and thick material of her sweater. Ella was shaking from head to foot, her skin icy and sticking underneath her dark clothing. At the top of the stairs, Ella fell apart and held Rosie so tightly that her ribs could have broken.

"Ella," Rosie said quietly, voice muffled by the wild mass of Ella's hair. "Ella, you're scaring me."

The sound of Rosie's voice cracking slightly made Ella abruptly stop crying, but she still didn't release her death grip. She hadn't meant to scare her; she had just truly started to believe something horrible had happened to her sister. And it would have been irrevocably, completely, and entirely Ella's fault.

"I know," Ella choked out. "I'm so sorry, Rosie."

Rosie pushed Ella off of herself gently, forcing Ella to finally unwind her arms and take a tiny step back. Reaching up with her knitted sweater pulled over her knuckles, Rosie wiped the woolen material under Ella's eyes. Her touch was gentle against Ella's swollen skin, and her voice was quiet as she told Ella to stop crying. "Why weren't you here this morning? I woke up and couldn't find you."

There was a hurt note beneath the tone of concern, and guilt plunged its icy hand into the pit of Ella's stomach. She had meant to return home before Rosie woke up, after helping Ryan hit the gas station in the next state over. But everything had gone to hell when they'd pulled into the Hunter's driveway and found Kurt waiting for them. Ella's life was cracking and splintering around her, and she wanted to collapse under the weight of the broken pieces.