Helpless [Book 2]

5 || Amandus

➟ jack
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"This is a bad idea," Hazzy said, shaking her head. She bit her nails nervously and watched Sam on the bed. "Why did we let him do this! He should be back already."

"Calm down," Kyle said in a soft voice. "He'll be back."

"How do you know!" She almost screamed. Kyle opened his mouth to say more but fell silent. I guess he figured it wasn't worth arguing over.

We waited for another hour and Tommy still hadn't returned. I wasn't particularly worried about him, I knew how his travels worked. Sometimes he'd just get the time or date wrong. We just had to wait.

For hours. A day. A week. Soon, Tommy had been gone for more than a month, and Sam's condition barely hung on. His heart beat slower and slower each day. On the thirty third day since Tommy's disappearance, I watched Sam as the others went for breakfast. His chest rose up and down slowly, the machine keeping him alive puffed and wheezed along with him.

I sat on the window sill with my back against the wall. My feet were close to my chest as I sat alone. Next to me, my phone buzzed. I picked it up and saw that the caller was unknown. I answered the call.

"Hello?" I asked slowly.

Her voice was crackly and wet like she had been crying for hours. "Jack...?" I sat upwards and swung my legs over the sill, almost falling. It couldn't be. A pit formed in my stomach. Never had I heard that voice in such despair before. It was always confident and ready to take on the world. "Jack is that you?"

"I can hear you," I said quickly. "Why are you calling me? How did you get my number? Do you know where Nia is?"

"He has us both. She gave it to me. jBots took her a few hours ago. I don't know where she is, Jack. It's so dark in here... it's so... so f-fucking cold." She sniffed. "Can you... Can you trace this call? Find out where we are?"

"Why should I help you?" I snapped. "You may sound like you're hurt, but how do I know you're not faking it?"

There was a long pause before she spoke again. "I know you don't trust me, and you probably never will. But please, I don't want anyone else to die. I never wanted anyone to die! Please, if you want to save Nia, please, please trust me. You have to trust me, Jack. Please."

"I can try," I said softly. "I don't know if I can trace it without the password to Nia's—"

She cut me off using a quick voice that I could hardly understand. "Shit! He's coming, I have to hide this. Don't call. Don't text. Please, find us. Nia will die if you don't. Everyone will die if you don't rescue her."

The phone hung up. I waited a minute. Then two. She didn't call back. I jumped off the window sill, my heart pounding at a mile a minute. I grabbed the computer sitting at one of the tables and turned it on. I prayed I would be able to guess Nia's password and trace the number. My mind felt like it was closing inside and out.

Was I really about to help Denver Grace? And I reasoned with myself. If it was to save my best friend, then yes, yes I was.

"Dammit!" I yelled, hitting my fist against the table. The computer locked me out again, this time for three hours. Melodramatically I groaned and got up from the chair.

"Wha's up, Jack?" Kyle asked from the couch as he took a sip from a soda can. "Need help?"

"No," I said flatly. "I just still can't figure out the password to Nia's computer."

I told the rest of Alliot about the phone call I had yesterday with Denver. Kyle had seemed to have put some pieces together that I didn't know about. I wondered what he was thinking, but I was sure Zane knew about it. His whole mind reading thing would probably detect it. And if it was a big deal, he would definitely say something.