Loving Ashlynn (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 54 - Lost and Found (Brenna Conrad POV) Pt.2

Chapter 54 – Lost and Found (Brenna Conrad POV) Pt.2

I wanted to call her.

Devin.

I felt like I owed it to her.

I pace for maybe two hours while my siblings all sleep.

Back and forth, I continue until I hear the sound of someone approaching, though it's slight. I stop pacing looking behind the truck my grandfather Antone was driving, waiting for whoever was heading my way.

At first I was sure it might be grandpa Antone, but I'm pleasantly surprised to see my grandmother, Bess. My mom's mom.

"You were thinking so loud," she teases, walking towards me and only stopping when she cups my cheek. "Brennan everything will work itself out," she says as though she's in my head, and aware of every single thought I was having.

Pulling my face away, I shake my head.

"Grandma," I scoff, noting that she looks at her hand, a bit of red manages to transfer from my healing skin to her hand. Thankfully she lets it go and I continue, "I fail to see how any of this will remotely fix it self," I pause.

"We had to leave two people that I was raised with behind. Samson and Faith-"

"Your mother and father knew that Samson and Faith would probably leave," she says slowly. "That was not your fault," I laugh humorlessly.

"Oh so just everything else is my fault."

Grandma Bess, rolls her eyes at me. "Don't put words in my mouth," she chides me.

"I'm not saying what you did was right. It was wrong and I think you know that. I'm pretty sure you knew that while you were doing it Brennan. And it was a mistake, but it's not about what you did, it's how you behave after the fact. Right now you have the opportunity to be that young man your parents raised and know you to be." Grandma murmurs but remains silent letting her words hang in the air before she starts again. "Or you can stand out here and be the reason that we're slowed down when we start driving again. You can be the responsible young man that we all know you can be."

Shaking my head, I disagree. "Grandma, it's not that simple," I shrug, falling apart inside, "I really love Devin, and what I did was wrong. But-"

"No," she snaps, cutting me off. "How you act after you've fallen, that is what counts. No one is perfect Brennan, we all make mistakes, but how you get back up again amounts for much more than your fall. Be a better son, friend, brother, and person. Not for others but because you demand it of yourself Bren."

Sighing, I nod once.

Do I entirely believe what my grandmother was saying? No.

"Now, go rest, I'll make sure that you get at least four hours of sleep Bren," instead of walking away, grandma Bess stands unmoving. She treats me like a child, waiting and making sure that I go as she says.

Exhaling I climb the stairs with a heavy heart. Impossibly heftier than when I left the bus.

Dead on my feet, the minute my head hits the pillow I'm out and it feels as though I've only just laid my head down when I'm being jostled awake.

"Wake up dear," grandma Bess says, pulling me from sleep, placing a plate of food at the edge of the pullout bed I shared with Thaddeus. After getting nowhere near enough sleep, I pull myself up to a sitting position thanking my grandmother, and practically inhaling the egg sandwich she brought for me.

Letting me know that it would be wheels up in fifteen minutes, I hurry to wash and dress, before returning to the drivers seat, waiting for my siblings to get on board.

When each one enters, and Thaddeus is the only one to take me on, I look forward, sighing.

Apparently I'd have seven to eight hours of tension with my egg sandwich.

~ 0 ~

We stop for ten minutes here and there after leaving Oregon. Crossing right into Nevada, on our second to last stop after seven hours of driving, grandpa Antone lets me know that we will be stopping in some town called Beatty.

When we finally stop across the street from a Motel 6 in Beatty, it really could not have come any sooner. Exhaustion was kicking my butt in all ways. Tonight, I'd be the first one to close my eyes, and though it's only around eight, I barely manage to eat without falling asleep.

The others elect to watch a movie in the back room, no one excluding me, nor were they asking for my opinion. Not that I blamed anyone.

Cleaning up, Thaddeus grabs all our trash, heading out to toss it while we cleaned up.

He's gone maybe two or three minutes before he shouts for Javier. Curtain already closed, blocking the view from the drivers and passenger seat once Javier steps off the bus, it's low but I hear something.

No. Not something. Someone.

"She killed him," the eerily familiar voice whimpers.

"What?" I move in slow motion when I hear Javier's voice, the same tone he uses for Talia, for the person he's speaking to outside. "Who killed who?" Javier asks and by now, I've gotten off the bus, and am staring wide-eyed at someone I thought I would never see again.

For some reason, I had already figured that we might not be going to the places that I knew Devin had knowledge of. Had we been going to them, I'm sure dad or even grandpa Antone would have said something.

"T-T-Taylor," Devin weeps. I stare brother and sister. "She – I heard her and she said she killed Silas," stuttering, sobbing deep frame shaking cries, her hair messy and face filled with terror. I believe I overhear incorrectly. "She did it and that you left, and I had to leave her and run, and mom and dad they – they said that I should run and she knows-" gasping, pulling at the neck of the sweater she's wearing, her body swaying from side to side, I watch in equal horror as Devin's eyes roll and her lids come down.

Slipping to the ground, she's almost to her knees before Javier darts forward to lift Devin in his arms.

"Did she just – did I hear her right?" Thaddeus chokes out, unable to look away from Devin and Javier.

She found us... I think my stomach rolling unpleasantly. She found us and Taylor killed Silas?

In shock, my mind unable to process the second part Devin was saying, I reach over and pinch Thaddeus. "What the hell!?" he pushes me away, "this is really happening?" I murmur, my siblings all around me now.

"Did you just – you pinched me to see if this was real?" Thaddeus gripes, but I'm already walking to my grandfathers' motorhome.

Taylor killed Silas? I say the words repeatedly in my mind, and they make less sense than the first time I heard it from Devin's mouth to the loop in my mind.

I don't remember even deciding to walk to the motorbus, but I go up the first two steps, eyes widen and heart beating crazily.

"Devin – she – in Samson's car, she said – the plane – she said Taylor," tongue-tied I hear myself speaking but not the words I wanted to string together. "Brennan, son, calm down, what's going on?"

"Devin... she's here! She fainted. She was crying. Sobbing. She said that Taylor killed S-S-Silas, and Javier Senior said to run?" I point towards where I left the group outside and as though in slow motion, my grandfather rises to his feet, flicking a glance at grandma.

The two hurry past me, and in a daze I leave their bus, replaying Devin's words.

She's wrong. Taylor killed Silas? How is that – no. That is not possible. 

.

.

.

__________

© 2016 roxann_season All Rights Reserved

Sorry this is short, forgot to charge my laptop and it's kinda dying right now. bye for now :)