Rupture

Chapter 13

Ch13

Melanie and the rest of the family walked into her room and rejoiced when they saw her smile.

"Hey guys." She said with a hoarseness in her voice.

"We're so glad you're okay!" Ryan said as he came over to hug her. One by one they all suffocated her with hugs and kisses.

"Anything on Blakely?" Bella asked, playing it up.

"Yes!! She's back!"

"Really?!" She cheered with a big smile. "That's great!" She held her mother's hand and squeezed it. Then she noticed Travis in the corner, leaning on the wall. She knew he was going to say something about Luke. She didn't want to act like she didn't know, she couldn't fake that. She ignored the sulking man in the corner and continued to fake smile at her family.

When she got back home she was able to clean up her place that had been abandoned for a month. She still had her clothes and toiletries at Luke's apartment, but she wasn't going to go over there without him.

Blakely and their family checked into a hotel by the movie theatre, and she was alone. She wasn't hungry, but she figured it would benefit her to eat something. She couldn't remember the last time she ate anything. Most of the entire month had been spent sleeping in giant lairs. She went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. A musty stench clouded around her that made her cough and stagger back. "Oh good grief!" She whined as she grabbed the food and threw it away. She didn't know what it was, but it had a good amount of green fur. She continued to throw out the food when there was a knock on her door. She washed her hands and dried them off as she opened the door.

"Travis." She greeted. "What are you doing here? It's almost midnight."

"I um...I didn't get a chance to talk to you."

Her heartbeat quickened. This was the moment he broke the news about Luke. He'd have some kind of made up story for her that they told him, and it ate at her nerve to know he'll never know how his brother went. He sacrificed his life for hers, and Blakely's. He was brave, courageous, and very stupid.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, just with everything going on this month, people have a lot to say."

"Yeah, I get it. Um...but this isn't going to be any easier, so I guess it's better that I tell you in private."

Bella nodded and motioned to the living room. "Come in."

"Thanks." He said as they walked to the living room and sat on the couches.

"What is it that you need to tell me?"

"Um...well while you were on your trip, Luke went on one to Africa. He um... It was his last day and he went on some safari... He was mauled by a lion."

Bella hung her head and buried her face in her hands. "Travis." She groaned. "That didn't happen."

"I know you loved him and it might be too hard to accept it now, but it's true."

"No, it's not." She sighed and took his hand. "What I'm about to tell you cannot be repeated, to anyone. Do you understand?"

"What is it?"

"I need you to promise you'll keep it a secret."

"Yeah, 'course. What is it?"

"Luke and I don't work for the travel agency. We work as agents in the CIA."

"...you're joking...you're joking right?" She shook her head. "So...the vacations you two take...they're what...missions?" She nodded. "So Africa..."

"Didn't happen." she let out a sigh. "We um...we went to India for a mission and it backfired, I got hurt. We were captured and were relocated. Leeway, the bad guy, moved us to some kind of mountain, probably Everest. When I woke up I found Luke and Blakely and we-"

"Wait, Blakely is an agent too?!" He shouted.

"No, no! She's a real estate agent, she just was kidnapped by our bad guy. Look, it's complicated and I can't give you too many details, but we were on our way out, bombs were about to go off. The building was coming down and we had Leeway in cuffs. Our mission was to bring Leeway back to head courters but... we had 4 minutes left when Leeway launched himself over a rail. Luke grabbed him and fell over as well, I grabbed him and fell over and Blakely grabbed me, holding all three of us." She took a moment to pause. "Blakely wasn't strong enough to pull all of us up, so we dropped Leeway...we were still too heavy." The memory burned in her brain and the tears began to gush. "I kept telling her to pull harder, but he kept slipping. He kept telling me to let him go, we barely had a minute left. He forced my hand off of his and.." She shut her eyes and sighed. "I just thought you should know that he didn't die by a lion attack, but he died a hero. He risked his life for Blakely and I..."

He put his hand on her knee. "...thank you." He said quietly. "I um...I'm gonna go."

"Wait...if it means anything...they can't find his body. There's still a chance that he's alive, somewhere. He's strong and trained to survive intense conditions."

He nodded slightly and walked out to leave her by herself.

She let out a heavy sigh and curled up on the couch. She didn't feel tired or run down, she just wanted to sleep. To numb the pain. She grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and laid it over her. She shortly fell into a deep sleep.

Bella woke up the next morning due to the sound of a knock. She groaned and looked at the cable box by her TV. The time said 5 am. Who could possibly be paying her a visit before the sun was even up?

She stood up from her couch with a groan and wrapped the blanket around her as she opened the door.

"Nick? It's 5 am, why are you here?" She asked.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Bella..."

"What is it?"

"They um...they found a body."

****

That's it for this story! So, I have a quick confession. This series contains 5 books and they were all written about 3 years ago. I've just been really bad at keeping them updated on here. the good news it the 4th one is already written and is sitting in my documents on my laptop...the bad news is that it has a major cliff hanger the brings in the 5th and final book which is bad news because I've had writers block on it for 3 years now...I don't know how to finish it...So, I'm not sure what I should do. I could post the 4th book, but I know that I wouldn't be able to post the 5th book and that would just be terrible because that cliff hanger is HUGE. I'm thinking I should post it and then on the final chapter, write a paragraph about what happens in the 5th book...what do you think? Send me comments on what you think I should do.
Edit: shortly after writing the paragraph above, my computer crashed and I didn't have my files backed up (I know, I know, always back up your files). I lost the 4th book as well as what I had of the 5th. So, if you'd like to know what happens in those books, read the next chapter.