🏁 Tetrology Of The Sea - Book 1: From The Sea 🪼🔨💻 💞 🔮

Twelve

Shana walked out of her house on Saturday and headed toward the mailbox to get the mail that had ran earlier. Aylin was expecting something and told her to go and see if it had come in. She grumbled all the way there when she looked across the road and saw Travis smoking a cigarette against the bumper of his car. Shana looked around and then walked over.
"Hey." She said with a quick wave.
He looked at her and nodded.
"What bring you to this side of the tracks?"
"I'm sorry about yesterday. I know that was not the wisest of decisions."
"Neither is walking over here." He said, sticking the cigarette in his mouth to take a puff. "Aylin is not pleased." He added with a nod of his head toward her house.
Shana looked over her shoulder as she saw Aylin looking at them through the window. She flicker her brother off and turned back to Travis. He smiled slightly, impressed.
"Interesting."
"He's a dick sometimes, I'm sure you know."
"Fluently." He said with a playful grin that showed his now straightened teeth. "Seriously though, why are you here?"
"I just thought I'd come and talk for a bit. Besides, Aylin is being a jerk and made me get his mail."
"Ah."
"Where's Ruth?"
"Went on a play date with Josh. Or rather a 'business trip'." He said as he did air quotes and a roll of his eyes. "They need to just get married."
"Aylin always called Josh Ruth's boyfriend."
"Yeah, I remember."
"Does she still get defensive over it?"
"Big time. It's almost comical to watch the two fret over it." He said with a deep chuckle.
Shana laughed too and leaned against the car with him.
"I wish we had become better friends. I like hanging out with you."
"Nothing but Aylin's threats kept you from becoming my friend. You could have ignored him."
Shana nodded, looking down. "I know."
"You'd better go back to your castle now, princess. Your knight is looking for you."
Shana looked at him sharply.
"I am not a princess."
Travis laughed obnoxiously as he stepped on his cigarette.
"You could have fooled me, sweetheart."
Shana's face got red with anger and she growled, walking away.
Travis continued to laugh at her as she walked over to her house and laughed even harder when she proceeded to show her anger by slamming the door.

"That movie was stupid." Aylin said with a frown.
"I liked it."
"It was a total chick flick. You played me." He said with a growl.
"Well, none of my friends wanted to see it with me and I didn't want to go by myself."
"Why didn't you ask your new friend to go with you? I mean, he reads romance novels and all..."
"Travis has to work."
Aylin looked at his sister. "So now you know his schedule?"
"He always works on Sunday, dolt."
"Because you're a total stalker. You... you actually like him, don't you?"
"Why would you say that?"
"Face it, Shana, I just caught you!" he said with a laugh.
Shana's face turned red but her brother would never see that in the dark and stormy night. He suddenly started to slow down and Shana looked out the windshield.
"What's wrong?"
"There's something in the road, like a log or something."
Aylin calculated for a moment and then went around the obstacle and pulled into the driveway. As they ran into the house, Shana looked over at Travis' house but stopped.
"Shana, get in the house. You're making rain come in."
"Something's wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"Travis' house is dark but his car is home."
"So? Maybe he went to sleep or something..."
"No... no he would at least coming home from work by now. Aylin, something is really wrong."
Aylin grabbed her arm angrily and pulled her inside.
"Leave it be and leave him alone."
Shana nodded but she still couldn't get the weird feeling to subside.
Shana watched her brother play some video games and played a few herself with him and was heading to bed, but looked out the window again. The lights were still off in Travis' house and Shana decided to go with her gut feeling of something being wrong.
"Shana, where are you going?"
"I don't feel right. I feel like something is wrong." She said, putting her raincoat on. "I'm just going to knock on the door and be for sure that he's home and sleeping."
Aylin rolled his eyes as she went out in the sprinkle and over to Travis' house. Halfway over there though, he saw her stop and pick something up from the ground. From where he was, it looked like a ring of keys. He threw his own jacket on and headed over to her.
"What is it?"
"It's his keys... Aylin..."
"I'll get the car."
"I think I know where he is. I'll meet you there."
"You're going to walk?"
"Believe me, it's not far. Here, you might as well just take his car since we're right here."
He nodded and took the keys as she started walking up the road. When she saw it, she ran and crouched down. She took the black cloth sack from over the body and felt tears run down her face as she untied his hands. Craig... she thought with anger.
Aylin pulled up in Travis' car and got out to go to his sister as he found her cradling Travis in her arms. He looked over him and saw that he was covered in bruises that were so deep purple they almost looked black. There was some blood, especially on his wrists and scratches. He looked like he's been through hell and back.
"Jesus..." Aylin said quietly as he crouched down beside his sister. "What the hell happened to him?"
"Craig went back on his promise, that's what!" Shana said, crying into Travis' hair as she hugged him. "He almost killed him!"
"No, Craig didn't do this. I know he didn't. This isn't his work and he would be too man enough to use tools. Someone else did this to him... Look, they even tried to slit his wrists to make it seem like he was trying to hurt himself if anything happened and he... well, died..."
"Help me get him in the car."
Aylin nodded and help to get him in the backseat of his own car. They drove back to the house and both got him upstairs.
"Put him in my room and I'll sleep with you. Get some stuff to help him."
He nodded and carried Travis up the stairs by himself since Shana couldn't really help on the stairs. When he got up the stairs, he put him in his sister's room and went to the bathroom to get some medical supplies.
Shana immediately began to take off the wet clothes that were on Travis, making sure not to touch any of his bruises or scratches. He was shivering and she threw the wet clothes onto the floor. When she got to his underwear, she didn't even care and jut pulled them off, throwing them on the growing pile. Se plugged in the electric blanket and wrapped him in it as best as she could.
Aylin came back with peroxide and cotton balls and other things. They began to mend the wrists first even though the cuts weren't deep enough to hurt anything. He wrapped them up and began to work on the cuts on Travis' face.
"Go downstairs and get some ice packs for these bruises. He'll need something for this eye too..." he said, looking at the swollen eye and jaw.
Shana nodded and left the room.
Aylin sighed when Travis coughed, moaning and trying to open his eyes a little.
"Go back to sleep. It's best if you do." Aylin said a little gruffly.
Travis seemed happy to obey and his eyes closed again, his body relaxing just as Shana came back upstairs with a couple of ice packs.
"Was he awake?"
"Just coming out of the pain coma I'm sure. He needs rest."
She nodded and touched his face lovingly. I'm sorry...