The Girl he Wants

33- Declaration of War.

***RUTH'S P.O.V***

   Ruth plays on her phone, casually scrolling through Instagram, when the annoying sound of cop sirens becomes so loud her ears begin ringing. She's the first to glance out the window and the first to notice that the cop cars are stopped right in front of their hotel, red and blue lights brightly blazing.

   Her heart skips a beat, her mouth flipping upside down. She whirls around, her eyes zoning in on Sam and Natalie who lie on the bed beside each other, chatting normally. She breaks their conversation, though, and asks, "Do you guys hear those cop sirens?!"

   The two glance up at her, most likely noticing how abnormally wide her icy eyes are. "The cops are here. The cops are at the hotel."

   Sam's eyebrows shoot up, but he shrugs. "I'm sure it's nothing big."

   Ruth laughs. "Um, did you hear me correctly? I said cops. Cops."

"She has a point." Natalie mumbles, her normally smooth voice uneven.

   Sam moves off the bed, saying, "Yeah. Okay."

   A moment passes and then he asks, "Where the hell are my brother and sister?"

   He frantically yanks out his phone, taps the screen a few times, and then presses his phone to his ear. Natalie rises, too, her thin eyebrows stitched together. She mouths, "What the hell" to Ruth, and Ruth tensely shrugs.

   She steals a glance out the window again, and this time her eyes rest on an ambulance that comes to a screeching halt in front of the building. Her heart tumbles into numbness. "Something is really wrong."

 Sam slams his phone in his pocket and growls. "Let's go see what's going on."

"Can't be good." Ruth tells them, her frown deepening.

   The three rush out of the hotel room, not waiting to hear the door click behind them. All three of their heartbeats race quicker than their feet. They jog down the hallway and don't even wait for the elevator. Their footsteps echo loudly in the vacant stairway while they clomp down the stairs, all in a single file line. Once they reach the bottom floor, they are out of breath and not even slightly calmed at the fact that they are close to figuring out what's wrong.

   Sam is the first to step out of the stairway, his jaw set and his chest up. Next are the girls, who don't even realize they are holding their breaths.

   Ruth's eyes scan the lobby, and to her surprise and horror, she spots a huge group of people surrounding Hanes and Elizabeth. They sit on a lobby couch, nodding to two cops who ask them questions. Elizabeth has her hands in her lap, but they are shaking. Her complexion is as pale as Ruth has ever seen it; even more than when she was so dehydrated she passed out. Her long brown hair is knotted, a few strands straying over her blue eyes.

   Ruth's eyes flicker to Hanes, who holds Elizabeth against his side with a protective arm. His curly, brown hair dangles in front of his face, but Ruth can still spy the dark lines under his eyes. His eyes. His dark, caramel eyes, are filled with something Ruth can't figure out, but is also scared of. Since his body is rigid, maybe what she sees is anger? Since there's blood on his clothes, maybe what she sees is pain?

   Her heart stops.

   Blood on his clothes?

   Ruth surges through the crowd, one step behind Sam. Sam shoves people out of his way, marking a path for both him and Ruth as they rush right up to Hanes and Elizabeth with urgency.

   Sam is the first to speak. "What the hell happened?!"

   The same two cops from before are standing a few feet away from Elizabeth and Hanes with their notepads out and their eyes glued to them, but Sam and Ruth could care less if they are interrupting something.