The Summer of Ryland

29. Lost and Found

Asia's POV

We made our way to his apartment complex and pounded on his door. There was no answer. Kyle started to kick at the door, his face staring intensely at the door. Noel started to pace back and forth his, arms folded. The knocking got harder because Nolan started to join Kyle. Kai stood back with me his face emotionless. No one was answering.

After about five minutes Nolan and Kyle stopped banging on the door. Sliding on the side Nolan sighed in frustration.

"We know that she's in there and he has to be as well," Nolan said. Kai hadn't done anything in the past ten minutes. He just stood there standing as if he was waiting for her to just come out on her own. Or as if he was sleepwalking. I could barely tell if he was breathing. 

"We have to get in there!" shouted Kyle. 

"Maybe there's a spare key somewhere," Noel chimed in. All of us except Kai started to look for the key. Under the cork welcome mat, in the dying potted plant, on top of the door arch. Nothing worked.

"We have to break down the door," stated Nolan. We looked at each other for a second. All of us weighing the pros and cons that could happen. None of us objected. If destroying property would let get us close to Eliza then so be it. I would go to jail for this girl and so would everyone else. 

Kyle started to kick the door down. His foot came in contact with the door hard. It started to loosen but he eventually lost his stamina. All of a sudden, Kai moved from the spot that he stayed in and rammed the door down with his shoulder. It one movement it caved in. Wood splinters flying all over the place. Kai continued his fall forward crashing on the ground. We stayed still in that moment. I figured we were all scared. I know I was. What if she wasn't in there? Or she was dead, lying in a pool of blood? What if Ryland had a gun? There were so many possibilities that could happen and at that moment we were weighing all of them.

A cracking sound came from my left and I snapped my head to see that Noel started walking forward, slowly. His movements triggered the rest of us to start moving.

"Let's look for her now," Noel said. It didn't take me a long time to find her. She was in his bedroom hiding in the closet. She lifted her finger to her mouth as if to silence me. Tears were streaming down her eyes.

"Do you want to get killed?" she whispered. I looked at her. She looked horrible. Her clothes were tattered and had blood stains on them. There were cuts, burns, bruises, hickeys, just anything you can name was pretty much on her. And on her left arm, I saw a small uppercase 'R' branded on her skin. 

"We would do anything to get you out of here," I responded back, tears falling from my eyes at the sight of her.

"I was so scared. I thought it was his friends again," she confessed. I didn't know what she was talking about and I was afraid to know. 

"Babe. Come on. Let's go before he comes back. You're going to go to Kai's home." Her eyes grew at my words.

"Kai's here?"

"Not just him," I responded,"Guys she's in here." Four pairs of feet came running from their various places in the apartment, ready to see what had brought us here in the first place. When they came in they all stared at her. Nolan and Noel were in the most shock. Seeing their sister beaten think this must have brought them some unexpected emotions. 

Noel looked down for a second and when he looked up there were tears in his eyes. Nolan walked up to her. It was slow but I understood why he did that.

"Noel? Nolan?" asked Eliza.

"Lil E. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I should have stayed or come back earlier," Nolan said as he crouched next to Eliza. She took his hand and looked at him. They stayed like this for a minute.

"Look, guys, we have to go," Kyle said. I could tell he didn't want to get in the way of their time but he was right. Ryland could come home any second and it would get worse from there. Nolan brought Eliza to her feet. We began to walk out of the room when we heard him yell.

"Eliza! Where in the fucking hell are you bitch!" We all looked around but Kai was still there silent. All of a sudden he took off running in the direction of Ryland. One by one we try to stop him but it was too late. He was already on top of Ryland. One punch turned into many and it didn't look like he was about to stop. Blood started to appear on his knuckles and Rylands face. Noel tried to pry him off but nothing was working.

"Kai. Stop! You're going to kill him," I said. Deep down inside I wanted to see him dead but I also didn't want Kai to go to jail. Kai didn't stop though. He grabbed an ashtray and threw it at his chest as he got up, then started to kick him. All three of the boys had to restrain him and take him to the car. Before he left, Kai spat on him.

I stood there with Eliza, hooking her arm with mine. We slowly walked out of the apartment, but before we left, Eliza let go of me and went into the kitchen. She came out with an open beer. I thought she was going to drink it but she started to pour it on Ryland's wounds. He withered in pain. A small smile painted her lips. She hooked her arm back to mine and we left his apartment.

It's finally over.

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I made it 1001 words exactly. So happy! So, I decided for the rest of my chapters I will be dedicating them to the people who comment and vote on almost every chapter. This will be going on until the book is over. For my first dedication, this is for fadedart she has been commenting like crazy and has been a big supporter. Thank you for supporting me. With love.