Swell (Complete)

Chapter Fifty-Six (Part Two)

"As the walls crashed down I felt it slip away,
Cause I went to hell and back just to be where I am today."

....

Will woke up later in the afternoon to find Adora gone and Tom sitting beside him on a handheld gamer.
"Where'd Adora go?"
"Waking up to me isn't good enough anymore? Ouch." Tom turned the gamer off and put a hand to his chest. "After the blood I shared with you?"
Will snorted and shook his head. "We always shared blood."
"Well, true, but I gave instead of drained." Tom leaned forward over the bed and gave Will an affectionate smile. "Her Mum made her go home not long after you fell back asleep."
"Wish I could go to sleep at home." Will lifted a hand to his head and felt the butterfly strips over the cut from Marti's rock.
"Well, the doctor said you might be good to go home tonight or tomorrow. Blood loss and the kidney as the worst of it and thanks to me, it was fixed better than expected." Tom grinned proudly.
"I can dream right?" Will smiled and put his hand back down on the bed beside him.
"Yes."
"Is there any news about Marti?" Will almost didn't want to ask, but he couldn't turn his love for his little sister off, even after she had tried to kill him.
"She's fine. Under guard at a hospital a few towns away. She was lucky in the accident and somehow managed to get away with cuts and bruises only." Tom let go of a breath and Will looked from his worried brother to the window.
"How do you feel?" Will asked.
Tom swallowed so loudly Will heard the gulp. "Hurt. And relieved. She actually had me believe I could be capable of murder. I was honestly confused about my lack of recall the night Brett was attacked. She set me up to take the fall."
"I'm sorry." Will looked back to his twin with a grimace.
"I'm just glad its over for us all now."
"Have they mentioned what might happen to her?"
"Trial I suppose. What else happens when someone is caught trying to kill people?" Tom didn't want to talk about Marti, Will could see it in his face.
"How trashed is my bike?" He changed the subject to give Tom some relief.
He hadn't had the chance to feel relief that his twin wasn't the killer. Somehow Will had always known Tom was innocent, but Marti had worked hard to set him up, and he had spent several days in custody because of it.
Not to mention the stitches in his leg from Adora's panicked craft knife.
"It's gone." Tom grinned teasingly. "Mum has decided you're never allowed to ride again."
"Fuck that." Will shook his head and smiled.
"We told them to make your cast a pretty colour, they didn't listen though, so it's boring white like Brett's. Maybe you two can have crutch races later!"
"Maybe."

The door opened and their father came in with a grim expression on his face, and a police officer following behind him.
Tom stood from the seat and Will tried to pull himself up higher on the pillows. "What's wrong?" He asked his Dad.
"They lost Marti."

Will felt his stomach slip through the mattress of the bed. "What?" He could barely breathe the word out as Tom gripped his hand.
"She gave the officer watching her the slip. They don't know where she went, she stole some clothes and left the hospital before the officer realised she was gone. This is Officer McGreggor, he'll be posted outside your room until we have an idea of whether Marti might come back or whether she's going to try and hide."
"What about Adora?" Will felt sick.
"There's another officer on the way to the Escape to let them know, they'll offer protection for her too."

Will slumped on his bed and felt dizzy. "She wouldn't come back would she? We all know what she is capable of now, and what she looks like... Wheeler Falls is too small for her to not be seen if she came back."
"We have released her face to the press, if we're lucky she'll be spotted and reported by somebody wherever she does go." McGreggor said.
"This is unreal." Tom muttered, sitting back down heavily in the plastic hospital chair.
"It is, but we have it under control now." Their father agreed.
"Do we?" Will looked from the older men standing in the room to his body under the hospital blanket.
"Yes, now we do." His father affirmed sternly.
Will felt defeated somehow, as if his father was somehow helping Marti return even though there was no clue that she would.
What else could she do?
She had no money, no qualifications or access to anything at home.
She could try and run away, and start a new life as someone else.
What did she have to come back for? She knew Adora wouldn't be hers, Adora had crashed the escape car on purpose to avoid being abducted by Marti.
What was Marti feeling now she was awake?

***

One female guard beside my bed wasn't hard to slip away from.
I guess the law underestimates female criminals, even if they were murderers.
I was a murderer, but I was also a survivor, a fighter.
Adora had crashed the car into the hill on purpose. I remember the spin before we crunched to the stop against the rock.
I remember the airbags, the dark wet.
I remember leaving Will for dead on the cove, and dreaming of a new life with Adora.
Dreaming of our love together, starting a family.

I walked through the hospital as if I belonged, as if I wasn't a criminal under guard. There was a labelled box of lost property and a quick rummage through it afforded me more than the hospital gown to wear.
I slipped into one of the public toilets and changed. I threw my gown into the sanitary bin and left.
My side ached, and my head throbbed, but I couldn't give up yet.
I had no idea where I was, I had no phone, no money, no ID.
I walked the street the hospital was on until I could see some kind of shopping centre down one of the cross roads. I turned down the street and headed towards the building.
I could find out where I was at the information booth.
I didn't need a phone just yet; who was I going to call?
I needed a plan, and food.
The centre's information booth was helpful. They had maps of the buses and train timetables and the woman was friendly and concerned.
I brushed my dishevelled appearance and cut head as an attack. I was the battered girlfriend.
She had almost cried from my tragic story.
A love triangle between myself, my partner and another person.
She offered me her Myki card, and $20, I was in no position to refuse the young lady and thanked her graciously in assisting my escape from brutality.
I bought some cheap supplies and caught a bus to the train station.
I sat in the station house for over an hour trying to decide what I was going to do.
Adora had tried to kill us; she would rather be dead than runaway with me.
I couldn't tell whether I was more hurt or angry.
There was a TV at the station and I didn't pay any attention until the local news flashed my face on the screen.
I felt sick, but suddenly tuned into the dim noise.
Wanted for murder and attempted murder and kidnapping.
Will was alive.
Will and Adora would survive and their relationship would strengthen.
That was when the question between pain and anger was answered and I knew what my plan was.

_______

NB- JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO GO BACK TO THE BEACH!

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you're all with loved ones of any type; human, blood, pet or whatever, and staying safe.