•¥• My River Creek Lover •¥•

Part Twenty-Four

Flashback

"Hey, Jess! Wait up!" I laughed as Jess and I were running away from Bear in the mall, "I swear you two are so childish." Bear laughed, "Ruby you're 16, it's understandable for you, but you, Jess?" He followed.

We both just burst out laughing, Bear finally caught me, he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me in the air, I was giggling the whole time, "Put me down you're making me dizzy!" I laughed as he started spinning, he then put me down, he put his arm around my shoulder and Jess linked arms with me, "I'm gonna miss you guys when I go off to Iraq." Jess said.

The mood changed, "Me too." I said with my head down, "but hey, I'll only be gone for 4 months, it'll fly by, and in the meantime you axel and Danny get to stay with Bear." She smiled, "I hope it flies by." I said.

2 days later in the flashback.

Axel and I were in class, it was a free period so the teacher just turned the news on in the background.

"4 soldiers in Iraq were killed this morning, the cause of death is currently unknown but we would like to give our condolences to the families of Malik  Halliday Taylor, Armin Whittaker, Matthew Cailing, and Jessica Ryan Holt, thank you for your service."

My heart dropped.

All I could do was drop to the floor, "No!" Axel and I shouted at the same time, "Ruby! Ruby! Ssh it's okay." Danny said rushing into the classroom, crying himself, "She can't be gone!" I cried, "Axel!" Danny shouted as axel ran out the classroom, "It's not true, it's not true." I cried, with my brother hovering over me hugging me.

•end of flashback•

Bears POV

"It's not true, it's not true, it's not true." I heard Ruby mumble in the next room, I stood up to walk into her room, the second I stood up I just heard her let out the most blood curdling scream.

"Ruby!" I shouted, I ran into her room and she was just thrashing about her bed screaming, "Ruby! Ruby wake up!" I said sitting next to her and grabbing her wrists in a hurry as she started hurting her self, the screaming slowed down, "it's not true, it's not true." She said, "Ruby? Honey? Wake up." I said softly but sternly.

She then stopped and just lay her head down about half way down her bed, I started stroking her hair, "What happened? What did she dream about this time?" Danny said coming into the room, this has been happening for about a week now, sometimes its dreams about Jay, sometimes it's dreams about the basement.

"She just kept saying it's not true." I explained, "Shit, Ruby." He sighed sadly.

"She's dreaming about Jess. That's all she kept saying when we found out Jess was killed, fuck." He said with grief in his eyes.

I never said anything.

"Um, Xander's coming over tomorrow, he texted me about 20 minutes ago, he just wants to pop in and see how we all are." Danny said, "With the dreams she's been having, especially about Jay, I don't really think seeing someone who looks exactly like Jay is gonna make the situation any better."

"I thought that too, we can ask her about it in the morning, see what she says." Danny said, I tried to stand up to leave but Ruby kind of whimpered and held onto my wrist, I just looked at her with sad eyes.

"Poor kid, man." Danny sighed.

I fixed her so she was lying in bed properly I put her under her covers and I lay on top of them and stroked her hair until I ended up falling asleep too.

•the next morning•

We were all sitting in the kitchen having breakfast, Santiago and Dominic too, "Ruby, I was wondering if you would be okay with Dominic and I taking you out for lunch or something? Just to try and settle things between us. I just want things to be normal." Santiago asked, "Umm, sure." She said awkwardly, "Xander's coming over at 4." Danny said, "Good, it'll be good to see him." She replied.

Ruby's POV

I went upstairs and changed into ripped blue jeans a a grey hoodie.

I opened my texts and seen I had a text from Isaac asking if I wanted him to come over, I explained I'm just going out with Dominic and Santiago for a bit first.

"You ready to go?" Santiago said coming into my room, "uhh, yeah. I'll be down in a sec." I said, with that he left my room.

I walked over to my drawers and grabbed my pepper spray and my switch blade and placed them in my jacket.

I walked downstairs to see Dominic and Santiago sitting on the couch, "I'm ready." I said reluctantly, I don't really know how I feel about this since it's never just been me and them since we escaped, and I mean they did kidnap me and torture me for months.

I got into Santiago's car, Dominic sat in the back and I sat in the front with Santiago, "So, when do you start back at school?" Santiago asked, "I, uh- I start back Monday." I said, "Do you have any friends at school?" Dominic asked, "I have Isaac, and I have my brothers." I replied.

"Isaac he's-hes your boyfriend, right?" Dominic asked, "yeah.. he's my boyfriend." I said, it's so awkward talking to them...

"Does he treat you right?" Santiago asked, I snorted.

"What's so funny?" Santiago asked, "You both beat me black and blue for months and messed with my mind in the process, and you're asking if Isaac, the guy who searched for me for months and saved me on multiple occasions and has been nothing but good to me, is treating me right?" I said, they both stayed silent the rest of the drive to the diner we were going to.

We arrived at the dinner and ordered food, after about 10 minutes of more silence Dominic decided to speak, "Look, Ruby, I don't know what else we can say to you, we had no choice, your father gave us no other choice."

"You didn't have a choice, That's funny because I saw how easy it was for you to just put a bullet through his chest, how easy it was for you to just watch as I was sobbing over his lifeless body, and I am seeing how easy it is for you to just act like nothing happened. If it was that easy why didn't you just do that in the first place?" I asked.

"Because whenever we met with him he always had body guards with him, and he told me if we ever made a move on him his men would go to that house and kill you and make us watch. So no actually, we didn't have a choice, it was either hurt you or let you die." Santiago explained.

"Yeah? Hurt me or let me die? Dude being down there, in that hell hole, that was worse than dying." I said, as soon as I said that both of them just looked down, "I'm ashamed of everything we did to you, if we could we would, but right now, all that stuff doesn't matter, you're our little sister and we finally got you back and we just want to make things right, and I know it's a lot to ask, but can we try and start over? With a clean slate?" Santiago asked.

"Fine." I said.

There was another awkward silence until the news came on, "Police are now searching for 4 siblings, people, Ruby Nirvana Holt, 17, and triplets Bear Holt, 29 Santiago Deacon Holt, 29 and Dominic Mendetta Holt, 29, in connection to the disappearance of Reuben Cailings, founder of a charity that aims to get young at risk children off the streets and into good homes. Our source in the River Creek Police Department has told us Reuben left a note saying if he ever disappears, it was them. Chilling, right?"

"Oh. Okay."
"Fuck."
"I don't even get to finish my burger?"