Faltered light

Part 8: The road to hell

James

When I wake up Calla is asleep and it's still dark outside. The last few days have been less like hell and its only because she's here. I get up and head down. I have to get things ready for when we leave to go find Bryan. I don't even know why I agreed to do this but Calla can be really persuasive when she wants to. Not that I can ever say no to her, more so I don't want to live here with Violet. I pack up a bag full of food stuff left over from what we got at the stop. I pack my knife and a five-liter bottle of water. The last time Calla and I got stuck in those woods we only had my bottle and we barely fucking made it and now I'm throwing us back into the exact same situation. I'm going to have to brief them on safety before we leave because God knows women never listen to reason when their emotions are involved. Where Violet is concerned, Bryan is her Achilles' heel. I want to pack up the car but instead I make one last pot of coffee, might not be having a decent cup for a while. I head upstairs to wake Calla; I'm guessing she's getting in a good sleep because she knows we're in for quite the adventure. 

                                                                                      Calla 

I feel James gentle shake me. The day is laced with worry instead I give him a smile. I lazily roll out of the comfortable bed I've gotten used to these couple of days and groan. I throw on a pitch-black t-shirt, my black jeans and my black shoes. I figured I'd dress for the occasion and the occasion is our impending death. I honestly don't know why I insisted we do this but I can't help put myself in violets shoes and that's how I know we have to do this. I head down the hall to wake Violet, I gently knock on the door. "Violet?", I guess she's still asleep. I hadn't gotten the opportunity to tell her that we're going to go get Bryan, she was still pretty upset at the entire situation and I don't blame her. " Violet?", I call again. I gently open the door and the room is empty. The bed is perfectly in place and Susan's dress is neatly folded on the chair. I head back out and find James outside in the shed. "hey did Violet go down to the lake or something?", I can tell by James' reaction that he has no clue about what I'm talking about. "Calla, she's probably still asleep", he has no idea her bed is empty. The second he sees my confusion he sprints to the house. I follow in a panic behind him. He searches all the main rooms downstairs and he yells as he takes the stairs two at a time. "Violet!", "where the fuck is, she!". His mad and I can't blame him. I try to calm him down, "maybe she decided to go for a stroll down to the water to clear her mind a little, I know I would", James gives me a pissed off look but he knows I could be right so he just walks off into the house. I have my coffee and decide that the day is off to a really rocky start but I hope it goes well. I see James storm out the front door. "Fuck!", James yells out loud. I get up from my no longer quiet seat to go see what all the commotion is about, maybe I'll get lucky and his yelling at Violet and we won't have to go looking for her down by the lake. "what's wrong now?", I ask him in an annoyed tone. "She fucking took it Calla, our one chance at safety against whatever the fucks out there!", he waves his arms in the air and I know his talking about Joes gun. "When could she have taken off?", it couldn't have been this morning because James would've heard her, and leaving in the middle of the night is rather risky besides James arms the alarm just in case of any intruders, we'd need some kind of warning bell. "I shouldn't have trusted her, I knew it was a mistake", why is he talking about her like she's some kind of criminal. "She couldn't have left last night, the alarm was armed", the second I mention the alarm James stares at me in disbelief, "I didn't disarm it this morning when I went out to the shed", this surprises me. This means she knew the code. "She knows the alarm code?", I cock my eyebrow at James and his even more pissed. He walks off ranting and I follow him. He opens the shed and hands me a tire iron. "She fucking took our gun, we need other methods at protection Calla", we're still going? I thought now that Violet is gone we'd just leave it at that. The whole reason I waned to go out there was to reunite her with Bryan but she took it upon herself to just get up and leave. "Get your things, we're hitting the road now", James says before he walks away to pack the rest of the things in the car. I head upstairs to the room James and I slept in and I grab my jacket but when I go to the other room my bag is missing. Violet came here in bloody clothes so she must've needed something to wear to run in. I want to tell James but his already in such a bad mood so I just check Susan's wardrobe for a couple of clean T-shirt's. She mainly has bright colored tops and I'd be a walking traffic cone in them. I search his fathers draws and I find a dark green T-shirt that looks about my size and a bigger grey T-shirt. These will have to do. I head downstairs and wait in the car. When James is done locking up he gets into the car. "Where's the town?", does James even know this place at all? Am I ready to use a tire iron against people just like Joe?. "It's about a half a days drive up north", he hands me a hand size bottle of water and he pulls off. "What's the code anyway", I'm curious as to what the magical numbers are that let Violet out. "It's my mums birthday", that's a pretty obvious alarm code, "11.10" , I've always celebrated with the Venton's of course James would never be there. "Grace Venton", he didn't mean Susan. So her name is Grace. His sharing so much today I better not push my luck so I sit quietly. The tar road comes into view not too long after and my heart starts racing. Why hadn't I asked him to stay here instead? We could be safe here. I thought I was the ballsy one but after Joe... James takes a right turn and we head up a long road. The road to hell.