All The Lonely People

Chapter Nine

Part Two:

Alex

The look she had on her face when I told her my real age and profession gave me chills. But this look chilled me to my bones. She looked as though she had really just seen a ghost, or better yet, that she was a ghost. All the color drained from her face.

"How?" her word was soft and came out like she hadn't spoken in days, which I guessed was true.

"I don't know exactly how they found him." I mumbled mostly to myself.

We had been keeping Darcy in a room in the basement. Noah had just come upstairs from talking to her while she slept again. I didn't know why exactly he was always down there but he barely ever left her side. I asked him how Darcy was and he just shrugged. We didn't talk much, Noah didn't like me because I upset and lied to his best friend.

Then there was a knock at the door. I turned to Noah, about to tell him to be completely silent, when the door was forced open. Tear gas was thrown into the house. I couldn't see, my eyes were burning. I ran clumsily for the door, still blind to my surroundings. If I couldn't see the people in the house, I could still catch them on their way out.

I got to the open door and ran out, my eyes still burning and tears running down my face. I looked around but realized I was too late. Noah was being shoved into a van by three people with gas masks on. One of the people was obviously a woman from the shape of her body. The other two were men. One thing I knew for sure about Noah's parents was that his mom was the one calling all the shots. She was incharge of the whole group of heist pullers they had. And she was good. The best in fact. Nobody had seen anything like her.

I screamed Noah's name as the car sped away. I never liked Noah, but if there was anyone I needed at that moment, it was him. Who knew what they were going to do with him.

I went around the house to the window leading into the basement. I didn't want to risk going through the tear gas again, my eyes were still left burning. I felt the residual dampness of water on my face from trying to blink out the gas. I slipped through the window and went to Darcy's bedside. She was still recovering, but we got the infection out and she was healing well. I hated the fact that we needed to do any of that. Noah had been so careless by not taking her to a hospital before she saw me. Once she was in hiding, I couldn't take her out. I just wanted her to be safe, I loved her.

I told Darcy the story as she stared at the wall with a distant look in her eyes. I saw a silent tear fall from her left eye. Once I finished neither of us said a word.

"Darcy, talk to me please." I pleaded with her, holding her hand. She flinched away from her previous position and started to stand by putting pressure on her arm. She winced from the pain of it. I helped her lay back down.

"Darcy, don't hurt yourself more than you need to." I brought her hand up to my lips and kissed it. She stared at her hand, and then mine as I ran it slowly across her beautiful face. Her hazel eyes softened and began to pool with tears, turning them a deeper green and making the subtle golden flecks glisten.

"We need to go. We need to help him." She said with her voice cracking. She looked away from me, but I turned her head to face me again.

"We can't, Darcy. You can't even sit up. I need you to get better. Please." I spoke gently.

Emotion took over Darcy. As tears fell she spoke.

"Alex, I would be able to climb a mountain right now if it meant I could save Noah."

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I laughed hysterically. I didn't know where it came from but I couldn't stop it from coming out. Darcy was crazy.

I was standing in my temporary bedroom, on the top floor of the house. After Darcy said that she would do anything for Noah, she stood up and walked (more like stumbled) across the room. It was as if the word "Noah" magically healed her. I slammed my fist into the wall, severely regretting it once I figured out how hard the wall was. We were going to get ourselves killed if we went after Noah and his parents. Not to mention the ten henchmen his parents had who weren't afraid to use their weapons.

I paced my room for hours, trying to figure out a possible way to find them, contemplating how they found us, and figuring out what in the devil's name I was going to convince Darcy that we couldn't pull off winning this battle.

Everytime I thought about telling her no, the memory of me breaking up with her came through my mind. I never wanted to see her face like that again. I never wanted her to feel pain again. I wish I was there when she got shot. I would have jumped in front of her. I would even have let it strike my heart to save her.

I started to walk downstairs to see if Darcy needed anything. I got to the door leading to the basement when I heard her sobbing. She had such a pretty cry, but I wished she would stop. I didn't want to see her in pain.

I walked quickly down the stairs and into her room. She sat up in her bed, head in her hands. I wrapped my arms around her and sat her in my lap. She continued to cry into my chest, her body shaking. I rocked her back and forth until she started to calm down.

"Darcy, what is it?" I spoke gently again. Her body had relaxed.

"Why did you let them take Noah, you should have helped him." She spoke with such force, it shocked me.

"I did try--"

"IF YOU TRIED HE WOULD BE HERE RIGHT NOW." She screamed. I had never heard her scream like that. Now that I thought about it, I don't remember a time that she was truly mad at me. I was once again shocked into silence as sobs racked her body again. I just let her cry into my chest until she fell asleep.