Until Her (Sequel)

chapter twenty-three

"No!" I screamed. This couldn't be. There was no way we had made it this far, just for it to end here.

I dropped to my knees, the sounds of my wailing combined with Sophia's in a muffled blur. I tried crawling to him, but nothing worked. My eyes were blurred with tears and I was shaking from exhaustion and weakness. And now, my whole world had been taken from me.

A groan escaped from the pile, one I didn't expect to hear. I removed my face from the palms of my hands, watching Carter shift off Cole's body.

He was soaked in blood. When he finally stood, I realized... it wasn't his. Cole's lifeless body lay on the concrete floor, soaked in a puddle of his own blood. A hole in his abdomen was oozing with a dark pool of blood. I looked around the warehouse to put together the pieces of who shot Cole, because it wasn't Carter. Cole's gun laid on the floor because of Carter's tackle.

"Warren?"

Carter jolted his body towards the doorway, where a clean-shaven, psychotic, ex-con stood.

I didn't know if I should be terrified or relieved. Everything was grey again; nothing made sense.

"What the fuck is going on," Carter said, wrapping a defensive arm around me.

Warren slowly slunk towards us, putting his gun back into its holster. Carter, Sophia and I watched in awe as he got closer. I couldn't believe he was here in the flesh, and that he had just saved my life. Not just my life; mine, my baby's, Carter's, Sophia's, and hopefully Adam's.

Warren kept his cool exterior when he approached Cole. With his Timberland boot, he kicked Cole's foot. It wagged it response, but he didn't wake.

"Oh my gosh, is he..." Sophia spoke.

"Yup." Warren responded flatly. It was weird hearing his voice. I didn't know whether to run, or to thank him.

"We need to get Adam help." I finally said, finding more peace looking at an unconscious Adam than at Warren.

Without saying anything, Warren pulled out an old flip phone, dialing 911.

"Hi there, I'm at 4211 E County Road. We're at some abandoned warehouse near the river. I have two gunshot victims, one unconscious. The other deceased."

I stared. It was all I could do. I was in so much shock that no single part of me knew how to react. When Warren hung up the phone, he stared at me. But this time, it wasn't to hurt me. It wasn't to intimidate me or mess with my head. They looked apologetic, even humbled.

"How did you..." I began. Carter's entire body was still stiff, wrapped around me and my round belly.

Warren blinked, not in any kind of shock or fearful state. His eyes peered down at my protruding belly, lost for another moment before he spoke. "Are you ok?"

"She's fine." Carter bleated. "How did you find us here, man?"

"I got off on parole last month." He said calmly.

"No, I... they were supposed to call me." I questioned.

"That's the thing about prison. Nothing is reliable there."

Everyone stood quietly. I didn't know what to think of his calm demeanor. I didn't know what to think of him at all.

"I, uh... when I got out of jail, I still didn't feel... free. My hometown hates me. My father won't speak to me. I wanted to try to fix something, maybe apologize to you, so I... I found out where you were, what you've been up to..."