Held (Gone #2)

by Claflin, Stacy

  "And that means…?"

  "It's our primary goal. The Promised Land is a beautiful, magnificent place where we'll spend the rest of time."

  "You really believe that?" Macy asked and then covered her mouth. "Sorry. Don't tell anyone I said that." Images of being shamed and then ignored filled her mind. If she publicly embarrassed Chester, who knew what he would to her? "Please. I didn't mean it."

  Luke didn't look bothered. "I didn't believe it for a long time. I understand your hesitation, Heather. I was there. You'll need to get to a place where you believe for yourself."

  "Why?"

  He stopped and then turned to look at her. "When you're truly a part of the community, you'll receive your true name. You won't be able to enter the Promised Land if you don't have your name."

  She stared into Luke's eyes, trying to see if there was a flicker of doubt. She wanted to see it, believing that he was someone she could open up to. If he knew she'd been kidnapped, maybe he could help her escape. If not, she could end up at the wrong end of Chester's fury again.

  It was time to play it safe. No one was going anywhere—they were all trapped inside the high, fortressed walls. If she needed to spend weeks feeling people out, she would. She needed to find the right person to open up to. Someone who wouldn't turn her in for claiming that she had been kidnapped by a prophet.

  Maybe Luke was that person, but maybe not. She would have to be a hundred percent certain. Chester was sure to have chosen a house with some kind of basement or cellar. He had planned everything out with such precision. There was no way he would leave out a detail like that.

  "How does your hand feel?"

  "Better."

  "We should head back, but first let me see it." Luke took her hand and rubbed it, squeezing hard.

  It took all of Macy's self-control not to cry out in pain.

  "It's still sore. I'm going to tell Teacher that I think you should rest it for the remainder of the day. Maybe I can take you on field trip. Have you seen the farms yet?"

  Macy shook her head.

  "Without the farms, we couldn't survive. I can't imagine Teacher disagreeing with a field trip there. What could be more educational than learning about what sustains our way of life?" He turned around and walked toward the school house, still holding onto her hand, rubbing it.

  Two men were heading their way, so Macy looked down careful not to even give the impression of making eye contact. She pulled on her hand, sure that the men wouldn't approve of Luke holding it. He wouldn't let go, continuing to squeeze it.

  When they crossed paths with the men, Luke stopped, forcing Macy to as well. He gave a slight bow and Macy kept her eyes on the ground, staring at a melting patch of frost.

  "What is going on, Luke?"

  "Her hand is hurt, so I'm helping. We're heading back to school."

  "Carry on." The two men continued walking in the direction they were headed.

  Luke tugged on her hand and they followed the path. It was strange that it was okay for him to walk with her, touching her hand. With all the weird, backward rules the community followed, she would have thought that boys and girls would have been expected to walk on different sides of the road, not even allowed to look at each other.

  When they got back to the schoolhouse, Luke stopped and rubbed her hand again. "How does that feel?"

  "It's still sore."

  "Let me rub it a little more." He looked down at her hand and rubbed again. His hand slid and went to her wrist, his fingers resting under her sleeve.

  Luke looked into her eyes. He appeared as surprised as she felt. Macy's heart leapt into her throat. Luke's fingers lingered on her wrist, and then he pulled his hand away and cleared his throat.

  "We should head back inside." His cheeks were pink.

  Macy nodded. What had that been about?

  They went inside and Luke told her to go back to the desk while he spoke with the teacher about taking a field trip. Macy rubbed her hand, watching them from the corner of her eyes. She couldn't hear anything they said, but Rebekah kept looking back at her, nodding occasionally.

  Macy could feel the stares of other kids, probably because she was the new kid. Or was she the freak again? Not because she was overweight this time, but because her hand hurt and she couldn't keep writing with the pencil. Surely the others like her, the kids who had come from the world, would have understood. Who spent hours writing anymore?

  Luke sat down and nodded, but didn't say anything.

  Rebekah walked to the front of the class and tapped on the chalk board with a ruler. "Excuse me, class. It's almost lunchtime. When we reconvene, some of you are going to take a field trip to a farm. It's been a while since we've had a field trip, and now that we have a new student, the timing is perfect. How many of you, ages twelve and older, are interested?

  About half a dozen hands went up.

  "Quite a few of you. This is good. We still have some time, so I'm going to take a little walk and let the farmers know to expect you. In the meantime, keep doing your work. I want to see all of your copy work when I return. If you need to, go to the other class and speak with the teacher there."

  "Yes, Teacher," said the entire class in unison, minus Macy.

  "If the lunch bell rings before I return, you're dismissed to your homes."

  Without a word, all the kids went back to their writing, and they didn't slow down when Rebekah left. That would have never happened at her old school. If a teacher ever had to step outside the classroom for even a minute, chaos ensued every time.

  Macy made a fist and then extended her fingers. Her hand was still sore, but she decided she better try writing again. She didn't want to get the reputation of being able to get away with things just because she was the teacher's kid—fake kid.

  News

  The living room was filled an awkward silence. Chad felt like he should lead the discussion, but he didn't know where to start. Valerie looked to be in a better state of mind than she had the night before.

  "Who wants to start?" Chad asked.

  Valerie put her face in her hands and then looked up. "I can't deal with this on my own. Times like this, I wish Zoey's dad was around. Maybe if he was, this wouldn't have happened. Honestly, you guys are more family to us than anyone else. I suppose that's why I never thought this would happen. I think of Alex as her brother. She's always been so protective of him, as if he wasn't only Macy's brother, but her own."

  Chad looked at Alyssa. "And we should have seen it coming. We grew up best friends and then one day, it became something more. I don't know why we never thought it could happen to Alex."

  Alyssa took a step closer to Valerie. "We can all pass the buck, blaming each other or ourselves, but that isn't going fix this. I don't know if anything in our lives can be fixed any more. But what I do know is that nothing needs to be decided now. Let's just be here for our kids—both of them."

  Valerie nodded and then turned to Alex. "I'm sorry, Alex. I shouldn't have said those things. I was angry and I'm scared."

  He looked down. "I'm sorry too, Ms. Carter. For this whole mess." He looked up and had tears shining in his eyes.

  "Oh, Alex." Valerie gave him a hug and then pulled Zoey in. "I hope you guys know I love you, both of you."

  "Me too." Alyssa got up and hugged them. "I'm sorry for getting mad, too."

  Chad wrapped his arms around all of them. "We'll get through this together."

  Valerie nodded. "I'm not okay with this, and I don't agree with keeping the baby, but we can figure that out later. For now we'll just focus on helping you two."

  "I couldn't agree more," Alyssa said.

  Valerie's phone beeped and she looked at the screen. "I'm glad we were able to have this little talk. I'm sorry to cut it short, but I have to get back to the office."

  "I should get back to my blog as well," Chad said. He went to his office and stared at the blank screen. Before Valerie came over, he'd been unable to write anything for his new blog post.<
br />
  He couldn't write under pressure on a good day, but this was even worse—and not even because of Alex and Zoey's announcement.

  The previous afternoon, his boss had brought Chad into his office. Roger hadn't needed to say anything, because Chad knew exactly what was coming from the look on his face. His performance at work had tanked since Macy disappeared.

  They had given him a couple weeks off with pay and his coworkers had donated vacation hours so Chad wouldn't have to use his own. But the time since he had returned, he was next to useless and he knew it.

  An alert from his computer brought him back to the present. Twelve new friend requests. Why did everyone want to be his friend? Just because his daughter was missing didn't mean he wanted to be friends with everyone who hoped she would return.

  He refused to accept the requests, even if it made him look like a jerk. He didn't know any of those people and if they were really interested in Macy, they would just follow his blog. That's where he put everything that he wanted people to know, not on social media. He went to the folder where he kept his copy and paste letters, copied the friend-denial message and pasted it to all twelve of them.

  He checked his notifications, got caught up on what everyone was doing—not that he really cared at the moment, but it was a good distraction from what was bothering him. If he couldn't work, then what? His blog made enough to keep Alyssa home, but not him. If he worked at it full time, he would probably be able to pull in enough to keep them both home, but it would take some time.

  Chad went back to his blank blog post. What was he supposed to write about? Detective Fleshman had told them not to talk about the phone because they were still processing it. What did it matter, though? It had already been all over the news.

  What did the phone even mean? They already knew her clothes had been found covered in her blood. Could the phone tell them anything they didn't already know? If they could get some information out of it, they might be able to find out who she had been calling. Maybe they would even find fingerprints. Or would it have been wiped clean?

  He wanted answers, but when it came to the police department, it would take longer than he wanted. They simply weren't able to process things any faster than they were.

  Chad got up and went to the kitchen for some coffee. Yesterday's still sat in the pot. For a moment he considered warming some up, but ended up rinsing it out and making a fresh batch. Alyssa would probably want some too. He doubted she had gotten any sleep either.

  While the pot brewed, he went upstairs to check on her. He found her in the bonus room, asleep on the couch with the news still going. Why did she do that to herself? He found a blanket and covered her up and then turned off the TV. She stirred and then gave him a confused look.

  "What's going on?"

  "Just turning the news off. Go back to sleep, Lyss."

  "Nothing more about the phone?"

  He shook his head.

  She looked at the time. "You're not going to work?"

  "I'm going to work from home today." He had through next week to use that excuse before he told her that he was out of a job.

  "Okay." She closed her eyes again.

  Chad went to Alex's room. He was sleeping soundly while his alarm beeped next to him.

  "Are you going to get up, Alex?"

  "Do I have to?" mumbled Alex.

  "You've got school and your alarm is blaring."

  "Ugh." Alex pulled his pillow from under his head and put it over his face.

  Chad pulled the pillow away from him. "Get up. Want me to make you some coffee?"

  Alex shot him a dirty look and then turned his alarm off. "Can't I just sleep in? Why do I have to keep going to school?"

  "Does repeating the eighth grade sound like fun?"

  Alex sat up and grabbed the pillow from Chad. "My sister is missing and I'm going to be a dad at fourteen. Does it matter if I learn about adverbs?"

  Chad sat next to Alex. "We have a lot to figure out about the baby. In fact, it's so early in the game that we don't know if it will last. Do you know how many pregnancies end in miscarriage early on?"

  "You're a jerk."

  "I'll ignore that. I'm being realistic. Your mom practically lived in fear until she hit a certain point. And even if Zoey does end up having it, wouldn't you two give it up for adoption? Give the baby the best chance possible. There are lots of nice couples who can't have kids, Alex."

  "That doesn't change anything. I'll still be a dad. The baby will still be mine even if someone else raises him."

  Chad took a deep breath. "All I'm trying to say is that skipping school isn't going to help you. Getting an education is the best thing you can—"

  "No, it's not. That's the lies your generation was told. Look at all the people out there with college debt flipping burgers. My generation doesn't want that. I don't want that."

  "You're not going into debt in middle school. Where did you hear that, anyway?"

  Alex rolled his eyes. "I don't want to have this conversation. Look, I'll go to school so you'll get off my back. Deal?"

  "I'm not trying to irritate you. But it's important that you go to school."

  "There's such a thing as summer school. Who better to do that than me? No one has a better excuse for missing school."

  "You really want to spend your summer in school?"

  "Forget it!" Alex got up and grabbed some clothes before storming out of his room.

  Chad looked around the empty room and picked some of the mess off the floor, putting things on the chair for Alex to organize later. When he got into the hall, he could hear the shower.

  Why was it so hard to get along with Alex these days? Chad thought things would improve after their talk the night they found out about the pregnancy, but it looked like it would take more than that.

  Alex and Chad had gotten along so well when Alex was younger. In fact, Alex wouldn't leave him alone for a minute, always wanting his attention. It had been annoying at the time, but looking back, his heart ached. Was it possible to get close again? Or was all lost for the teen years?

  The landline rang. Chad sighed. The only people that called that number anymore were solicitors and his in-laws. He went down to the kitchen and checked the caller ID. The police department?

  "Hello?"

  "Chad, this is Detective Fleshman again."

  He hated that they talked with him so much they used his first name. "What is it? Why are you calling this line?"

  "We called both of your cell numbers, but neither one was answered."

  Chad felt his pocket, but it was empty. "What is it, Detective?"

  "We need you and Alyssa to come down to the station."

  "Again? I thought everything was squared away with the phone."

  "This isn't about the cell phone. There's a possible new clue and we want to talk with you before the news gets a hold of this." The detective's voice was solemn.

  Chad leaned against the nearest wall. "What do you mean?"

  "Just get down here as soon as possible. The shift change is coming up and I want my team to tell you two."

  "I'll wake Alyssa."

  "Thank you, Chad."

  He hung up and stared at the coffee. Why did the detective sound so serious? He took a deep breath. He needed to calm down before he talked to Alyssa, or he would freak her out. He poured some coffee and drank it black.

  Maybe they just needed them go downtown for something routine. He could convince Alyssa of that, but he knew better.

  Chad heard footsteps. Alex appeared and glared at him.

  "Want me to make you some breakfast?" Chad asked.

  "You're a jerk."

  "Still?"

  "Why'd you go through my stuff?" Alex's eyebrows came together.

  "Go through…? I didn't go through anything. I cleared a path to the door."

  Alex folded his arms. "Leave me alone." He turned around and ran out the front door.

  Chad walked to where he could see outside, and
watched Alex walk to the bus stop where a group of kids were already waiting. At least Alex would be at school while he and Alyssa were at the station. He drank the rest of his coffee and headed back to the bonus room. She was still sleeping on the couch. He hated to wake her, but what choice did he have?

  Crushed

  Alyssa and Chad sat holding hands in the police station waiting room.

  "What's taking them so long?" Alyssa asked. She pushed the heel of her boot against the leg of her chair trying to squash the horrible thoughts forcing their way into her mind.

  Chad squeezed her hand. "This might be good news."

  Had he lost his mind? She gave him a look that told him how she felt.

  "Think about it. When they found Macy's clothes they rushed us in, remember? If they're making us wait, it can't be that urgent. It could be good news."

  What was wrong with him? Was he just talking to hear himself speak? She gave him an annoyed look.

  "Well, so far they haven't found anything indicating that she's come to any harm."

  "Yeah, but you know what they say about the first twenty-four hours," Alyssa said.

  "I can think of several famous kidnapping cases where kids were found alive months and even years later."

  "So you think she was kidnapped now? You don't think she just ran away?"

  Chad gave her an exasperated look. "I was just giving you a worst case scenario that turned out well."

  "This really isn't the time for worst case statistics. I know which ones you're referring to and they were forced to live as young wives for sick, old men. I can't let myself think about that happening to Macy."

  "That didn't happen each time. I'm just—"

  "Mr. and Mrs. Mercer."

  Officer Reynolds stood by the front desk. He gave them a weak smile and tipped his cap. "We're ready for you two."

  Even though Alyssa was still irritated with Chad, she held his hand as they followed Reynolds to a back room. Detective Fleshman and Officer Anderson came into the room as Chad and Alyssa were getting seated.