Page 54 of Grave Kisses
“Alright, y’all,” she says happily. “I see we are just checking on the babies after a fall, yes?”
“Yeah,” I sigh.
“Little cold jelly, and then we can see how the babies are doing,” she says as she tucks a towel into the front of my pants to keep the jelly off of it.
The screen in front of me powers on shortly before she presses the wand down. At first it’s just all gray noise, until I see it.
Two blobs.
Two babies.
My babies
“Alright, Momma. Heart rate is… 155 and 147,” she says. “I’m going to take a few measurements. You should be about ten weeks, right?”
“Yeah,” I say.
She clicks around for a minute before speaking again. “Yep. They measure at ten weeks and one day.”
“What kind of twins are they?” I ask.
“Uh. Well, there are two placentas. Two sacks. Two babies. So, they're fraternal twins,” she says.
“Ah. I am an identical twin. We shared a placenta and sac, apparently,” I say.
“Too bad she’s a psycho,” Bellamy mutters, making me giggle.
“Alright, I will get you some pictures printed, and then the doctor will come talk to you,” she says sweetly.
By the time I am up, she is in the room. Doctor Trask, the wife of the ER doctor I saw before, comes in and tells us basically all of the same things. Right now, the plan is to try to have them naturally, but we will make final decisions when the time gets closer. I will ultimately choose what is safest for them. I have support all around me, so I know I will be okay. We set the next appointment for four weeks to check on things. We decided to have blood testing done to determine the sex of the babies. It’s not that it matters, but we are curious nonetheless.
After I have my blood drawn, we take our time going back down to the lobby. It is pouring outside now, so Bellamy runs out to pull the truck up while I wait with Marcus. When he pulls up, Marcus opens my door before running around to get in. As I am about to step up to get in, a van comes out of nowhere and smacks into the front of the truck. I scream as I am knocked down to the ground, but as I go to get up, I hear gunshots.
Fear blankets my thoughts, and the world tunnels. I don’t remember getting picked up or moved. One minute, I am screaming on the wet ground, and the next, a hood is pulled over my head as I am shoved into a vehicle. We are moving, and I am still screaming, but my hands are bound tightly with something that feels like rope. I hear voices, but I can’t make out anything. I am too lost in fear to come back to the surface. Maybe I shouldn’t come back. Maybe staying in this far-away place in my brain is what is best for me.
I end up on the floorboard of whatever vehicle I am in. Small streams of light peek through just enough that I can make out vague shapes around me. There are two people here. I am behind the passenger seat, and one is in the back with me, while there is one in the front driving. I try not to think about the gunfire and if anyone got hurt. I am choosing to assume no one is, and they will find me soon.
Chapter Twenty
Marcus
“Fuck!” I scream andslam my fist down on the hood of my truck.
“Goddamn it, I am going to fucking kill that stupid bitch,” Bellamy groans. “Are you okay? That dumb bitch aimed for your head.”
“I’m okay,” I say. “Let me see.”
Bellamy comes around the truck, and his arm is bleeding fairly heavily. As I look around the truck for something to help, a few nurses run outside with a med bag.
“Is everyone okay?” the woman asks before she rounds the truck and sees Bellamy. I step back and let her work. I can hearthe sirens. I can hear Bellamy calling Chrissy. I focus on not breaking because I can’t fall apart. I have to find her. We can’t rely on Jeff because he’s a fucking creep, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had something to do with this. We have to play it cool with him and just focus on finding her when he isn’t looking. Maybe that is the wrong decision, but I am going with my gut instinct.
I wasn’t surprised to see Tina shooting at us, but the fact that the driver was wearing a mask makes me question things. They just grabbed Kendra and threw her into the van. Why would Archer wear a mask? He will automatically get the blame, considering, but maybe that’s what they want? I feel as though we are missing a big piece of the puzzle here, and he will need to solve it to find Kendra. I don’t know the condition we will find her in, but no matter who took her, they won’t kill her right away. They went through far too much to get her just to kill her in an hour. As long as she is alive, we can save her. We did it before, and we can do it again.
Chrissy and Decan get to us first and hurriedly snap as many pictures as they can. The cops show up, but not Jeff. I’m not even surprised. As soon as we are free to leave, we go home. As much as I’d like to burn this goddamn city down to get to her, we need to go about this strategically. We knew there was a chance something could happen today. We needed to make sure the babies were okay, and it was a risk worth taking. Looking back, though, it’s hard to see that. I’m trying to maintain some level of composure, but I just want to get her back.
The thing we never really told Kendra was her getting kidnapped was inevitable. We didn’t tell her all the little reasons why wethink that Jeff is a huge factor in this. He knows too much. His presence is convenient, and there is absolutely no trace of Tina. The only trace of her or Archer, for that matter, is just by what Jeff has said. We’ve never met another detective on this case. That’s fucking convenient for a supposed serial killer case. Now that she has been taken, we are all in high gear. The media will be alerted within the hour, and everything will be leaked. The police will get a tremendous amount of pressure put on them and will allow us to freely move around without Jeff breathing down our neck. I know he will pop up at some point if he wants to maintain any sort of façade that he is a functioning member of society.
When we get back to the house, we set the alarm while Bellamy does a sweep for bugs. We do this frequently to make sure that we can talk freely. “All good,” Bellamy sighs.
