Page 72 of Sweet Silver Bells
He couldn’t go back.
But this? He could do this.
Can I really?
No one had protected her.
Olivia wasn’t a monster.She was someone whose life had been cruel enough to teach her to cry alone.
If Hunter was going to live in a world where he accepted that the supernatural was real then he could live in a world where he could protect her from herself. An accidental outburst, ending innocent lives, would be a part of his own now.
Ding.
Ping.
Zaaap.
Bop.
The sound of phones lighting up with activity filled the air.
“Shit,” said Darius. “We’re taking too long.”
Hunter pulled out his phone from his pocket, wiping off smeared blood from the camera lens. Suddenly, his phonestarted to vibrate in his hand, and the sounds of text messages turned into a nightmare as a piercing alarm echoed through the entire block. He went to silence it, the alert only dying down when he read what was on the screen.
Emergency Alert
Main Street Stockbridge
Contamination units are on their way.
“Holy shit,” Sadie looked like she was about to throw up.
“This is what I’ve been trying to say. There are a slew of dead bodies on the ground. Everyone will be kept here for questioning, and who knows what else.”
Darius was right. They had to run.
The sirens were so loud that they sounded only a block away, and Hunter could hear the slamming of the van doors and the sound of dress shoes and heels clicking away from the news reporters, who had somehow arrived there quicker than anyone who could actually help.
“Let's go.” Hunter grabbed Olivia by the wrist and tugged, running out of the square, knowing his friends were behind him.
He saw a police car rushing down the block.
“Shit,” he yelled, “Duck down!”
They moved behind some trash cans, not the best hiding spot, but in the commotion, it did the trick, as no one noticed them or stopped them.
“Nina isn’t here,” Celia said as they stood up to keep going. “We have to make sure she’s safe.”
“There’s no time,” Darius said. “She’s looking for Tom. They got separated. She wouldn’t come with us.”
“We can’t just leave her behind,” Celia yelled.
Olivia looked over at Celia, her face a portrait of calm, her eyes sparkling. “Yes, we can.”
Celia’s face dropped, mesmerized momentarily before she matched Olivia’s slight smile and nodded. Olivia’s calm was infectious. Their group was on its way down the block again.
A helicopter flew overhead, a spotlight shining down in the dark that moved over them. Hunter might have had a heart attack then, but he kept going. A few people fleeing a dangerous scene were hopefully all they looked like.
