Page 73 of Sweet Silver Bells
That is all we are, Hunter reminded himself, his thumb massaging Olivia’s hand as he tugged a little more gently this time. She had no problem keeping up. Adrenaline pumped through them as they played duck and hide behind this building, or “Quick, in this alleyway,” every time they saw a flash of red or blue.
We will be okay. You can protect her.
Hunter was growing more and more confident in this, knowing that he could, knowing that if she was a murderer then he was one as well, and they would go down in history together. Stories would be written about them, the lore of the estate might change, and the tour guides would have something new and modern to tell.
He smiled, knowing his adult life was tied to that manor in more than one significant way.
Once they were a few more blocks away, they saw an occasional person out on the street, someone driving their vehicle without panicking. There were no more emergency rescue vehicles, so they slowed down and stopped. All of them were panting, and Sadie was wheezing. She was older than them, too old for this, really.
“Did anyone see what happened?” Hunter asked, Olivia’s eyes widened in surprise at first, but she did a good job at masking that quickly.
“That’s the weird thing,” Elaine jumped in quickly, cocking her head. “It feels like I was in a dream, and now that I’ve woken up, I can barely remember it.”
“There was singing,” Celia said. “I remember singing.”
“That was the choir,” Sadie said. “Hunter, what do you remember?”
Hunter made a show of smacking his lips and looking down at the ground as if he were trying to grasp onto memories that were fading away. “I remember comforting Olivia, and then I blinked, and people were on the ground. It was . . . horrible.”
“I’m sorry, Hunter, seeing death like that must be extremely hard on you,” Darius said softly.
“Why would it be more so for him?” Elaine scoffed, pulling out her phone. “I’m calling a car. I can’t be here.”
“Because his late wife was found dead on the ground in her lab,” Sadie blurted.
Subtle.
“Hearing it so bluntly is not exactly helping.” Hunter sighed. Olivia put her arms around his torso and nuzzled her head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her.
He couldn’t think about Sarah right now.
“We can talk about something else,” said Sadie, changing the subject.
“What about Nina and Tom?” Darius pointed out.
“I’ll text her,” Celia said solemnly.
“What’s wrong?” Sadie asked.
“I just, I just have a bad feeling about Tom.”
Silence followed, and heads nodded. Tom's being missing wasn’t a good sign.
“I don’t think she found him in those bodies,” Hunter said, trying to comfort but failing. He wasn’t good at receiving sympathy over grief, and somehow that now made him unable to give it. This was who he had to be moving forward now.Someone strong, someone who could take care of someone like her.
Someone who could accept that people he knew would die and he would brush it off, pretending that he was surprised, shocked, that he had no idea what had happened. The alternative was one that he couldn’t accept: Olivia locked up, studied, poked and prodded like the dead frogs that Darius was sent by the school district once a year for dissection.
If the trees rejected something as simple as a television, what would happen to the world if the human they had bonded with vanished altogether?
Hunter’s throat felt like it was going to close up, thinking of Olivia in that position. Hurt, scared, confused. It didn’t matter if she could take an entire town out with her tears because at the end of the day, her heart, her soul would still be in pain.
I can’t have that.
Seeing that grave in his front lawn had done something to him. It was true that there hadn’t turned out to be a body in it, but at first, he had expected it, accepted it and was ready to move on knowing that someone’s heart and blood would forever decay under the tree that Olivia made him work so hard to please.
A silver Toyota Corolla pulled up as if it had appeared by magic, and Hunter nearly yelled out.
You’re too jumpy. You need to be less emotional for her.
