Bella jerked awake.
Her whole body ached.
Her neck felt stiff. Her cheek was cold where it had been pressed against the soil.
She blinked. The world drowned in a murky haze. Flashes of color bled through the fog. Red. Blue. Yellow.
She groaned. Where was she?
Her skull throbbed. She gritted her teeth. Her surroundings were muffled. Like her ears were filled with cotton and her mind buzzing with static.
Bella inhaled.
Think back.
She blinked.
A wooden fence -marred by brambles- stared back at her. Her arms twitched. Something smooth curled down her arm. Slick. Wet. She looked down and slowly pulled her hand from the brown sludge.
Mud.
The gears in her head turned. Then her eyes found the trampoline.
Panic hit her like lightning.
She jerked out of her hazy stupor. Her back straightened. The blur cleared, assaulting her senses loud and fast.
I fell asleep!
How did I even fall as-
That isn't the point.
Where is Miles?
Her throat closed over.
Don't overthink it.
Don't say it.
Her belly lurched. Using the trampoline for leverage, she pulled herself upright. Her leg muscles went taut, tightening from being on the ground for too long.
Bella glanced at her watch.
12:50am.
Sirens filled the air.
Bella finally noticed the old police car parked on the road.
The police were here.
That means Miles called them.
So he had done it!
He actually captured the revenant!
If that was the case -where was he?
She folded up the trampoline and tucked it under her arm.
Flattening against the walls, she crept forward.
With every step, the pounding of feet grew louder. The sirens. The mutters.
It almost felt like the day she'd first come to the city.
She refused to think about that.
Unease coiled in her stomach like smoke. Her cheek pressed into the reinforced concrete wall. It was cold. Rough like it would draw blood from her cheek at any moment.
The street lights lining either side of the street highlighted the growing crowd of people. They were mummuring. Anxiety creased their features.
Then she smelt it. It hit her the way it had that very day.
The putrid stench that made her legs feel weak. Her eyes watered. Her lips trembled.
Charred flesh..
The paramedics burst through the door, a stretcher suspended between them.
Her saliva soured. She gripped the edges of the wall tighter.
The man on the stretcher looked exactly like the rest. Burnt. Charred.
Dead.
So, where was Miles?
No one else came out after that. The police officers began sealing off the area.
There was nobody else.
With a backward glance, Bella crept away with the mind to yell at Miles for being stupid enough to leave her here.
***
Once she got home, the first place she barged into was his room.
"Miles why did you-"
Bella paused. It was empty. He wasn't here.
She checked the bathroom. Checked underneath the bed. Checked the wardrobe even.
Where could he be?
Then she checked every other room. Her room. The other guest room. The toilet. The kitchen. The living room -again.
With each door she slammed shut, her heart beat only skyrocketed.
Bella stumbled to the couch in the living room with the sinking realization -he wasn't here.
He wasn't here.
Then the thought struck her -he must have met Seth.
She sighed.
Yes!
He must have met him to explain what had happened -how the plan had failed and the man had died in the end.
She refused to analyze more deeply. To address the many contradicting words -or acknowledge the very same memory that watched her with wary eyes.
That was it. That was the only plausible reason.
That had to be it.
But, it was too early. She couldn't be driving around by 1:30 in the morning.
She'd see him tomorrow. Yell at him until he went deaf. Slap him for making her worried. And strangle him for leaving her sleeping in the mud.
With those thoughts in mind, she fell into a restless sleep.