Awake (30 page)

“So, you were never told where you were really from? You knew nothing of Eternal Light?” Detective Crossby asked.

“No, I only found out… Um, a few weeks ago, I think. It was recent anyway, not long before Noah brought me to Dublin. Listen, I know in the eyes of the law my parents did wrong taking me but they were going to kill me. My mum and dad saved my life, and I just want to see my family again.”

“We understand, Scarlett, but we need to establish all of the facts and make sure you’re protected.”

“Everything I told you is true, and my parents do protect me. They could’ve left me and lived a normal, lie-free life, but instead they risked everything to keep me safe. No one else out there is going to go through those lengths for me. You have to believe me.”

“We do, Scarlett. We just need to hear your side of things, that’s all,” Detective Crossby said.

“Now you have, Can I please see my family?
Please
.”

She smiled. “Absolutely, in a little while, I promise. We need to take you to the hospital and get you checked out first, though.”

“Why? I’m fine.” I want my parents.

“You’ve been through a terrible ordeal; you’re exhausted and probably in dire need of some pain medication. Especially for that wrist,” she said, lifting an eyebrow.

How did she know my wrist hurt? I thought it’d get better after a while, but it didn’t, it was throbbing.

I pursed my lips. “But what about–”

She held her hand up. “We’re taking you to the hospital to get checked out and then we will call your parents to meet you there. Okay.”

It was an order, not a question.

Nodding, I replied, “Yeah, okay.”

Detective Crossby drove me to the hospital and had me checked out. I had a sprained wrist from the fall and minor cuts and bruises on my arms. The cuts to my feet stung now and walking was slow, but it wasn’t too bad. I was alive.

I was finally given a bed, had an IV for pain relief, a drink and some toast. It was now just after six in the morning. I’d been awake for twenty-four hours. I felt like putting toothpicks in my eyes just to keep them open.

“Thank you, Adele,” I said as she handed me another cup of coffee.

She’d stayed with me, asking the odd question, while I waited for my parents and Jeremy to arrive. I’d asked for an update on Noah every five seconds, but they hadn’t found him or the rest of them yet. It’d been hours. He should’ve been found by now.

“Are they here yet? Has Noah been found?” I asked, feeling my eyes getting heavy. I yawned and blinked hard. There was no way I was going to sleep until I knew how he was. If I found my way out, then he should’ve done it by now. I didn’t want to think of any reason why he wouldn’t be able to.

“You’re exhausted, Scarlett, please try to relax. Your parents are due here any minute now, and I promise you as soon as we find Noah we’ll tell you. Now drink your coffee if you won’t sleep. I’ll wait outside your room until your parents get here.”

I waited until she got outside before I collapsed against the pillows.

Please hurry up. All of you.

Scarlett

I HAD BEEN IN
the hospital almost two hours when my parents and brother burst into the room.

“Scarlett!” Mum sobbed. I started crying the instant I saw them. It was over, they were here, and I was safe.

“Mum, I’m so sorry,” I said, crying on her shoulder as she held me tighter than she ever had before. She smelt like home, and it made me grip hold of her and never want to let go.

“Shh, it’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay now, sweetheart.”

We sat together crying for a good ten minutes. Dad and Jeremy joined in, huddling in on my bed.

“Are you okay?” Dad asked for the millionth time.

“I am now. Just worried about Noah.”

“He’ll be fine. They’ll find him,” Mum said, stroking my hair. “Does your wrist hurt? We can get you some more pain relief.”

“I had some not long ago. Stop fussing, I’m fine.” Jeremy stared out of the window, at the police officers outside my room. “What’s up, Jer?”

He turned back and spoke more to Dad when he replied, “I think we should leave, like right now? If they’re all in Ireland and the police feel the need to have two people guarding Scarlett maybe we should go.”

Mum squeezed my hand and looked up at Dad. “He has a point. The police in England can work with the police here. There’s no need for us to stay here.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, causing a stunned silence. “I mean it. Noah is out there somewhere, and I’m not leaving.” Besides, could they just go off with me? I was sixteen and a minor in the eyes of the law, they didn’t have me or adopt me, so they weren’t legally my parents.

“What?” Jeremy said. “These
people
almost killed you and you’re worried about one of them?”

“No. He’s not one of them; he’s one of us. I would’ve been dead now if it weren’t for him.”

“None of it would’ve happened if it weren’t for him,” Jeremy said.

I didn’t like how Jeremy spoke about him, even if it was understandable. I felt loyal to Noah, and I wasn’t going to let him down. “I know that, but it wasn’t his fault, not really. He realised the truth and put things right. Sound familiar?”

Jeremy’s mouth set into a hard line, knowing I was right. They’d nearly stood by while I was killed, too. “Fine.”

“Calm down,” Mum said. “Jeremy’s just worried, we all are, but we know exactly what you mean. Hopefully, Noah will be found soon, and then we can go home.”

“Can we go home? Are you allowed to do that?”

Dad smiled. “We’ve been speaking to a very good lawyer and a solicitor and both seem to think given the unique situation and circumstances we’ll be able to adopt you. It’s going to be a long process, but we’ll fight it.”

“So, I can’t go home with you yet?” I asked, panicking. Where would I go? I didn’t want to be in some facility; I wanted my room in the house I shared with my
family
.

“We’ve already applied for a Residence Order, which means we’ll be fostering you. After that, we’ll go for adoption. Our case is a little more complicated, but we’re hoping that might go in our favour,” Dad said.

“And if it doesn’t? What happened anyway? Were you arrested?”

“Shh,” Mum said. “We were all questioned for hours when we reported you missing, but we’re thankful that they believed us. Your father had two leaflets on Eternal Light and our stories matched, of course, so that helped. We’ve been told that no charges will be brought against us for taking you as your life was literally on the line and we were fearful of what the cult would do if we were found, which is why we never told anyone, not even you.”

“So, you won’t go to prison, and I can still live with you?”

Mum squeezed my hand again. “We’re not going to prison and there is no battle we won’t take on to have you with us.”

That wasn’t quite what I wanted to hear, but I realised it was probably the best I was going to get right now. “Okay. When will we know if I can go home with you?” I asked.

“We’re hoping in the next day or so. The doctors want to keep you here until tomorrow anyway.”

Right. After everything I’d been through and my family had been through, you’d think I’d just be allowed to go home with them. They saved my damn life it wasn’t like they’d taken me because they felt like having a daughter that day.

“Don’t worry, love, there is no way we’re not going home as a family,” she said, brushing my hair from my face.

I nodded, wishing I could be as optimistic as her. It would be cruel and wrong if they tried to split us up, but it wasn’t like things like that didn’t happen every day.

“Will you tell me about Fiona and Donald? They treated you well?”

“Yeah. Well, besides the obvious.”

Smiling sadly, she brushed my hair again. “I’m glad they weren’t cruel.” She frowned. “You know what I mean.”

“I do. How were you and Dad part of that, Mum? I don’t understand how it could have ever made sense.”

“Neither do we now. At first Eternal Light was just about living off the land. It was such a simple and beautiful way to live. We did believe that there was someone that would take us into eternal peace, much like any other God in any other religion. But then you were born, and Donald announced that you were
the one
. He said he could feel it the second he held you. For hundreds of years animals and humans had been offered as sacrifices, we knew that; we studied it and already celebrated the element and nature with rituals and food offerings. When Donald said about sacrificing you on your fourth birthday, we felt joy...” She cleared her throat and blinked to stop her tears falling. “We felt joy because it wasn’t the end, not for you and not for us.”

“Right.” I couldn’t dwell on that, it’d happened, and the main thing was they took me away. “How did you and Dad start questioning it?”

“We asked Donald why when you were four and not older so you could experience growing up and falling in love. He said it was because he couldn’t risk our community being found and broken up, or something happening to you. It all made sense, and we accepted it, but the more we saw you, the more unfair it seemed. We had many late night talks when Jeremy was in bed and the more we spoke, the less sense any of it made.”

“Do you know what happened to Evelyn?”

Mum gulped but wasn’t surprised that I knew about her. “No, honey, I don’t. When we settled down, we tried to find out. There were no reports of a child being found, so we assumed Eternal Light had her. She wouldn’t be in any danger if she were back with them. She wasn’t the one. She wasn’t there, huh?”

“No. They let her go” Mum gasped. “They sent her into the woods as some sort of messed up exchange. Her life for my return. How terrible is that?” My heart hurt for a little sister I didn’t even know. “Didn’t you know about that?”

Dad’s face paled. “We knew that she was born to protect you, we thought spiritually. God, how stupid we were.”

“I’m so sorry, Scarlett.” I could tell what Mum was thinking, and I guess she was right. Evelyn probably died out in the forest. But what if she didn’t? Either way, she deserved to be found. I wasn’t sure how many resources the police would put into looking for a girl that went missing twelve years ago. They would have to look. They were legally required to look, surely?

“Why haven’t they found him yet?” I asked, changing one painful conversation for another. At least I knew he was definitely still out there. For now, I had to concentrate on him. “I need to go and help look.”

“No, honey. We just got you back, and you need rest. You need to stay right here; they’ll find him,” Mum said.

“But I don’t understand why they haven’t found him. What did they do to him, Mum? I shouldn’t have gone. I should’ve stayed and helped him.”

“Shh,” she whispered, stroking my hair again. “You did the right thing. Noah did the right thing by making you run.”

Logically, I knew getting as far away from them as possible was the right thing, but they were insane, and I didn’t think, for one second, that they wouldn’t hurt Noah. He’d disobeyed them, gone against everything they believed and everything they’d taught him to save me. I hated him at first but he did the right thing, and that was what mattered.

“Can you take me for a walk, please? I’m tired of sitting in this bed worrying.”

Dad stood up. “I think that will do you good. Do you need a wheelchair?”

“Yeah, thanks, Dad.” My cut feet made walking very difficult and very painful.

“I’ll go with you to find a chair,” Jeremy said.

“How’re you feeling?” Mum asked when they left the room. “And I don’t mean physically.”

I took a deep breath. That I didn’t know. “Right now it all seems like a bad dream. I know what happened, I know how scared I was and then how relieved I was to escape, but I don’t know. I feel disconnected. Do you think there’s something wrong with me?”

“No, I don’t. I know
exactly
what you mean, Scarlett. You’re safe, thank God, but it’s not over yet, is it?”

I shook my head. “Not until Noah’s found. He was part of it.”

“Yes,” she said. “He had us all fooled, but that is something I can identify with. For years, your father and I, even you and Jeremy, believed the same things as Noah was taught and, like us, he realised the truth and turned his back on it.”

“What if he never gets a chance at a normal life?”

“I have faith that he will.”

We didn’t even know if he was alive.

Jeremy held the door open as Dad wheeled in a chair. “Your chariot awaits. We’re only allowed down the corridors on the ground floor, but it’s better than these four walls, right?” Dad said.

“Definitely. I’ll take anything right now,” I replied.

Swinging my legs off the bed, I stood carefully and winced as my tender feet screamed at me for putting weight on them. “Here,” Jeremy said, leaping forwards and taking my weight with his arm around my waist.

“Thanks.”

Dad pushed the wheelchair because I couldn’t get it to go in a straight line. It felt good to be out of bed. We rounded the corner with Mum and Dad behind and Jeremy walking next to me. I even managed to ignore the police officer behind us.