Faith (Rescue Me, A Contemporary Romance) (8 page)

Liam gingerly set first one foot then the other into his room. The door was hanging from the hinges and looked covered with the white dust the police had used to try and search for fingerprints or anything that would give them a clue about the people that had murdered his dad, killed his little brother, and effectively ended his life as he knew it.

Bet they didn’t find anything useful though, Liam thought has he stood in the middle of his room just looking at the chaos he used to find comfort in.

At first the police thought that his room might have been tossed because the bad guys were searching for something to steal or maybe the reason behind why they were there at all.

“Did you know this girl son?” One of the cops had asked Liam about Emily.

“No.” He’d told them over and over.

These cops wanted to believe that he’d known Emily, maybe even had a relationship or an argument or something with her at school, which had led to the attack. The truth was even more pointless. It had been an accident. An innocent fender bender, nothing more, he’d explained endlessly.

He didn’t know her. He didn’t know her father and neither did his parents. And, oh yeah, for the record, his room always looked like that, they hadn’t ransacked it to look for anything.

It was the first time he’d been grateful that his mom was out of it in the hospital because she would have been mortified if she’d known that his room was so messy even the cops couldn’t believe it wasn’t the result of a crime scene.

His parent’s friends, Lisa and Bill, their neighbors, had stood by him through it all.

Yes, he’d come running to their house the night of the attack, screaming that someone was hurting them. They’d called the police and Bill had come running with his gun. The whole thing had happened in less than an hour, as hard to believe as it felt to him.

They hadn’t recognized the two attackers. Didn’t know the girl, Emily, from around town or school or any of the community events the kids put on.

No one knew them. Maybe a couple of drifters looking for trouble and money? Maybe escaped psychotics from the lower 48? No one knew.

Liam hoped they’d rot in hell. Where ever and whoever they were.

But right now he had to get his clothes and he wanted to get the hell out of here sooner rather than later. Just standing in this room was bringing all the terror and confusion of that night back. He looked at the broken window and its torn screen and saw that someone, probably Lisa, had attempted to tape a black garbage bag over the gaping hole so weather wouldn’t get in and ruin the carpet. As if it mattered what this room looked like. He never wanted to sleep in it again.

He grabbed some clothes off the floor and stuffed them in the black duffel he used for his gym clothes. A T-shirt, a flannel, a pair of jeans, some underwear and socks. That would have to be enough. He didn’t want these things, any of them, to come with him out of this room. He felt like they should be frozen forever on the floor, waiting for a kid named Liam to come in and kick them around in an attempt to find a video game or a CD that was buried underneath. He used to be that kid, but he never would be again, he knew.

The bag slung over his shoulder now he backed out of his room, careful not to touch anything he didn’t have to and found himself walking to the head of the basement stairs. The last place he’d seen his mom and dad together.

Staring at the steps he remembered the look in his mom’s eyes as she leaned over his dad, whispering in his ear. She had looked at him like she didn’t care if he still lived and was scared. She chose his dad. He saw her do it and he knew she’d seen him see it. He felt different about her.

Oh, he knew that his parent’s have – HAD- he reminded himself sternly, a strong, almost otherworldly bond – but to see his own mother choose his father, almost as if she would have rathered that it be Liam on the floor and his father standing in his place. It was enough to break him, he thought. He didn’t want it to, but standing at the stairs where his father had taken his last breaths in this house…he felt something crack deep inside.

Goodbye to the kitchen where he ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after school when his mom was running late getting home. Goodbye to the living room where he’d gleefully spent every Christmas morning that he could remember, ripping open packages and laughing with joy over the small treats his parents had sacrificed to afford for him.

She hadn’t told him they were leaving in so many words, but he overheard Lisa and Bill discussing his and Faith’s situation in their bedroom when they thought he was fast asleep in the guestroom and it seemed that the general consensus was that they weren’t staying in Ketchikan. Nashville seemed to be the city they were headed to, although, again he didn’t know for sure.

God
damn it mom, he wasn’t a kid, he thought angrily as he took one last look around. He didn’t want to be here either. Every knickknack and creak of the floorboards screamed out, “guilty.”

It was all he could do not to fly apart at the seams with regret and guilt. If only he hadn’t begged his mom to drive that night. If he’d backed off when she’d first said no, his dad would still be here riding him about joining afterschool sports instead of the drama club, and his mom would be
refereeing between them like she always did. All it took was one bad decision – gas or brake – for everything to fall apart; for his whole life to change.

His mom couldn’t even look at him. He’d visited the hospital the last two days and she had pretended to be asleep every
time he came into the room. He wasn’t a kid, he thought again, angrily. He could tell when someone was faking and she was. Faking that was. Her breath was jumpy and her eyelids fluttered with the effort to keep them closed. Yesterday he hadn’t even bothered to stay more than five minutes. Why make her keep up the act?

“Bye mom,” he’d said when he’d left. “I’m still alive, in case you were wondering or cared,” he’d added childishly on his way out the door. He hadn’t turned around to see how she’d taken that comment. It had been a stupid thing to say, he knew it, but at the time he’d meant it. I’m still alive. He almost had to remind himself these days.

His mom was getting out of the hospital today though, and his dad’s funeral was this afternoon. She’d planned it all with Lisa’s help from her hospital bed he knew. Of course he wasn’t a part of those gruesome planning sessions. Lisa and Bill had discussed it after hours, just like everything else he’d managed to learn about his own life lately.

He was supposed to be grabbing his one suit to wear to the funeral, but he hadn’t been able to find it. Hadn’t really looked, truth be told, but the thought of spending more than a few minutes in that room were making him sweat and his stomach clench up like he was going to start throwing up.

His dad wouldn’t care. If he was looking down on him, Liam knew that his dad would just be wearing his disappointed face. It wouldn’t matter what he was wearing, his dad wouldn’t care at all. Why would he? His son was a screw up. In life. Behind the wheel. And now at his own funeral. Typical, not surprising, and certainly nothing to get worked up over. He’d wear jeans and a flannel like he always did.

As he walked out the front door and started down the street, he thought he saw someone behind the house out of the corner of his eye. Whirling he turned toward the person, and shouted, “Who is that?”

No answer came back to him.

Scared now, but determined to see who it was, he dropped his duffel onto the sidewalk and started back toward the house.

“Who’s back there?” He shouted again. His words hung like icicles in the cold air.

Suddenly a girl popped her head out from the side of the garage. The same place their attackers had hid their car the night of the murder.

“Don’t hurt me. I don’t have anywhere to go.”

It was Emily.

“What the fuck?” Liam shouted as he took a giant step back, arms up in defense, head swiveling for her psychotic father. Was he going to be murdered today, like his father?

“Please, don’t scream!” She pleaded with him, advancing. “I ran away. He doesn’t know I’m here, please don’t start screaming, I’m so sorry.”

“Help!” Liam screamed frantically.

Emily started to run and then changed her mind.

“Please! I’m not going to hurt you I swear. I’m alone. I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Help,” he kept screaming and down the street he could hear Lisa scream his name in answer.

“She’s here,” he shouted, keeping his eye on Emily standing in front of him. “Lisa call the police, she’s here.”

He didn’t know if Lisa would be able to figure out who he was referring to, but after everything that had happened he knew she wouldn’t hesitate to dial 911 immediately.

Emily just stood there. Apparently she’d given up trying to convince him of anything. He kept her in front of him and a clear line of sight in back of him. The last thing he wanted was for her psychotic father to sneak up on him.

Before he knew it, he heard Lisa running up the street behind him.

“The police are coming, they’re on their way,” she huffed and puffed. She was a solidly built woman, but too many nights in front of the fire with rich comfort food had left her plump and motherly.

“Holy shit,” she swore uncharacteristically. “Is this the bitch that attacked you guys? Is this Emily?”

“Fuck you bitch,” Emily cursed back at her with a snarl. “I didn’t attack anyone, I tried to stop him.” But like an animal who knows when it’s cornered she didn’t try to run, just kept a space between them and her.

Wisely Lisa chose not to respond, but she ran back to her house and grabbed her husband’s rifle in case Emily decided that she didn’t want to be caught today after all.

“I can’t believe this,” is all she said as she kept the rifle trained on Lisa and Liam safely tucked behind her impressive girth. “I just can’t fucking believe she came back here. I should never have let you go into that house by yourself. Your mom is going to kill me when she finds out.”

Neither Liam or Emily answered her.

Finally the police pulled in, sirens wailing; the sound bringing the other neighbors out onto their front porches to watch the show.

Liam wondered where they’d all been when he’d been screaming for help that night. Or moments before, for that matter. Up until the attack, he’d thought of their neighbors as his parent’s friends – of course Lisa and Bill were their closest friends, but he’d assumed that everyone on the cul de’ sac was friends. After their lack of help, he considered them nothing more than accomplices in his father’s murder. He said nothing, but just stared at them standing around watching as the police arrested the girl who had helped murder his father.

Faith threw the last suitcase into the trunk of the car and turned to hug Lisa tightly. Liam sat in the front seat and stared straight ahead out the window. He didn’t want to say goodbye to anyone or anything else. He didn’t care about Lisa and Bill, even though they’d been like temporary parents to him over the last week, he didn’t care to even look at the house where he’d spent the last ten years of his life. None of his friends from school had gotten so much as a ‘see you later’ from him. Most of them didn’t even know he was moving, just that his father had been murdered. Everyone in the tiny town knew that.

“Thank you so much Lisa. I don’t know what to say. You and Bill have been like angels to me and Liam. In fact, you probably saved our lives. I know Mac would thank you too, and he probably is.” Faith said, tears springing to her eyes as she hugged her friend. Would she ever stop crying?

“Shhh…” Lisa said. “This isn’t one of those things that needs a ‘thank you.’ Take care of that boy of yours. And give us a call once in a while. At least when you get to your mom’s place, okay? I’m going to worry about the two of you until you do. It’s a long trip to make by yourselves.”

Faith hugged her even tighter in answer.

With one last kiss, hug, and a farewell, she got into the drivers seat, pulling the door closed with a satisfying thud behind her. Inside the car, the air was thick with unanswered questions and unsaid thoughts.

“Okay,” she said, falsely cheerful as she put the Element in gear and turned toward her son. “Are you ready for a road trip?”

He shrugged the way that only surly teenagers can shrug and slipped his headphones into his ears, so he wouldn’t have to talk to her she guessed.

Wonder if he’s going to listen to those all the way to Nashville, she wondered, and then discovered she didn’t care.

“I don’t blame you, you know,” Faith told her son. It was almost under her breath, but not really. She said it to see if he was listening, but also because she felt like the air in the car was thick with doubt and she wanted to clear the air if she could.

“And your father doesn’t blame you either,” she added.

At her words she could see Liam’s skin go a little pale and he shifted uncomfortably. Yep. He could hear her, she knew.

Watching his thumb spin through the music selections on his iPod she kept talking, almost to herself, but mostly to him.

“I don’t blame her either, you know. Emily.”

His thumb stopped spinning, but he didn’t look up or say anything to her.