CHAPTER 82: NO ONE HEARS YOU CRY IN THE RAIN

My fingers trembled as I dialed June’s number for the third time, then the fourth.

Nothing.

Straight to voicemail.

"Come on June. Pick up, please," I muttered.

I tried again and again. Still, nothing.

I switched to texts, my thumbs kept hovering the screen as I typed with trembling hands.

Hey June, I’ve been calling. Just got a call from the hospital that Alia is missing and I’m leaving now. I think she got kidnapped. I’m so scared. If anything happens to her, I won’t survive it.

I didn’t wait for a reply. I just shoved the phone back into my hoodie pocket and stepped outside.

Rain was pouring heavily....of course it was.

I didn’t bother to look back.

Didn’t care that I was soaked or freezing.

I started running.

I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. My brain was replaying it all on a loop....The nurse’s voice saying "We can’t find her, we’ve searched everywhere."

Alia was gone.

And every second I wasted felt like I was failing her again.

Then the anonymous text flashed in my head again:

Her hair was soaked. She looked scared. That one photo had cracked something open inside me.

That’s when I started crying. I didn’t even notice until I tripped over the sidewalk curb and hit my toes hard. I just stayed there a second, soaked, shaking, crying like a damn kid.

Where is she?

Who took her?

Is she crying?

Is she cold?

Is she calling my name right now and I’m not there?

What if I never see her again?

What if she’s already...

No, don’t. Don’t go there, Ash. Don’t.

I stood up, wiped my face, and kept running. My throat burned, I couldn’t breathe properly. I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

"God," I choked, stumbling slightly as I ran harder down the sidewalk. "Please, no. Please let her be okay."

I darted through traffic, ignoring the angry honks and headlights that blurred in my tear-filled eyes. I just kept running.

I couldn’t stop.

I didn’t know where else to go, what else to do. I didn’t even know the way to the hospital.

The only thing I knew was that I had to get there.

I had to be there.

In case she came back.

In case they called again.

In case it was all just a mistake and she was in the playroom the whole time and Nurse Khloe just hadn’t checked right.

But deep down, I knew it wasn’t a mistake.

That message wasn’t just a prank. It was real.

Someone had her.

Someone sent me that photo on purpose.

They knew who I was. They knew how to break me.

Thunder rolled again, like the sky itself was warning me.

And all I could think was...what if I never see her again?

What if this was it?

What if she disappears into the same black hole my dad did and I spend the rest of my life looking behind me, hoping for her to run back into my arms?

I couldn’t take that.

I’d lose it.

I already was.

I wiped my face again, not sure if it was tears or rain at this point. My hoodie was plastered to my skin, water soaking through every layer. I couldn’t feel my toes anymore. Couldn’t feel anything except the twisting panic inside my chest.

The bus station came into view, but when I got there...it was empty.

No bus. No headlights. No driver. Not even a taxi. The rain had swallowed the whole damn city.

I was alone.

Standing in the rain like an idiot.

Like a boy who couldn’t even keep the one promise he made to protect his little sister.

I dropped onto the bench, my legs finally giving out. My hands were shaking so hard I almost dropped my phone again. I unlocked it to check if the hospital had called again.

Nothing.

Just the same message from the anonymous person. The same damn photo. Her scared face.

Hello Ash Rivera.

Remember me?

Say hi to your little sister.

My stomach turned. My chest tightened like someone had shoved their fist inside and started twisting it.

I looked up at the sky. "Why her? Why not me?"

My voice cracked.

"She’s just a kid."

She’d been coloring little crayon people and she was going to make goodbye cards to her friends. She still believed in magic.

And now... now she was....

No.

No.

I can’t say it.

She’s not gone.

She can’t be.

Tears slipped out before I could stop them. My hands covered my face, and I let myself break down for a second. Just a second.

What the hell was I going to tell Mom?

Her surgery was scheduled for Monday morning.

What do I do if she wakes up and the first words she says are "Where’s my daughter?" and I just have to look away and cry?

Why wasn’t it me instead?

How do I explain to her that I went to an ice rink and left her alone for one day and somehow....somehow, I let her disappear?

"I’m sorry," I whispered, not even sure who I was saying it to anymore. Alia? Mom? God?Myself?

My phone buzzed again.

I jolted upright.

June.

I didn’t even wait. I swiped to answer.

"June?" I shouted.

But nothing came through.

Rain had already seeped through the screen.

I pressed the phone tighter to my ear. "Hello?! June?!"

Still nothing.

Just crackling.

Then the screen flickered.

Then, the screen glitched. Water had gotten in. It flickered....blue, then white, then dead.

"No, no, no...don’t do this now..."

I shook it, slapped the side, even tried pressing the power button.

Black.

The screen stayed black.

My only connection to the hospital.

To June.

To Alia.

Gone.

I stared at my reflection in the glass.

I looked like someone who was about to lose everything.

I turned toward the street again.

Still no bus.

Just the rain.

If I lost Alia...

That would be the end of me.

And then I broke.

I buried my face in my knees and started sobbing. Loud ugly sobs that made my chest hurt. The rain didn’t care. It just kept falling, like the sky itself wanted to drown me.

I thought....God, I thought things were finally getting better.

I was skating. I was laughing. I almost felt okay.

I thought maybe... maybe I was getting my life back.

But no.

Now a killer’s after me and my family. My sister is missing. My mom’s having a high risk surgery on Monday. I haven’t even heard from the school if I’m still a student or just another expelled loser they can forget about. Everything feels like it’s collapsing at the same time.

Why do bad things keep happening to me?

Why does everything I love get taken away?

I gripped my soaked hoodie tighter and whispered, "I’m tired."

I meant it.

I was so damn tired.

Tired of pretending I’m strong. Tired of holding it together for everyone else. Tired of smiling so no one sees how much I’m bleeding inside.

Tired of fighting to be okay when life keeps telling me I’m not worth saving.

Maybe it’d be easier if I just... stayed here. Let the rain freeze me, drown me. I don’t care. Let the night just swallow me up. Maybe it’d finally be quiet inside my head.

Maybe I’d finally get to rest.

If anything happens to her...

I’ll either kill myself. Or I’ll burn that entire Serpent mafia cult to the ground. One by one. I don’t care. I’ll ruin them all.

I pressed my forehead against my knees and sobbed harder. My whole body shook.

"Why didn’t they take me instead..." I whispered.

Suddenly, headlights washed across the pavement.

A car pulled over.

I didn’t even lift my head at first. I didn’t care. Didn’t care who it was. Let it be the killer. Let it be the cops. Let it be death itself. Let them run me over. Maybe that would fix everything.

But then the car door opened.

Footsteps approached, splashing softly in the puddles.

Then, "Ash?!"

That voice, I know that voice.

I raised my head up slowly, blinking through water and tears.

Dominic.

He stood in the rain with a black umbrella, his eyes widened in shock.

"Dominic?"

He didn’t say a word.

He just dropped the umbrella and ran toward me, falling to his knees, and wrapped his arms around me.

I clung to him like I’d been drowning and he was the last piece of air I’d ever find. My chest shook against his. I couldn’t stop crying.

"I’m cold," I choked out as I kept shaking.

"I know," he whispered into my ear, "I know. I’ve got you."

His hand cupped the back of my head and he pressed a soft kiss to my forehead.

That moment, it stopped the bleeding in my chest...just a little.

He pulled back just enough to look at me.

His eyes were red.

"Let’s go find your sister," he said.