After Dawn Broke

Chapter Fourteen: Hope

My head was swimming with confused thoughts.

How did we get here?

Why is this Demetri guy here?

Why does he want to hurt my sister?

He must have known my sister and I would be here, and he must have some reason to hurt at least one of us. Why else would he need a gun? Guns wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else.

Then, a thought came to me. Alice... why hadn't she seen this? I knew my dad had been blocking her view of what was happening to him and my mom, but now he was gone... missing. What was stopping her now?

I decided to send her a message. (Aunt Alice?) All I could hope for was that she was okay, and I wasn't interrupting her from something important.

After a few seconds, I got a short, abrupt response. (Are you okay?)

(Yes... well, not really...) I hesitated. How could I explain our situation simply? (Some guy is here; Grandma called him Demetri. He's got Elizabeth... and a gun.) It hurt to say the words, even if they weren't spoken aloud. I was trying not to think about the fact that my little sister could die any second now. All Demetri would have to do is simply pull the trigger.

Aunt Alice's thoughts entered my head in a rush. (I'll be there as soon as I can.) I tried not to cling to the hope she gave me. What if she didn't make it in time? I just couldn't afford to think like that.

(Be careful. He told us not to move, or he'd shoot.)

(I know,) she responded.

She knew? And didn't warn us?

(What do you mean, you know? Did you see this?) For a moment, I felt a bit of hatred towards her. Aunt Alice could have warned us. Lizzy didn't have to be in this situation... none of us did. She should be safe and far away from this. Deep down in my heart, though, I knew my aunt would have warned us if she could have, so something must have gone wrong.

(I didn't see until it was too late. He was already in the room with you... something must have delayed my vision.)

The thought took me by surprise. Aunt Alice's visions... delayed? I know they've been blocked, they've been changed, and they've been wrong, but delayed?

(Grandma?) I thought quietly to her.

(Yes, dear?) She was worried, I could sense it in her thoughts. But who, in her position, wouldn't be worried?

(Aunt Alice is on her way. She told me that she didn't see what was happening until he was already in the room with us.)

Grandma slowly stood out of her protective crouching position in front of me. She took her time, being extremely careful not to make any unexpected movements that would make Demetri want to act.

"Why are you here?" she questioned, trying not to show her anger with him.

"None of your business," Demetri replied with a sadistic smile, still standing at the foot of the wreckage. He seemed to be enjoying her reaction.

"What do you want?" she tried again.

"I said none of your business!" he repeated. He transferred his gaze from Grandma to Lizzy and pushed the gun a little further into her dark brown hair. He tilted his head to the side, making his evil smile more nerve-racking. A single tear streamed down the side of my sister's red face. "Do you want me to pull the trigger?" he sarcastically came back at her, stressing the word 'want'.

I could hear Elizabeth's heartbeat accelerate, and I pondered how maybe she wouldn't be so terrified if she knew Aunt Alice was on her way to help.