The Tattooed Devil Wears Chucks

Chapter 64: The Return to Lake Lux

Gabby.

I'm not sure how fast the car was going but it didn't matter. Time didn't matter. I felt paralyzed with fear. Jax's foot had the gas petal pressed to the floor of the car. Rain was falling so hard you couldn't even see what was in front of us.

Voices. So many voices. The sound Jax's voice attempting to reassure me that we would get there, we would get to Zooey. My dad's voice in the backseat, calling for backup and ambulances to the woods where the murder of Courtney Parker occurred seven years ago. Kane's voice echoing through my phone over and over telling me to leave a message and he'd get back to me. My own voice telling me we won't make it in time.

The three of us were right back to where we were seven years ago. This was literally my worst fear and Kane knew that from the night we played truth or dare. I cannot live without Zo, I can't do it. I can't live knowing I failed her, knowing that the one place I knew to protect her from - I had taken her straight to it.

I press Kane's number again and open the glovebox of my car. I dig through a mess of napkins, pens, and user manuals until I find Zooey's EpiPen that I keep stashed. Jax glances at it quickly and sets his eyes back on the rain-covered road.

"Tell me you have one with you..." I know he doesn't. Even if he was carrying one with him at all times, our clothes were in a muddy pile on my parent's living room floor. Part of me wants him to lie to me and say he does.

"I have two of them in my parent's house, but I'm not stopping to get them."

"How the hell are you going to get through the woods without it?!"

He sighs and grips the wheel tight as he takes the highway exit for Luxberg. "I'm not fucking up this time. I'm taking the road. Maybe Court would be alive if I had taken the road last time. Maybe I would have run into Kane if I had..."

The road is closed. His parents put up a large metal gate, he knows that. You can clearly see it from both of our houses.

Just as I'm about to ask how he plans to get to the road my phone begins to ring. My hopes of it being Kane are shattered when I see an unknown number appear.

"Answer it." My dad points to it the lit up screen.

"It's not Kane..."

"I don't care.  You answer every call you get until we have Zooey."

Tears fall at the sound of my daughter's name.  What if we don't get her back?  What if she's already having a reaction to a raspberry bush?  What if Kane has done something to her?  The image of Courtney's mangled face pierces into my memory.

"Answer it!" my dad demands.

With shaking hands I swipe the screen and press the speaker button.

"Hello?" My voice rattles.

"Gabby, it's Lily..." an old but familiar voice radiates through the speaker of the phone.  "I just spoke with Sydney..."

Right.  The yearbooks.  The stickers.  Did they even matter anymore?  Kane murdered Courtney, we know that now.

"Lily... my daughter has been abducted I can't talk..."

"Gabby! Tell me you have the yearbooks and the cups!"

My head shakes with confusion.  What cups?  What the hell is she taking about?

"I don't have cups, just the books... Lily I need to go..."

"SOLO cups?!" Jax asks the phone as he begins making turns through town at a very high rate of speed.

"Yes!" Her voice calls out.  "You found them?"