Chapter Twenty-Four

Callie:

We thought we were invincible.

Impenetrable.

Separated from all the evil in the world, high school our protector.

In an instant, the glass surrounding our lives shattered.

Chaos took no time at all to develop. It just happened. We didn't get a warning.

Cries rose up from the mayhem. No one knew what was going on.

I couldn't think. Couldn't move. My muscles were heavy with disbelief.

People ran to hide under tables, behind the stage, anywhere they could get away from the unknown assailant.

Someone gripped my arm, jerking it back and pulling me from my state of immobility.

“Callie,” Jamie yelled above the noise. “California.”

I looked into his wide eyes as he pushed me through the door. He followed close behind, running toward the nearest door as soon as we were in the hall.

“Locked. Dammit.”

“They lock the classrooms during dances,” I said, just needing to say something.

Jamie pushed his hair back out of his face and looked around frantically. A couple other students had the same idea as us, getting out of the gym. No one knew where the gun was or even if there was one. But the terror was real. It was here.

A boy ran past us down the hall, but he wouldn't get out of the school without going to the other side of the gym. We were in the hall that led to the locker rooms.

As soon as I had the thought, it was like Jamie read my mind. We ran down the hall and around the corner.

“Oh, thank God,” Jamie said when the knob turned, and the door swung open.

We weren't the first ones in there. Two freshman girls I recognized were huddled together near a junior boy. Three senior boys followed us in and shut the door.

“Turn off the lights,” I said, remembering our lock down drills.

They obeyed.

I expected to feel calmer out of the gym, but with nothing left to do, that one word rang in my head. Gun!

I ducked past the rows of lockers, feeling my way in the dark, until I was alone and let out a sob. Jamie came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders, squeezing hard. He buried his face in my back.

“Are you okay?” His voice trembled.

Before I could answer, two bangs pierced the well cultivated safety of our lives. I jumped in Jamie's arms before my legs gave out, and I slid to the ground, my knees banging into the concrete. Cries came from the other end of the locker-room, but they barely registered. I choked out a sob as Jamie sat in front of me, pulling me into his lap.

A tear dripped onto my cheek, and when I looked up, he too was crying.

“Shhhh,” he soothed, his voice thick. “It's going to be okay.”

His words were empty. We both knew it. But they were the words that had to be said.

A few more moments passed, and when the third shot sounded, I didn't even jump. I curled tighter against Jamie. He kissed my head, my cheek, the corner of my mouth.

I couldn't tell you how long we sat there in the dark, waiting for more gunfire, listening only to the quiet sobs of the locker-room's other inhabitants.

“What do you think is happening?” I whispered.

“I wish I hadn't left my phone on the table out there.”

“This stupid dress had nowhere to put mine.”

“Did I tell you how hot you look in it?” he asked, running a hand down my bare leg.

“Jamie,” I warned.

“Why couldn't you have just stayed home tonight?” he sighed. “You and Colby both.”

“Oh gosh, Colby. Did you see him before we got out?”

“No.” He blew out a heavy breath. “I wish you were safe.”

“How could I stay home after that story you wrote about us? I think you actually like me.”

“Oh, Callie girl, I think I actually love you.”

I didn't have time to process his words because there were loud footsteps in the hall outside the locker-room. We all held our collective breaths, not releasing them until the sound was gone.

I shook in Jamie's arms, and he hugged me so hard I almost couldn't breathe. “It's going to be okay,” he whispered again. I didn't know if he was telling me or himself.

Colby was out there. I didn't know where. I'd dragged him here, putting him in danger. Had I really only been worried about him finding out about me and Jamie hours ago? Why did that even matter?

Minutes or hours or, hell, days passed in that room before we heard footsteps again. They stopped outside the room.

Time stood still.

The door opened, spilling light in from the hall.

The overhead light was flipped on, revealing two people with SWAT printed across their chests. The man yelled behind him, “We have some in here.”

The woman walked farther into the room.

“It's okay,” she said, scanning us. “It's all over now.”

I scrambled to my feet, moving out from behind the far lockers.

“We have to take them out through the gym,” the man said.

She gave a sad nod of her head, knowing that was the only exit from this part of the school.

I looked around at the others in the room. I wasn't likely to ever forget their faces or the sound of their cries. We were together when our worlds came tumbling down.

A part of the gym was sectioned off with bright yellow tape. It was hard to miss. My eyes caught two things on the ground shrouded in white sheets.

“You don't want to see that.” The SWAT woman put herself between me and the sight of what happened there.

Leaving the gym behind felt like breathing fresh air for the first time in my life. I looked back over my shoulder as Jamie took my hand. We were the last to leave the building, but we were far from the only ones there. Cameras flashed as soon as we stepped outside. The missing nine as they'd come to call us. They'd gotten a count over an hour ago and couldn't account for us.

You never think it's going to happen to you. The terror. The helplessness. It's on the news; in TV shows. Not in your own small town. You're safe. We thought we could fly high, enjoying our last year of high school before starting on the next adventure.

We were no longer safe. That'd been torn away with the speed of a bullet.

I looked through the crowd that had gathered outside the school. Students greeted their families with tears. Police officers talked to the media. An ambulance stood by. It was a different kind of chaos than what we'd experienced in that school, but chaos all the same.

The flashing lights made me jump. The crowd made it hard to breathe.

And then it all disappeared because standing there searching frantically was my brother, my twin.

I let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a cry. “Colby.”

He turned, his face transforming from panic to relief as he sprinted toward me. Jamie released me so I could throw my arms around my brother. He lifted me off my feet, and we cried together.

“Come on.” He put me down. “Aunt Kat is over here.”

Kat was sitting next to Noah who was having his face tended to.

“Noah,” I gasped. “What happened?”

Kat turned at the sound of my voice, staring at me as if I'd disappear in a moment. She pulled me into a hug that was just as bruising as Colby's, then did the same to Jamie. “You two had us scared.”

“What happened to Noah?” I asked again.

“He tackled Matthew Franklin.”

“Wait,” I said. “What?”

“Cal.” Colby put his arm around me. “He was the shooter.”

I looked up into his face, for the first time noticing the redness around his eyes. Those weren't tears of relief at seeing me.

“What aren't you telling me?”

No one answered for a long moment. Noah finally cleared his throat. “Matthew took his own life, but not before he shot Morgan Cook.”

“Morgan's dead?” I choked, collapsing into Jamie's chest.

“No.”

I jerked my head up.

Noah continued. “She went to the hospital in an ambulance but should live. Troy Cook, however, did not make it.”

I staggered away from Jamie. He tried to reach for me again, but I put up a hand to stop him. Troy. The sweet boy I only recently met from the perfect family. This was going to tear them apart. I pictured his mom, with her eagerness to please. Parker with her openness and brashness. Hell, even Morgan.

Nothing would ever be the same. Not in Gulf City. Not in any of our lives.

“Jamie.” We all turned toward the man intruding on our moment, realizing it was Jamie's father, and he was as entitled to his reunion as we were.

To my surprise, Jamie went to him, hugging him in much the same way I'd hugged Kat. Mr. Daniels relaxed, even hugging his son back.

“Senator Daniels.” A reporter walked up, camera following behind. “Was your son in the building?”

Mr. Daniels released Jamie but kept a hand on his shoulder. “He was one of the missing nine.”

Jamie tried to step away, but his father held him in place as he answered question after question.

Our statements were taken, interview requests received and denied. The only thing left to do was try to make sense out of something so senseless.

“Come on,” Kat said, once Noah was ready to go. “Let's go home.”

The reporters moved on, and Jamie's dad said something in his ear.

Jamie walked over to me. “I have to go home with my dad.”

I nodded, threading my arms around his back and tilting my head up, not wanting to let go. His kiss was soft, the reassuring touch I sorely needed.

As we walked to the cars, Kat raised an eyebrow at me, but I just shook my head and got into Colby's car. Tonight was not the night for those discussions.