Cole

––––––––

My headlights hit the red reflection of the taillights on his car, making them sparkle like the ruby eyes of a demon. Squeezing the steering wheel, I let the blood drain from my knuckles as I sat alone in the dark.

The dreams I had before rushed through my brain, forcing me to grasp the feeling that I had seen this all before. I knew what he was going to do, I knew what he had planned for her.

Stepping out into the cold air, I wanted to run at his car and search it for her. But I already knew that she wasn't there, she was somewhere inside the forest with him. My stomach clenched and turned at the idea of what was about to happen.

It was a strange feeling, to know what he's done and still not be able to truly understand what went wrong. You think you know someone, you think that after spending an entire lifetime with that person right beside you that you could read them like a book.

I was wrong.

During the trial it was hard to fully grasp the nature of what had happened. How he had gone into their home, how he had done such horrible things to Vanessa. Dane hurt her, he scarred her, he defiled her. He wanted to make sure she always wore his mark on her flesh.

It made me sick to think that my brother had done that, that I had looked up to him and never allowed myself to see the man he truly was.

Blind love. I loved him, we were brothers, we were connected on a level that bred trust and loyalty.

If someone had asked me before what my brother was capable of. . . I would never had said rape.

He was a bad kid, I wouldn't deny that he had his issues. Dane found pleasure in stealing and taking from those he thought didn't deserve everything they had. But that need twisted, it took on a different shape completely.

There was no amount of rehabilitation that could help him. He went in branded as a troubled youth and came out as something so much worse.

My brother had killed, he tasted that power and nothing would stop him from doing it again.

He's not your brother. . . Not anymore.

I'm going to stop him. He won't have her.

Lifting my chin to the sky, I tried to listen for footsteps or voices, yelling or screaming. Anything to let me know which way they went.

It was so quiet, just like I remembered from those nights, the nights when she came to me for help and didn't even know it.

All the restless sleep, all the cold sweats and troubled thoughts had brought me here. They prepared me for this moment and this moment alone. I wasn't just having nightmares I couldn't understand; I was having premonitions, glimpses into a future that was also my past.

A gentle breeze swept around me, rustling the tree tops and sending leaves toppling over my feet. Angling my head, I thought I heard a voice in the distance, but I couldn't be sure. The wind swirled over my body, whistling against my ears. Goosebumps prickled my skin, exploding like mountain tops over the surface.

Rubbing my arms, I flicked my head over my shoulders and looked out into the darkness. A glimmer of eye shine peered at me from the black landscape, then vanished as quickly as it appeared.

Taking a step back, I searched for the eyes again, only to find a blanket of onyx-colored air. Go! Find her, she needs you.

Taking one long step, I let my feet press on, moving in whatever direction they wanted. I had no clue where she could be, which way he went, or what he had already done to her.

And that was the worst kind of unknown.

The muscles in my chest grew tight as they swelled with anxiety. I was afraid it was too late, that he had already finished what he set out to do.

All the other girls that had been here, the way they had their lives ended by the hands of pure evil. Dane had been using them, imagining that they were Locke, taking small bits of satisfaction from their death.

He hated her for stepping up to him. He despised her for challenging him and not being afraid to tell her story, of speaking for her sister and telling the truth.

He won't kill her. I'm not going to let him.

This is why she came to me, I'm here to protect her.

You know where she is, just listen to yourself.

My body was guiding me, it was in charge and telling my feet which way to go. I didn't have a virtual map of this place or a tracker that beeped to tell me if I was getting close.

All I had was my heart.

My heart said to turn and my body followed, my heart said to keep going and I listened. Dawn was starting to bleed into the night, adding orange highlights and red hues. And I just kept walking as quietly as I could.

Lowering my heel slowly, I would feel the ground before I put any pressure on the forest floor. A single twig could give me away, it could be my downfall and let Dane know I was out here, looking, hunting him down.

The dewy scent of wet leaves started to seep into my nose, making me smell the air. Water? Am I near the water?

Pushing through a thick bushel of thorns, I stepped into a small clearing. The sun had crested the horizon, lighting up the water before me. It felt surreal to be there, standing at the edge of the same pond I had seen in my dreams.

Walking around the water's edge, I dropped to my knees and gently touched the divots in the mud. Her small feet left impressions, tiny foot-shaped patterns in the silt. Dragging my fingertips over the edge of her toes, I touched them lightly.

She was here. She was right here.

The marks in the mud were fresh. Water sat motionless on the surface as it slowly dissolved into the dirt. Locke had been there not long ago, her presence still hanging in the air like a bitter perfume.

All I wanted was to keep her safe, and I failed. I kept her locked inside my home, I spent hours trying to put the pieces together so she didn't have to be a victim. When I heard the message at her apartment, when the detective said my brother had been released; time stopped.

I had spent so much time trying to distance myself from Dane, trying to be my own person and not the blood kin of a monster, that I severed myself from him completely.

The thought of him being released never crossed my mind. What he did to Vanessa wasn't forgivable, he wasn't worthy of getting to live again, being allowed to breathe fresh air and being gifted a second chance.

When I sat on that stand, giving my testimony, I lied about what I knew. I pretended that I knew nothing, I acted like he had been an honest and caring brother.

None of that was true, I lied through my fucking teeth. And I hated myself for it. If I had told them everything, if I had called the police and spewed out my insides in the first place, there was a chance that Vanessa might still be here.

Maybe if Dane had been caught sooner, things would be different. Vanessa wouldn't have spent the last few months of her life in fear, she wouldn't have seen the scars as pain, but felt them as strength.

Locke would have her family and she wouldn't be bound to a darkness that she didn't deserve.

That thought created a void, it made my heart turn to stone and ache as if I had been the eye of the storm.

He found her because of me. . . I'm just as guilty.

My eyes followed her footsteps as they broke to the right and disappeared into the treeline. Slamming my foot into the mud, I took off in the same direction.

I couldn't change the past, nothing would ever make up for not doing the right thing back then. But I still had time to change the future. I still had the chance to make it right by her.

Nothing was going to stop me. Not even him.