Page 25 of Ghost Hunted

Of course it’s too late. It’s eighteen years too late. How the hell can we start again now, after all this time? I grieved her. I grieved her for so long, and now I’m just supposed to accept that I spent nearly half of my life living a lie?

I know it’s selfish, but I’m only human. I walk toward the door, preparing to return to the car. I don’t know what comes next. I can’t think. The air in this place is getting oppressive. It feels like my whole body is compressing with the pain beating down on me, and I can’t breathe.

I put my hand on the door, ready to open it, when Quill’s voice makes me jump.

“What the hell do you mean, children?”

I turn around slowly, my mouth parted in shock as the word Lia mentioned in passing suddenly registers. But before I can say a thing, the window shatters behind me, and a thundering explosion makes me fall.

_

“Logan. Logan!”

It takes me a moment to hear the voice over the loud ringing in my ears. Then I bring a hand to my throbbing head. It’s wet, and when I look, there’s blood.

What the fuck?

Lia!

I stumble up into a sitting position, darkness threading through my vision. Quill is the one who yelled my name. He’s somehow managed to get to Piper and is holding her firmly to him. He got to her during the explosion and protected her.

And me… I was injured like a fucking idiot. I fell like a fucking idiot. And I left Lia alone.

I left her alone, just like I did for years. I failed her.

The truth suddenly, devastatingly, clicks into place. I failed her.

“Lia!” I groan.

Piper opens groggy eyes, and Quill hugs her to him in undisguised relief. I’m relieved too, to know she’s okay. But I can’t see Lia.

The small living room, with its stuffy decor, is filled with smoke and debris. I cough, trying to find enough oxygen to fill my lungs and failing.

“We’re going to the car,” chokes out Quill, lifting Piper onto his back and beginning to crawl through the ruins of the cottage.

“Wait, wait,” I gasp. “Don’t go out by yourselves… whoever threw the grenade… or whatever… it was…”

“You can’t take care of Lia, let alone anyone else,” lashes out Quill in contempt. “Get your girl. I’ve got mine.”

With that he turns from me, beginning to make his way through the smoldering ruins. His words hurt, because I know they’re true. But I can’t let myself get affected by them right now. I need to find Lia.

I hobble through the debris, hunting for her. Panic is just starting to get a hold of me when I spot her.

She’s lying unconscious under broken, burning slabs of wood. I grab her, ignoring the way the wood burns the skin off my hands when I move it, and lift her in my arms. I don’t bother to get on my hands and knees like Quill did. I know it’s the smart thing to do, but I’m far too panicked to think straight. Squeezing Lia to me, I stumble through the cottage toward the front door. My skin is singed with burning debris, and I can feel the blood trickling down the side of my face, but my body hums with a single purpose: get Lia to safety.

Shots ring out as I run toward the car, but I hold her to me, twisting my body unnaturally in my attempt to shield her. It’s only when I reach the back seat that I realize I’ve been hit. My arm is soaked, but I huff out a sigh of relief when I see that Lia seems uninjured.

Only she’s still unconscious.

“Close the door! Close the fucking door!” yells Quill.

He backs out in reverse before taking out his gun and shooting through the cracked window. I know I should help, but I’m struggling with the fog that’s invading my vision. And my thoughts are fixated on my unconscious girl, and on Piper, huddled beside her on the floor, shivering.

“Hey, it’s okay… it’s okay…” I try hard to speak, but I can hear that my words are slurred. Fuck. Useless, weak. Weak, weak, weak.

What kind of a man lets his girl get hurt? What kind of a man can’t even protect her? What kind of a man abandons the love of his life for eighteen years?

It took glass shards to the head for me to see things correctly.