Freed

21 (pt. 2)

A/N: End of chapter twenty-one repeated in Kaiden's, Elijah's, Ethan's and Caleb's POV.

Kaiden's POV

I'd called her name five times and gotten no response. It was driving me fucking insane and I was seconds away from breaking down the door.

With every unanswered knock, the feeling that something was wrong intensified. Standing outside the bathroom door, I heard the steady stream of water, so I knew Izzy was taking a bath, but that didn't explain why I was receiving no answer when I called her name.

She'd been in there for an hour at least, and I'd decided to check if everything was alright. Ethan was usually the one who took the longest showers just to piss everyone else off by wasting time, so it wasn't like Izzy to be in there for so long.

In the background, I heard Olivia's voice coming from Elijah's room. They were talking about something that had to do with one of her doctor's appointments, so I had no interest in it.

"Izzy," I didn't bother hiding the irritation from my voice as I knocked harder this time, my knuckles rapping against the door multiple times. "You okay?"

No response.

I took a deep breath and decided I'd try one more time. I was about to knock again, until something stopped me. Call it instinct, but as the bathroom went dead silent, I could have sworn I heard something splash in the water before it became too quiet to be considered normal.

It was like she wasn't even in there.

This time, my frustration died away as something like panic took over. Something I hadn't felt since —

Before I could process anything, I was turning around and barging into Elijah's room. Olivia and him halted in the middle of their conversation, but I didn't waste any time.

Elijah took one look at my face and tensed. "What happened?" I wasn't surprised that he'd sensed something was off instantly. Out of all of us, he was the best at that. His instincts had saved our lives multiple times.

I ignored him and focused on Olivia. "I need you to check on Izzy," I rushed out, gesturing behind me. Olivia was already moving, having picked up on the urgency in my voice. "She's been in the bathroom for an hour, and she won't answer."

Elijah didn't let me finish because he was already moving out of the room, trailing after Olivia.

"Where's the key?" Olivia asked, her hand grasping the door handle. Her eyes jumped between the two of us and Elijah grabbed something from the top of the door and brushed past her to unlock the door. He did it with speed that was almost too quick to be considered human, and in the blink of an eye, the click of the lock sounded.

Elijah pushed open the door, and Olivia brushed past him while we waited outside.

She screamed as soon as she stepped inside. My heart stopped dead inside my chest at the sound of pure panic.

Elijah went still, and the two of us were moving right away for the door, lingering right outside of it. His hand gripped the edge, his knuckles tightening.

"Olivia!" Elijah gritted out, his hand now gripping the door knob. I knew it took everything inside of him not to barge inside because it was the same for me. My mind jumped to every worst scenario possible and I took another step forward. "What's going on?"

We heard splashing and Olivia rambling to herself as if she was panicking. Moments passed in silence, and another familiar sound broke the terrifying emptiness that had surrounded the house.