AEGIS ↠ EMBRY CALL [R.U]

19| TUESDAYS LONG DRIVE

Anya called the school to let them know that Callas wouldn't be going in. Silas looked up from his newspaper and glanced at Anya when she tried to tell them that she wasn't sure how long Callas would be staying off for, it may have been one day or one week, either way she wasn't going to school. Reed took the day off work as well, knowing that Callas wouldn't want to be alone. It was a weird experience; knowing the truth. She wasn't sure how she was meant to take in all of the information that Reed told her when she got home from school on Monday a lot earlier than expected. She stared at her phone as she waited for Reed, looking over the text he sent her while she was in the library:

Reed:
The kid they brought in was Henry. I'm so sorry, Callas. I'm coming to collect you now.

Callas continued to reread the text until her eyes began to blur and hurt, the words blurring into one and the white background overtaking the screen while the black words faded out. Reed's hand gently squeezed her shoulder and she stood up. Quietly, she shuffled to the front door behind Reed. He told her that when he arrived at the hospital on a call, Mr Blanchard told him that he didn't mind if Callas went to go visit Henry in the hospital, but was told to tell her that she was to be warned that he wasn't in the best of conditions. The weather was cold and windy as the rain began to drop down from the—practically—black clouds in the sky. She shivered as they made their way to the Jeep. Part of her thought she was just in a dream, but the cold droplets of rain told her otherwise.

When Reed started up the Jeep, he turned the heating on and the radio off. He wasn't sure what would set Callas off to cause her to cry—that was if she was able to, of course. She was never one to cry much, only when something terrible had happened, like the death of their father. That was the last time Reed remembered her crying—aside from her nightmares, of course. Reed pulled out of the driveway and drove slowly down the road, away from the house, turning right onto the road to Forks, where Henry and Mr Blanchard were.

As he drove, Callas stared out the window. Her hands were shoved into the pockets of one of Reed's old baggy jumpers, her legs were scrunched up on the dashboard in front of her. She watched the water droplets dribble down the window like a race, following one droplet to see if it would beat the others as it rolled down and landed in the heap of water at the bottom, almost melting into the others that collected down there. Her mind was clouded with thoughts, much worse than what they were before when she wasn't sure if it was Henry who had been hurt. But she wasn't aware of the world around her; she didn't want to be.

Why had he lied to her?

If he was awake when she got there, then she knew she'd get answers, maybe not straight away, but she would. Her main priority was making sure that he was okay, that he wasn't seriously injured or forced to have an oxygen tube shoved down his throat, connected to multiple wires. She shuddered at the thought. Reed noticed and turned the heating up a bit more. It pained him to see his sister like that. Especially when he couldn't do anything about it, when he couldn't just shield her away from the world and the devastations it brought their way.

Her phone was now turned off. She didn't want anyone to contact her. She didn't think she could keep herself together if she saw any texts from anyone. She also doubted that she would have been able to stop herself from opening up Reed's messages and looking at the text again. Those three sentences, although they weren't long, seemed to take forever to register with her. It was like a strange out of body experience—maybe it was the feeling people had when they have near death experiences, but she knew it wasn't the exact same. Her right hand held onto her cold phone, clutching it tightly, feeling the curves of the buttons dig into her hand.

"You know, Cal, I'm sure Henry just has a few scrapes and bruises, nothing too serious." Reed tried lightening the mood, shrugging his shoulders.