Surviving Paradise (Full Draft Version)

CHAPTER 42

CHAPTER 42

“Babe, what's wrong,”  Will leaned back enough to stare into the phone also, and Allisa passed it to him.  The spawn screen was up on the game, meaning their avatars had both bitten the dust.  Now, she worried for her brother in this bizarre life of Paradise where there was no spawn screen.  Will handed her phone back, and echoed the thoughts on screen.  “That's weird.”

“Yeah.”  Absently, she picked up her controller, but made no move to play.

“Are you thinking they might do something to him?”

Arching incredulous brows, she silently mocked his  question, and saw his face shadow with the nightmares of things he had seen in the group, as well as what had been done to him.  Of course  Cassie was supposed to keep the group activities under control, but as they had found out the night of Will's horrific incident, that didn't always go well.

“I'm just going to pop in, make sure he is asleep.”  Sliding from the bed, Allisa plucked the remainder of her clothing from the floor, and the bed.

“How many ports have you done today?”  A concerned scowl replaced his interested appraisal, as she dressed.

“Don't Will.”  Without even bothering to pull her tousled hair into a ponytail, or add shoes to the socks she had put on, she didn't even pause at the closet door.  “I'll be right back.”  In her peripheral vision, she saw him bounce out of bed, but just that quick, she was staring into her old room. 

Stealthily, she made her way down the hall.  The room her brother was using, was the same as Will's room, and she found his mussed bed, empty.  Uncertainly, she stood, trying to recall if it had been made up, when she had passed the room earlier this evening.  Beds were one of her mother's obsessive compulsive streaks, and when growing up, even when they had made up their beds, she had always come behind them, straightening them further.  With guests, even if those guests were her and Will, she knew this bed would not have been left like this all day.

Something blinked in the mess of covers, and she stepped into the room, picking up what must be her brother's phone.  Was he simply raiding the fridge?  With the phone in her hand, she went down the back stairs to the kitchen, finding it empty and dark.  A peak into the garage found that area to be minus one car. 

Scrolling through the texts, she read the last one.

          'Be right there'

The one above it.

          'Just come'

Continuing up the column reading in reverse order, she read enough to know that her brother was on his way to The Viper, as of twenty minutes ago.  Deciding not to chance a doorway that she was not as familiar with, she left the kitchen and sprinted back upstairs to her bedroom closet, quickly pulling it open.

Immediately, she bashed right into Will, who was just standing in front of his closet.  “Fuck Lissa!  You couldn't have waited five seconds?!  I was coming with you!”

In no mood to argue with him, she began to pull on her shoes.  “Why?  I said I was coming right back and I did.  Look, Will, I think my bro--”

“Not exactly!  You've been gone almost ten minutes.  I wouldn't call that 'right back.'”  Fully dressed, shoes and all, he advanced on her with his tirade.  “And why?  You ask?  In case you end up in one of those 'scary places.'”  His mocking emphasis on the 'scary,' she had spoken of at one time to him, was not meant to be humorous.  “And you didn't even take your phone!”  Here he blinked confused at the phone in her hand.