My Life After the Disaster

Chapter Twenty Five

We all pile up into the van, settle into our seats and lock the doors, looking around to make sure we weren’t followed.

“What do we do now?” Alexia asks, turning in her seat to look at Annabelle.

“I don’t want to rush off. We were celebrating. What if we take this back to the shelter. We can grab a trash can and garbage bags along the way,” Annabelle tells her.

“What about Alexander?” Julian asks from the back.

“We’re going to lose him of course. I haven’t seen him come out and if we’re going to the store to pick stuff up then he won’t have a clue as to where we are,” Alexia says, turning to face the steering wheel.

“That’s right. Alexia is an awesome driver. We’ll get out of here in no time and he won’t have a chance to catch up,” I say, smiling over at Alexia as I put my arm behind her seat.

“Sissy I’m scared,” Molly says reaching her hand out for Annabelle.

Alexia starts the engine and pulls out of the parking lot, heading for the store.

“Don’t be scared Molly. We’re safe here. No one is going to get us,” Annabelle tells her, taking her hand into hers. She then looks at Daniel and smiles.

“Annabelle is right Molly. I understand that what you saw and heard was scary but you don’t have anything to fear here with us,” Daniel tells her calmly, while keeping his gaze on Annabelle.

Julian reaches over and wraps his arm around Molly, saying, “I’ll keep you safe Molly.”

“You guys are so sweet. You make me wish I had brothers and sisters,” I say, looking back at them.

“I have an older brother, he’s a doctor, but he’s still going to school. He’s only got two years left then he’ll be a practicing doctor. His name is David Page, he’s 23 years old and he’s going to school in the states. He comes back home for holidays just like I do. But I’ll be done before him. After our parents had me they had the perfect pair and didn’t feel they needed anymore. One of each,” Alexia says with a laugh.

“That’s cool. Were you guys close?” I ask her, curious, as she hasn’t mentioned anything about her family so far, aside from the fact that her parents didn’t approve of her career choice.

She smiles and says, “We were. And still kind of are. But there’s 4 years between us. To the date. I was born on his birthday. So we have the same birthday. We had some fights but he was always there for me and I always looked up to him.”

“That’s crazy, you guys have the same birthday, four years apart. What are the chances of that?” Annabelle says, sounding astonished.

“Like one in a million I guess,” Alexia says, pulling into the parking lot of the store.

“Will you come in with me Daniel?” Annabelle asks, looking at him lovingly.

“Of course I will Annabelle. I would’ve went with you last time too but you told me to stay in the van,” he tells her, taking his seatbelt off.

“Can I come in with you too?” Molly asks sweetly.

She turns to look at her, unbuckling her seatbelt and says, “Sorry Molly but I don’t want to take too long. You’ll be safe here in the van with Rose and Alexia. And they’re going to keep the doors lock. No one is going to hurt you. Okay?”

She half smiles and looks down at her hands, saying, “Okay. But he careful.”

“I will. We won’t be long,” she tells us, opening the sliding door. She hops down onto the ground and closes the door.

Daniel comes around from the other side to her, taking her hand into his, he walks with her into the store.

I lock the doors then turn in my seat to look back at Molly and Julian, saying, “So, it’s just the four of us again. How have you been liking your trip so far?”

“Right now I wish we never went on this trip. I would much rather be home reading my books,” Molly says in her cute little voice.

“It’s been rather tiring and somewhat terrifying. I’d rather be home hanging out with Dillion. I like spending time with my sister’s though so it hasn’t been completely horrible,” Julian says, looking over at his little sister.

“What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get home?” Alexia asks them, trying to change the topic.

“I’m going to cuddle up in my bed with my favourite book,” Molly tells her, smiling at the thought of it.

“I’ll probably call my friend Dillion to come over and hangout. Or maybe have Annabelle and Daniel take me out to buy stuff for my room,” Julian says, thinking about it.

Alexia looks over at me and says, “Well, it seems like you have everything planned out then. What do you think Rose? What will we do once they’re gone and we’re alone again?”

“Well, you’re going back to school since you’ll have class on Monday and I’ll see about finding some more modeling jobs to do. But on the times that we have alone together I can’t really say. Maybe talk about your family and find out more as you haven’t talked about them much or like, at all,” I tell her, making sure she’s getting what I’m putting down.

“You don’t talk about your family ever?” Julian asks, sounding surprised. “Are you ashamed of your family?”

“I’m not ashamed of family. I just haven’t had the chance to really talk about them. When I’m alone with Rose I usually have other things on my mind,” Alexia says, biting her lip.

“What kinds of things?” Molly asks her, curiously.

“Nothing you need to worry yourself about,” Alexia says.

“Oh, look, I see Annabelle and Daniel coming,” I say, pointing out the front window, changing the topic.

“Really? Where?” both Julian and Molly say, trying to stand up in their seats.

“They’re coming this way but it looks like they’re having a serious conversation,” Alexia says, looking out the window at them.

I watch them as they stop to kiss each other. I wonder what they were talking about. I unlock the doors so that they can get in.

Annabelle smiles, reaching the back of the van and tapping on the trunk.

Alexia pops the trunk so they could put their stuff into it, closing it up and they get back into the van.

“To the shelter now,” Alexia says, starting the van up again. She pulls out of the parking lot and heads for the shelter.

“You got more than one trash can,” Julian says, looking into the back of the van.

“I needed one for each kind of bag. Blue, green and clear. I’ll have more brought over later. For now these will go in whichever room we choose to go in,” Annabelle tells him.

“That makes sense,” I say, weighing in on the conversation.

“You can bet if we had the means to get a bunch of trash cans to the shelter that Annabelle would have done it,” Daniel says, smiling at her.

“I can believe that. From what I’ve found out about her and all that she’s done so far,” Alexia says, keeping her eyes on the road.

“I definitely would have. I want that place up and running asap,” she tells us honestly.

“Annabelle has always been like this. For as far as I can remember. She helps in ways that others wouldn’t think to and she’s always smiling while doing it,” Julian tells everyone.

“When I was sick sissy stayed with me all day long and took care of me. She missed her own graduation because of it. All because I wanted her to stay with me,” Molly says, sounding kind of bad.

“You did that?” I ask, feeling shocked. “You missed your graduation to take care of your sick little sister? And you wanted to? My goodness, you’re like a saint.”

“I don’t think I’m a saint. I just care a lot about others. I think everyone should. It would make for a much better world. If people were more caring there wouldn’t be wars. People wouldn’t starve. There’d be no more fighting. Maybe some arguments but no fights. That’s just my perspective though. That’s how I feel,” she tells us.

“My gosh, you are a saint. It’s no wonder you’re a powerful psychic only a saint could hold your power. Anyone else could use it for evil,” I say.

Annabelle sits back in her seat and thinks about that for a moment. Her phone starts to ring, bringing her out of her thoughts. She answers it and says, “Hello.”

I can’t hear the other end of the phone so I have no idea who she’s talking to.

“Yes, that is me. Did you need something from me?” she asks them politely.

She listens quietly for a few minutes while they responded.

“I don’t know if he’s still there. But I went out to eat with my family and two of my friends. While we were there, I saw him. He was watching me. The restaurant is called The Pearl. He was still there when we left. But I don’t know if he left soon afterwards. We left about ten minutes ago. If you don’t find him there check my shelter. He tends to lay in wait there. I saw him this morning when we went in,” she tells them in response.

They say something else as she listens. At this point I figure it’s the cops.

She gives them the address for the shelter and says, “Those bodies you found, they aren’t his only victims. I believe those are just the ones he killed after moving here. He’s from Alberta, he likely killed a whole lot more before coming here.”

The call ends and Annabelle puts her phone back into her purse.

Alexia parks the car off to the side of the building and turns to look at Annabelle, saying, “What was that all about?”

“Was that the cops you talked to this morning?” Daniel asks, looking out the door window.

“It was… they found four bodies buried in his backyard. They have an arrest warrant for him. He has no idea. They’re coming to get him,” she tells us.

“That’s great,” Molly says, jumping up from her seat.

“Can we go inside now? I feel kind of cramped in here,” Julian says.

“I’m pretty sure I spotted Alexander parked in the front of the building,” Alexia says.

“Seriously? He’s here?” I say, looking out the car window. “I don’t see him.”

“There’s nothing to worry about. The police are on their way to arrest him,” Daniel says.

“Shouldn’t we go inside so he doesn’t get suspicious?” Annabelle asks us. “We can go in the back door.

We all gather up our stuff and get out of the car. Annabelle puts the trash bags into the garbage can and we all carry one, quickly going into the shelter. Once inside we lock up the door an Annabelle sighs in relief.

“Now that we’re safely inside. Let’s find a room to celebrate in,” Annabelle says while smiling and walking away from the door.

We all follow after Annabelle and find a room close to the front then we head inside, putting the trash cans down and taking the boxes of bags out.

Annabelle pulls out the garbage bags and puts one in each can then sets them up by the wall. She walks over to the table and puts her container and purse down.

“Does anyone else hear that?” Julian asks, turning his head towards the door.

“Hear what?” Molly asks him, looking in the same direction.

“Sirens,” he tells us. “It sounds like police sirens.”