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“No!” I scream. “You sick bastard!”
I start forward, and he holds the bat up. I only stop as CJ begins to scream.
“Please, please let me comfort him.”
“He’ll be at peace soon enough,” Barrett repeats glassily.
Chase tries to sit up, but Barrett swings the bat again, this time striking his forehead. Chase crumbles back to the floor, and I scream, lunging forward. Barrett swings at me, and I stop just a hair’s breadth from the bat as it fans my face. I’m distracted when he moves again, this time reaching out to wrap one hand around my neck to push me against the wall.
I struggle, and as I start to lose consciousness, a sharp pain against the side of my head sends me careening into blackness. The last thing I hear is the muffled screams coming from CJ.
When I wake, I’m met with the cool of the tile below me. Glancing around, I shiver as chilly winds blow in from the open French doors. My head feels like a hundred-pound weight, and my throat feels raw. I sluggishly push myself up, but dizziness causes me to stop from rising to my feet.
I’m not sure what happened until it all starts to flood back to me. Barrett, Chase, CJ! In the moonlight, I see a lump on the floor near me. I crawl towards it, remembering it’s where Chase last was before I blacked out. His skin is cold to the touch, and I fumble for his neck in the dark to check his pulse. It’s there, but it seems weak. I whisper his name over and over, but I also need to find CJ. I begin to call his name, then scream it, my voice becoming more desperate by the second.
Though I’m dizzy, I manage to pull myself to my feet. I use the counter to hold myself up as I search for a light switch. My priority is to find my cell phone to call the police and an ambulance. Finally, I locate and turn on the light above the sink. My phone was last on the counter, and it’s still there, but the screen is smashed to bits.
My stomach drops when I search for Chase’s cell and find it in the sink splashed with water. However, he once told me that his phone is water-resistant, and hoping it somehow remained intact, I shake off the droplets and hit the power button. My hope rises when it springs to life, but that’s promptly crushed. It requires a security code. I’m panicked about what to do. If I can’t make a call, the nearest house is a mile away, and I’m in no condition to drive.
Overtaken by the urge to vomit, I heave into the stainless steel sink. My head is spinning, but I need to save Chase and CJ. I check the hook where Chase put the SUV keys when we arrived. They’re gone. I stumble to the front door and open it. The SUV is gone, and that’s when I realize that so is CJ’s carrier. I scream into the night, clutching my stomach.
Heaving again, I turn back to Chase and the phone. In my haste, I didn’t notice the call button for 911 on the lock screen. I jam my finger on it, cursing myself for losing precious minutes.
A half-hour later, I’m being loaded into an ambulance after giving the police as much information about CJ, Barrett, and the SUV that I can remember. They put out an amber alert. I told them what Barrett said about the pact and how he told me that CJ would be at peace soon. The officer and detective that interviewed me both had grim looks on their faces the entire time.
As we head to the same hospital as they took Chase to, I’m hit with the reality of the situation. Unable to breathe, I become so hysterical that the paramedics administer a sedative to calm me down. By the time we arrive at the hospital, I’m barely able to move. I’m cognizant of being put through several medical tests and am eventually told that I have a concussion.
I don’t know the status of Chase, but I’m more concerned about my child. The words that Barrett spoke about CJ being at peace soon echo endlessly in my head. If something happens to my baby, I don’t think I can survive. I love him more than life itself.
I need my family. Oh, God, my family! I know they’re over six hours away, and it’s late, but I summon the nurse and tell her that I need to contact my sister. She brings me a cordless phone, and my fingers shake as I dial her number. JC answers, and he sounds groggy. I try to hold on and get the words out, but the minute I hear my brother in law’s voice, I start to cry. The next thing I hear is Lexi on the line.
“Megan? Megan, what happened. Please tell me!” she shouts with alarm.
I finally calm myself enough to tell her what transpired over the past few hours and that CJ is missing, and Chase is injured. I’m unable to tell here where the hospital is, so I weakly call for the nurse, who relays the address. Lexi tells me that she’s on her way, and she’ll let my family know what is going on. The nurse waits, then asks me if I want another sedative. I tell her no. I need to keep my wits about me even if my head feels like it’s ready to explode.
I ask about Chase’s status, but the nurse has nothing. I manage to fall asleep for an hour only because of exhaustion, and a nurse awakens me for a vitals check and to say that a police detective is here to see me. I grip the bars on the hospital bed, steeling myself for horrible news about CJ. The detective comes into the room—the same man who I talked to back at the house, but I can’t remember his name. His face is hard to read because it’s covered with wrinkles and a white beard. I don’t know if he normally looks troubled or has something good or bad to tell me.
“Miss Stanford, we found your son, CJ,” he begins.
I grip the bars harder, waiting, trying to focus—the seconds tick by as if they were hours passing.
“He’s fine but suffering from dehydration and mild exposure. It usually gets down in the fifties by night, so he was lucky when we found him.”
“Where did you find him?” I ask. “Can I see him?”
“In the woods off the highway. He was strapped into his carrier and crying. A man and his wife stopped to go to the bathroom and heard the cries. They found him and called us immediately.”
I can only stare at the detective before I burst into tears. My poor baby almost died in the woods, alone! I want to kill Barrett. I want him to suffer. What kind of sick fuck leaves an infant out in the woods to die?
“Did you catch Barrett?” I grit my teeth.
“We are looking for him. The SUV he stole was found in a parking lot.”
“When can I see my baby? Please, I need to see him.”
“They’re cleaning and working on him now. Thankfully the people who found him put the heater on and covered him with a blanket until we arrived. They couldn’t believe he was out there.”
“Do you know who they are? I want to thank them.”
