Under the Altswood Sky (The Altswood Saga #2)

Chapter 2 - Hush

Chapter 2 - Hush

When I woke, tired and slow, bright sunlight was streaming through my windows.

I shot upright immediately, tangled with my overly warm blankets, and in my rush to remove my legs from the heat, I rolled off the bed roughly.

The floor thumped loudly with my fall.

Groaning, I stretched my arm up and groped around my bedside table, searching for the screen of my phone. I stabbed at it blindly until my finger hit the right button, cutting off my alarm.

For a moment, all was quiet and still. I continued dozing with my forehead rested against my knee. Birds were chirping in song from the roof ledge above my room. The floorboards were cool against my skin.

And then the memories of last night rushed back.

"Stand back. Everyone stand back," Dad shouted, looking like he wished he had invested in a megaphone. The flashing red and blue lights from the car reflected off his face as he gestured for a few of the officers to fan out and begin cordoning off the area.

Daphne appeared to tremble with the wind, the wisps of her hair visible even from the distance, streaming like red war flags. Though her body was still, the puddle of blood that surrounded her body was tricking outwards, following the slight slope.

"Dad!" I pushed my way through the officers and launched myself in his path. "Is that Daphne Scepter?"

"Luca—"

"What is this?" I continued demanding, stabbing my finger in the direction of the crumpled figure. "What is this? What—"

Dad grasped my shoulders and turned me to face him. "Stop looking," he said quietly. "She jumped. It happened. It happens."

My hands were wholly still but my eyes were welling at the same time. I was putting together the facts, but trying to stick three-dimensional puzzle pieces onto a two-dimensional board.

Jaw slack, jaw closed. I whispered, "How did she leave the psych ward?"

Dad rubbed at his temple. "I'll find out," he replied. "What are you doing here?"

I looked back to where Jules was kneeling with his hands over his face, and Gabriel standing beside him, staring at the ground in a daze. I shrugged.

Dad gestured at one of his nearby officers. "Jones, take her home, would you?" He stopped, then, as if it were an afterthought, added, "and pick up the security footage from the hospital."

Jones gave him a salute.

"Gabriel and Jules too?" I asked.

"Yeah, of course."

In present time, I slumped down on the floor and dragged my pillow down. My eyes remained open, staring at my sideway wall, but every time I blinked, the imprint of Daphne's fall replayed in the black of my stare.

That awful, tangled heap was all I saw.

When I thought I had done enough brooding on the floor, I picked myself up and padded out into the hallway. The house was completely silent, and after I called out a few times for Dad without response, I determined he had probably stayed out all night.

I smeared toothpaste onto my toothbrush and ran the tap on full. Dad had only moved his job from police-officer-in-a-bustling-city to head-chief-of-a-dazed-island to be at home more often for his slightly dependent daughter. I guess he hadn't thought that said island would see so much death.

I spat into the sink, my knees suddenly weak.

Daphne had jumped. God knows how, but she had climbed atop the Ferris wheel—likely the highest point on the island excluding the lighthouse that I had been on—and plummeted to the ground, instant death on impact.