Page 64 of Chaos & Carnage

‘Vets. They came in with Stuart. They’re arguing. I’m frightened.’

‘Ok, Al. I’ll be right with you.’

‘Hurry. Please. Stuart’s screaming. OMG.’

‘Alice. I want you to hide. Do not come out till I tell you to. Understand?’

‘Yes.’

“What’s wrong?” Caleb asked from behind me.

“I dunno. It’s Alice. Have to go.”

“Wait. I’m coming too.”

“I don’t want you anywhere near her.” I turned on him, my face only inches away from his, the room growing silent around us.

“I saw her texts, brother. You want to keep me away from whatever is going on? You’d better knock me the fuck out.”

“Fine. But hurry.”

I bolted, racing down the stairs, Caleb hot on my heels, the fading shouts of concerned members following us.

Chapter Twenty Four

I stared at the cabinet in the upstairs staff room, my head a mass of thoughts and fluff. Concentration had been an effort the last few days and sleep was non-existent.

“I thought we had more Gabapentin?” I asked Abbie, who was slurping a coffee noisily just behind me.

“Yeah. An order came in just the other day.”

The cabinet looked empty. Only a few bottles left. I rubbed at my forehead, back to the familiar feeling of exhaustion from working the on-call shifts. There was no reason not to. And tiredness was my friend right now, because that meant sleep when I got to that point.

“Alice?” The receptionist poked her head round the door.

“Yeah?” I pushed the bottles of Gabapentin to one side. We were ten short, I was sure of it.

“There’s two gentlemen in reception to see you.”

I sighed, loudly. “Don’t suppose they look the same?”

“Err…no,” the receptionist answered, confused.

“Ok. I’ll be right behind you.”

“You ever going to answer the mountains of texts he’s sent you?” Abbie asked my back as I stood fiddling with the medicine still.

“Don’t even know which one is texting me.” I shrugged.

“Hey if I had the opportunity of twins, I’d take them by the…”

“That’s not what it is, Abbie.” Not really.

“Well, what is it?”

“It’s that I didn’t know. And that they, he, could do it to me again. I didn’t know it was Cade’s brother. There’s not a mark on them, not a feature about them that means I can tell them apart. I’d never know if it was Cade or Caleb. I can’t do that.”

“Alice. For the first time in months, maybe longer, I’ve seen you really look alive. I mean yeah, I really don’t want to listen to you getting railed above me all fucking night, but I definitely enjoyed seeing you look like you again.”