Storm by Aria Ray

Chapter Two

Zoe

Tired of my calls being ignored, I pulled the phone away from my ear. How was I supposed to clear up misleading information about MCs, which the Dark Slayers claimed I’d reported on my vlog, without an interview?

I had been working on a piece of investigative journalism for a local magazine about biker clubs. The Dark Slayers was our target biker club.

I would try again to reach someone later in the day. I didn’t have much faith they’d answer that call, either. For the last three weeks, I’d been trying to schedule them for an interview. When I spoke to my contact, Grit, I could no longer pin him down for an interview. He’d blown off two scheduled times in previous weeks.

Maybe this MC was having issues answering questions like what is your purpose? From what I’d seen, MCs were full of outcasts doing little more than intimidating, partying, and bullying.

Case in point, their leader’s tone—and this guy calls himself their President—served a huge helping of Warning when he told me you’re wrong, back off. He had tried to intimidate me, but I pointed out that I could hear their party in the background. For a while now, they’ve refused to answer my calls.

I only report accurate information, but I admit to times when I’ve had to report my opinion after difficulties during my research. I always state when something is based on my opinion, though. My followers know this, and they’re waiting for the truth.

So am I.

My opinion will remain until the Dark Slayers prove me wrong.

I was at my usual coffee shop, working at my table in the corner. I had all my notes spread out in front of me.

When I started my vlog channel, I wanted to report on local news stories that were overlooked, the ones that didn’t receive as much press as they deserved.

I had just vlogged about a case where I’d been one of only a few people in attendance. We witnessed the guilty sentencing of three rapists. It hurt my soul to have to report that this scum received a measly fifteen years each.

I furiously typed on my laptop, needing to get the word out. There was so much I wanted to say, so much I wanted the world to know. Now that I had a strong following on my social media platforms, many more people would be listening.

My phone rang as I typed. I considered ignoring the call, until I saw my sister’s name flashing on the screen. Alison and I are close. There wasn’t a day she didn’t call me, sometimes more than once. Right now, I really needed to hear her calming voice.

“Hey, you,” I greeted her, sitting back in the chair and pressing my eyes closed with my thumb and index finger.

“Hey, you. I just saw your vlog. Are you okay?” Alison asked, “You sounded really angry, really worked up.”

I rubbed my eyes with my knuckles, feeling exhausted already. I was emotionally drained.

“Yeah, I think I’m okay now. I was just so pissed that nobody had shown up to this trial. It’s like nobody cares what happens to these women, to these regular women who aren’t celebrities.”

“Of course, people care, Zoe, and they care even more now because you’re getting the story out. People are just…busy, you know? With their lives and work and kids, but you showed up. You’re doing good work. I’m so proud of you.”

At just twenty-one, my sister was wiser than her age, and she was the only one who was able to pacify me when I needed pacifying.

“I’m proud of you, too. How were your classes today?” I asked.

I could just picture her smiling as she sat on her bed in the dorm room, playing with her hair. Alison didn’t know how beautiful she was and that was probably the most endearing thing about her. She considered herself to be an ordinary girl with an ordinary life, but I saw how people looked at her. I knew she was extraordinary and headed for greatness.

“I’ve been working on this essay for over a week now, and I keep rewriting it because I’m not happy with it. It’s due tomorrow. I think I’m going to be up all night.”

“You’ll get there, honey, you always do.”

“Have you spoken to dad lately?” she asked out of the blue.

It made me sit up straight in my chair because I wasn’t expecting her to bring him up. We rarely spoke about him these days, in fact we actively avoided him in our conversations. Just the thought of him made me mad. The man I had spent most of my life looking up to had left us hurt and betrayed.

“No. Why would I? Have you?”

“He’s been calling me the last two days. I keep ignoring his calls but now I feel guilty. What if he needs something? What if he has something important to say?”

I sighed and shook my head. As bookish and smart as Alison was, she was also naive. Maybe she was just too young and inexperienced to understand.

“He doesn’t need anything from us, Alison. He made that very clear through his actions.”

“Then why is he calling me?”

“Because he can emotionally manipulate you the way he emotionally manipulated mom for all these years. He doesn’t call me because he knows I won’t fall for his bullshit.”

My sister remained silent, considering my words quietly. Maybe I was being too harsh on him…or was I? She and mom might think I was, but I didn’t think so.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s just…so hard to come to terms with all this. I thought I knew him. I thought he loved us. Maybe he does love us.”

My eyes filled with hot tears at the abandonment in her voice, but I blinked them back. I had no choice but to be strong for both of us. For our mother, too, who was silently falling apart. She had dedicated her life to a man who had betrayed her loyalty and trust. Her whole life had been a lie.

“I don’t care about how he feels, I care about what he did. If he loved us, he would have thought of us before he built a whole new family on the side. He wasn’t satisfied with us. He wanted more from his life, and we weren’t enough.”

I knew my words were harsh. Alison remained silent. I wanted to make her feel better. What I’d just said sure wouldn’t, so I tried again.

“But we have each other. We have mom. We have to stick together through this, Ali. We can’t let him break us.”

“I know.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I need to get back to this essay, and I’m sure you need to get back to work.”

“Call me again if you want to talk. I’m always here.”

“Yes, I know, thank you. I love you.”

“I love you,” I said, smiling. Then the call ended, and I was left with an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach. She sounded so hurt. And it was all dad’s fault.

∞∞∞

After dinner in my apartment, I scrolled through my phone and laptop simultaneously. Most of the days and nights were spent keeping up with activity on my social media platforms, engaging and communicating with the people who commented on my posts and vlogs. I’d spent a considerable amount of time on this. I was still a one-woman show.

A few national news networks had gotten in touch with me recently after noticing my success and online followers. I had taken an unconventional and modern route to building my career and it was headed in the right direction. I wanted to do good journalistic work, to report on the stories that mattered to me with complete clarity and honesty. I didn’t want to move out of Griffinsford yet, though, not until Alison had graduated from college, and we could move together.

I wasn’t going to leave her behind. We had always been together.

I worried about how our father’s actions were going to affect her. It had affected me adversely, even though I tried to be strong for Alison and Mom. I didn’t know if I could trust a man anymore.

Our father had showered us with love, affection, and gifts when we were growing up. If someone like him could deceive us all these years, what were other men capable of?

There were monsters who roamed free in our world, too; the kinds of monsters who abducted and violated Marilyn Brown, a rape victim I interviewed, and countless other women like her. The more I thought about it, the more disheartened I was with the world and with the men who surrounded us.

I had once pictured a fairytale wedding, just like every other young teenager. I wanted the kind of loving and happy marriage I thought my parents had. I wanted a family and children of my own.

That was a long time ago. A lot had changed since then, and I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to be married. Should I risk getting my heart broken and my life turned upside down by a man who wasn’t worthy of my trust?

Maybe I was just destined to be alone for the rest of my life. I’d have to make peace with that.

∞∞∞

My phone rang in the middle of the night, jerking me rudely out of my sleep.

I forced my eyes open and looked at the digital clock on my bedside table. It was a little after three in the morning.

My mom was calling. I groaned as I answered the phone. I rarely slept anyway. My mind was always buzzing, preventing me from falling asleep, and I really needed the rest tonight.

“Hello?”

Even though it was a ridiculous time for her to call me, I wasn’t too worried. She’d been on edge since the divorce proceedings began. She needed me. I was the strong one, and she knew she could rely on me.

She wouldn’t call me in the middle of the night, knowing how hard I worked during the day and that I needed to sleep at night. Not unless it was important. Her mental health was important.

“Hi honey, have you spoken to Ali recently?” Those were her first words.

Mom sounded worried, which made me sit up in bed. “I spoke to her this afternoon. Why? Is something wrong?”

“She didn’t call me tonight. You know how she calls me every night before going to bed. I waited for her phone call. Then, I texted her but got no reply. It’s so late. She still hasn’t seen her phone? I don’t understand.”

“I’m sure she’s okay, Mom. She told me about the essay she’s been working on. It’s due tomorrow, so she’s probably just busy with that.”

“I don’t know… I have a bad feeling. Ali is not the type to ignore my calls and texts. That’s not like her at all.”

“I know, Mom. She probably fell asleep. I’ll try to get in touch with her.”

“Okay. Will you let me know when you speak to her?”

“Yes, and you should try and get some sleep.”

I finally got mom off the phone. I should have gone back to sleep because I anticipated a long day. I had two trials to cover at the courthouse and an interview later in the day. But I couldn’t go back to sleep now, not when all the different scenarios Ali could be in were popping into my head. Maybe my work had made me paranoid.

I needed to check on Alison.

I tried her phone, and there was no response, so I looked on the app that let me trace her phone’s location. Oddly enough, her location was coming up around the Redding Airport area. I couldn’t think of one good reason why she would be in that neighborhood, especially at this time of night. No matter how many times I checked the app, Alison’s phone turned up at the same location.

Now I was worried.

If she’d just answered her phone and told me she was okay, I would have left her alone. I didn’t want to be the kind of nosey, prying sister who annoyed her by butting into her personal life.

Still, I got dressed and left my apartment. It was three-thirty in the morning. I headed to the airport. I had to know if my sister was alright.

All the way to the airport, I kept the app open, but the location of Alison’s phone hadn’t changed. I followed the coordinates until I was near an airfield which was exclusively for private planes. I still had no idea what Alison could be doing out here. It’s not like she knew a bunch of people with private planes. She was supposed to be in her dorm, working on an essay that was due tomorrow. She wouldn’t schedule anything if she had work due.

Why wasn’t she answering her phone?