The day turned into a drastic nightmare for the Hursts.  Neither Hunter nor Summer were in their rightful mind.  Neither of them had bothered to read the entire message.  For all they knew this had just happened. 

 

As Charlie begins to pull the contents of the fishing trip from what remains of Hunter’s sinking boat, he notices Hunter’s state of mind.  He was beside himself with anger, a rage only a father would encounter.  This was his baby girl, his best buddy, his little princess.  He begins to call Colton for answers.  He was not answering.

 

“Where the fuck is that boy? “He continues to scroll among Charlie’s contact list when he comes across Summer’s name.  He begins to dial, and after several rings, the call goes to voice mail.

 

“Somebody better be needing some fucking bail money!  Leave that shit, Charlie, Let’s go”.  The men begin to walk along what’s left of the dock and make their way to Hunter’s truck.  From there, the two head up to The Hurst Mansion, hoping for some answers.

 

Pulling into the drive, a silver Tesla was seen parked in the circle drive, just in front of the door. “Damn, electric ass scooters. Must be Stefan, now we are getting somewhere.”

 

Hunter and Charlie both begin to make their way inside the home.  Hunter’s first instinct was to call out for Summer, but when she did not answer, he begins to look for answers.  He walks from room to room calling out for Summer. He steps into the den noticing the French doors to be open, with Stefan standing out on the patio.

 

“Where’s my wife?”  Stefan turns to see Hunter and Charlie standing behind him. 

 

“I don’t know, she called me frantically, said something about taking care of the kids, she was going hunting and for me to drop everything and come here to read a text on her phone.”

 

Hunter walks over, picks up Summer’s phone, and of course it was open to Colton’s message.

 

“Did she say where she was going?”  Hunter looks at Stefan.  “No, she hung up afterwards.”  Stefan looks over the message, reading the entire thing, he looks to both men.”

 

“Have you read this?”  Charlie now reaches for Summer’s phone and begins to scroll up to the original message.

 

“I can honestly say he didn’t” Charlie replied.  “If I were a betting man.” He pauses. “And I am, Hunter only read Gyon’s message to Summer, and that’s all.”   The two look towards Hunter.

 

“Yea, that is enough information for me.”  Hunter still looking around the house for signs of Summer.

 

“Hunter, you know your wife better than I know my sister, how worried should I be at this point?”

 

Hunter begins to walk upstairs to their bedroom; there he sees his open box of hunting knives tossed upon the top of the bed.   He begins to go through them until he noticed which one was missing.  He takes in a deep breath and with an angered tone he shouts out.

 

“SUMMER!”  Both Charlie and Stefan sprint upstairs to find Hunter shaking his head, looking down upon his collection that is now scattered all around the room.

 

Charlie looks over to Stefan. “I think you should be very worried at this point.” 

 

Hunter storms passed both men.  “You two deal with this shit.”  

 

Hunter makes his way downstairs, grabbing Summer’s cell phone in the process.  He closes out the text and immediately begins to call Colton for the third time.

 

 

Dusk was beginning to settle heavy in the evening sky.  The events early on had begun to simmer down at Cassie’s apartment.  Vanity was resting on the sofa, Damon almost asleep in the chair, and Colton still going over everything in his head, still trying to process the events.  He looked over to his sister, with a half-hearted smile upon his face, he was still saddened by the events, but thankful to see her finally resting.  He walks over to Damon and kicks the chair in which he sits. 

 

“I’m going to get some food, if she wakes, let her know I will return shortly.”  Damon nods as Colton begins to leave the room and stops. “You may want to try and straighten up, quietly.”

 

Damon stood from the chair, he walked into Cassie’s bedroom and pulled a small blanket from the top of her bed.  He walks back over and begins to cover her.  He smiled gazing down upon her, he gently pulls the cover up to her head, as he remembers how she used to like to sleep.  Quietly he steps away and begins to pick up the broken panels of shattered glass that are embedded in the carpet.  The room was even more obliterated than it had been before Colton’s arrival.

 

Not wanting to disturb Vanity, Damon opens the flashlight upon his cell phone, shedding some light upon the floor as he continues to clean the area.  Cassie’s door slowly opens, and footsteps could be heard walking in.  The flickering sound of a light switch could be heard but to no avail, the lights would not come on.  Telling by the darkness in the room, and a dim light coming from the floor, a whisper could softly be heard.  “Hello?”  Not a response was heard.

 

The footsteps became quiet, the intruder had now suspected trouble and had slipped quietly out of their shoes.  Moving further inside, their eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room.  With each step, they can see the place was a wreck.  Damon, now beginning to stand to his feet; phone in hand and flashlight angled to the silhouette of a female. 

 

Standing inches from his face, noticing the blood and broken glass inside his hands, her voice was heard.  “Who the hell are you, and where is my daughter?”

 

Summer reaches slowly behind her back; she places her right hand into her waistline gripping the leather holster.  With a slow, quiet motion, she flicks her thumb over the snap, releasing the pressure of the holster's clasp; with an index finger she slides the tab from across the top and begins to slowly slide the blade from inside.

 

“Damon Mika…”  Summer’s eyes focused hard upon his lips.  Her left hand reaches up, slapping the broken glass from inside Damon’s hand.  Swiftly she swings her right arm to the side of her body, cupping the blade against her wrist, aligning it perfectly straight against her skin.  She steps into Damon’s body, angling it against the back of the sofa in which Vanity lies sleeping. 

 

Her body now fully emerged onto his, she leans her head down noticing a body, covered underneath a blanket with blonde strands of hair sticking out from the top.

 

“You dumb mother fucker, you’re dead!”  Summer angles her fist to the right, flushing the knife’s blade to the center of Damon’s throat.  “You’re a very scared little boy now aren’t you; this is the day you will die!”

 

Damon struggles to yell out, he tries to wiggle his way from underneath Summer’s body, but she presses the blade deeper into his throat.  The blade causes his skin to puncture as blood slowly begins to form under the blade.  “Nothing can stop me.” 

 

From the struggles on the sofa, Vanity wakens.  She slings the covers off her body as she stands to her feet to reach out and help Damon.

 

“Summer..NO!!” Vanity shouts at the top of her lungs.  Ignoring her voice, she looks up to see Vanity reaching out to Damon’s arms.  Summer evilly glares down upon Damon’s face. She takes her left hand and proceeds to place it over his nose and mouth, pressing hard to stop his airflow. 

“I’m going to introduce you to God.” She whispers into his ear.

 

Vanity tries to maneuver over to Summer as she’s stopped with a sadistic glare. “You dare try to help him, and he dies faster than he should.”

 

Colton is now staring at the commotion from Cassie’s opened doorway.  He drops the bags and immediately goes for his mother.

 

“What the hell is going on?”  Not noticing the blade that is held aggressively against Damon’s throat Vanity points it to his attention.

 

Damon’s arms stop struggling and slowly begin to fall to his side.  Colton grabs Cassie as she begins to scream.  Colton’s phone rings.  With a struggle, he managed to answer the call upon speaker.  Hunter can hear the commotion in the background, immediately begins to ask where they are.

 

“Come to Cassie’s now”.  Colton drops the phone, unable to hold on while struggling to hold his sister at bay.  Hunter still listening to the background can hear Cassie’s voice.

 

“She’s going to kill him.”  It was at that moment; Hunter found his wife. 

 

Hunter slams his truck in park, he was already seconds from Cassie’s apartment.  He jumps out, sprinting his way up the stairs and to his daughter’s apartment.  What he sees inside stuns him.

 

The light from the outside hall, shines just enough inside the apartment that Hunter can make out what’s happening.  He sees his wife laying across the top of another man’s body.  Not knowing who the man is, or what could possibly be going on, other than Cassie’s words on the phone.  Hunter rushes over and grabs Summer by the waist.  Unaware of Hunter’s presence, Summer’s fighting instinct is to smash the back of her head directly into the forehead of Hunter.  This loosens his grip for a mere second as he forcefully spins her body facing him.  With this motion, the blade Summer holds, quickly gashes his forearm. 

 

Hunter pushes her forward sending her body to the floor. "Damn woman you nicked me. What the hell is going on here?

 

Vanity now breaks free from Colton's grasp and immediately goes to Damon's aid.   "Damon.."

 

Hunter's eyes flash red as he hears the name. His fists clench as he moves forward towards Damon. Colton sees the look and knows what is going to happen, he moves and gets in front of Hunter pushing his hand to Hunter's chest. "Pops stop! It is not what you think!"

 

Summer now stands to her feet; she glares at Colton and back to Vanity.  She does not seem to care whether the words coming from Colton's mouth are true or not.  What she sees is the blood-stained hands and face of the man she held a knife too, Colton's bruised face and Vanity kneeling down trying to protect the man who caused it all. 

 

"You dare tell your father to stop?  Look at this place, you send a text like you did, and not expect us to react accordingly?"

 

Summer walks over to both Vanity and Damon.  "You're still a dead man!"   Summer pushes Vanity to the side and bends down to Damon's face. 

 

"I know your kind, now, meet mine."  Summer, still holding the blade, begins to draw it once again to his throat.

 

Colton leans down and grabs his mother. He places one arm around her waist and one on her hand holding the knife and lifts her up.

 

 "Mom, listen He did not do what you think he did. This place looks like this because we have already fought. Did you actually read what I sent you?"

 

Summer struggles, trying to release Colton's grip.  Her mind is clearly not listening, the darkness had its grip firmly around her, enabling her to listen to reason.  She looked at Hunter; he could see it in her eyes.  There was an emptiness, a soulless body stood within his son's arms.  Her heart was stone, and only he knew how to break her.

 

Hunter walks over to Colton and grabs Summer from him. He takes her and pushes her against the wall. With one hand he holds her mid-section and with the other he pins her arms above her head. He leans down and whispers in her ear.

 

"Summer, you need to come back to me. Nothing is going to get fixed like this. This is not you any longer. You are mine, not Cade's."   He moves in, kissing her lips.

 

Summer's resilience begins to ware.  Her emotionless eyes slowly close, her hand releases the blade to the floor as Hunter kicks it to Colton.  "Put that away." Summer's body weakens and falls limp into his arms.  He cradles her body and sits her down on the sofa.  Vanity helps Damon to his feet.  He manages to sit in the chair, just in front of Summer, cautiously never taking an eye off her.  Both Hunter and Colton look at each other and let out a sigh of relief.  The two take a seat and all is quiet for several seconds.  Finally, Summer speaks.  Colton, do you mind explaining your message, and why involve Gyon, and Shooter, of all people.

 

Colton looks around the room having to decide what to do.

 

"I think we have a lot to talk about. I think we need to go and get cleaned up and take a breather before we have this talk. Let's head home. You two need to read something and look at something first before we talk about this."

 

Colton stands up and finds the letter and the sonogram and walks out the door.  Hunter helps Summer to her feet and takes Vanity by the hand, moving to the door. He looks at Damon.

 

"You can follow us in your car boy, by yourself."

 

Vanity looks over to Damon and then looks to Hunter.  Hunter shoots them both with a stern look and Vanity lets out a sigh and leaves with Hunter and Summer.

 

As the three walk out the door, Damon's body finally begins to relax.  He begins to step outside the door, turning only to grab the knob, he slowly pulls the door closed.

 

"This is not going to be fun."