Run (verb): move at a speed faster than a walk, never having both or all the feet on the ground at the same time.

Now

Montana

The morning light brings no regrets. It brings warmth, sunlight, and coffee. "Morning." I kiss Calum on the cheek and he turns around on the kitchen stool to take my hand.

"Mhmm." He tugs at my arm until I've walked in between his legs and his lips are plastered on mine before I can take my next breath. I could make all the funniest jokes and get the entire world to laugh but it still wouldn't feel as good as this does. Nothing would. I realize that I never told Calum I once wanted to be a comedian.

"Calum—" I melt into his arms but there's something nudging at my head, an urgency to get the mundane routines of the day over with. "You need to eat before your sister shows up again." I lay my hands against his chest and gently move away before we end up back in bed.

He doesn't complain so I know he must be hungry. "I'm sorry she barged in like that. She used to be the calm one of the family."

"If I was her, I would have been ten times more furious than that."

I have a lot on my mind, and Calum seems to as well because we eat breakfast in the comfortable silence of my apartment, Calum commenting occasionally about the fact that I never moved out of this place like I had said I would a million times before. I wonder if everyone feels this comfortable around their loved ones? Or it's just me feeling uncharacteristically optimistic this morning.

The doorbell rings just as soon as we finish breakfast and Calum rolls his eyes, pretending to drop his head into the empty smoothie bowl with exasperation.

"Behave!" I whisper and walk towards the door.

I expect to see the now familiar head of blonde hair of his sister rush in like she did yesterday but there's no one outside the door. "Mali?" I step out to check and my leg hits a box.

Frowning, I bend down to pick it up. I haven't ordered anything in a very long time. What with being in the hospital, I didn't get a lot of time for my night owl online shopping tendencies that I regret in the morning when I see the order confirmations in my email.

"Who is it?" Calum calls.

"It's a...what, actually." I shut the door behind me and walk the box to the kitchen counter. It's wrapped in about five layers of plastic but I can tell it's a shoe box.

"Did you order something?" Calum asks, standing up. "No." He takes it from me and runs a kitchen knife along the edge, pulling the plastic off with a tug. A sudden dreadful feeling settles in the pit of my stomach.

I lift the lid of the box and there's a piece of paper on top. I can't decipher the handwriting before Calum takes it from me and the knife in his hand drops to the floor.

"What?" The dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach becomes a gripping pain when Calum's entire demeanor changes like he has been stabbed in the gut.

"Calum? What is it?" I grab the paper from his hand so I can see what it is, my heart leaping into my throat from where it was rolling around in my stomach.

"Run." It reads in italic letters. Run?

I blink a couple of times, trying to understand what is happening. It's just a word...Did someone send us shoes? It's probably another stupid campaign they want us to post about on Instagram. But I know it's not, and fuck do I hate this feeling of just knowing that something is about to go to shit.

Calum pulls out a plastic bag and what I see inside, to my horror, are not shoes. My stomach turns even before my brain can process it. I drop the piece of paper in my hand and run towards the kitchen sink, throwing up all over it.

---

"It's okay. It's okay." Calum rubs circles into my back.

I hurl into the sink again, my hands straining against the sides of the sink. Holy fuck.

"Are those fingers?!" I'm certain I would have screamed if I wasn't throwing up my breakfast. I blink and the tears in my eyes spill down my cheeks heavily.

After painfully dry heaving for what feels like an eternity, I manage to rinse my mouth before turning away and clinging onto Calum for dear life. His arms are wrapped around me, his hand holding the back of my head like we are being surrounded by enemies.

"Tell me those aren't real," I whisper to him. "--they can't be." This must be someone's idea of a practical joke, but it's far from funny to me.

"They aren't." His voice catches, and I know he's lying to me.

There's a bang of a door outside and we both jump, Calum tensing right after. "Monti, I need you to listen to me." He whispers and looks me in the eyes, his finger starting to trace my back.

His finger tracing against my cotton t-shirt runs shivers up my spine, but something in his eyes is telling me it's not an affectionate touch. He's writing on my back with his finger. He's telling me something.

"You need to get to that meeting with Sierra before you're late."

What meeting? I don't have a meeting with Sierra and I'm about to tell him so when he presses his forefinger into my back. Quiet.

That's what he's telling me, to be quiet. I look around my house and there's a dreadful feeling that settles into the air.

"Forget about the box. Trust me. I'll see you at Sierra's okay? We will go for lunch after you're done." I have no idea what he's talking about but there's a firmness in his voice. Something is wrong and whatever it is, it's terribly wrong.

"Go get ready." He squeezes my hand, once, twice, three times. I love you.

"Okay." I walk away from him, my jaw set with determination to keep it together. I ignore the box wide open on my kitchen counter, my heart beating mercilessly in my chest and ears.

Something in Calum's eyes from before keeps me extremely quiet while I get ready, throwing on whatever I can find and calling it decent enough to be seen outside my home.

Calum walks into the room, grabbing a t-shirt and turning to look at me. "If there is something really important here, take it." It's almost a whisper, but I hear it. He follows that sentence with a loud "You ready?" He's telling me something else with his expression. Don't say anything.

"Yeah, let's go." I grab my backpack, opening a drawer where I keep all my documents and shoving the file into my bag along with my passport and a tiny box. There's nothing else I can think of that is of dire importance to me right now.

I make sure all of Calum's medicine is in there as well before I leave the room. The box on the kitchen counter is gone when I walk back into the living room and I lock the front door behind me.

Calum takes my hand and keeps a deathly grip on it while we make our way to my car. "I'll drive." He says quickly and takes the keys from me.

"You're not well enough to drive—" I start but Calum shoots me a look. There is something seriously wrong and the last time I felt this magnitude of dread, he had fallen off a bridge.

When we get in the car, I open my mouth to say something again but he gives me another look. Be quiet.

Calum would never tell me to be quiet if he didn't absolutely need me to be and so I keep my mouth shut, pursing my lips painfully. He knows something I don't. Whatever was in that box...I cannot even begin to comprehend.

I take out my phone to text Sierra. I'm always welcome wherever she is but I don't want to barge into her home without giving her a heads up when I've already walked in on her and Luke way too many times than I would have liked.

"She must be asleep. Don't text her." Calum says quickly, taking my phone and dropping it into the cup holder between us.

"Calum..."

"Montana, I love you, and I just need you to not text her, okay?"

"You're scaring me, Calum," I whisper.

"We're going to be okay." He's on the highway now and he quickly traces on my forearm. Quiet.

---

Calum pulls in through their gate and parks haphazardly and we rush in through Sierra and Luke's front door, which for some reason is already wide open. I know they've upped their security but it still feels weird. Sierra barrels down their large staircase to welcome us when I call for her but comes to a halt when she sees us.

"What happened?" Her smile fades so quickly that I feel like throwing up all over their marble floors all over again.

"Nightmare on Summer street," Calum says and the way he says it...He sounds sick to his stomach too, but he seems to have a valid reason.

Sierra's hand flies up to her mouth and her eyes widen. "No..."

"What?!" I finally ask, sucking in air through my mouth. "What the hell is going on?" I look between her and Calum.

No one answers me, again, and Sierra takes my hands quickly like she's saving me from an oncoming bullet and locking the front door behind us.

"Luke!" She calls while half walking, half dragging us through the house that one would think the devil was right on our heels. Something about the grip both of them have on me, tells me that the devil is.

Luke appears with his phone clutched in his hand, his jaw clenched with anger. "Why did I just get an email saying that one of my band members quit the band?"

"What?!" I shriek again, looking wildly between all three of them. "Who quit the band?!"

Luke points at Calum.

---

There's no time to decipher any of it before Sierra pushes us into Luke's recording studio and shuts the door. Calum deflates with relief and drops into a couch. Another shiver runs up my spine.

I can't wrap my mind around any of this. There is silence, all three of them staring back at me. "What the fuck is going on?"

"Are you sure this place doesn't have extra ears?" Calum asks Luke and he nods, running a hand through his hair and tugging at the ends. Extra ears?

"What happened?" Sierra asks.

"Montana's house is rigged. I got her out as fast as I could." Calum says.

I suddenly feel like a hundred invisible eyes are staring right at me. "What?" I seem to be using this pronoun a lot today and keep going unanswered.

"Baby, come here." My feet carry me to him without a second thought.

"What's going on? I'm so confused—I don't understand—"

Sierra sits on my other side. "What body part did you get this time?" Luke asks and my stomach turns.

"Fingers," Calum says hesitantly.

Luke said "this time" like this has happened before. "Someone's sent you body parts before?" I am on the verge of hysteria and I know they can tell.

Luke clears his throat. "Montana. I understand that this must be confusing for you. But we need your corporation, this isn't a simple matter—"

"Yeah, I get that!" I glare at him. "I'm aware that this ain't a simple matter. I just got delivered fingers! Someone's fingers! And my boyfriend wouldn't let me talk the whole way here and no ones telling me what the fuck is going on!" I tug at my hair, forcing myself to calm down.

"Babe, this isn't going to be easy to explain. You need to calm down first." Sierra is gentle with the way she says this but there's a flicker of fear in her eyes.

My phone starts to ring and we all jump out of our skin. I pull it out of my bag and look at Calum before answering. "Hello?"

"Hello. Ms. Cases, this is the DA. Are you in the country ma'am?" Why was the police calling me?

"Yes...I am. Wh–Why?" When I say so, Luke turns around and rests his head on the wall behind him. Calum and Sierra stiffen on either side of me.

"Ma'am, You should come down to the police station immediately. There was an explosion at your home on 5th avenue."