Chapter Text
"Sophie! Grace!"
His voice was hoarse and raspy as he tried to be heard over the raging winds. Gales ripped and pulled at him, throwing seawater and sand into his eyes. Toby Knight ignored the stinging and the pain as he scanned the beach, endlessly searching, looking for his sister-in-law and his niece. He could hear Scott, Cavin, and Mark all shouting to be heard over the howling winds, but nobody responded to their hails. Godamn it. GODAMN IT! Anger, worry, and concern swamped through him, a dark storm of his own. The only thing that rivaled his emotions was the tempest whistling around him.
"Sophie! Sophie! Grace!" Mark's voice was easily growing more and more frantic with every passing second, and just hearing his younger brother so distraught was enough to send Toby into a frenzy of his own. His blood pressure must have been rocketing through the roof as it were.
Toby threw himself back into the search, eyes scanning the surrounding environment for a sign, a clue of a scuffle, or-
There!
Footprints!
Toby raced down the sand, following the trail - Grace's. They had to be. They were made in a hurry, sand kicked up as she'd taken off, running down the beach. Toby called out her name a few more times, scanning the sands, looking for any sign of her. . .
And he found her.
Relief flooded through him, but a moment later, it was chased away by fear.
"GRACE!" It was almost a scream, it was so loud.
Toby might have hated her, may have wished nightly that she had never met his baby brother, but he had never wished she was dead. The only bodily harm he had ever wanted to bestow upon Grace the Bitch Queen was a sharp slap across the face. She was a nasty woman when she wanted to be. But, if he were being honest with himself, after Sophie had been born, Grace had been. . . Less of a bitch. Still an uber-bitch, but sometimes, she was even nice to him.
Sometimes.
Her body was laying halfway in the surf, face down. Toby was at her side in a heartbeat, tenderly feeling for a pulse, for broken bones - internal injuries. Frigid seawater washed over his knees, chilling him from the waist down. Satisfied she wasn't dead, Toby flipped her over, and as gently as he could, dragged her out of the surf. She was on the verge of unconsciousness, and several nasty bruises were forming over her arms, neck, and head. It proved that there had been a struggle.
Her hands were clenched tightly at her sides, and her eyes were hazy and unaware.
"Grace. Grace, look at me. Are you hurt? Where's Sophie? Grace, stay awake."
He kept talking, and as if realizing he needed to be heard, the winds died down, if ever just slightly.
"I tried. . ." She mumbled, tears welling in her eyes, "I tried. I did. I tried. . . I tried."
"Grace, where's Sophie?" He grabbed her face as gently as he could and turned her head, just enough so he could lock eyes with her. Blonde hair fell in matted strands around her face, tangled with sand and dirt. The water plastered some of it to her face, but still, the tears continued to fall.
"I tried. Demon got. . . My baby."
Toby looked down, seeing just a flicker of movement, and saw Grace opening her tightly-clenched hands.
A crushed blue thing stared back up at him, and as he looked, the more its features came into shape. He took it from her, deftly lifting it out of her palm, and held it closer. Grace began to moan and sob before him, muttering Sophie's name, over and over. Toby felt his heart ache, and shoved the metal, crushed trinket into his pocket for the time being. Slipping his arms under Grace, he picked up the woman and began to make his way back to the cabin.
In his arms, his brother's wife sobbed uncontrollably as he carried her back.