I had to get out of the house anyway; standing around here wasn’t doing anything but making me lose my shit faster.
“Come on boy let’s go for a ride.” I ran downstairs with Jasper at my heels and called out to my parents that I’d be back in a while.
The three of us had talked and they were just as concerned as I was, but none of us were giving up.
I figured I’d take a little ride and then head on over to her parents. The cops weren’t telling me anything, because I didn’t have any rights where she was concerned, but her dad was being very good about keeping me in the loop.
Jared wasn’t doing too well with it either. I think we were both dealing with the same kind of guilt.
We were the last of her loved ones to see her. Was there something that we could’ve done differently to avoid what was going on now?
I decided to head back over to the school we’d played at the night before. The last place I’d seen her.
I went in the opposite direction this time, looking down alleys and dark spots as I drove by. Jasper was still sniffing the air as if seeking her.
“I know boy I miss her too.” He stuck his head out the window and howled. I slowed for another vehicle and he jumped. "What the fuck Jasper?"
I pulled off to the side of the little dead end street that he ran down, bounded out of the car behind him, and tried to catch up.
Where the fuck was he going? We'd never been on this side of town before, but the way he acted it was as if he was coming home.
I didn't have time for this shit. I needed to find my girl, not be running down my dog in a deserted lot in the middle of fucking nowhere.
“Come on boy let’s go.” The damn dog wasn’t paying me any mind. I wanted to scream, what the fuck kind of shit was this anyway?
How could you be going on about your life one minute and be totally blindsided the next? Who decides this shit?
Up ahead, I saw my dog stop and sniff around what looked like a bunch of rags hidden in the bushes.
"Jasper, come on." He’s got to be the best fed dog in the damn state but he jumps out the car to come sniff rags,
As I got closer the hair on my arms tingled and stood on edge. I know that pose, it’s his guard and protect, but why...
Jasper looked at me with his tongue hanging out and a look of satisfaction on his face. I looked from him to the rags that he was now straddling in his protective stance and my knees felt weak, just when I wanted to run forward.
I saw her hair first, matted, a little with red, then her shoulder, then...I didn't realize that the partial blindness I felt was because of my tears until I was standing over her.
"Sian, baby, no." I dropped to my knees and pulled her up. My heart had frozen in my chest and I couldn't think, couldn't feel. I was numb from the inside out.
I opened my mouth and roared, that's the only word for it; the pain the anguish the venom all spewed out in that one sound.
I pulled her tighter into my chest and tried to will life back into her. “Don’t do this to me baby, please. SIAN.” I shook her a little and then felt guilty for doing that so I stopped.
I couldn’t see any wounds on her face but the blood in her hair...
I felt movement, was that her, or...? I held still, waiting and watching, my eyes glued to her face for any sign of movement, even a twinge.
There! I was up and running with her clutched tightly against my chest, Jasper at my heels.
"It's okay baby I'm gonna get you to the hospital." I didn't want to let her go but I had to.
At least now I could think again, could function, because I held her again. I laid her gently in the backseat even though I never wanted to let her go again, before hopping in the front.
I speed dialed her dad first, "Jackson I found her, I found her, meet us at Memorial General.
"Is she...?”
“I don't know yet, she's barely breathing, but she's alive get there.” I hung up and called my dad next.
“Dad I need you and mom to meet me at Memorial General.
"Fuck, are you hurt?"
"No, Sian...”It was all I could get out.
"We're on our way."
I talked to her as I raced through the streets. "You're gonna be fine baby, we'll get you all the help you need just hang in there." There was so much blood in her hair.
Chapter 9
Both of our families beat me to the hospital, not to mention the cops. Everyone was talking at once. But I ignored all of them as I made my way through the emergency room. Looking for a bed or a stretcher or just anything to lay her on.
She hadn’t awakened yet and her breathing seemed even shallower than when I’d found her.
A doctor and his team soon came running and she was snatched from my arms.
I had to give the cops an account of what happened and knew from their looks of suspicion that they found the story preposterous at best.
I can’t say that I blame them. The damn dog had done what none of us could.
I wasn’t too worried about their suspicions. If there’s one thing I was sure of it was that everybody knew my whereabouts that night.
When they were through with their questions and her parents had given me their thanks, I was left alone with my thoughts.
I asked dad to do me a favor, which he was only happy to. And then I went back to pacing back and forth, as our friends trickled into the waiting room.
The doctors hadn’t come out and said anything as yet and it had been more than an hour. I wasn’t sure if that was good or not.