Spookychild’s writings

“Why are you here?” Lea replied, finally able to ask the question that was bothering her. There was nothing else for them to discuss. What else could be said to a stranger who was always by her bedside when she awoke and wouldn’t explain the reason for his presence?

Darren looked surprised and slightly embarrassed. “Because I hit you with my truck,” he responded, visibly struggling to utter these words.

“But it was not your fault,” Lea explained. “Why do you feel  like you’re responsible for my condition.” She began running out of oxygen while using such long sentences.

“I was driving my truck, and you were on the road. I hit you.” Darren replied, wrinkling his brow. “I should have been able to stop the truck before it hit you. But I struck you. How is this not my fault?” 

“It is not your fault because I was waiting for a vehicle to run me over,”  Lea explained, floundering while endeavoring to sit up. Eventually, she raised herself to one side after a few minutes of pushing her muscles to the limit. But her pain increased to nearly unbearable.

“You wanted to be hit? Why?” Now, it was Darren’s turn to ask her questions as he tried to see into her mind.   

“Because I wanted to die,” Lea announced, after allowing herself to fall back into place, without hesitating and without any emotion. Why not confess, she wondered? Maybe if she exhibited complete honesty, he would go away and leave her alone. The ultimate goal was for Darren to leave the hospital room and never return. Lea narrowed her eyes to block out the light and watched him for any indication of movement toward the exit.

“Why did you want to die? We’re so young, and we have so much left to experience.” Darren was genuinely surprised and intrigued.

“I’m twenty-six. I don’t feel young.” Lea changed the subject, not wishing to explain why she wanted to die. It was easier somehow, while regretting her confession.

“I’m twenty-four; what’s the big deal? We’re not even thirty; we have many years left yet.” Darren leaned forward towards her; his face was only two feet away from hers.

https://books2read.com/Open-the-door-let-the-sun-in

 The food was gone all too quickly and she held her tongue not asking for more.  The first star was just beginning to come out she looked straight up at it.  Once more, she felt a lump in her throat at the beauty of it, but her grandmother would never see another star

 She sighed then a deep long sigh.  The worst part was it hadn’t even been 24 hours.  Already they’d walked so many miles and covered so much ground and they had found out that her grandmother was dead now she was alone in the world with Devon and Sasha

 She told herself she was lucky she told herself that she could have gone with them the day before and been dead in the warehouse too or wherever they had sent her uncle.  In that case Sasha would have been dead as well because she would have had nobody to take care of her

 But to the girl alone with a man and a dog under the darkening sky watching the stars come out it was little comfort to think of it that way. It didn’t matter how lucky she was what was making her so sad was the fact that she had no family left

her mom her grandmother’s grandfather father we’re all gone.  Not only that the world had fallen apart so any further distant relatives were unreachable a few tears trickled down her face as she remembered her cousins great aunt and her mother’s cousins

She wondered where in the great wide world they were. Were they alive, or had they been taken to by the strangers in the bus, two similar warehouses, and met identical fates to her grandmother or uncle

 She realized there was no way of knowing, and even if she did, there was nothing she could do about it. It was gone over. She sighed and closed her eyes, dropping them down onto her lap. The water dripped off her cheeks and into her clothes from her chin

It hadn’t even been 24 hours since the buses came. she remembered she had woken up sometime around midnight. It was barely dark now; another few hours to go yet for that 24-hour mark, but it seemed like it had been a lifetime.

James already had his phone out and point at the pair. He caught a zoomed in photo of the gun in the man’s hand, between the blades of uncut grass, flowers and weeds. James moved swiftly, stuffed his phone back in his pocket and as the man held up the gun and pointed it at Brooke’s head James noiselessly ran across the pavement and crashed into the reeds 

James hit the man from the side and at an angle. In fact the gun went off at the moment of impact. The bullet missed Brooke’s head by inches. She had heard the ruckus behind her and ducked a moment before impact.

The man and James tussled for a moment. But james managed to get the gun out of his hand. Then he turned and punched him a few times, in a few moves he had the man on the ground knocked out. He didn’t hesitate. He took the zip ties he carried with him and put several on his wrists and ankles.

Then he turned to Brooke, while taking out his phone and dialing 911. She had fallen to her knees. She had crumpled into a little ball and was sobbing her eyes out. She couldn’t watch. She was too terrified of James being killed, then there would be two bodies by the river. Not just her own. She sobbed and sobbed.

She jumped and gave a shriek when he touched her, wrapping his arm around her. He was speaking to the woman dispatcher. “Yes, Kennedy park, by the last parking lot, next to the river. Yes.”

Brooke saw and felt it was James. She buried her face into his backward jacket and trembled against him, still crying uncontrollably.

James hung up the phone and hugged Brooke with two arms. “It’s okay,  we are okay.” He murmured into her hair. She shook and shuddered with tears against him. They sat in this way for a few minutes, till he saw the flashing lights approaching. The sun had gone down. the cool bay breeze was pushing against James’ back.

“Brooke I need to get out my badge the police are here.” he kissed her hair. She pulled away, shivering from the wind and trembling from the fear. She sat with her knees against her chest, hugging them. She rocked back and forth, her eyes closed. James’ got his badge and wrapped his left arm around Brooke again.