Cats and Mice

Chapter 1: Lost

Cassie was tired. She had been driving from Athens since 12:30 that afternoon. Summer vacation had finally arrived and she was anxious to get home. She was relatively sure she passed all her exams, but she wanted to get away from the memory of anxiety of the surroundings.

Her original plan was to leave campus early and get home just before dark, but a friend of hers who lives in Madisonville demanded that Cassie visits her for a while. Cassie said she would stay for an hour, but she hadn't seen her friend in so long; they ended up talking for six and a half hours.

By the time she left, Cassie could place both the Big and Little Dippers in the crystal clear Kentucky sky. She always did have a knack for astronomy. Stars and constellations were always beautiful to her. Every night when she was a kid, she would wait till her parents went to bed to climb onto the roof and map out all the stars and constellations with her fingers.

She once attempted to draw out all 17 stars that made up Hercules and always confused those of Ophiuchus and Aquila.

Though as she drove farther down route 146, fifteen miles from the turn off into town, the previously clear sky began to darken with cumulonimbus clouds, promising heavy rain. Lo and behold, not five minutes later it was pouring.

It came down in thick droplets; on top of the immense amount coming down, it seemed as though the heavens were pouring down onto the road. It was getting harder and harder to see, what with Cassie's headlights being the only source of light to illuminate the long stretch of road which ran through the woods.

Her windshield wipers were on the highest setting they would go, the sound of the sharp, rubber wipers sliding and banging against the windshield nearly inaudible due to the intense weather.

Cassie let out a groan of frustration as her windows began to fog up, making it that much harder to see.

Did the universe have it out for her specifically today?

She looked down her console and hit both the front and rear defrosters and cranked up the air conditioning in the hopes that would make it somewhat easier to see through her windshield.

But when Cassie went to hit the second defrost button, she accidentally ended up turning on the radio instead and ACDC's Highway to Hell began to blare through the car's speakers.

The impromptu noise caused Cassie to jerk the wheel a little bit, causing her to swerve onto the shoulder and the opposite lane before she was able to get back on her side of the highway.

It was a good thing there were no other cars out there because Cassie wasn't sure if she could handle any more bad luck tonight.

But it seemed the universe wasn't done with her just yet.

When she reached to turn off the music, Cassie looked away from the road in order to make sure she pushed the right button this time, so she didn't notice the half-naked girl wandering down the middle of the street.

The only reason Cassie didn't hit the girl was because a freak crash of lightning lit up the sky and the resounding boom of thunder sounded like someone breaking a wooden broom over someone's back, cracking the person's spine as a result.

The sound caused Cassie to jerk her head up, seeing the girl just in time to swerve past her, the water on the road causing the car tires to lose traction and skid a little down the highway.

Once her car came to a complete stop, Cassie tried not to panic. At first, she thought she had hallucinated the girl because when she went to look in her rearview mirror, there was no one there. However, when she looked in her side mirrors, she saw the girl lying on the ground.

"Shit!" Cassie exclaimed as she rushed to open the driver's door, resulting in her becoming drenched in water and humid air, but Cassie didn't care, she just wanted to make sure the girl was alright.

"Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead." She continued to repeat as though the words really would make the girl stay alive.

The girl was lying on her stomach, her brown hair scattered all around her head, obviously unconscious; Cassie let out a sigh of relief when she saw the girl's back move up and down with the rapid breaths she took in.

The closer Cassie got, the more of the girl she could see, though it was difficult in such dim lighting. There were several cuts and bruises on her body. Some of the bruises were reddish and some were dark purplish, and if Cassie looked hard enough, she could see that quite a few of the bruises almost looked…finger shaped. Most of the cuts were bleeding steadily, so Cassie knew they had to be deep, the rain doing a good job mixing and washing it away. Though quite a bit of it was stubborn enough not to, covering the girl as well.

"What the hell happened to you?" She silently asked, going to touch the girl, who jumped slightly at the contact.

She opened her eyes slightly, enough to see through her long locks and take in some of her surroundings. Her expression was one of confusion and fear, though it didn't last long as her eyes began to droop as she once again neared unconsciousness.

"Woah, hey, stay with me." Cassie tried to help the girl to her feet; she wobbled a lot when she stood.

"I need you to stay awake long enough for me to get you to my car. Can you do that?" Cassie tried to bargain; the girl seemed conscious enough to hear her because she moaned out her weary confirmation and her legs strengthened slightly as she attempted to take a few steps forward.

Despite the warm summer rain, the girl's skin was ice cold, enough to make even Cassie shiver; when the light skinned girl looked down at the stranger in her arms, she noticed just how pale she looked – a ghostly white shade that Cassie figured was once a golden tan.

She really needed to get this girl to a hospital.

"P-please, do-don't let them… t-take me back," the girl murmured breathily.

Cassie pulled the rear door on the driver's side open and eased the girl onto the seat, almost not catching the tired words she had just uttered.

"Don't let who take you? Back where?" Cassie figured this girl was running from someone with her current state, but she needed to know who in order to help.

The girl didn't answer immediately, now in the safety of Cassie's car where she knew she could pass out without as much fear.

During her delay, Cassie shut the back door and opened the driver's door, jumping in and immediately hauling ass to get to the hospital. She wasn't that far from Cape Girardeau and figured she would go to the hospital there.

Cassie kept looking back at the girl in the backseat, noticing her shivering heavily and turned up the heat. The two made eye contact for a brief moment.

"They'll hurt…I can't," She spoke in broken fragments that Cassie barely understood.

"Who?" Cassie asked as the car passed the 'Welcome' sign to her hometown. Now long now.

"My b–" Before she could finish her sentence, the girl passed out, her head rolling to the side though the rapid rise and fall of chest an indication of such.

At the abrupt halt in speech, Cassie looked worriedly in her rearview mirror at the now unconscious girl.

"Damn it." She cursed.

The hospital was now in view and the light skinned girl swerved into the emergency room entrance, in the lane reserved for ambulances.

When she pulled in, a man in a white nurse's outfit, not much older Cassie, came out through the sliding glass doors.

"Ma'am, you can't park here. This area is reserved for ambulances; you need to move your vehicle to the other lane."

"I can't. I found this girl walking down the highway, scared out of mind and covered in blood and bruises." Cassie motioned to her backseat, where the girl was still unconscious, but her breathing appeared to have increased drastically.

"She can't breathe!" Cassie threw open the door to her car and pulled the girl to the edge, so her bare feet were on the concrete.

"Move back Miss." The nurse said and Cassie complied with reluctant ease. "I need some help out here!"

Three nurses and a doctor ran out with a stretcher and the nurse pulled the girl the rest of the way out of the car and gently placed her on the gurney.

There was so much going on; Cassie couldn't keep up. Someone said something about a seizure, another, something about tests.

"We have to get her inside," The doctor said, making her way back to the hospital's entrance.

Cassie just stood by her car, scared and confused. Though not for herself, but for the girl she nearly hit – she wasn't even completely sure she hadn't hit her.

Though she couldn't be too much younger than Cassie and she didn't even know her, she felt responsible for the girl. Maybe it was because she did almost hit her with her car; maybe it was the scared look in her eyes and being so reliant on Cassie when they first met. All she knew was she wanted – needed – to help her in any way she could.

The girl simply gave off this irresistible wave that made Cassie feel obligated to help and make sure she was okay.

"Miss, you need to move your car, then a deputy is on the way to talk to you." The nurse from before called from the door.

"Y-yeah. Okay." Cassie could do that. If she talked to the police, she could get the girl the protection she needed. She may not know a lot, but she knew enough to help. Even if a little.

Besides, talking to the police helped.

Right?