"Patton?" Rachel called out, her eyes searching the perimeter of the park as she realized that he was not there, along with the other places she had searched. Her feet ceased walking and her head gave one final swivel to look at the park before she took off toward her home.
Suddenly, she felt a wrench in her gut that something was wrong.
Her legs carried her faster than ever before as she sprinted to her house, seemingly seconds before she was in her front door.
As she stopped abruptly, her eyes looked upon on her brother. "Archie, who called?" she asked, blunt and honest. She felt in her gut that it was a fairly reasonable question, because she could tell that he had been about to tell her.
His eyebrows frowned along with his mouth as he said grumpily, "Lizzie. She said you need to call back, or-"
His sentence was not finished as she was already dialing Lizzie's number. She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for her to pick up the phone.
"Hello? Numbuh 362?" Lizie's voice sounded strange.
"Lizzie, what's wrong?" Rachel demanded, not bothering with their KND names, panic beginning to take over her sense of control. Her mind was a blur of words and she seemed to feel dizzy with a slight precognition of what Lizzie was going to say.
"Patton is-"
"Don't call him Patton!"
Her outburst had shocked both her and Lizzie into silence. As she apologized and asked Lizzie to go on with it, she could tell even through the phone that Lizzie was set on edge by her attitude. She herself was on edge, scared by her own lack of control, and confused by the strange feeling in her gut that was now spreading to her heart, which was beating faster and faster…
"Ok," said Lizzie, clearly unsure. She said each word slowly and clearly, as if she was afraid that Rachel would spontaneously combust if she said something wrong. "Well, um, apparently, Patton was walking out of your house and crossing the street, and-"
"Just tell me!" Rachel pleaded, near tears from the stress, her heart leaping to her throat. "Please!" She simply could not stand the slow way she was talking.
"Don't rush me!" Lizzie said harshly. "I'll go at my own pace."
"That pace had better be fast, Lizzie, or consequences will be put into measure," Rachel hissed, anger sliding next to her terror.
"Fine!" Lizzie screamed from the other end. "Pay no mind to how I feel, me, who got the news that Patton got hit by a car and is in the hospital and who has to tell everyone all over again and again and again no matter how it affects me-"
Rachel's heart stopped beating altogether. Room umber 60, St. Clarine's Hospital, downtown, 422 Masian Street, three miles away. The information scrawled across her mind as she somehow knew exactly where Patton was…
Her scolding rampage was interrupted by Rachel's scream as she dropped the phone and took off out of the house again, only running toward the hospital, her heart trying to break into a thousand tiny pieces as she felt more than she had ever felt in her whole life combined. And her blue eyes were hectic as she did not stop screaming until she got to the hospital, the image of Patton's face, pale and almost lifeless, from her imagination, burned into her memory.
She hurried up the stairs, not bothering to stop when the lady at the counter told her to, running out of breath and therefore, as it seemed to her, running out of time…
She arrived at room Number 60 on the first floor and jolted inside, where she stopped dead in her tracks as the image that was not imaginary from her mind came into real life, doctors hustling about all around him, trying to save his life as the heart monitor around him only picked up one beat… and went silent…
Note from the author:
Sorry this one is so short! I'll make a longer one next, but I only just had this idea yesterday and seeing as how I'm doing a saga, I needed a part three that left plenty of material for part four. Hope you read my next one! Again, sorry that this is so short!