Part three
By Shannon Kathleen
LOS ANGELES
The day before Joey's graduation
Dawson zipped up his suitcase and pulled on his LA Lakers cap. The shuttle to the airport would arrive any minute. He checked his carry-on bag for the small box he had carefully packed. He wanted the perfect gift for Joey because she had accomplished the goal she had made when they were so young. Tomorrow it would be her turn to shine.
Instantly, Dawson thought of Pacey. He picked up the phone, dialing his old friend's number. When he heard Pacey's canned voice over the answering machine, he sighed impatiently. He had not spoken to his old friend in a few months.
"Hey Pace, you there?" Dawson hesitated to see if he would answer. "Well, I just wanted to let you know that I was coming into town tomorrow. I am going to spend some time with the parents and Joey. I would really like to see what you have been doing lately…"
Dawson was interrupted by the click of the receiver and Pacey's voice on the other end.
"D-man"
"Hey Pace. I wasn't sure if you were still alive."
"Well, I had my hands full for a minute there."
Dawson heard female laughter in the background.
"Well, some things haven't changed."
"Yeah, sure, well did I hear you tell my machine that you're coming into town?" Pacey changed the subject.
"I want to take a sail in your new boat one day this weekend," Dawson said. "Do you have some spare time?"
"Hey, sorry baby," Pacey said to the girl in the background. "My buddy wants some of my time this weekend…"
Pacey laughed, bring the receiver back to his face.
"Hey Dawson, I'll always make time for you. So, what brings you back to this rat trap?"
Dawson froze with that question. "Oh, ahhh, just thought it was time."
NEW YORK
Joey's graduation day
8:15 a.m.
Breathing out heavily was the only way to relieve the pressure on her chest. She told herself she had to put a smile on her face and push images of her boyfriend kissing another woman out of her mind because her entire past was going to converge tomorrow for her graduation. She would have to deal with him later. She couldn't let anyone see that her life was less than perfect, not right now at least.
Joey stopped ironing her gown and fought her subconscious from reminding her once again there were a few people from her past who would not be here tomorrow. Her mother had died from breast cancer when she was in junior high school, her father was still incarcerated in prison and Pacey was... Joey shivered and pushed Pacey from her mind. He would not even care that she was graduating, Joey thought, which was why she did not even bother to invite him. This is one of those days to put away in the mind's scrapbook and she was not going to let herself be haunted by suspicions and doubts of her boyfriend and pain from her past; she made a concerted effort to give herself confidence.
9:30 a.m.
"Dawson Leery, you look like a surfer right off Malibu Beach."
Dawson recognized the strident voice calling out to him. When he turned to see her, it confirmed his first thought that Andie McPhee had not changed from the giddy schoolgirl cliché. Her baby fine blond hair was still pulled back with tiny clips; her dress still cut short in a baby doll style. But Dawson did agree with her about his looks. The sun seemed to naturally bleach his hair, and his skin had never been so tan. It took him only a short time to get use to the absence of Capeside winters in Southern California.
Dawson smiled, giving her a long, tight squeeze. After they embraced, her brother Jack walked up to shake Dawson's hand. He had been a one-time enemy after Jack kissed Joey while she was his girlfriend but later they became fast friends, and the two college men still kept in touch by email. Jack played football for a college in Rhode Island and was starting a web design internship this summer in New York. He had always been a computer whiz, and Dawson expected him to become the first millionaire he knew with a start-up web business some time soon.
Andie reached out to shake the tall man's hand, who trailed along side the McPhee siblings.
"Dawson, meet the love of my life." Andie pulled him toward Dawson proudly. "Troy's a business student who will be graduating next December. I wrote to you about our plans." Andie held out her hand with the half-caret diamond sitting on an antique engraved band.
Dawson reached out to hug Andie again. He congratulated the quiet man entering their small group of friends with a handshake thinking Andie had found someone who will at least listen to her quietly. Dawson could hardly contain his amusement, remembering Joey described Andie's fiancé as "just like her."
Jack smiled as he looked at his sister shaking like a small puppy with excitement. "Andie's been so eager to see you all morning," Jack laughed. "Here you take her now. Our ears need a break."
"So spill…who've you met in La La Land?" Andie spewed enthusiasm naturally still giving her brother a punch in his upper arm.
Well, I caught a glimpse of Julia Roberts, filming in Beverly Hills…and George Lucas when he was doing a presentation for the computer animation department at my school." Dawson said with swelling pride. "Some of the guys in my classes have finally gotten out of the habit of spending Saturday afternoon with me in the Hamburger Hamlet waiting for someone famous to walk down Hollywood Boulevard."
Andie giggled, giving Dawson the cue to continue.
"I have to take you there when you come to visit me soon…and Pacey. I can't wait to see Pacey. No one I've met in California seems to be able to take his place in the antics department. Life is boring sometimes without him."
Dawson paused and realized the absence of Pacey was an obvious void he felt surrounding his friends. Everyone felt awkward at the mention of his name. Dawson shook his head and thought, Pacey, you moron, what could have happened between you and Joey? And now this is the circumstance we all have to face.
"Have either of you seen Joey yet?" Dawson asked. "We just came in from Capeside, and I thought I'd find you guys while my mother finds a place for the car. My father tried to come today, but he just wasn't feeling well for some reason."
"I saw her early this morning," Andie said with a sudden scowl. "I don't think she slept much last night though because she was in the same place in the living room when I went to bed and when I got up. She usually doesn't watch much TV, but she was glued to it last night. Jitters, I guess."
Suddenly Jen Lindley sung out Dawson's name as she jumped into his arms. He swung her around twice before putting her feet back on the ground. Jen was his first girlfriend and his first kiss. Both were constantly infatuated with one another in the past but rarely at the same time. Dawson let his eyes soak in her refined sexuality that came with the years, which Jen rarely exuded intentionally.
Dawson laughed as Andie pulled an air horn from her purse with a mischievous glance at her friends. "Joey will just love us for this one."
As Dawson put his arms around Andie and Jen, the small Capeside reunion melted into the crowd of other friends and family swarming New York City to see their loved ones graduate.
Moments later
Pacey heart leapt in his chest every time he pictured her face. He felt so close as he pulled his truck into the parking lot near NYU at the crack of dawn vowing to get the front row seat of this event. He had to take the best pictures of Joey with his new professional camera equipment. This was the defining moment in her life, and he wanted to be there.
As he made his way into Washington Square Park, he looked around seeking familiar faces. He wanted to make sure his old friends did not see him here. He sunk down in his seat not sure of where they would be sitting. Mitch had sacrificed his ticket, so I would not miss this, but he had to be discrete, he remembered.
Pacey lifted his camera to his face, focusing on the stage below with his powerful telephoto lens.
"Now, you have officially become a stalker," Pacey chuckled to himself as "Pomp and Circumstance" began to play. As she passed him in the procession, Pacey could have sworn Joey looked right at him.
Right after graduation
"Where could she be?" A frustrated Dawson looked through the massive crowd of people leaving Washington Square Park. "Everyone is dressed the same. Why wasn't she waiting for us at the corner like we agreed upon?"
"Joey is use to the city now and probably will make it home all right," Jen teased her nervous friend.
Jen and Dawson hung back from the group of Capesiders, maps in hands, timidly fighting the people on the streets of New York. Jen was a native of the cement jungle, and unconsciously made her way through the streets. It might have been nice of her to take over the tour-guiding burden from Bessie's shoulders, but she wanted to spend some time with Dawson.
Jen looked up at her old friend, who seemed to be scanning the faces in the streets for a certain familiar face.
"Jen, how do you fight this maddening crush of people on a daily basis?" Dawson laughed as he threw some coins into the hat of a street musician.
"But you deal with this everyday in a different way." Jen snapped back. "Everyone is just fighting each other from behind the wheel of a car in that town of sun, shopping and plastic body-part worshippers, which is destined to sink into the Pacific."
Dawson was glad to see that her personality had not changed as she he searched her face for some signs of the 15-year-old he had first met. Did he pick up on some anxiety?
Jen winced as she prepared to tell him some bad news.
FIVE BLOCKS AWAY
Later that afternoon
Joey ducked down into Will's Mitsubishi sports car after placing her large duffel bag into the small backseat.
"Ready to go," She turned to her boyfriend studying the map. "Will we make it before the party starts at 7 tonight?" Joey asked.
Joey glanced at the clock on the dashboard. 2:38 p.m. Bessie, Dawson and her friends were probably already heading into Massachusetts by now. Joey had been disappointed when Will told her that her family and friends had not been waiting in the agreed-upon spot. But he had met her as she was leaving the park, bearing flowers and kisses, so she had not thought to look for her family harder. But she felt their presence as she walked across the stage. She even thought she heard an air gun when her name was called. That would have been something Pacey would have done, Joey thought wistfully.
"I want the entire town to meet the new Josephine Potter," Joey blurted out. "There she is, Joey Potter, the New Yorker…Joey with the perfect man; Joey, the artist. That is what they all will say."
She hoped she was far from the little tomboy who grew up on the creek, practically orphaned by her father, who she watched ride away in a police car.
"Man, your hometown's down in the sticks." Will said.
"No, it's not. You're going to love it." Joey drifted back to the years she spent in Capeside. "Well, when I was not dreaming about moving away, living near the water did not completely suck. My home's on a small creek that leads to the Cape, which is where the main part of town sits. We should rent a boat and go sailing while you are here. Someone taught me years ago. It is probably like riding a bike."
The two New Yorkers, one a native, the other a fresh transplant, headed toward Joey's past. Almost four years had past since Dawson and Bessie had dropped her off as a freshman in the big city. She had been so scared then, so worried that she would fail after being so close to freedom. Had she really met the goals she had set over a decade ago when she watched her mother die? She had certainly earned her degree, but was this the freedom she sought?
Joey shoved the sudden doubts and fears that popped up frequently into the back of her mind, telling herself that he is the best thing that ever happened to her. Her heart told her that she had felt so much more love than this before, but it had scared her away. Joey closed her eyes, leaned her head against the window and forced herself not to think of Pacey.
Several hours later, Joey could almost hear her home calling her as the Mitsubishi thundered up Highway 138 toward Cape Cod.
"I'm so excited to see Dawson…and for you to meet him too," Joey said as the sign for Highway 3 that led to Capeside flew by. "The minute we get there I wanna see him. If he's not at my house when we get there, we can row down the creek just a little ways to his house."
"Oh, we can?" Will asked with uncertainty.
"I told you about him." Joey glanced cautiously at Will who did not turn around to meet her eyes. "We have been best friends since we were practically toddlers. For several years, I was in love with him, but it was never meant to be. I think I still do love him and always will though." When Will glanced at Joey she was lost in the past.
Suddenly the sports car screeched to a halt. Joey was pitched forward; her seat belt's resistance punched her in the chest, forcing all the air out of her lungs.
Sanctuary Part Four
By Shannon Kathleen
MASSACHUSETTS HIGHWAY 3
10 minutes from Capeside
6:30
Startled, Joey opened her eyes to see what had caused the car to come to a screeching halt on the highway. Will was staring at her as if to blame her for the car's actions. She looked around to see if they had hit something on the road.
"What happened?" Joey asked in a shaky voice, looking around.
It hit her suddenly that Will had intentionally slammed on the brakes while going 80 mph and swerved to the side of the road, causing a cold shill to tearing through her spine.
"Would you prefer we get there in 3 hours because I can do that for you?" Will said as his car started down the highway at 10 miles an hour. His face was hard and cold. Joey knew this change all too well. His classic good looks seemed to morph into monstrous features. His brow seemed to furrow and jut out like a Neanderthal's. His mouth twisted downward into a tight thin-lipped frown. His eyes shone with pure hatred.
"Why didn't you tell me he was coming," Will demanded. "Are you trying to keep something from me?"
Fear ripped through Joey, causing her to shudder. But this time seemed to be different. She reached for the door handle, but she found it locked just as Will's car shot back into traffic this time at 95 miles per hour.
"Will! Stop this!"
Joey's first thought was that she shouldn't have mentioned Dawson. She had learned to refrain from mentioning other men in her life. As the car sped toward her hometown, Joey tried to gain confidence. What could he do to her here on the way to her own turf? Before she could speak, Will started in on one of his rants. Joey wanted to cover her ears, promising herself that this would be the last time. She let him talk and prayed Capeside would appear soon.
"Why do you treat me this way?" Joey cried, interrupting him, not able to hold her silence any longer. "What do I do to make you so angry?" Joey tried to hold them back, but the tears started to flow. It was making her even angrier that she couldn't control them. Where was her strength? Why has it left her here alone? She decided it was time to fight back for the first time. She was tired of this part of their relationship. And she could hardly remember any other part.
"Is it just my gender that you detest so much?" Joey spit her words at him in disgust. "I don't think I personally could have done anything to instigate this rage. Did your mother leave you with an ugly, mean, fairly-tale stepmother or did your first girlfriend decide she wanted more from her teen years, leaving you a bitter old man? What left you like this?"
Will was startled by her sudden retaliation, but did not let her gain on his domination last long. Joey quickly turned toward the window, realizing that speaking her mind might be more dangerous than she thought. She breathed in to gain more strength despite her queasy stomach. Will's hand shot up and grabbed Joey in the jaw, turned her face to his and tightened his grip while maintaining his 95 mile-an-hour journey down Highway 3.
Joey refused to meet him in the eyes though. With an imprisoned jaw, she looked to the side, while saying, " What could you have wanted with me? I'm a child compared to the others. I know I am not the only one."
Will's grip tightened, forcing Joey's mouth open. "Well, you get some on the side from that Dawson guy, so why shouldn't I get what I want elsewhere." Will said. "If you really wanted us to work, you would've cut ties with your California director wannabe when I first mentioned it."
"Are you crazy?" Joey cried. "You wanted me to turn my back on the best friend I ever had for some workaholic, womanizing, jackass with the libido of a 17-year-old boy with the mind of one too." She laughed in disgust.
"Yeah, and I am taking a week out of my like to come visit this hick town teeming with your hick family and friends, because this is what all the young professional BACHELORS are doing. It's all about compromise."
Will spit the word in her face and threw her back against the window, which was his final mistake. The adrenaline had begun to flow through Joey's veins and now with her face free from his grip, she knew it was time to strike back. Before he realized it, Joey had grabbed for the steering wheel, taking him off guard. Damaging the car was the only way Joey knew she could hurt Will emotionally and maybe end this ride from hell. Just one mile short of the Capeside sign that had always meant she was almost home, Joey's life would start to head in another direction. As she tugged on the wheel, the car started to spin into the other lane, barely missed a truck, and swerved onto the shoulder. Will kept elbowing Joey in the head, but she only let go of the wheel when he jabbed her in the eye with all of his strength.
When the car came to a halt in the sparse wooded area along the highway, Joey was able to free herself from the seat belt, the car and the life she had lead for the last year. Tears of anger and pain, streamed from her eyes, one swelling shut. Joey's blurred vision allowed her to see a few cars pass her on the highway. Someone must have seen them veer off the highway and would stop to help her. Here she was in her hometown, during a time she had dreamed of returning with her head held high, and now all she wanted to do was run and hide. But after all of this, where could she go so that no one would know she was living through this hell. At least she was certain that Will was not going to crawl back for her forgiveness. This part of her life was ending.
Will burst out of the car, but only to throw her large duffel bag and purse from the backseat.
"I'm going to sue you for these damages," Will jumped back into the driver's seat and threw the car into gear. He imagined hurting her, but he figured scaring the life out of her would be just as fun too. She would know who had control in the end.
Joey heard the car behind her, but her confusion and lack of clear eyesight did not allow her to react very quickly. Covering her injured eye, Joey started walking toward town or into the woods; she was not sure just yet where she wanted to end up. But she did not find refuge quick enough. Will gunned his car out of the brush straight for her. The car's fender clipped her leg and spun her small body around to face the hood. Before the car threw her to the ground, her stomach grazed the mirror and the side of her face hit the top of the doorframe. Even though he had just hit his girlfriend, Will thundered back on the four-lane highway in the direction opposite the one they had been traveling.
Joey covered her head with her arms and struggled to get up from the ground when she was sure he was gone. Several cars had begun to stop along the shoulder to help the fallen young woman. A voice from her past cried her name as she struggled to get up. She tried to focus on the figure shading her from the pounding sun. Her injured eye and the dust from the road blinded her, but Joey felt she knew his touch. Joey forced her eye open to see what she thought was Pacey trying to hold her still. This must be a nightmare. I'm seeing ghosts from my past, she thought. Joey suddenly let out an exhaustive scream, letting go of all the pain she had been holding inside for years. She lay completely vulnerable on the ground outside her childhood hometown letting her old neighbors or strangers - she wasn't sure whom - comfort her in what she felt was the lowest point of her life.
"Pacey…Pacey…help…he…he stole…he…took…me…no," she screamed incoherently over the sound of screeching breaks.
Joey felt several people hold her down. Through her tears, Joey struggled to break away and stand on her own. When she could open her eyes again, she realized sensing Pacey must have been her imagination. He wasn't anywhere in sight.
"I'm OK," Joey said with a shaky voice. "Please…let me go. My sister…my...." When she continued to lose the battle, Joey finally pleaded with her captors. "Call Dawson…call Bessie, please…please."
CAPESIDE
5 minutes earlier
Pacey and Rachel silently sat side-by-side in his truck. She had called Pacey on his mobile phone to pick her up from a friend's. He was willing but irritated.
"So, you're saying your gracious hosts just spiked the punch with a little bit of vodka, huh?" Pacey asked. "And you couldn't taste that there was something strange about this punch even when the sherbet started to boil at the top?"
"There wasn't any sherbet." Rachel sputtered.
Pacey looked at her, shook his head, and leaned it back against the seat. She could never pick up on his subtleties, he thought. Rachel just continued to look blankly at him.
"Listen, I'm not going to have your parents start putting two and two together that your breath always smells like this when you are with me. I'll drop you off at the curb."
When she did not answer him again, he decided to drop the subject.
Suddenly Pacey gripped the steering wheel, as a car in the opposite lane threatened to pull into his lane. Before he had time to swerve his truck, the car careened across the lanes and into the wooded area off of the shoulder. Pacey looked around and realized it was his duty to go back and see if the driver needed help. Out of his rearview mirror, he saw a dark-haired young woman run from the car toward the highway. Was she hurt, he wondered? He hoped that he and the drunken girl beside him had not stumbled across too serious an accident.
What he saw next pulled all of the air out of his lungs. His truck thundered back to the scene just as the red sports car struck the girl and knocked her to the ground. His subconscious told him he recognized the girl. Was his mind playing tricks on him? He had just seen her in New York, but Pacey would swear he had just seen Joey struck by the angry car. His trunk screeched to a halt as the red car pulled out in front of him. Pacey jumped down from the truck, shouting at Rachel to call 911. Other cars from both lanes started to slam on their breaks and pull over after seeing the hit-and-run.
He knew the body; he knew the hair. He recognized her even though she lay face down on the ground.
Pacey dropped to his knees just as she turned her dirt-streaked face up to him. Pacey bit hard down on his bottom lips as he cried her name softly. "Jo? Oh, no Jo" He whispered as he supported her back gently while she struggled to get up. Pacey pulled down his hat, hoping to conceal his eyes. He knew she didn't need to see him here and now. But she did seem to pull his face into focus. Pacey recognized sheer terror crawl into her eyes, and she started to scream in a voice filled with desperation Pacey had never heard before. Did he just imagine her calling his name?
Realizing that other people were running to his side to restrict her movement, Pacey backed away from her and jumped back in his truck. He peeled out from the shoulder to hunt down the red car. Pulling his cell out of his back pocket, he shouted at Rachel to quiet her screams. He dialed directly to his brother, Doug, who was a deputy under their father since he graduated from the police academy. When Doug answered, Pacey exhaled a small prayer.
"Doug, if you have to take me seriously only once in your life, this'll be the moment," Pacey pleaded, sounding like a younger brother for the first time in a few years. "I just witnessed someone hit by a car. The asshole is on the run, driving a Mitsubishi 3000GT, I think. I'm gaining on him down Highway 3 going south.
Doug, who had been a mile away in downtown, turned on the siren with the words "someone hit," and sped in his brother's direction.
"Pacey please slow down, and don't chase this guy," Doug yelled into the phone, only to receive his brother's voice promising to get the license plate, deaf to anything Doug had said.
About 10 minutes passed as Pacey caught up with Will, who seemed to have no idea he was being followed. Just as he was gaining the nerve to hit the sports car, Pacey heard the sirens in the distance. He demurred and pulled over to the side of the road. A bewildered, terrified Rachel watched as he tried to hide the sobs that shook his entire body.
Rachel, although very confused, knew she had never seen so much emotion come from her boyfriend since she met him, and it sobered her up quickly. She walked with him back into his apartment, where he started to act like nothing had happened. Rachel lay down beside him in the neatly-made bed until he dozed off. The events of the day still replayed in her mind. What had made her boyfriend react like that? Rachel slithered off of the bed, so not to disturb Pacey. She wandered to the living room and fell on the couch Pacey had purchased from his parents when he moved out two years ago. Rachel laid her head in her hands. It was pounding from the mixture of the earlier party indulgence and the event she had witnessed. Rachel tried to close her eyes but the scene kept replaying. While picking up a magazine off of the second hand coffee table, Rachel uncovered a leather-covered keepsake box that she had never seen before, but it didn't look brand new to her. The box top was sitting atop the box, but ajar. Suddenly her headache was a distant memory and her curiosity was piqued. Glancing in Pacey's bedroom to find him sleeping, she opened the box slowly.
For the next couple hours, Rachel invaded Pacey's privacy as he slept, discovering things she had never known about her boyfriend. Before she finally left, she glanced in on him for what she was sure was the last time as his girlfriend. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully, but a storm was brewing in Rachel, and she was preparing to let go of the first heavy flood.
POTTER BED AND BREAKFAST
7:20
Some of the guests had begun to arrive and made their way down to the creek where Bessie had set up a small dance floor adorned by strings of lights in the trees. The appetizers were served and the music was luring guests to the tables. Bessie looked out toward her guests as she finished preparing another pitcher of daiquiris. Where was Dawson? She expected that Joey might be late, but Dawson promised to be there before the others arrived. Thankfully, Jen and Andie had begun to mingle with the guests.
As Bessie stepped onto the back porch, her heart skipped a beat to see Gale Leery running up from the creekside toward Bodie. Frantically, Gale told Bodie something that made him reach up to cover his mouth and then to stroke his forehead. They both turned to see her standing on the porch, and from the looks on their faces, Bessie's instinct told her to drop the pitcher she held and run from them all of a sudden.
MASSACHUSETTS HIGHWAY
7:00
Dawson tore the car across the two opposite lanes of the highway, looking for a sign of his best friend in the crowd surrounding the ambulance. He let out a ragged breath when he saw her leaning on the edge of the ambulance, one of her hands balancing on her knee. Her tiny bent body was heaving up and down. Joey was covering one of her eyes, but the other one looked swollen and red. Her flushed face was streaked with dirt and tears. An EMT looked like he was taking her vitals and cleaning her wounds. What confused him was that it did not look like a car accident. None of the cars surrounding the ambulance looked like they had been impacted.
Dawson jumped out of his parent's sports utility vehicle and raced toward her. Running through the crowd, he suddenly faltered 10 feet in front of her. He had been feeling her pain the entire ride, but when he saw her up close, it hit like a punch in the abdomen. He slowly walked the rest of the way to her side.
"What happened, Joey?" Dawson reached out for somewhere on her body that was not sore or bloody. Deciding on the back of her head, Dawson ran his fingers through her dark hair, pulling out the shreds of grass. Joey said nothing but allowed Dawson's gesture to comfort her.
She pushed away an EMT, who was trying to convince her to lie down on the stretcher and get her to take her hand away from her injured eye.
"OK, I'm here and Bessie's coming." Dawson whispered. "Everything's going to be OK."
The entire scene confused Dawson. Where was her boyfriend? Why were the police pulling up? Why weren't the paramedics taking her to the hospital?
Dawson bent onto his knees to look into Joey's pasty-white face covered with dirt and abrasions. "Where is Will?" Dawson whispered urgently.
Joey looked down at him with a hateful expression like he was to blame for Will's whereabouts as she started to breathe shallowly.
"Please tell me what happened?"
"I can't tell you." Joey raised her voice suddenly. "No…never…you'll be disappointed in me."
Dawson breathed easier to hear Joey's voice. It had not changed, but what she was saying wasn't clear.
"What? Joey, you aren't making any sense." Dawson stood up and held his forehead in his hand. He felt helpless and he knew she needed it.
"Just tell me what hurt you. Did Will hurt you…what did he do?"
"He did this to me." Joey began to shake with what seem to Dawson like rage. "No…No, I did this to myself. I let him destroy me. What am I going to do? What have I become?"
Joey looked up at him as if she suddenly didn't recognize him.
Dawson let a whimper escape his throat as Joey suddenly fell forward against him heavily as if she had wanted to run, but her feet had failed her.
"Help me! What is the problem here with this bureaucracy?" Dawson shouted to the police and paramedics, who seemed to be filing out paperwork, as he supported her limp body.
"Something's wrong… my friend…help…I think she is in shock. She needs a hospital."
To Be Continued....