Cee Cee's POV
"Mmm… Adam… move your arm. The phone is ringing," I mumbled. Adam was back home in Carmel, and we were spending our break together. He rolled over, grumbled something, and fell back asleep instantaneously.
"Hello?" I asked groggily when I finally managed to answer the phone.
"Cee Cee?" It was a man's voice, but I couldn't place it. Then I finally realized who it was.
"Jesse?"
"Cee, I need Susannah's home number." His voice sounded strange. Hoarse, and like he had a cold.
"She lives with you, genius."
"No, her parents' number, in Carmel." Suddenly, I realized why he sounded funny. He had been crying.
"947-555-1937. Why? Jesse, what's going on?" I asked.
"It's Susannah… she… Angela… tonight…" he stuttered, trying to find the words to explain what was going on. I was wide awake now, and nervous. "Just, please, come down to the hospital and I'll explain it to you."
"I'll pick up Mrs. Ackerman, and be there soon." I hung up, and rolled out of bed.
"Where are you going?" Adam moaned.
"It's Suze. Something happened. I have to go to the hospital." Unfortunately, he had already fallen back asleep again. I rolled my eyes, and hurriedly wrote a note and stuck it on the clock. Then I pulled pants on, and ran out the door.
…………………………………………………………………………
After about ten minutes of banging on the door at the Ackerman residence, I heard someone stumble down the stairs inside. David appeared at the door a moment later.
"Cee, what are you doing here?" He asked. "It's 2 in the morning."
"Go wake up your mom," I ordered. "Something happened to Suze." He no sooner turned around to go upstairs, when Mrs. Ackerman shot down the steps.
"Jesse just called," she said to me. She then turned to David. "Cee Cee and I are going to the hospital. I'll call when I know what's going on. Let Dad know where I am, okay?" She quickly kissed his forehead, and we ran to my car and sped off towards the city.
"Do you know what's going on?" she asked me, as we raced down the highway. I shook my head.
"Jesse mentioned something about Angela, Suze's friend. That's all I know." We rode the rest of the way in silence.
When we got to the hospital, a nurse directed us to the fourth floor, where we finally found Jesse.
……………………………………………………………………………………
Jesse's POV
"Jesse?" I felt someone tap my shoulder, and I jumped, and looked behind me. It was Susannah's mother.
"Mrs. Ackerman, Cee Cee, hello," I said. I stood up, offering her my seat, but she only grabbed my arm.
"Jesse, what happened? Where's Susie?" I took in a deep, shuddering sigh.
"It was Angela," I said, at a loss of anything else to say. "She was the one who killed Krystal and Beth. Cee Cee gaped.
"She killed her own sister!" I nodded, and took another deep breath. I was so heartbroken, so nervous and so worried about Susannah, I was surprised I was still standing. "She did seem really weird that one day I had dinner with them."
"What happened?" Mrs. Ackerman pressed. I rubbed my eyes
"Angela chose Susannah as her next victim," I explained. Cee Cee and Mrs. Ackerman gasped. "By the time I got there, she had already been stabbed twice in the stomach." Mrs. Ackerman cried out, and started to collapse but Cee Cee caught her, and we both helped her into a chair.
"Is she okay?" Cee Cee asked.
"She's in surgery now. I won't know anything until she gets out."
For the next hour, every time a doctor emerged from the operating room doors, we all sat up straighter, sucked in our breath, and waiting for him to come over and tell us good news. Alas, it wasn't until four in the morning until an African American woman came out of the doors, asking, "Mr. De Silva?" She was dressed in green scrubs, dotted with red. Blood.
Susannah's blood.
"Yes?" She looked at Cee Cee and Mrs. Ackerman, who also were rapt with attention.
"Ms. Simon has suffered two stab wounds to the stomach, and a deep cut on her forearm. She lost a lot of blood." Susannah's mother gripped my hand. "She was going into shock when the EMTs arrived at the scene, because of her loss of blood. We gave her 2 ½ pints of blood in a transfusion, and we've stabilized her. She is, however, in a coma. We expect her to wake up within the next 24 hours, though we are still waiting to see how her body reacts to the new blood in her system."
"So she'll be okay?" Cee Cee asked hopefully. The doctor hesitated.
"Her chances are good. However, there is always a possibility that patients in comas never wake up. She's in a relatively light coma, so that's unlikely. But it can still happen."
"Thank you, Doctor. Can we see her?" I asked She shook her head.
"Not for a few hours. We'll tell you when she can be visited." She then directed us to a receptionist at the nurse's station, to fill out forms.
"What are your relations with Ms. Simon?" she asked us. Cee Cee spoke for us.
"Fiancé, best friend, and mother." I wandered away in a daze while the doctor asked a few more questions about Susannah, like her insurance and social security number. Mrs. Ackerman answered them, while I found an empty hallway, where I sunk down onto the floor against the wall, and rested my head on my knees.
Why couldn't I have gone with her? Or insisted that she come home? If it weren't for Beth… she would have been dead.
I sat there for a long time, just thinking and worrying. I was so lost in thought that I didn't even hear Mara approach.
"Jesse?" I jumped, and looked up. She lowered herself to the tile next to me. She saw my confused expression, and gave me a half smile. "Cee called Cate, who called us." She let out a long breath. "God, so it was Angela the whole time?" I nodded.
"You seem to be doing fine, for someone who just found out their best friend tried to kill them." She sighed.
"It doesn't really surprise me. I think Suze was the only one who actually was naïve to Ang. I mean, she was my roommate before we moved out two years ago. She always was jealous. Don't ask me why, but she was just never really a friend, you know? Just someone who hung around us, to be cool or something." She paused. "Did they find out why, though?" I shrugged.
"Maybe Susannah will be able to tell us," I said softly. "When I came in, Angela had already attacked her." Mara looked at me sideways.
"You were there?"
"Not soon enough," I said morosely. "I was able to pull Angela off of her before she caused even more damage, though. Thank God."
"How did you know to come, though? Mrs. Ackerman said that you said that you two left the party separately… that Angela was drunk, and Suze was going to take her home."
I wasn't sure how to answer this. I couldn't tell her that Beth came to me, frantic, telling me to go save her. Why Beth hadn't come to Susannah or I before this, I don't know, but I thank God that she came then.
"I guess I just had a feeling," I said vaguely. Mara was about to say something, when Cee Cee came around the corner.
"Guys," she said, "Dr. Grant says we can see her now." Mara and I leapt up, and hurried back.
"In 425," the receptionist directed. I looked to Mrs. Ackerman, expecting her to be the first one to go in, but she gently pushed me forward.
"You love her as much as I do," she said. "And if it weren't for you, she wouldn't be here now." I smiled gratefully, and carefully entered the room.
"Nombre de Dios," I whispered. Susannah lay on the bed peacefully, but bruises surrounded her eyes and there was a large bandage on her arm—bigger ones, I assumed, under the blanket where I couldn't see. Her skin was pale, and her lips were dry.
I sat down next to her, and took her limp hand in my own, and caressed it gently.
"Susannah," I whispered, as a tear slid down my cheek. "Querida… come back to me."
………………………………………………………………………………………
Suze's POV
Light began to grow in the darkness. I heard a voice… a man's voice. Calling my name.
God? I thought. Is that you? Am I dead? The light grew brighter. I couldn't feel anything. Was this what dying was like? Numbness… bright lights… that sounds all par for the course.
But then the numbness began to ebb away. I felt things—pain, in my stomach. A leaden exhaustion pinning me to the soft thing I was laying on. Something gently massaging my hand.
I opened my heavy eyelashes, and struggled to focus. All I saw were blurry shapes. The fog slowly cleared, and I realized it was a person next to me, and that we were in a hospital room.
"Jesse?" I said. My throat was dry, and my voice echoed in my ears hoarsely. He looked up, his face wet and sheer hope and joy in his eyes.
"Susannah, Querida, you're awake!" he said exuberantly. He raised his voice. "She's awake!" I heard noises outside, but I couldn't focus on anything but his hand, holding my face gently. I tried to touch his hand, but a sharp pain shot through my lower arm as I tried to raise it to my face. Now that the whole numbness thing was gone, pain was setting in all over my body. Where was that damn morphine? "Oh, Susannah, I love you," he whispered.
"I love you too, Jesse," I croaked.
……………………………………………………………………………………..
Whew. Sorry it took a bit… I had the hardest time writing this chapter. Anyway, hope you're happy. Review!