Chapter Five
"When were you going to tell me!" Taylor Parker's voice seemed to reverberate off of the walls of the house as Jenni entered.
"A-about w-what?" Jenni asked nervously, as her big brother came storming towards her.
"About this?" Taylor said angrily, holding up what obviously seemed to be the dire results of her pregnancy test. "You never told me you were sleeping with him! You -…"
"Taylor, you don't understand! I -…"
"Like hell I don't! A little while ago, I got a phone call from your guidance counselor. And she tells me the same thing! What the hell do you think you're getting at by doing this! You – you're a filthy whore!"
"NO! No, - I just – I didn't know how to tell you. I was – I was scared of what you would think," she gulped nervously, her voice trembling. "Of what you might do…" her voice trailed off and she glanced at the tile flooring apprehensively.
"Oh, I'll show you what I'm going to do!" Taylor shouted; the augmenting anger building up inside of him was just like a time bomb waiting to explode. And, like a bomb, it was only a matter of when…the hours…the minutes…the seconds…everything mattered now.
Taylor went into another room and unlocked a drawer…
He returned to face Jenni, a firm grip on a gun in his left hand.
Jenni paled at the sight of the gun in her brother's hand. "My God," she breathed. "Taylor, why are you doing this!" But Taylor paid no attention to his sister and walked past her and out the still-open front door.
"Stay out of this, Jenni," he said firmly, his back still toward her. "It's out of your hands now."
"NO!" Jenni screamed. Her house key was in her pocket as she slammed the door behind her. She ran out just in time to see Taylor's beat up Buick speed away, leaving nothing but dark tire tracks behind.
Just then, a bright red car pulled up alongside the curb and slowed to a stop. Tru got out of her car to find a horror-stricken Jenni standing in her driveway.
"Jenni! I don't have much time to explain, but I'm here to help you! Where's Taylor? Did he hurt you?"
"No, he -…wait. I've seen you before. You were at my school earlier today, weren't you?"
"Yeah," Tru said hurriedly. "I'm sort of like Caitlyn's new assistant and she had to fill me in on some of her cases she sees. And since yours seems to be pretty specialized, I guess it's why she told me about you. And we were both worried that Taylor was going to hurt you when he found out about your pregnancy. That's why I came. That's why I'm here."
"Taylor just left," Jenni replied, her voice shaking and trembling even more. "I think he's going to try and kill her."
"Come with me," Tru said though it sounded more like a demand than just a general statement. "It looks like we're going there too."
Jenni got into the passenger seat of Tru's car and Tru began to drive away from the house.
"How does he know where she lives?" Tru asked, suddenly realizing she had to pretend she didn't know where Caitlyn lived. From what she had gathered before her day rewound, Tru remembered that Caitlyn lived in the same apartment complex as her brother. But, in this case, she had to play dumb. It was the only way.
"I used to go over there with him for some private counseling sessions – right after our parent's death; it was just so hard for both of us to deal, you know?"
Tru nodded slightly. "Yeah," she said slowly. "I understand."
Images of her mother glowed brightly in her mind. A gentle blend of light colors: pink, yellow and orange. The good memories: her first ride on the carousel, her 5th birthday party and spending Christmas in the mountains.
She felt tears well up in her eyes as the reminiscence of it suddenly became crystal clear like looking into a sparkling pool of water on a beautiful sunlit day.
But she resisted and held back the tears. She couldn't start crying…not now. She willed herself to be strong, to stay strong.
She flipped open her phone to call Harrison. This time around she was determined to win.
Her mother's words echoed loud and clear. You can't let him win…
There was a hard knock that pounded on her door.
Caitlyn went to answer it, surprised to find Taylor standing in her doorway.
"Taylor, I wasn't expecting you! Is something wrong? Is Jenni alright?" Sincere concern was clearly evident in Caitlyn's tone.
"Jenni's fine," he bit off. "I just wanted a word with you."
"Of course! Please come in!" Caitlyn gestured, as Taylor walked inside and the door shut behind them…
Tru and Jenni arrived at Caitlyn's apartment, both running swiftly up the many flights of stairs. They almost seemed endless and when they arrived at her level they were both panting and out of breath.
They had just rounded a corner as her apartment was on the other side when an all-too familiar voice spoke up behind them.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the White Hats. Come to save the day, I suppose?"
Tru and Jenni turned to face Jack and Tru couldn't help but roll her eyes at him. "Is that the best you can do now?"
Jack chuckled. "Ah, you caught me, Tru. It might not be, but why argue about it now? You have a life to save, don't you?"
"Yeah," Tru sneered. "And that means I don't have to stand here and listen to you bitch about it either. So cut the crap, Jack."
She turned to Jenni who stood there unmoving as she watched the heated exchange between them. "C'mon, let's go!"
"Fine!" Jack called after them. "Just don't say I didn't warn you!"
"It's that one!" Jenni told Tru, pointing to where the numbers 425 were displayed ostentatiously to a door on their left.
Tru quickly twisted the knob, praying it wasn't locked.
Thank God. She thought as the door gave way and the two girls barged in just in time to see Taylor holding a gun to Caitlyn. Caitlyn screamed, not knowing what to do as the gun pointed directly and almost menacingly at her chest.
"OH MY GOD! TAYLOR, NO!" Jenni shrieked.
Taylor turned firm grip remained on both the gun and on Caitlyn. "Jenni, what the hell – wait, who the hell are you!" Taylor spat, suddenly turning his attention toward Tru.
"I met Caitlyn at Jenni's school. Listen to me, Taylor. Put the gun down. You don't know what you're doing!"
He roughly let go of Caitlyn and moved towards Tru as he spoke.
"Know what I'm doing! Know what I'm doing! How can you say that? Jenni's pregnant and I just find out about this now?"
"But that doesn't mean you have to kill her for it. That's not the way to go!"
Taylor suddenly had Tru in his grip which remained unyielding. She struggled as he spoke again. "Thank you for telling me what I need and what I don't."
And with that, he pushed Tru hard as if he was trying to get her out of the way. She fell to the floor, her head colliding with something hard as darkness hungrily consumed her.
Bright flashing lights greeted Tru as her eyes slowly fluttered open, the flashing lights became flashes of bright colors and they seemed to swirl around her as if she were caught in the eye of a tornado or violent storm.
And there was a loud cacophony that seemed to be humming noisily; it was getting closer…and closer. It sounded so much like…in fact exactly like…
Sirens!
Suddenly, she felt as if she was flying. It was then she realized that she was in a stretcher and it was being carefully lifted into a waiting ambulance with sirens blaring noisily.
Her head was throbbing uncontrollably and pain seared through her skull as if it had caught on fire. So much pain and so hard to fight back the tears that could inevitably come pouring down her face.
Tru's mind began racing ferociously. Where am I? What's going on? Oh my God…
"Harrison!" she suddenly cried out impulsively.
"Miss, you need to stay calm, okay?" a soft female voice said somewhere off in the distance. Tru still wasn't completely awake so she couldn't find the exact location of the voice that spoke to her.
"I'm right here, Tru," a more familiar voice said, answering her frightened plea. "It's all right. You're going to be okay. Just hang in there…" The voice seemed to be slowly drifting away…farther and farther away…
"Harrison!" Tru cried out again, fighting to get up as to find the whereabouts of her brother's voice.
"Miss, you need to calm down. Just lay back down, alright?" the same female voice surfaced again, seeming closer than before. That voice that she heard said something to someone else who nodded and handed her something though Tru couldn't quite make out what it was.
"This will help calm you down," the voice said again. "Everything's going to be alright now. Everything's going to be…" Suddenly, it seemed as if that voice too was floating away…farther and farther away…
Something sharp pierced the bare white of her right arm and a warm tingling sensation instantly began flowing through her body, embracing her in its warmth and pleasantness. She readily welcomed the feeling with ease as something about it made her feel at peace, something she hadn't felt in a long time. She found herself easily caving into this…this feeling. Her eyelids slowly became heavier and heavier…and then there was nothing. No more words; no more sounds. Just nothing…
Author's Note: This was originally supposed to be the last chapter, but I felt that it was getting too long and that I needed to break it up a bit. Thanks to all who have reviewed thus far and keep 'em coming, pretty please! Hopefully, the next chapter will be along waaay sooner than this one as it is my goal to have this story completed by next weekend. So please review and tell me what you think so far:)
A special note to Miss Thang: Yes, you do get commission for inspiring my story, but no sex scenes! Or at least not what you're thinking…winks