Chapter twelve.
A/N I have a confession to make, the remaining chapters of this were written in a notebook but I never typed it up due to lack of interest.
However I've recently gotten three new reviews so I've started typing up the remaining two chapters! YAY! So enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Californian diaries series but considering this story basically only takes the character names I think I'm ok.
This wasn't the way the way my life was supposed to work out. Well actually when you think about it my life would some how involve eco terrorists but usually I'd be on their side.
Instead I found myself being held hostage clutching the bleeding Ducky onto my lap as the woman drove a hundred miles and hour down the freeway.
"You know he's bleeding you stupid bitch the least you could do is drop us off at the free medical center" I spat over the sound of Indie Rock Radio.
There was a small clicking sound and she turned around holding onto a small compact handgun.
"For Christ sake instead of shooting me watch the road" I said calmly and she spun around.
"I'm getting blood all over the new carpet aren't I?" Ducky managed to ask his face covered in sweat.
"Oh shit, remember BSC training," I hissed and I whipped off my jacket pressing it against the wound.
"Both of you shut the fuck up" shrieked our kidnapper and Ducky gave me a knowing look which caused me to reluctantly close my mouth.
I could barely see Ducky's wound in the light but considering he wasn't dead yet I decided the best thing to do would be to keep the pressure on until the woman finally stopped the car.
It didn't take long; thankfully everything in LA only took twenty minutes to get to.
"You two out" she said parking the car in front the McDonalds on sixty Fifth Avenue.
"Oh god" hissed Ducky as he slumped onto my side and instantly I could see what had gotten his attention.
The entire car park was packed.
"Cheap ass Tuesdays" muttered Ducky incorrectly.
My eyes traveled up the road where I saw a movie theatre.
Of course.
Cheap ass Tuesdays when movie tickets were half price and everyone went to McDonalds after.
"You're going to kill them all" I said loudly hoping the wiring in my bra would pick up my voice.
"Shut up, the security codes" the woman barked.
"They're in the jacket" I pointed out and she wrenched the make shift bandage off Ducky.
"You two in" she said as she unzipped her own jacket revealing a McDonald's uniform.
"In?" I asked trying to stop Ducky from falling straight into a puddle.
"In, cause a distraction" she replied still holding onto the gun.
"Fine in" I said pulling Ducky behind him.
"Oh my god is he alright?" a voice immediately shrieked the moment I managed to push Ducky into one of the booths.
He immediately slumped forward his head touching the table and I glanced upwards seeing a mother no older then Carol holding onto her little boy.
"Of course his not! Listen you have to call 911 right now and the police," I hissed.
"Right of course an ambulance," she said reaching for her cell phone and my eyes fell on the kid.
"Actually I'll call
them but you really need to get him out of here" I said gesturing
towards the kid and by now I realized half the restaurant happened to
be staring at us.
"Dawn?" Ducky managed to whisper.
"I'm right here," I said grabbing onto his hands.
"I don't think his dying, step aside I'm a registered nurse" a middle aged man who'd been sitting with his family said coming towards us.
"He's fine! But you need to get all of these people out of here right now" I insisted.
"Why?" the mother asked warily backing away from us but she was interrupted when we all heard a faint beeping sound.
"Security code accepted, protocols overriding" a neutral robotic voice suddenly announced and the guy cleaning the bin tray glanced up an assistant manager badge pinned onto his shirt.
"Hang on the doors aren't supposed to shut until one am," he said dropping the bag onto the floor and there was a faint hissing sound as the automatic doors shut presently.
"Oh shit," I whispered as the beeping sound died away and every one looked about in confusion.
There was the faint slap slap sound of flip-flops hitting tiles and the woman walked in from behind the employee's only door.
The first thing I heard was the scream, the first thing I saw was what looked like a bombs detonator strapped to her arm.
"Now lets stop that screaming shall we? Save it for when the media shows up" she said calmly.
Half an hour passed.
"I've done the best I can do with the staff medical kit" the nurse whose name was George said.
"And I've drugged him up on cramp medicine" the mother continued and I was so grateful and yet so terrified I wanted to cry.
The woman was busy talking to the manager.
"Did you know that every day you're condemning hundreds of children to death?" she asking toying with her gun.
"Look lady I already said you can clean out the registers" he pleaded.
"And I already said for you to shut up" she said firing a shot at the coke machine causing everyone to scream and soda to explode from the wall.
"Dawn? She's crazy isn't she?" Ducky asked as I stroked his hair and her eyes swept towards mine.
"How sweet, the beautiful blond with her handsome dashing boyfriend" she finally said however there was something distant in her eyes, something almost sad.
"He's not my boyfriend" I corrected her.
"Of course he isn't! girls like you don't have boyfriends, you can get so many men you never need to commit" the woman spat coldly.
"Actually you've gotten me confused with Sunny again, speaking of which you promised to let her go" I replied and Ducky groaned the woman seemed confused for a fraction of a second and then she laughed.
"Let her go? We never actually had her dear.. all we did was steal her cell phone" she said with a small smirk.
"Shit" I hissed.
"Last I saw of her she was leaving the club with some young man she kept referring to as Seth, well I suppose it's not your fault your so melodramatic and gullible" the woman informed me and I felt worse then the time Mary Anne accidentally fed me beef.
"But Nick said he saw.. he heard" I trailed off.
"Oh we suspected she was being followed so we messed up her room again, I played the part of the struggling Sunny" she laughed before screaming hysterically as if some one was attacking her.
"See, easy" she grinned.
Suddenly I jumped when I realized I could feel my cell phone go off and the room filled with my ring tone.
"Answer it," the woman said calmly and I reluctantly pressed my phone against the ear.
"Dawn? This is Nick what's the current situation?" she asked.
"Our situation is relaxed," I finally said and the woman smirked.
"That's them isn't it, not the police" she said carefully.
"Yes" I confessed.
"Tell them I want the police to back off unless they want me to blow up their entire inventory"
"She's requesting that the police should back off Nick, she has a bomb she said something about destroying the inventory" I said breathlessly.
"Tell her we want demands, it'll give us some time to stall while we over ride the security system" Nick finally said before ringing off.
"He wants to know what your demands are," I finally said and the woman for a second looked completely taken aback.
"I'll.. Have to ask the others" she finally confessed.
"She doesn't know" Ducky finally said.
"Shh" I hushed him.
"She's got no idea what the hell she's gotten herself into, you can see it," he said and the woman's chin tilted as if challenged.
"Fine I know what my demands are, McDonald's is to promise to no longer super size any meals in this state or every one dies" she said with a small self satisfied smile.
"Those are your demands? You've terrified my son for a hamburger size?" the single mother cried and the woman rolled her eyes.
"Every one just relax because this gun still has four bullets left," she said waving the weapon around and every one ducked.
"Look lady you haven't actually hurt anyone yet and I bet the authorities aren't sure what to make of you, maybe they'll go easy on you if you let out some of the kids" George the nurse finally said after a tense pause.
The woman's eyes fell on the little boy who was still playing with his free hot wheels car.
"Nobody goes" she said her eyes darting away.
"I know who she is" Ducky whispered to me, by now the woman was guarding the stores manager on the other side of the restaurant the gun planted firmly against his skull.
"You do?" I whispered.
"Well I don't really know her, but I know of her. At least I think I do. She looks exactly like Sandra Bianco, or at least a Sandra Bianco who's lost fifty pounds" Ducky whispered back.
"Huh?"
"Sandra was in my year during middle school, she transferred during the eighth grade she was as huge as a bus back then and rumor had it her parents sent her to some sort of special school for obese kids" he whispered back. The woman, possibly Sandra suddenly glanced up her eyes falling suspiciously on us.
"It's not about the environment" I realized.
"What are you two talking about?" she asked hopping upwards and as her shirt lifted I saw visible stretch marks on her stomach.
"You were fat" I challenged her and her posture reeled back as if she'd been slapped.
"What?"
"Harry he was fat as well! This whole thing was never about the environment it was about a bunch of fat kids getting vengeance" I realized gently easing Ducky back against the chair so I could stand up and confront her.
"Fat kids" she laughed nervously.
"Even the name is obvious! The summoning French fry, you just had to turn your favorite snack into something mythic didn't you?" I asked and then my eyes fell on the tattoo on her arm.
The sun and a star, the sun the biggest star of all in our world.
I'd always been into symbolism but even a moron like Jeff could have figured that much out, a girl with a tattoo like that was crying out for attention.
"Jesus your pathetic, you're going to blow up all these people because of your hunger pangs" I realized.
"It's for the noble good, they cause people to die of heart attacks," she said gesturing to the room in general.
"They cause teenage girls to grow fat, to never be satisfied, to constantly turn to food as a crutch" she continued manically.
"Oh please it's called self control" I scoffed.
"It's called being poisoned! They've destroyed who we are" cried Sandra.
"They? You destroyed yourself Sandra when you shoved that first French fry into your mouth" I retorted and her expression froze.
"You told her who I am" she said to Ducky.
"Then I was right"
"You still recognize me, I'm still fat" she said her voice dying away.
"Actually a lack of exercise causes people to die from heart attacks" the nurse suddenly said.
"Shut up" screamed Sandra tears gathering in her eyes and then her hand reached downwards as she detonated the bomb.
Then suddenly there was a faint whooshing sound as Nick over ride the security system.
"Everyone run" George the nurse screamed.
The thing about dying is that when it happens it lasts forever. As her hand moved towards the detonator I felt Ducky's familiar fingers entwine with mine and there were so many things I hadn't done yet.
There were so many things I hadn't said yet.
His chest brushed against my back and I felt the sticky blood hit the small of my back. Ducky's grip tightened as we ran for the door trying to get through the crowd but deep down I knew it was far to late.
The crowd surged and we fell near one of the tables during the final ten seconds.
Ducky was staring at me, so terrified so not Ducky but then suddenly he gave me one last one grand gesture.
I felt his lips pressed against mine and then it parted and well you can imagine what happened next.
I'd been kissed by Ducky before, at New Years and Christmas under the mistletoe but never quite like this.
And then I realized he was only kissing me like this because this was how Ducky said goodbye.
"Close your eyes" I whispered when he broke away.
Our time was up.
"So is the story finally over?" Mary Anne asked me and I was back in the councilors office of my subconscious.
"The bomb went off didn't it?" I realized.
"Is the story over?" Mary Anne asked and I glanced about fearfully for some reason both my head and leg hurt more then I could bare.
"The story is never really over, not until your dead," I pointed out.
"And what if you are?" Mary Anne said with a logical cool tint of her head.
There was something off about the way I remembered her, the way her eyes crinkled the way her face scowled.
It wasn't exactly familiar.
"Then the story is over" I replied wondering if it really was.
"And what did you learn?" she asked raising her head.
"I haven't learned a thing which means the story isn't over" I replied but I could tell the end was coming soon.
"How much longer do I have?" I asked Mary Anne and she finally moved from her leather chair sitting beside me.
"I really don't know," she whispered.
"You don't?" I asked.
"It's hard to tell what with eternal bleeding a shattered pelvis and a ruptured kidney," Mary Anne admitted and I grimaced.
"Well at least you didn't mention brain damage" I laughed uneasily my breath catching in my throat.
"Yes we'd all know you'd hate having your favorite organ destroyed" Mary Anne replied flippantly and I stared at her, the girl who was my sister and yet who wasn't.
Who had an air about her that was almost but not exactly right?
And I remembered the last dream I had.
"You're not my sister" I realized.
"No I'm not," she said gently and then she extended her hand towards mine.
"The stories over Dawn, take my hand" she said and I felt everything close in, everything grow hot and clammy.
But it was all to soon, far to soon.
I stared at her hands slightly bigger then Mary Anne's and when I glanced up Sunny's mother her eyes worn out and her skin still that ghastly shade of white gray.
She looked so tired.
"No" I said hiding my hands behind my back.
"Dawn you're dying anyway, internal bleeding crushed bones, it's all such a huge mess" she sighed wearily as if defeated.
"Oh please I'm not dying, it takes more then a building falling on me to knock me out" I replied and suddenly I was aware that the entire room was filling with dust.
"Oh really?" Mrs. Winslow taunted.
"Yes really" I snapped back.
The comfortable office was gone and suddenly I was aware that I was awake.
Very aware, this was mainly because I was trapped in some sort of cave made of rubble and my leg was bleeding heavily.
Moving wasn't an option.
My eyes rolled to one side and I could see someone lying underneath a piece of broken off wall glassy eyes staring straight ahead.
I recognized her instantly.
"I wasn't always like this" Sandra whispered.
Her free arm lay so close I could clearly see her tattoo shining brilliantly on her sickly pale white skin.
" I wasn't either" I replied.
"Do you get to go to dances?" she asked sweat gathering on her skin, clammy, and obviously incoherent.
"I go to dances all the time" I replied painfully trying to keep her conscious, some how my crushed less seemed far less important then her predicament.
"With… him?" she finally asked and I shook my head, her brow crinkled with confusion.
"But.." she began.
"You wont always get what you want just because you happen to be blond and thin Sandra, life well it's about never getting what we want" I said but then I realized that once again I was lecturing some one.
Who happened to be dying.
"Sorry I tend to tell people off a lot" I confessed.
"I want to dance" she just said, almost wistfully and then she began to choke her breath drawing out into one last long rattle.
I moved quickly latching my free arm onto hers my fingers climbing up the tattoo before squeezing her hand.
Her grip tightened against mine for a fraction of a second before falling slack and when I looked up at her face blood had frothed around her lips.
I could only hear my own breathing now, and the distant wail of emergency vehicles.
"The story is never really over until your dead" I whispered to Sandra letting go of her hand.
In every fairy tale I'd ever read my babysitting charges the village always died dramatically, usually because of their own stupidity.
And as for the princess? Well she always survived after receiving a kiss of course.
As I stared at the girl who'd once been fat and alone, whose dying wish was to dance I actually began to cry.
It was funny how much real life really did resemble stories.