CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Jay rolled on his back.
Sitting up and dragging his body of the ground. He can hear her.
It is muffled.
But he can hear her screaming his name.
His name.
She needs him.
He got up stumbling slightly, but made it to his feet. Jerking forward to a stumbling jog. Groaning out her name, he tripped up the steps of the front porch. And made it to the middle of the living room. He stood there getting his bearings, trying to push down the overwhelming urge to vomit and get to his Emma.
"Emma?" Not waiting for a response from her, heading towards the kitchen to go down to her bedroom. Knowing that was where he was going to find them.
"EMMA!" His heart felt as if it would rip from the strings of his chest at the demolished pieces of the door that once lead to the privacy of he and Emma's bedroom.
There were bloody footprints in the kitchen where the intruder had been standing in front of their door.
Laying purchase both hands on the cracked wood of the doorframe, he needed to calm the spinning his head was making.
He squinted and peered down into the dark bedroom, it was silent now.
His voice croaked almost inaudibly, "My baby..."
Eyes turning to the back of his sockets, Jay shook his head and made his way down the steps.
He had stopped raddling the knob for some reason, and she wasn't gonna find out. She stayed in place and kept with her crying. She didn't care that she appeared weak. She was so scared. She needed Jay, and he might be dead, and all she can think about is herself.
But she kept the hope that, that thump she heard was Jay, not delving into why it would be a good thing that she heard the thump, but maybe he wasn't at least dead, if she heard correctly.
She heard a sound like it was coming from a different part of the house. She didn't know where, in her frazzled state, all she could think of was completely frightened she was. And that man was outside her bathroom door, probably trying to trick her into opening the door by pretending to be gone.
She may be going somewhat round the bend, but she wasn't stupid. She wanted Jay, and the only way for that was to stay in her mind somehow.
She took the sleeves her hands were bundled in and swiped slowly at the bloody streaks across her face, cringing at the feeling of the splinters and chips of wood embedding themselves deeper. She wiggled her fingers out of one of the sleeves, and started to pick at the larger pieces in her jaw.
Locking her jaw against the pain, she kept tracing her face with her fingertips, feeling for more splinters to pull out. She ignored the numbing ache. She ignored the small trickle of blood she could feel forming on the contours of her face.
She leaned more heavily against the door and concentrated think some semblance of a sane thought till she could get out of here.
Jay made it to the landing and leaned heavily against the wall, trying to stop the black spots from dancing across his vision.
He hadn't heard Emma once, since he had been in the house.
He so badly wanted to run down the stairs and jump into whatever was going on, but he had no strength. None whatsoever left in his body.
The trip from outside and down these few steps of the basement had taken when he thought he could use to protect her. He had nothing. Nothing if she needed him. He was useless.
His knees buckled and he caught himself on the wall, feeling a warm dampness on his almost numb face, realizing he was crying. Crying for his Emma. Crying for what he didn't know was down there. Down there that could mean she was gone. Her being gone, meaning his life was over. And if his life was over, there was nothing.
He choked on a sob... "Emma ... Emma, Emma, Emm... Em..." the last sob filtered off, for there was nothing left.
She wasn't screaming anymore, meaning she had to be gone.
A sob caught in his throat. All he could think about was lying in their bed and breathing in her scent.
She leaned against the door. Shuffling.
She could clearly hear the sound of feet shuffling down the steps.
She never heard the man going up the stairs or leaving through the window, so that meant...
She turned to the door, placing both palms flat.
He got to the bottom step and looked at the bed... "Emma..." It came out almost as a prayer.
A movement caught him from the corner of the room.
Before he turned to look. It came. A sound that he never thought he would find lifesaving.
An agonized scream torn from fear. "JAY!"
Jay turned to the left towards the bathroom just to have someone barrel into his side and fall onto him in the bed.
Emma heard the scrape as if someone was running, then heard a grunt and a thump.
He was there. Jay was there with the man, and she had to help him.
A/N: Review!