She woke up, pain flooding her body. Instantly alert, she kept her eyes shut, her breathing regular, and her body relaxed and still. Listening intently past the beeping of the machine next to her head, she heard voices in the hall, but nothing in the room. All she could smell was hospital disinfectant. Slowly opening her eyelids a fraction of a millimetre, her eyes quickly darted around the room, confirming her assumptions. She was in a hospital.
Shit!
Something must have gone wrong. Okay, so she hadn't planed on having the shit beaten out of her, but still, she should not have ended up in hospital.
Shit!
Why hadn't her dickhead brother take her some place safe? Yes, something had definitely gone wrong. And the stupid painkillers being pumping through the I.V. on her hand were doing jackshit to kill her pain. Idiots.
She needed to get somewhere safe were she could heal in peace. Someone would come for her though, even if something had happened to her brother. She didn't know how they'd get her out, but she'd know when to run when the time came.
If the people here found out who she was, it would all be over. Everything. Her job, her plan, her life. But she knew someone would come. They had to.
So she did the only thing she could do. She closed her eyes and feigned unconsciousness.
She waited.
"Now, can you boys tell me what happened?" Detective No.1 asked.
"Well Sir, we were leaving Nicky's, the bar you know? And we heard a scream, so we ran towards the noise. We found her in the alley and called the ambulance," Caleb answered, lying through his teeth.
"Right," he said, his partner, Detective No.2 writing everything down in his logbook. "Did you see anyone at the scene?"
"Just some guy running out the alley. He was in the shadows and I really didn't get a good look at him. Sorry Sir." Caleb replied.
"Did any of you three see him?" Detective No.2 asked, looking up from his writing. They just shook their heads, happy to let Caleb do the talking.
"Did she say anything to you boys? Like maybe who attacked her?" Detective No.1 asked hopefully. Yeah, that would make your job a lot easier, wouldn't it? You might make it to Dunkin' Doughnuts before closing. Reid thought, barely holding back his smirk.
"No Sir, she was already unconscious when we got there. As far as we know, she hasn't woken up yet." Detective No.1 sighed, nodding his head.
"Do you know who this girl is? We didn't find any ID on her, and there's no one matching her description in the local missing person's database, although with her face lookin' like that, it's kinda hard to match her to a photo, anyhow." Reid inwardly cringed, thinking of how badly beaten she was.
"No Sir, as far as we know, we've never met her before," Caleb answered. The detectives just nodded.
"Can I have your names please? We might need to call on you later to ask a few more questions as the case develops." Detective No.2 asked.
"I'm Caleb Danvers, this is Pogue Parry, Tyler Simms and Reid Garwin," he gestured to each in turn. "We all attend Spencer," he added.
"Danvers huh? Weren't you the one who's girl was abducted last fall by that Collins guy?" Detective No.1 asked, No.2 looking up, interested.
"Um, yeah," Caleb answered.
"Huh," was the only reply.
As far as the rest of the world knew, Chase, obsessed with Caleb, had abducted Sarah to lure him to the barn. They had fought, knocking over an oil lamp, and Caleb had barely been able to get Sarah out before the place burned down. As far as everyone knew, Chase Collins had burned in the barn. After tonight, the Sons now knew better. It wasn't too far from the truth.
"Well," Detective No.2 said, flipping closed his logbook, "We'll run her prints, see if anything comes up. Hopefully she'll wake up soon and save us the trouble. He doc, she gonna wake up anytime soon?" he said, grabbing the doctor passing by.
"She's been badly beaten. No broken bones, but we won't be able to tell about brain damage until she's woken up," Brain damage? Shit.
"When's that gonna be then?" No.1 asked.
"We've no way to tell. She could wake up in five minutes, or she could never wake up. Even if she woke up right now, she may not remember what happened, whether because of physical damage or psychological trauma. It's even possible she could have full amnesia. It's difficult to tell with head trauma. Only time will tell," the doctor replied.
"Was she…was she raped?" Tyler's quiet voice asked. Raped? Oh God.
"No, thank goodness. And there's no evidence that her attacker tried. Unfortunately, it looks like who ever it was tried to beat her to death. She seems to have fought back though. She had defensive wounds on her hands, we've taken the standard samples, and sent the to your lab," the doctor answered speaking more to the detectives than the four of them.
Reid turn back to look through the glass at the still body lying on the hospital bed. You fought back? Good girl. I swear, when we find Collins, he's gonna pay!
Reid knew that Caleb, Pogue and Tyler all felt responsible for this, knowing Chase was after them. He knew how they felt because he felt the same. His birthday was only a month away and while they had been lucky at Pogue's ascension, they were obviously not going to have an easy time with his.
As he was watching the girl, imagining all the things he'd do to Chase, the world suddenly plunged into pitch-black darkness.
The lights were only out for a couple seconds at most, before the emergency lighting flickered on. As the hospital staff rushed around, checking everything was okay; Reid stood and tried to figure out what he was seeing.
"Well fuck me sideways!" No.2 muttered, spotting the same thing Reid had.
She was gone.