Celebrate for the new chapter!
CHAPTER 12
Jade's POV
I felt the dull thud of the wall against my back. My dad advanced on me, and I was trapped.
"What is wrong with you?" I practically shouted at his face, trying to hold my own.
"Nothing is wrong with me," he replied, spit flying from his mouth.
"Oh sure. And that's why you're the only parent I know that loves to come home everyday more drunk than anyone can imagine and beat the crap out of his only kid," I hissed.
"There's much more of a reason that, Jade, you just don't know it."
"Really?" I mocked surprise.
"Oh yeah, oh yeah." His head bobbed up and down. "I got fired again today, Jade. And that's all because of you." My jaw clamped shut audibly. "If I hadn't gotten distracted that day, when you're boyfriend came over, I could've gotten my work done, and I would still have my job."
"You were drunk. It didn't matter if Beck came over or not."
My dad ignored that, and stood in front of me, his breath clouding my face. "I've been waiting for this day for a long, long time, Jade." He poked me with the knife, and I grabbed it instinctively in a tight hold. He pulled away, cutting open my hand.
I sucked in a breath painfully and pressed my hand against my back.
"Ever since the day your no-good-of-a-mom left me with you. I didn't want to be left with a filthy troublemaker like you. I had to make sure you knew who was boss before it got out of control."
"You don't know me!" I yelled, my throat scratching. "You just assumed that I would never get any better and I would act the same way my entire life. People change. All the time.
"You never gave me a chance. You never trusted me. And now a bunch of innocent people's lives will never be the same all because of you!"
I had done it. I had done the one thing he hated above everything else I did.
I talked back to him, and told him that what he did was wrong. I made my stand, something I did only one other time when I was ten and almost got run over with his car.
I felt my eyes getting blurry. Why the heck was I crying? If he's going to kill me, I'll at least stand up to him before I do.
Suddenly, without another reaction, my dad shoved the knife into my left shoulder.
I don't think I've ever felt such pain in my life.
Sure, I was in love with scissors and played with them all the time, sometimes cutting myself in the process. Sure, I got abused a lot, practically every day.
But this was a completely different feeling.
It was a burst of agony, and I felt the serrated edge ripping through my skin and breaking my bone. I screamed, and slumped to the floor. I couldn't move, and then another horrible feeling shot up my body as the knife somehow was pushed deeper into my skin and I was impaled to the ground. The blood blossomed red on my shirt as I lay there on the floor, panting in pain.
My dad laughed out loud, his hands going behind his back. "I warned you never to do that, Jadey. I warned you, and now you pay the price. Don't accuse me of things I never did."
"Y-y-you…li-li-li-liar…" I tried to gasp.
I never heard his answer. My vision was blurry, and I couldn't breathe from the pain. I was lying here, just waiting for him to finish me off once and for all.
You're going to die for Tori, you're going to die for Tori, the voice of mind said, coming back to me. I thought you were better than this, Jade.
It's not just Tori, I thought. My dad is going to be charged with a murder when they find my dead body…and no matter what my friends thought; they didn't know me. I would be willing to sacrifice myself to make the world a better place.
I saw him lift up one of his feet, moving it so it hovered inches from my face as I stared up at the ceiling, paralyzed in pain. I knew that one stomp and my head could break open.
"Good-bye, Jade. I hope you have a nice time in hell," were his last words.
He brought his foot up to bring it down harder with more momentum.
I heard a familiar voice, and everything went black.
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I felt myself swimming in darkness. I heard voices and loud screams of pain. I opened my eyes, but saw nothing.
Am I dead? I thought.
I turned my head side-to-side, but still saw black. I put my hands out in front of me, I think, and waved them around. I couldn't even see them, unless my body wasn't responding to any messages from my brain.
Suddenly, there was a flash of white, and I saw what was around me. I saw random people standing around me, with masks on their faces and I could only see their eyes, full of terror and fear.
"Don't go, Jade! Please!" a person whose voice sounded very similar to Beck's shouted.
I don't want to go anywhere. I don't even know where I am, I thought dully.
Something dripped onto my face, and it burned. I thrashed around in the white, realizing that I was just floating on air. My hand stung and I looked at it, seeing a huge, bloody red gash crossing the surface.
And then everything around me seemed to explode.
Flames taller than buildings engulfed around me, and I think my shoulder must've caught on fire because the pain was so horrible and sudden that I stopped breathing. I tried to use my hand and pat out the burning sensation, but it started spreading all over my body.
I screamed, the pain passing its peak and getting hotter still.
I heard someone laughing evilly in a deep, gravelly way, similar to my dad.
Shoot…I must be in hell…
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I woke up when the burning smell of alcohol and sterilization hit my nose. I opened my eyes—well, I tried to, at least.
I could see again, and there was a bright white light above me that made me squint. Bringing my left hand up to block it, I felt a horrible pain run up my arm.
"Ow! Dang it," I mumbled.
Can this still be hell? Sure doesn't look or smell like it.
"Jade?" a high-pitched voice said from somewhere.
"Who's that?" I said, turning my head slowly at the sound of the voice. Everything felt really sore, especially my shoulder. There was something clamped around my index finger, and I heard a very fain and annoying beep. My eyes had adjusted to the bright lights and I realized I was in some sort of hospital.
I saw a familiar redhead standing there. "Cat?"
The girl squealed with delight and ran over to me. "Yay, Jade! You're alive!" She reached over to hug me, but stopped, her eyes searching around me, probably looking for an area to hug without actually hurting me. Eventually she settled for patting my head.
I struggled to sit up and face my best friend. I discovered that there was an IV needle stuck in my arm when I felt it wiggle around uncomfortably when I moved. Cat helped me and I finally laid my back against the wall, sighing from the effort.
"How did I get here?" I asked as Cat sat down on the edge of my bed.
"Tori called 911 when Beck and André went into your house to find you," Cat said, bouncing up and down a little, a huge smile on her face.
"Wait…Beck and André were there?" I asked, trying to remember everything.
"Yeah. Beck said he went into your house and saw you on the floor, and your dad was going to step on your head and kill you," Cat said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. I narrowed my eyes, remembering that part and all of the pain. "And André came in too and helped Beck stop your dad."
I smiled. I looked around the room, at the white walls and sparkling tiles, and the huge machine next to the bed. It had tons of wires sticking out leading towards the needles stuck inside my body that seemed to be monitoring my pulse and heartbeat. My left shoulder and hand were wrapped in heavy white gauze, and it felt weird.
"So, what exactly happened?"
Before Cat could answer, André, Beck and Robbie walked into my room. André and Robbie shared identical grins, while Beck looked extremely relieved. I couldn't take my eyes off of him.
"Hey, Jade, you're awake!" Robbie exclaimed, standing by Cat.
"Yeah, we were pretty worried that you won't going to come out of it," André said.
Beck's face lit up when he saw me staring at him. He strode over and gave me a soft kiss. He pulled away and I looked up him, seeing several bruises and half-healed cuts on his face. André pulled up some chairs from a corner of the room and everyone sat down.
"How are you feeling?" Beck asked, reaching over and holding my uninjured hand, although it was taped up with wires.
"Okay, I guess. Can someone please explain to me what exactly happened? I can't remember any of it," I asked.
Cat had moved and was sitting on Robbie's lap for some reason, I guess to give me more space on the bed. It's a good thing he didn't bring that darned puppet.
André cleared his throat, but it was Beck who started talking.
"Well, on Thursday, which was four days ago, which makes today Sunday…after your dad 'banished' me from your home and ever being your boyfriend again, I called André up and told him what happened."
I glared at him, realizing that he had told yet another person my secret.
"And then I told André to keep an eye on you, because I got a text from my mom, saying that Grandpa passed away the previous night." Beck paused, and he was blinking hard for a few moments. "So André said yes, and also that he wouldn't tell anyone."
"But then came the day that Tori told me she would be going over to your house," André picked up, "and I started to freak out because I thought your dad was going to be home and might hurt her too.
"So I tried to warn Tori…but she didn't really listen to me, and I couldn't tell her it was because I was worried that she might get hurt like Beck had, because technically, even I wasn't supposed to know about it.
"That night, I kept texting her but after a while she never replied—which I later learned was because you took her phone and then it got broken."
I blinked guiltily.
"But then I got a call from Beck saying that Tori was at your house, which was a little later. He was just dropping off his last relative and said that we should both go over and see if everything was all right, especially when you hung up on him."
"And so, we both drove over," Beck continued, "and it was a good thing we did, because right away we found Tori sitting on your porch with a bottle stuck in her leg and she looked pretty messed up." He shook his head.
"I went into the house right away, because I figured that your dad was in there too, and so were you, and I was right." Beck stopped, and he rolled his eyes like he was trying to get rid of something in them without actually touching them.
"An-an-and I found you, on the floor, impaled with a freaking bread knife…and your dad was about to step on your head…" His voice was cracking, and I tightened my hand in his as strongly as I could. He pulled his hand away and put his head in them. Cat patted his shoulders.
André finished the story. "So that whole time I was outside trying to call 911 and help Tori, but then I heard you scream a couple moments after Beck went in, so I went inside too, in case he needed help or you were in serious trouble.
"Beck stopped your dad from crushing your head by jumping into him and they both crashed through a door and disappeared. I stayed with you, but I don't think you were really conscious…" André trailed off, looking right into my eyes. "But anyway, Tori got ahold of 911 and they came and here we are now."
Robbie said, "And your dad's been sentenced to seven years in prison for assault and attempted murder, Jade, if that makes you feel any better."
A let a small grin appear on my lips. I wouldn't be hearing from that jerk any time soon.
"So…where's Tori?" I asked.
No one moved. Suddenly the little beepy machine by my bed got very loud and I could feel my heartbeat racing. I looked at everyone's face: they told me nothing. Beck was gazing at me, his eyes red.
There's no way Tori could be dead.
No frickin' way in the whole world.
I did not stand up to my dad for nothing. I did not get stabbed for nothing. Tori had to be alive. Getting a bottle stuck in your leg and tossed around a bit wasn't exactly life-threatening was it?
It was like I had summoned her by my own thoughts, for suddenly she was standing in the doorway of the room. She was on crutches, wearing a white t-shirt and white shorts, and for a second I thought she was an angel or something. Around her right knee was a cast and her face was similar to mine: covered in cuts and bruises, and there was something taped across the bridge of her nose.
Immediately, André, Cat and Robbie got up and left without a word. Beck didn't move, his hand wrapped tightly around mine.
"Hi, Jade."
So hopefully any questions regarding what André and Beck did to save Jade and Tori were answered.
Believe it or not, there's only one more chapter left, you guys. I've written the epilogue, but I don't think there will be a sequel.
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