Yay! If you're reading this it means you don't think reading my story is a total waste of time (or you're just really, really bored). I still can't believe how many hits and reviews it is getting! But anyway, please let me know what you think of it. I love to hear suggestions and criticism. Even if you think it's the worst story you've ever read, I'd still like to know. Thanks!
I woke up tucked into an unfamiliar bed. The first thing I noticed was my wound, which throbbed with more pain than I'd ever felt before. How many times had I written in that a character gets shot? They always manage to bestow some plot-changing wisdom before they actually die. So why did I feel so stupid? At least I didn't seem to be dying.
"How are we going to escape now?" I recognized Tori's voice.
"I don't know!" came Derek's frustrated growl. "But why is everyone so hung up on the escape when Chloe-"
"Chill bro." That was Simon. "she's going to be ok. Now we have to make the escape plan."
"She should have woken up by now!" Derek fretted. "She should have…"
"She'll wake up soon. Get over yourself, wolf boy." Tori. "I just wish she hadn't almost killed herself so we could have gotten away last night-"
"Are you saying you think we should've listened to her? Taken her advice and just left her there to die?" Derek's voice was colder than ice.
"Of course not! Just, you have to admit that would have been the practical thing. You know, survival of the fittest and what not-"
"If that's how you feel than maybe you shouldn't be here with us." Simon's sounded more angry than I'd ever heard. I figured it was time to break this fight up.
"Guys?" I croaked, doing my best to play the dying damsel in distress. Anything to get them to stop arguing.
"Chloe!" Derek put his face close to mine. "How do you feel?"
"Fine." I scooted myself up, wincing as it hurt my stomach, and sat looking into all their anxious faces. "What'd I miss?"
"Well…" Simon looked at Tori and Derek as if for permission to be the one to explain. Neither of them said anything so he carried on. "Derek carried you back to the house-"
"Any trouble?" I interrupted.
"No. Quiet escape. Thank god." Simon explained. "But anyway, we brought you up here and…" here he hesitated, reluctant. "Fixed you up, I guess. There was a…lot of blood."
"But no more now." I guessed, pushing the sheet back and lifting up the corner of my (clean) shirt. A makeshift bandage that looked suspiciously like a ripped up t-shirt was wound around my waist, dotted with crimson but not soaked.
"Yeah. At least we stopped the blood…" again, he looked troubled.
"But…?" I prompted.
"You know, movie girl. Think about it- what does the main character always have to do to save someone who's been shot?"
"Stop the blood?" I guessed.
"And then?"
It dawned on me. "Remove the bullet." the hard part, the painful part. Of course.
"Bingo." he smiled slightly but it didn't reach his eyes. "But we decided we'd better wait to get to a doctor. So, just don't do anything strenuous for a while, ok?"
I mumbled an incoherent answer but didn't feel up to doing anything strenuous at all for the moment.
Derek suddenly glided from the room. I looked after him questioningly then turned back to Simon.
"Who knows." he shrugged, reading the question in my eyes. "I've learned to stop questioning Derek's actions and just wait for him to explain himself."
I slumped back against the pillow to wait for Derek to reappear. It was only a moment later that he did, clutching a juice box and an apple. "Here." he handed them to me. "You lost a lot of blood. You need to replace your blood sugar or whatever." I took a long drag of the juice box and a bite out of the apple.
"Satisfied?" he nodded.
"So," I said after a moments silence. "Where am I?" I was sure we were still in the jail house, but I didn't recognize the room.
"Your room." Derek looked mildly surprised I didn't recognize it. Once he said that though, I realized he was right. The thing that threw me off was the fact that I was in the other bed, seeing a different angle of the room. That and the fact that all the curtains were gone, as were the sheets on my bed. I guess it wasn't a t-shirt for my bandages after all.
"Why am I in Tori's bed?" He rolled his eyes like it should have been obvious.
"Because your bed was soaked in blood?" he suggested.
Simon paled. "Dude, please don't bring up those images right now."
"Easy for you to say."Tori snapped. "You weren't the one who had to wash those sheets!"
I tuned out their argument as I realized what my location meant. This was the bed Austin Banks died in. This is where I'd seen his blood forming a rug on the floor. These sheets may have once been soaked in his blood. I told myself that was ridiculous, what were the odds of those sheets ending up on the same bed? But still I couldn't suppress an eerie shiver.
Derek glanced at me and left the room again, leaving behind an annoyed Simon. "What's his problem now?" he whined.
He was back even quicker this time, though. A blanket was draped over me. I guess he'd mistaken the shiver for a sign of coldness. I didn't bother to correct him.
"So, what now?" I asked blatantly when no one said anything.
"We can't escape, if that's what your asking." Simon said.
"Why not? I'm ok now." I made to climb out of bed but a sickening wave of pain sent me sprawling back down. "Kind of."
"Even if you were ok, which you clearly aren't, we couldn't escape." Derek said. "In case you've forgotten, there are guys with guns out there." I couldn't argue with that.
"So we're just going to sit here and wait for them to kill us?" Tori spoke up. "Is that what's going to happen?"
"What else would you suggest?" Simon snapped through gritted teeth. Here we go again.
I turned away this time, not even bothering to stop them. I let my gaze wander out the window, drinking in the square of sunlight and stray tree branches. I could almost imagine us climbing out the window and down the branches, fleeing with the sun from this horrible place. I admit, it was a promising thought.
So intent on the trees, it took me a moment to notice the painfully familiar face grinning at me. Royce.
I gasped, heart pounding. As if in response to his presence the gash on my forehead from one of his rocks throbbed. Through the dust on the outside of the window he drew a finger, deliberately scrawling "I'll be waiting for you." It was something out of a horror movie, the cheesy bad kind, but it still struck fear into my heart.
"Chloe? What-" Derek followed my gaze to the window then cursed. Of course, since it was a telekinetic ghost anything they wrote would be visible to everyone. "Royce?" I nodded, unable to tear my gaze away from his taunting face. "Leave her alone!" Derek growled at the window. He probably didn't know Royce was laughing at him.
With a grunt of frustration Derek disappeared again, bringing back a towel which he hung over the window in place of a curtain. As Royce's face vanished, my paralysis did too. I turned my face away from the window to meet three pairs of eyes, two frightened one smoldering, all anxious.
No one dared to break the silence until finally I yawned. "Sorry." I muttered as they all blinked back to focus, coming out of their own worlds.
"No, you should get some sleep." Simon advised.
"Yeah, wouldn't want our energy bunny running down." Tori added, though without the usual malice. She must really be worried about me.
"If you're sure…" I didn't really want to object. Sleep sounded promising at the moment.
"Go to bed, Chloe." Derek advised.
"Ok." I hunkered down under the blankets then looked at them expectantly.
"Oh, right." Simon smacked his head. "Yeah, all of us staring at you trying to sleep is probably more than a little creepy. Sorry." he pointedly looked away.
"Um, thanks but you guys don't have to stay here. I think I'll be ok." I was almost wishing they would argue.
They did. "No one's going to leave you alone, Chloe." Derek said.
"But-"
"Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on you in shifts." Simon assured me.
"But-" I tried again.
"I'll take the first shift." I wasn't surprised.
"Ok. We'll try and get some sleep too." Simon nudged Tori out of the room. "You will remember to wake us up, right?"
"'Course." Derek called.
Simon muttered something like, "no you won't," but then he was gone, taking Tori with him.
I leaned back against the mound of pillows behind my head and closed my eyes, listening to the steady sound of Derek breathing across the room to banish all thoughts of Royce and bullets from my mind. It was only minutes before I was asleep.