SM Owns not me.
ScottishRose1028 is my awesome Beta and Starla pre-read this for me. It was really hard to write, and I know my chapters are normally on the shorter side – but this ones even shorter. Sorry.
SOOOO it's here. And it's upsetting. Proceed with caution.
But I think I'm still tryin' ta figure this crap out
Thought I had it mapped out but I guess I didn't
This fucking black cloud still follows me around
But it's time to exercise these demons
-Eminem
James looked back at Sarah with a menacing look as he held the gun in his hands. "I want all the girls to line up, there by the blackboard," he said pointing with his gun. "I have some things in my truck." He turned to the boys left standing in the classroom, "Go get them, or I shoot someone."
The boys scurried outside and began bringing in lumber, nails, hard white plastic ties, chains, and a shotgun. After the boys had fulfilled their duty, he told them to leave.
"What do you want from us?" Sarah asked with a shaky voice. She tried to comfort the girls in the class. Death wasn't the end. It was just the beginning.
James didn't bother to acknowledge her as he nailed the wood to the inside of the door. He had left a note for his family.
Edward and Bella couldn't deny the chaos that swirled around outside the motel room they were in. They walked outside and stood on the pavement with other people who had departed from the comforts of their room to see what was going on.
"Did something happen?" Edward asked the man who was watching the police cars zoom by. The man's face was pale and awestruck.
"Someone said there is a shooter at the Amish schoolhouse up the road," he said in disbelief.
"WHAT?" Bella said instantly sick to her stomach over the thought.
"Sarah," Edward breathed. His stomach lurched at the thought. "I have to go," he said.
"I'm coming," Bella said pulling the motel door shut.
"Bella, please don't. You shouldn't be near that," Edward told her not wanting her to witness the things he had.
"That is my family, Edward. You can't keep me away! If anyone shouldn't go – it's you!" Bella said, thinking about his PTSD.
"You're Amish?" the man asked Bella.
"Yes," Bella said. Because she was.As much as she fought it, she was Amish.
"Do you need a lift?" he asked both Edward and Bella. He was planning on going anyway to see for himself.
Edward groaned at Bella's stubbornness, but all three of them were quickly on their way to his pick up truck.
In a matter of minutes they were at the top of the long driveway leading to the school. Bella saw so many familiar faces as she rushed out of the car.
Police had set up a perimeter around the school, and were using a bullhorn to try and talk to the man that held eleven school-aged girls, one school teacher, and one pregnant women hostage. He didn't respond to them.
The police asked him to release the pregnant woman. No response.
One of the young girls. Nothing.
This killer wasn't interested in deals. There was nothing he wanted that the police could provide for him. Not one thing.
Bella ran quickly to the side of her mother and father. "Bella?" they asked in tears. Bella just nodded as she hugged them both. No matter what reason she was here right now, it wasn't important.
Edward stumbled out of the car in his attempt to keep up with Bella, but when he saw that she was safe with her mother and father he continued onto the perimeter of police officers. "What the hell is going on?" he asked out of breath.
"Sir, we need you to go back," the officer said sternly dismissing Edward.
"I want to help. I need to help. Please – I served in the medical corps with the army. I can help," Edward told the officer. The officer looked him up and down.
"If we need you, we will use you. Stay close. I pray to God it doesn't get that far," the officer said.
Edward nodded his head. He wanted to do something. Anything! Not just stand there and hope they didn't need him. He saw so much death in the war. Road side bombs. Arms and legs detached. Executions. He shuddered at the reminder of the death he directly caused. The thoughts invaded him and he couldn't stop the images from attacking him.
It started out as flashbacks, images he saw firsthand. The more he thought about what was going on inside that schoolhouse the more the images changed to ones he never wanted to see. He paced back and forth behind the line, his hands in angry fists as he pulled on his hair. He hated to be stuck waiting.
He had waited long enough for other people to make choices that affected his future, his existence. He ran away because of it. And what the hell had happened? James. James made a choice that would never leave Edward. Never leave the Amish community.
Did Edward agree with Bella for running away? No. But he did understand. How could he be mad at her about it, he had done the same thing by coming here to escape. It didn't matter. Bad things still happened. Hate still existed. Even in the least likely of places.
"Edward?" Bella said reaching an unsteady hand onto his raised elbow. He jumped at the contact.
He turned to look at her. Her eyes were red and swollen; her cheeks were wet from the tears.
"Mary Alice...she is in there," Bella choked out. Edward looked over Bella's shoulder and saw Jasper – he was like a man burning at the stake.
Edward reached out and pulled Bella close to him in a tight hug. "And Rebekah Black...and all the children I...I worked with," Bella sobbed.
Edward didn't have a choice. He felt helpless, but he could offer Bella this one thing. He smoothed her hair as he tried to soothe her.
At 11:07 that morning, Bella jumped in Edward's arms as the first gunshot rang out. She covered her ears in fear. The scream that left her lips didn't sound like her own. Bella wasn't sure which was worse, the gunshots or the screams.
Edward closed his eyes, a single tear running down his cheek. It was over. They would need all the help they could get. The gunshots didn't stop. The screaming didn't stop. Not for three minutes. Then, for a split-second, there was silence. It felt like eternity. It took the police one hundred and fifty seconds to break down the door to the schoolhouse.
Edward let go of Bella and released her into the waiting arms of her father. "I have to go help," he told her as he bolted toward the schoolhouse doors.
Bella screamed for Edward to come back but he was already gone. She looked around her at the pandemonium. It was sheer horror. Her eyes were wide with fear and uncertainty. Her stomach felt like it needed to be emptied over the thought of all those innocent lives lost. Forever changed.
"A mass casualty on White Oak Road, Bart Township, with multiple children shot." Bella heard police say over the radio.
James knew he didn't have much of a choice. He came there to kill and that was what he intended to do. He looked at Mary Alice as she held onto a young girl. "Go back there," he told her.
"It's okay...it's gonna be okay," she said kissing the young girl's head. She scurried to the corner he instructed her to go to, not sure if she would live or die. She was reserved with the fact that she would die. She wasn't scared of what was waiting for her on the other side, only what she would leave behind.
She sat in the corner.
"NO!" Sarah said. "Kill me. Shoot me! Not them!"
Alice wished she had the courage to do what Sarah just offered. To sacrifice herself in the hopes of saving another life. But she couldn't do that to her unborn child. She let out a sob.
"If that's the way you want it," James said cocking his head in her direction.
"I forgive you," Sarah whispered before the shot fired violently from his gun. The room erupted in screams.
Mary Alice covered her ears as the gunshots went off, one by one.
James went down the line. He turned to Alice. His face looked weary. It was as if whatever had caused him to snap like this had worn him out to the point of physical change. She took in a breath as she prepared herself to die.
"One bullet left," he mused kneeling in front of her. "I'm sorry you have to live with this memory. It seems a bit cruel. But I can't put us both out of our misery...and well...you'll survive. I won't," he said, standing up.
He put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
Edward ran into the school, his eyes darted all over as he went into full Army mode. Not many of the bodies were moving. There was one huddled in the corner shaking: Mary Alice.
"Alice, are you okay?" he asked kneeling down. She shook her head no. "Are you hurt?" he clarified trying to see if she was physically hurt. She shook her head no again.
He couldn't stay there with her. He had to get to some of the people that needed medical help.
There was blood, everywhere. Splatters on every desk, every chair, and every surface covered. He spotted Sarah and ran over to her, blood pooled around her head, her blonde hair matted down with red. He felt her neck for a pulse...nothing.
He stepped over her when he saw Rebekah Black weakly cough up some blood. Out of the thirteen inside, it looked like maybe six had survived.
Helicopters landed in the open space by the schoolyard as EMTs worked on keeping the girls alive. Edward was covered in blood. His hands, his shirt, his jeans from kneeling down in the puddles, even his face from when he'd wiped his brow.
"EDWARD! Where is Alice?" Jasper called out frantically, as Edward helped get the last girl on a stretcher headed for the helicopter.
Edward looked around; no one had gone back in for her. The last place Edward wanted to go was back into that one room schoolhouse full of death. Edward had thought he had lived through the most horrific part of his life, he was wrong. Nothing could compare to the tragedy before him. Innocent children...just gone. He couldn't even think of them being dead or murdered. It felt wrong.
He swallowed down the fear as he went back into the room. Alice was still huddled in the corner, crying softly as she rocked her body. "Mary Alice?" Edward said calmly. He didn't want to startle her anymore. "Jasper is waiting for you, let's get out of here."
Alice looked up at him with wide eyes. "I don't understand...why..." she sobbed as Edward lifted her into his arms.
"I don't know either," he told as he carried her out. Jasper ran to them. Alice collapsed in his arms and began to sob uncontrollably.
"Thank God! Thank God, you are okay!" Jasper cried into Alice's hair.
Edward's eyes met Bella's who looked relieved to have her best friend unharmed. "Sarah?" Bella mouthed to Edward.
He shook his head. Anyone left inside that school was gone.
One by one, bodies inside black bags were somberly carried out. Edward walked sadly over to where Bella stood crying in her father's arms.
Not a word was spoken – there weren't any words to say. Bella moved out of her father's embrace towards Edward and collapsed into his arms.
He held her close as he tried to keep his face indifferent.
"Edward, are you okay? I can't believe this! Edward! Talk to me!" Bella urged him. His stoic demeanor was making her uneasy. She wanted him to react. Anything was better than silence. Crying. Screaming. Sobbing. Yelling. "Say something! Do something! Anything! Please Edward!"
"She's gone," he barely whispered. "Dead."
Edward was so sick of death. He had seen enough to last him three lifetimes.
Bella didn't know what to say. Did she say she was sorry for his loss? Wasn't it just as much her loss? Bella had gotten to know Sarah well before she had run away. "I know," she said simply.
"I don't want to be here." Everything around him was spinning. It was chaos and he couldn't control any of it. He needed to be in some sort of control. He couldn't focus. He could smell the death; feel the pain that lingered thickly in the air.
Gunshots. He heard them firing inside his mind. Then she spoke, stopping yet another flashback.
"Then let's go," Bella said, leading him away by his hand. She noticed her father comforting families that had gathered, and didn't find it to be the right time to talk to him right now anyway. They walked the short distance back to her old home, Edward's new home. It was empty.
"Everything is so still here...peaceful," Edward said, when they walked in. Bella nodded. She pulled him up the wooden steps and pushed open the door to his room.
It no longer was her sister's; most traces of Rose were gone. She could even smell Edward's scent. She sat him down on the bed, and left to get some water and a wash cloth to clean off the blood.
When she came back with the bowl of warm water she carefully wrung out the washcloth and wiped his face clean. She rinsed the cloth off in the bowl, the water turning a light pink. She looked back up at him and watched a tear travel down his cheek. She brushed it away with her thumb before she helped him pull his bloody t-shirt off. She continued to clean off his arms, the water getting darker each time she rinsed off the cloth.
She noticed a gash on the top part of his hand. "What happened?" Bella asked cleaning it out. It looked deep enough to need stitches. "Why didn't you have someone look at it?"
"There was much more to worry about than my hand," Edward said pulling it out of Bella's grip.
"You should have it looked at, Edward," she told him quietly.
"He tied all their hands up behind their backs...with like those hard plastic ties..." Edward cringed at the memory. "I was trying to cut it off Rebekah's wrist and sliced myself," Edward told her as he studied the gash.
Bella pulled his head into her chest as hugged him closely. He wrapped his arms around her waist and sobbed into her stomach as she stroked his hair, silently letting her own tears fall.
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So this was really sad when it happened. I worked for a funeral home call center that handled arrangements for the shooter and 3 of the girls that were killed.
So, I wanted to just take a minute and recognize the girls killed and injured. All info is from Wikipedia.
Fatalities
Naomi Rose Ebersol, aged 7, died at the scene October 2, 2006.
Marian Stoltzfus Fisher, aged 13, died at the scene October 2, 2006.
Anna Mae Stoltzfus, aged 12, was declared dead on arrival at Lancaster General Hospital, Lancaster, Pennsylvania October 2, 2006.
Lena Zook Miller, aged 8, died at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania on October 3, 2006.
Mary Liz Miller, aged 7, died at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware on October 3, 2006.
Injured
All of the surviving Amish schoolgirls were hospitalized.
Rosanna King, 6 years old, was removed from life support at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and sent home at the request of her family on October 4, 2006. Some reports claim the child showed signs of recovery and was sent back to the hospital. Her condition improved, though she is still greatly impaired from the shooting and remains at home.
Rachel Ann Stoltzfus, 8 years old
Barbie Fisher, 10 years old
Sarah Ann Stoltzfus, 12 years old
Esther King, 13 years old
The girls wounded in the shooting made measurable progress in the year after the shooting. Sara Ann Stoltzfus did not have full vision in her left eye but was back at school — she was not expected to survive. Barbie Fisher was pitching in school softball but had undergone another shoulder operation in hopes of strengthening her right arm. Rachel Ann Stoltzfus returned to school in the months after the shooting. Esther King returned to school in the months after shooting, graduated and was working on the family farm. youngest victim, Rosanna King, wasn't expected to survive and was sent home to die there. She had serious brain injuries and does not walk or talk as of December 2009. Rosanna is confined to a wheelchair, but is said to recognize family members and frequently smiles