This is the conclusion to the episode from the chapter before. It's also one of my favorites.
I was trying to focus on other things to get my mind off slowly bleeding to death. I cataloged everything in the janitor's closet. There was a couple mop buckets and a big table with a bunch of bits and bobbles sitting on it, nothing that was helpful as I took a mental inventory of the things. There was also a little room just off the closet with a bunch of boxes attached to the wall. I couldn't see that far away, but I figured they were employee lockers or something.
"Guys there's another room over there with lockers on the wall," I announced, silencing the brewing argument. "I bet that's where B4 is. It's a number on a locker, another game this sicko's playing."
"Gwendolyn, you're a freakin' genius!" Noah exclaimed, pulling my head toward him and kissing the side of it.
Emma disappeared into the other room for a couple seconds and came back out with a paper and cassette tape in her hand. "Guys, Brandon James used to work here, this is his time card. It was in the locker with this cassette tape, I think it's my dad's."
Before any of us could respond the sound system overhead crackled to life. "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do."
"And cue the creepy murder music. I thought something was missing." Noah's sarcasm was ever-present, even in the face of danger.
"All of the love for you."
"Okay, this is going to be ridiculous, but I'll be right back," Emma told us, moving toward the door.
"You have got to be kidding me. Will and I are bleeding to death because of that person playing this shitty song and you're still going out there?" I asked, the pain becoming a constant thump behind my heart. "Have you lost your mind?"
"Hey, seriously, Em, that's, like, famous last words," Noah insisted from beside me.
"No, Em," Will said, wincing as he tried to stand on his own. "Help me up."
She slipped out of the room while Brooke was helping him stand up. He swore colorfully and hit the table full of bits and bobbles, knocking a couple bobbles to the ground by my hips. Noah reached over and brushed some of the hair out of my face and letting his fingers linger over my cheekbone longer than necessary.
"You're not looking too good, champ," he whispered as Brooke and Will worked to make the knife stick Emma mentioned earlier. "Kinda green around the gills."
"Yeah, I struggle to keep up the façade of being a French runway model when I get stabbed in the side by psychopaths," I quipped, leaning against him as fatigue flooded my body. "I stabbed him in the shoulder with Jake's 'gutter,' maybe it slowed him down."
"You stabbed that dude in the shoulder? You're a little badass," Will said, winking at me and holding the mop as Brooke tapped the knife to the end.
"That's my girl," Noah said, using his arm around my shoulder to hold my head and pressed his lips to the side of my face again.
"This is sickeningly sweet and everything, but we've got to fight our way out of here and get to Emma," Brooke said, her knife stick in hand. "We'll find Jake and make our great escape."
"That's a very good idea, I want to get as far away from here as possible and never go bowling again," I said, trying to stand up and wincing. "Yeah, I need someone to help me stand up."
Noah scrambled up to his feet and helped me, basically lifting me and holding me close to him. With his help I could walk pretty okay and Will seemed to be okay as long as Brooke was helping him. This could possibly work out, if we just took it one step at a time and played it smart.
"We might actually be able to do this, guys." I shouldn't have said that, it was the dumbest thing to ever come out of my mouth.
The door of the janitor's closet tried to bang open. Noah and Brooke leaned Will and I against each other before going to confront the attacker. It also wasn't a smart idea to put the two stab victims against each other, but we were forcing ourselves to stand up.
Will took a big breath and told Brooke to open the door. When she did, he rushed out and held the attacker against the wall so we could escape. I hated leaving him behind, but Noah wasn't giving me much of a choice. We were all rushing past the alleys when I saw a figure slumped over on the ground.
"That's Jake! I've got to go help him, you two find Emma and call the cops." And with that, Brooke was gone.
"They're going to be a thing if we all survive this and she breaks up with her mystery college boyfriend," I said, wincing when talking made it harder to walk.
Noah and I searched for Emma, but moving too much totally zapped my energy and I had to sit down. We were hiding behind the counter with the rental shoes as I struggled to stay conscious. He took my shoulder in his hand and leaned me forward, timidly lifting my shirt to look at my stab wound. He swore colorfully under his breath, I guess the duct tape wasn't doing its job anymore. He put pressure on the wound and tried to keep a straight, worry-free face when he looked back at me, but I could see through it.
"It's bleeding again, isn't it?" I asked, forcing myself to reach up and brush Noah's hair out of his face. A line of scarlet followed on his forehead. "I'm sorry, I got blood on your face."
He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. "It's okay, you're going to be okay. Blood washes out, but you've got to stay conscious for me."
"This is the worst kind of luck," I forced out. "I finally get time alone with you and I'm bleeding on you. This is the worst place to tell you everything."
"What are you talking about? I don't even like this shirt," he laughed stiffly. "What do you have to tell me? It can wait, I'm sure of it."
"Just don't leave me, swear you won't leave me alone?" I was fighting the black spots at this point and I knew I was losing.
"Never."
And everything went black.
The throbbing pain in my side and head was the first thing I felt when I woke up. I moaned dramatically and forced my eyes open. Noah and Audrey were sitting beside my bed, looking down at me creepily.
"Can you guys not stare at me like I'm in a coffin?" I rasped dryly. "Jesus, I sound like a chain-smoker."
"Ah, I've got this!" Noah said, letting go of my hand long enough to pull a Dr. Pepper out of his backpack. "I brought contraband into the hospital, don't tell."
He put the straw from my water cup in it and held it up to my mouth. "I was just telling Audrey about everything that happened, you passing out on me and all."
"Also, I'm happy to know you've been reunited as brother and sister," Audrey grinned. My face must've conveyed my confusion because she quickly explained, "Noah argued with the ambulance driver at the bowling alley from hell that he was your brother until they finally agreed to let him ride with you."
"I swore I wouldn't leave you alone and I stuck to it," he explained, sitting the bottle on the bedside table and taking my hand back in his. "Your dad and stepmom have been here as much as me; they shot holes in the 'me being your brother' story, though."
That made warmth blossom in my stomach, my family actually came to the hospital with me? "I can't believe it. Did Jackson and Sophia come, too?"
"For a couple minutes, yeah," he said, but I could see there was more to it. "They weren't very happy about it, but your dad wasn't having it, turned into a total George Munroe. He told them to leave if they were going to be that way."
I had no idea who that as, but I figured he was from some movie. The only references he ever made were to some sort of movies.
"Let's talk about something else, anything else," I sighed, reaching over and rubbing Noah's arm. "Thank you, by the way."
His cheeks and the tips of his ears turned pink, but he didn't say anything. A couple minutes later, I slid over so Audrey could sit in the bed with me and while Noah told us his theory. He'd been hinting at it for a while now, I was curious about it too honestly.
"Will was kidnapped and Jake was stabbed, probably safe to take them off both of the killer board," he started, eyeing us dramatically. "Unless that's exactly what it was meant to do. Jake's on the mend, Will's wounded warrior act made Emma forgive his sins. Either one of them could have set up this entire fiasco just to convince everyone to trust them."
"I don't buy it, I looked into Will's eyes and saw genuine fear. I don't think he's doing this," I argued. "He and I were hurt too much, and I just don't see him every hurting someone on purpose. I just feel it in my gut and I'm starting to trust that instinct, it hasn't steered me wrong yet."
"Regardless, that's dark," Audrey said, trying to smooth over the tension brewing between us. "You going to share this theory with Emma?"
"I wouldn't just yet, she's been through a lot," I replied, leaning back against the pillows. "She's probably making up for lost time with Will right now."
"Nothing quite says I miss you like going at it in a hospital bed," Audrey mused, making me giggle and slap palms with her while Noah just shook his head.
Audrey's mom called a little while later and she left, swearing she'd come back tomorrow with pizza and movies. I hugged her and thanked her for being here before Noah and I were suddenly alone. He was looking at me before he timidly reached up to stroke my cheek with his thumb.
"I am so sorry I hit you in the face with a mop handle."
I don't know why, but that made me laugh. He looked at me like I was totally crazy and I probably was, I did almost die from getting stabbed by a crazy psycho killer in an abandoned bowling alley. I turned my head and kissed the palm of his hand, leaning my face against it.
"Thank you for always staying with me," I whispered.
"Uhm, I'm about to do something really crazy and hope you don't get angry with me for it," he told me nervously.
I just looked at him like he was the one that'd lost his mind. I was about to ask him what he was going on about when he cupped my face in both his hands and hesitantly pressed his lips to mine. My heart started racing and the monitor attached to my finger started going crazy. I felt my face heating up, but if Noah noticed it he didn't pause the kiss.
"Oh, well, this explains why he's been by her bedside since the accident," my father's voice broke through the haze Noah's kiss caused in my mind.
Noah jumped away from me and caused the chair under him to skitter backwards. He ended up falling flat on his butt in the middle of the hospital room with my dad, stepmom, stepsister, and stepbrother all looking at him like he was the biggest imbecile in the world. I mean he kind of was, but they couldn't think that.
"Hi," I said sheepishly, thankful my heart rate monitor finally started to go back to normal.
"The doctor's coming in to check on you," dad said, eyeing Noah in his spot in the corner. "Son, you can go now. I'm sure Gwen'll call you when she's back home."
"Right, sir, you're right," Noah said, tripping over his feet a couple times before he got to the door. "Bye, Gwendolyn. I'll talk to you later, don't die on me."
"Isn't your name Guinevere?" my stepsister asked after Noah left me with pink cheeks a faster heartbeat than what was medically safe I'm sure.
"Yeah, it is."
Thanks for reading, babes.