Chapter Twelve: Help is on the Way

Carole handed Lisa the dice. She shook her hand and gently tossed the cubes onto the flat playing board. They rolled for a moment before resting on one of their six sides.

"Yes! Six!" Lisa smiled as she moved her player six places on the board. Carole sighed.

"That'll be two hundred ten dollars." Carole looked up. Lisa handed her the money. They were playing Monopoly, and Lisa had just bought the last property in the blue set. Now she owned all three.

"Oh gosh Lisa, you're already winning! Why'd you have to rub it in our faces?" Veronica scowled. Lisa just laughed.

"It's how you play the game silly!" She smiled.

Carole nodded. "Yes, but Veronica, be warned, Lisa's bound to put hotels up soon!" Veronica rolled her eyes and Lisa nodded.

"But of course!" She handed Veronica the dice. Veronica rolled a four.

"Oh great, I get to go to jail." She said sarcastically. Carole reached across the board and placed Veronica's racecar in jail.

They played for about an hour before ending, Lisa victorious. It was ten past eight, and Max told them lights out at 8:30. Carole crawled into her sleeping bag after they had cleaned up the game. She stared up at the ceiling as she thought about Stevie. She hoped she was okay.

Lisa glanced over at Carole. "She'll be fine." Lisa assured her. "This is Stevie, remember?" Carole shook her head.

"Yeah, but this past week, Stevie's been acting less and less like the Stevie we know." Carole turned to Lisa. "You know what I mean?"

Lisa nodded. "Yeah, I know. But she's still Stevie, so I'm sure she'll be fine." Carole sighed and pulled the covers tighter. Even in the barn it was cold. Thinking about this did nothing but make her worry more. She finally closed her eyes and went to sleep, hoping that Stevie was alright.

She was wrong.

Out at the barn…

Phil sat next to Stevie. It was 6:30 in the morning. He watched as she slowly opened her eyes.

"Phil?" She whispered. "How long have you been awake?" She asked.

"Oh, about an hour or so." Phil looked at her. Her blue eyes seemed foggy, and her cheeks remained flustered. "How are you feeling?"

Stevie gulped nervously. She felt horrible, but she didn't want to tell Phil that. "I-I feel fine." She smiled weakly at him.

Phil looked at her strange. "Are you sure?" He asked, disbelief on his tongue. Stevie nodded and sat up slowly. Phil felt his muscles tighten, ready to catch her if something bad happened. But nothing did.

Stevie gently pulled the blanket off her legs and got to her feet. She staggered a little bit, and she felt strong hands on her shoulders, steadying her. Stevie looked behind her and Phil smiled at her.

She walked over towards Belle. Her horse seemed quite fine, if not happy. She nickered softly at Stevie, and turned to nuzzle Teddy's snout.

Stevie smiled at the simple show of affection. She turned and walked back over to where Phil was standing.

"So what's the plan for this morning?" She asked. "We have to open the door in order to get the horses out, should we start there?"

Phil nodded slowly. "I can do it, why don't you lie back down." He motioned to the tarp.

Stevie shook her head, and was left dazed for a moment afterwards. "I can help." She slowly walked over towards the door. Phil walked ahead and started pushing. The door didn't budge one bit. Stevie placed her hands next to Phil's.

"On three?" She asked. Phil nodded, nervous for Stevie's sake. She slowly counted to three.

"-Three!" Together they pushed as hard as they could. Phil felt his sore muscles start to burn, but he ignored them.

Stevie leaned on the door as hard as she could. She felt sick to her stomach, but wanted to do something to help. She felt small beads of sweat form on her head and she grunted with the effort. She felt the door slide a little. She could tell Phil felt it too because he started pushing even harder.

Suddenly a wave of dizziness over took Stevie. She paused for a moment, and black dots formed in front of her eyes. She stood, clutching her head, but the black dots remained there. She felt herself sway, and she was worried she was going to faint.

Phil noticed the door suddenly seemed at lot heavier. He glanced over at Stevie, who had let go and was standing a few paces away, clutching her head.

"Stevie? You okay?" He let go of the door and slowly approached the girl.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just give me a sec." Stevie replied. Phil stood, waiting for her to return or to go back to her bed. He watched as a violent shudder ran through the girl. Then, Stevie's knees buckled and she collapsed onto the cold barn floor.

Phil ran to the fallen figure. He picked up the girl and placed Stevie's head in his lap. She seemed almost asleep, with her eyes closed like that. Phil didn't worry too much. He figured it was only because she worked herself too hard.

Phil got up and gently placed Stevie on top of her tarp. He slid the horse blanket over her. Feeling a desierable urge, he leaned forward and gently placed his lips on her forehead. She didn't move. Standing up, Phil walked back over to the door and tried opened it again. It didn't budge.

Phil sighed. It had snowed so much the door had frozen shut. He figured the only way to open it was to warm it up, but they didn't have the time to wait for the sun to do it. Phil looked around the barn. There was a total of three windows.

One was over by the horses, but was too high for Phil to reach. Another was over by the pile of wood, but Philo was worried the wood pile wouldn't be stable enough to stand on. The last was directly above the large wall of hay the barn kept for storage. Considering his options, Phil walked over to the hay. Gently placing a foot in one of the bales, he hoisted himself up. Higher and higher he climbed, until he reached the window. It too had frozen shut. Phil glanced at his watch; 7:30. Closing his eyes, Phil leaned back and rammed his right arm into the glass. The glass shattered and left an opening just big enough to climb through. His arm stinging from the glass, Phil crawled through the window and fell to the snow below.

The snow cushioned his fall, and he got up immediately. Running as fast as he could, he followed the trail markers back towards Pine Hollow.

At the barn:

Lisa was the first one up. She woke up around 7:35, which was early for her. Carole was still asleep, and Veronica was snoring loudly. She got up slowly and walked towards the office, where Max was preparing coffee. Max looked up as she entered the room.

"Morning Lisa, how'd you sleep?" He asked.

"Oh, it was fine." She replied dully.

"What's wrong? You seem down today." Max noticed. Lisa nodded.

"I-I'm worried about Stevie." She said honestly. Max nodded.

"I'm making some coffee and than Red and I are headed out to look for them. I'm sure they're fine!" Max smiled.

Suddenly a snow-clad figure burst into the room. "Max-pant-I- pant-need to-pant-talk to you."

Max rushed forward. The figure shook off most of the snow, revealing themselves as Phil.

"Phil!" Lisa ran to him. "Where's Stevie?"

Phil paused for a moment, relieved he made it in good time. "Stevie….old barn….stuck…." Phil managed. He was awfully out of breath from running so far in the snow.

"Thanks Phil, you sit down on the couch. Lisa, would you mind helping him clean up the snow?" Max ran out the door without waiting for an answer.

"Wait!" Phil ran out with Max leaving Lisa alone in the room. She sighed as she picked up a towel to clean up the already melting snow.

Max mounted up on Delilah, and Red on Barq. Phil grabbed Comanche and the three of them galloped out in the snow towards the barn. Phil explained everything on the way as he led them through the snow towards the barn.

Don't worry Stevie, we're on our way. Phil thought as they galloped through the snow.