“Miss, I’m here to help you. Can you blink or nod if you can hear me?” It was a woman’s voice, and she was gently untying my hands.
A swallow tumbled down my throat, and I nodded once, or at least I thought I did. I wasn’t sure if I did or not. Did the woman even see it?
“It’s okay, honey, I’m here. My name is Shirley, and I’m going to have my husband lift you now. There’s no way we can wait for an ambulance. We’ve got to get you to help.”
I watched as this stranger with red hair like mine ran a hand down my arm, saying soothing words as her middle-aged husband wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and lifted me. Shivers continued to rack my body. My lifeless limb hung by a thread, and blood dripped from me as he carried me to a small compact car.
The woman named Shirley sat in the cramped backseat with me, holding my head steady in her lap with one hand and putting pressure on my leg with the other. With every jolt of the car, pain crashed through me, and I moaned.
The car ride faded in and out. Murmurs, quiet discussion floated around me. I was pretty sure I heard someone say, “We need to go to the local hospital, can’t make it all the way to Pittsburgh.”
Where was I?
My focus drifted to sushi, and bowling with Jake. I thought about his gym, and how he was always asking me to go there. I was thinking so hard about him, I swore I heard his name on repeat.
“Jake, Jake, Jake . . .”
The next thing I remembered, I was waking up in a hospital bed. Dazed and confused, I blinked my bleary eyes, comforted by the certainty that was the Pittsburgh skyline I saw outside the window.
But the older redhead who sat in the chair next to me, holding my hand, her I wasn’t certain of.
“I’m going to get your Jake now,” she whispered to me.
My eyes were blurry and I squinted, trying to make out who the woman was, and how she knew Jake. “Bess?” I murmured, wondering if I was imagining the woman being middle-aged.
Bess is young? Right?
The stranger shook her head.
I reached out and grabbed her wrist and squeezed tight. “What happened? Who are you?” My voice sounded foreign and ragged, and I was beginning to imagine the worst.
“Darlin’, you were kidnapped, but I rescued you. I’ll tell you the rest later. I’m sure Jake is very worried about you. I waited until you were awake to go get him. Had to make sure you were really going to be okay,” she said in a hushed tone.
Everything was so fuzzy to me; her words sounded as if they were coated in a layer of static. My head throbbed and my body burned with pain, but neither were close to the odd absence I felt in my heart. Something was wrong with me—really wrong—but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
“Wait! What happened? Jake? How do you know Jake? Why do you keep talking about him? Please don’t leave me here guessing,” I pleaded with the woman as she stood to leave.
“I’ve been looking out for him.” Her expression was pained as she twisted her hands together, the knotted joints reminding me of my own mother’s hands. “It’s what I should’ve been doing years ago, but I fell short. It’s how I found you. Now, let me get the nurse and tell them to call the authorities, and then I’m going to get Jake. It may be a while. I’m not sure who took you or why, but when we’re all together, you’ll tell the police what you remember. Until then, get some rest, Alyson.”
I shifted slightly in the bed, straining to hear the woman whispering in the hall.
“I’m off to alert her other friends,” she said outside my room, “but I think you should call 911. I found that woman brutalized after a violent crime.”
“Ma’am, why are you just saying this now? I thought you said she had an accident?”
“It wasn’t time for her to be found yet,” was all I heard before her footsteps retreated down the hall.
Who was this woman playing with my destiny?
Jake
I paced the same path I’d paced a hundred times already, my feet practically wearing grooves in the hardwood in front of my brother’s fireplace. Sunlight poured through the windows, throwing golden beams in my path, and I wanted to kick them. Spring weather had fully taking over, summer on its way, but I was anything but bright.
In my head, I was back in the driving rain, lost in that alley, looking for answers to life. GRAFFITI GOD kept flashing before my eyes. Fucking God. Who the hell did he think he was raining down shit on my life?
My fucking life had sucked beyond belief because I had my parents’ blood on my hands and now this. It was my job to take care of Aly—God’s way of helping me absolve myself—and I’d fucked it up and she was gone. Disappeared into thin air.
As far as I knew, the police had turned up zip. Barry had gone out looking, and then apparently fell drunk on liquor and guilt. The last time I spoke with him, he was slurring so badly, his words were nothing but gibberish. I’d tried to call him a few times since then for updates, but his phone went right to voice mail. Just like I’d thought; the man was fucking useless.
As I was thinking of the nicotine-reeking devil, my phone buzzed.
“You sobered up?” I belted into the phone after slamming my finger across ANSWER CALL.
“Yeah. Sorry ’bout that, but this is all my fault. Al didn’t want this case. I pushed it.”
“Get to the point, Barry.” I didn’t have time for his sob story.
“Police have a lead. Stay tuned.”
“Where? What?”
“I can’t say. Stay around and available. They just called me.”
Click.
The little ass had nerve.
Against my better judgment, I’d agreed with Bess when she had begged me to come stay with her after the first night, insisting I not be alone. Aly had been gone with no news, and I knew for sure I was meant to go through life alone. I couldn’t do this even when Bess kept saying I could. I wanted to slam my fist into the mantel, but I kept it together for Bess.
No more rescuing or love fantasies for me anymore. That was done. I’d be on my own forever now.
My entire body was tense to the breaking point, my muscles jumping from unused adrenaline that pumped through me. A million emotions yanked me back and forth, driving me insane—anger, frustration, uselessness, worry, confusion, and rage. The rage kept me going.
Through it all, my head whirled with disjointed thoughts.
Dr. Wells kept calling, and I kept hitting IGNORE.
Lane was on an earlier flight home.
James was coming from Florida to be with Maddy, so Bess could babysit me.
I wasn’t working out. All I did was pace and swear and swear and pace.
I needed to go home, crawl into bed and ride this awful nightmare out. Maybe I’d wake up on the other side of this dream and not tamper with my life or anyone else’s problems.
Spent and worn out from my own mental berating, I leaned my head into the mantel. The edge dug into my forehead, and I wanted to slam my whole fucking face into the piece of shit. I wanted the pain to leave my heart, bleed from my soul. Who was I to think I deserved a bowling partner, let alone happiness?
“I’ll get it,” Bess yelled from the kitchen.
“What?” I lifted my head, dizzy and dazed.
“The door, Jake. Didn’t you hear the bell?”
I shook my head, not caring. When I didn’t move, Bess hurried past me to the front door.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she spat out in a hushed voice.
Curiosity and concern for Bess pulled me from the living room. I stepped into the foyer only to become enraged when I saw for myself who was at the door.