Twelve

 With tiny jolts of fear in each of my steps I jogged through the park, looking for any obscurities. Everything seemed normal. Little kids swinging on the swings, as their mothers sat on a near by bench reading a book or watching the blue jays.

My heartbeat slowed a bit, but my nerves stayed on end. There had to be something wrong here. Or else Daniel wouldn’t have told me to come here. Unless...it was to distract me so he could deal with the actual problem with me out of the way. Does that mean that the red ‘blood’ wasn’t real? Could it have just been paint?

I wasn’t quite sure of my theory, so I couldn’t just give up and leave the park when there might be something or someone in danger here. I decided to take one last jog around to find anything abnormal.

As I finished my circle around the main park area, I remembered that there was a small trail that wove around the park, but it was in the woods. Could the victim be in there? It wouldn’t hurt to try, right?

I neared the entrance of the forest trail and I began to feel a little eerie. It was pretty dark in there. It was, after all, past 4:30. My steps slowed to steady thumps on the soft earthy soil beneath me. My breathing quickened however, and my palms grew saturated.

To calm myself, I tried singing a song that I learned when I was in the 3rd grade. “When you feel sad and lonely. Don’t you worry, now, don’t you worry. You are never alone.” But as I sang the song and repeated the words out loud and in my head, it seemed scary. ‘You are never alone.’

My footsteps seemed like the only sound now; that, and the rhythmic speed of my breathing. As soon as I heard a soft voice, however, I stopped abruptly. The last breath that was in my throat stuck there like a fly in a spider web.

“Please, anyone! Help...” The small calls for help seemed just below a whisper, even though I knew they were meant to be loud. I tried to find the direction the voice was coming from, but it was so soft that I lost track of it.

Then, it came again, “Help...” Oh no...That voice. It sounded so familiar. A spurt of pain shot through me as I realized whom it was. My mind and body were numb as it traveled the course to where the calling came from. A limp body lay between two branches in a small pile of soggy leaves.

His head slowly moved up, “Chel...Chelsea?” I kneeled next to him; horror struck at all the blood on his body. His arms were a deep purple, and his legs were bent in ways that they weren’t supposed to be. My mouth wouldn’t work. I just placed my hands around him and pulled his weak body into my arms. “Shh.” I barely murmured. “Thank you.” He said, before his eyelids pulled shut and a small breath of air was released from his cracked and bloody lips.

 

“Oh, Steve.” I mumbled, “Its all my fault. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” I closed my eyes and tightened my hold on him. “Its okay, Chelsea. I...I think I’m okay. I just...ouch.” He was in pain. Steve was in pain because of me. I was the one who had to be selfish and bring someone else into my already messed up relationship, and now looked what I did! “Don’t move. It’ll only make it worse.” I told him. Trying my best to be careful, I pulled my arm out from below his weak body and reached into my back pocket for my phone.

My fingers glided over the keypad and dialed Lucas’s number with ease. He picked up on the second ring, “‘Ello?” “Lucas! I’m at Gram Park across the street from Lenny’s Diner. Steve’s badly injured. Can you please come? And hurry!” I snapped the phone shut after I heard Lucas say okay, and then jammed my phone back into my pocket.

I wove my hand back under Steve’s frail figure and whispered to him, “Its okay, Steve. My brother is coming. You’re going to be okay.” He just nodded, his eyes still shut tight. He looked so childish, but also kind of silly. Steve had a bulky form, and he looked awkward sitting in my small arms. But I could care less. I hugged him closer and rested my cheek on his damp head and prayed that Lucas would be here very soon.

A screech of tires came from somewhere behind me. I had thought at first that I had fallen asleep, but then I remembered that I had been staring at the same piece of a log for the past five minutes, just sort of zoning out. Swift footsteps were headed in my direction. Lucas probably didn’t know my exact spot so I called out for him. “Lucas! Over here!” Branches snapped and leaves crunched under his weight as his body emerged from the rubbish, and then there he stood; my knight in shining ar…

That’s not Lucas.

“Daniel! What the hell are you doing here?!” There he was, standing over me, rage splattered over his face. “Why aren’t you dead yet, Wilkins??” I quickly made an assumption that that was Steve’s last name. I gently prodded my arms out from beneath Steve and stood up slowly. I turned to face Daniel and calmly said, “Did you want him dead?” Daniel’s face softened, but his eyes still burned with fury. “Yes.” He said through clenched teeth.

My body and mind nearly exploded with enragement. I had had enough of Daniel and his little games. This was going to end. And it was going to end now. “Daniel, you listen and you listen well. I don’t give a s**t what went on between us or what you did to me. That’s all in my past now. But THIS!” I pointed to Steve, “This, Daniel, is just absurd. How dare you...No...How do you have the NERVE to do this to someone? To do this to ME. To STEVE. Pray tell, Daniel!”

He stood there silently for minutes, maybe hours. I started silently counting in my head. I got to 600 before he spoke. “How dare I? How dare YOU speak to me in that manner! You WILL show me respect!” “You are not my father. You have no say in what I do or don’t say!” His hand came out of nowhere. It was so sudden I jumped back a bit out of surprise. But the pain was there clearly on my face. It stung and throbbed and the tears jutted out of my eyes so immediately that they seemed to have come even before the smack.

Daniel had hit me so many times before, but this time hurt even more than the first time he did it. We had been at my house watching a movie and he didn’t want to get up to get some more water so he told me to do it. I found it kind of rude in the way that he had told me to do it, so I spoke my mind about it. He smacked me hard on my cheek and told me never to talk to him like that again. I had had to hide the bruise under concealer for a week until it began to fade. I will never forget that moment.

This time, for once in my life since the abuse had began. I took more action then just words. Because words obviously weren’t going to work for this psycho. So I hit him back. Right in the gut. Daniel’s moan of the air being punched out of him was the most delightful thing I had heard in the past year. I smirked at him as he fell to the ground gasping for air. His pitiful face looked up at me with eyes that begged, but I just laughed and said, “No, sweetie, don’t you see? YOU don’t talk to ME in that matter.”