Chapter
18
Awhile
later, “Scream” had ended. We all just
sat in the living room, watching TV.
“Hey,
what time is it, honey?” Leighanne asked Brian suddenly. Brian glanced down at his watch.
“It’s
going on nine,” he said, his eyes widening.
“They’ve
been gone almost three hours then,” Leighanne said worriedly.
“Maybe
they just lost track of time,” Nick said hopefully.
“Maybe,”
Brian said doubtfully. I could see the
worry in his eyes.
“Bri,
honey, maybe we should go out and see if we can find them,” Leighanne
suggested.
“Yeah,
okay, honey,” Brian said. “Maybe they
got lost or something. After all, Josh
and Sonny don’t know the neighborhood, and Hope’s only little, plus it’s
dark. It would be hard to read the
street signs.”
“Yeah,
I bet that’s what happened,” I said.
“Bri,
you want me to go with you?” AJ said.
“Sure,”
Brian said. “We can walk down the street
a little ways and see if we see them, and if we don’t, we’ll get the car and
drive around to look.”
“Okay,”
AJ said. “We’ll be back later, guys,” he
said to the rest of us. We all nodded,
watching them leave, hoping that nothing bad had happened.
***
Brian
and AJ walked down the sidewalk, shining their flashlights all around, looking
for Sonny, Josh, and Hope. Most of the
trick-or-treaters were gone now, probably inside enjoying their candy. Only a few of the older kids were still out.
Brian
zipped up his jacket. “Kind of chilly
out, huh?” he remarked to AJ.
“Yeah,”
AJ replied.
They
walked along in silence. Suddenly, AJ
tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and fell forward, landing hard on his hands
and knees. His flashlight fell from his
hand and rolled off the road.
“You
okay, Bone?” Brian asked, reaching his hand down to help his friend up.
“Yeah,
I’m fine,” AJ said, grinning sheepishly.
“I’m a klutz, that’s all.” Brian
laughed. Suddenly, he gasped. AJ followed his gaze to a spot on the side of
the road, near where AJ’s flashlight had rolled. The flashlight was still turned on, it’s beam
illuminating the side of the road. AJ’s
eyes widened as he realized there was a person lying still on the ground just a
few feet away from the light.
“Oh,
my God,” Brian gasped, running over to the person, who was lying on his side,
his back to them. Brian gingerly lay a
hand on the person’s shoulder and gently rolled him over onto his back.
“Sonny!”
AJ cried in shock when he saw the man’s face.
He grabbed his flashlight from the ground and brought it over to where
Sonny lay. He shined it down upon him so
that he could get a better glimpse. When
the beam of light fell over Sonny’s body, he gasped and nearly gagged. Sonny was covered in blood. He had been seriously injured, but there was
so much blood caked all over him, that it was impossible to tell where the
blood was coming from. “Oh, my God, Brian. Is he… is he… dead?” AJ stammered, afraid to
know the answer.
Brian
had knelt down beside Sonny and put his face close to Sonny’s face, trying to
listen for breathing. He sighed and
looked up at AJ. “He’s still breathing,”
he said, looking relieved.
“Okay,”
AJ said, his mind racing. “We have to
call an ambulance.” They looked around
and realized they were a ways away from some houses.
“AJ,
run back to the closest house and find a phone,” Brian instructed. “I’ll stay here with Sonny.”
“Okay,”
AJ replied and took off running down the street.
Suddenly,
Brian felt sick to his stomach as he realized something. If Sonny’s here, where are Josh and Hope?
he wondered. He was almost afraid to
know. But he knew that if his daughter
and friend had been injured as well, he needed to get them help as soon as
possible. He shined his flashlight
around, looking for more people lying on the ground. He gasped as his light fell upon a figure
lying further down in the ditch. He
hurried down to it, realized it was Josh.
Josh looked just like Sonny, covered in blood. His entire body trembling, Brian leaned down
to listen for his breathing. Luckily, he
was breathing, but it was very slow and shallow sounding. Brian knew they were both in critical conditions
and needed medical attention as soon as possible.
He
suddenly realized Josh’s whole body was trembling. Without a second though, Brian took off his
jacket and gently laid it across Josh’s body, not caring whether it got bloody
or not. He looked around, praying that
AJ had called 911.
Soon,
to his relief, he heard sirens approaching.
He stood up and ran back up to the road, leaving Josh behind. An ambulance pulled up, and three paramedics
hopped out. Brian quickly pointed to
where Sonny and Josh lay.
Just
then, AJ came running back up the street, panting.
“Aje,
Josh is hurt too,” Brian said when AJ got there, pointing sadly down into the
ditch, where two of the paramedics were loading Josh onto a stretcher.
“Oh
God,” AJ whispered, his face contorted with grief. He turned back to Brian. “What about Hope?” he asked softly.
Brian’s
eyes widened. “I don’t know,” he
said. “I… I didn’t see her, but what
if…” He let the sentence trail off and
walked further up the road, shining the flashlight all around, looking
everywhere for his daughter and praying that she was not lying there dying as
well.
AJ
headed down into the ditch and walked around as well. They searched until the paramedics were
loading Sonny and Josh into the ambulance.
“I’m
sorry, but there isn’t room for any of you to ride along,” one of the
paramedics said to Brian and AJ.
“That’s
ok,” AJ said softly. “We need to go tell
their families about this before we go to the hospital anyway.”
“Yeah,”
Brian agreed. He felt completely numb
inside. Not only were two of his friends
seriously inured, maybe even dying, but his daughter was nowhere to be
found.
***
About
ten minutes later, AJ and Brian were arriving back at Brian’s house. A police car had arrived at the scene shortly
before the ambulance had left, and they had both been briefly questioned. Brian had explained about his missing
daughter, and the police officers had informed him that he would get a crew
together to look for her right away.
Then they had given them a ride home, promising to call when they found
something on Hope.
Brian
and AJ thanked the officers and walked slowly up to the front door. Neither one was looking forward to breaking
the tragic news to the rest of the group.
***
As
soon as AJ and Brian set foot in the house, I could sense something was
wrong. They both looked stricken, their
faces pale and drawn, their eyes filled with grief. My heart sunk. Something terrible had happened, I knew. I just didn’t know what it was.
I
immediately climbed to my feet and approached them. “What’s wrong?” I asked softly, almost afraid
to hear the answer.
AJ
and Brian exchanged glances. I could
tell they were both upset, but Brian looked ready to cry, while AJ seemed a
little calmer. AJ cleared his throat and
put his arm around my waist.
“Come
sit down,” he said softly, leading me back over to one of the sofas and sitting
me down next to Heidi. Brian sat down
next to Leighanne on the other sofa.
Nick sat in a big chair, with Sammy on his lap. AJ took a seat in another chair and looked at
all of us, his expression grave. I saw
Brian take Leighanne’s hand and gently squeeze it. I could tell he was struggling not to lose
it. That scared me even more. Brian had always seemed to be calm in an
emergency, but now I could see tears starting to form in his eyes. Whatever had happened had to be just
horrible.
“Guys,
something bad has happened,” AJ started, but that was nothing new to us. We sat, anxiously waiting for him to
continue. “Both Josh and Sonny were
just rushed to the hospital.”
“Oh,
my God!” Heidi gasped, grabbing my hand tightly. “What happened?!”
“We
found them both lying by the side of the road, a few yards apart. They were both unconscious, and we’re not
sure exactly what happened, but it looks like they were stabbed,” AJ explained
grimly.
My eyes
filled with tears, and I began to shake.
I felt Heidi’s arm come around me, but it did nothing to comfort
me. “Are… are they…” AJ knew what I was
trying to ask.
“They
were alive when the ambulance left,” he said.
“I’m sure it looked more serious than it really is. Don’t you worry, the doctors will fix them
up.”
I
nodded, but I was doubtful.
“Wh…
what about Hope?” Leighanne asked, her voice small and scared sounding. “Where is she?”
Brian
wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close to him. “We don’t know,” he said softly, his voice
thick and shaking with his tears, which he was trying so hard to hold
back.
“What’s
that supposed to mean?” Leighanne asked, her voice rising in panic. “Where’s my baby?”
My
heart was breaking for her. My husband
was injured, maybe even dying, but at least I knew where he was. Her little girl was missing. I couldn’t even imagine how horrible that
must be.
“Leigh,
we aren’t sure,” AJ told her gently.
“She wasn’t anywhere near Josh and Sonny. The police are going to send some crews out
to search for her.”
“Oh,
God,” Leighanne whispered, beginning to cry.
Brian pulled her closer, and she sobbed against his chest, holding onto
him tightly.
Watching
her, I couldn’t contain myself any longer.
I began to sob as well. Heidi
hugged me tightly, and soon I could feel her own tears wetting my shirt. I didn’t care though. We just sat there and cried on one another’s
shoulder.
***
