What's Enough?

Chapter 176

The basement door pulls open, and I take a deep breath of relief. It squeaks as I pull it further, and then I slip in, closing it quietly behind me. With each step I take, the weight on my heart becomes heavy. I have nightmares about this place; I still think back to what happened down here sometimes. Sometimes when I am just sitting on my bed or showering, memories of Matt's hand on me, in me, erode my body and mind. And I swear I am right back here on the cold concrete floor, unable to move the heavy load on top of me conquering my body.

This isn't the time to cry; I break my glance from the very spot I was held down on and search the basement for the phone. It's hanging on the back wall; I walk over to it and smile once I pick it off the hook and hear the dial tone. I dial my father's number, it rings and rings, and then he picks up, "Dad,"

"Jayda!" he says. I hear my mom's voice in the background also; they both try to talk to me at once; I can't understand what they're saying.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. What's taking so long? I saw the cops outside. Why haven't they come in?"

"They can't come in; they can't get the damn doors unlocked," My father answers, frustrated. In the background, I hear the sheriff he asks to speak to me.

I'd rather not talk to him, but considering the circumstances, I have to. "Jayda, where are you?" he asks.

"The basement,"

"Do you know how many people are hurt or injured?"

"Uhm, my friend Violet is hurt; she was shot in the stomach," I don't even know if she is still alive. "Some are alive; they barricaded themselves in the classrooms. There were more than a dozen kids in the hallway but there all dead,"

The line goes silent, and then he tells me he is putting the phone on speaker for the other officers to hear. "Can you confirm that the shooter is Robert Cade?"

"Uhhh, yes, but-" Before I can add anything else, he tells someone that I confirmed that it is him.

"Swat is on their way; there's not enough time to get the doors open, so we have to use different measures."

"What measures?" I ask. His walkie goes off, and someone on the other end says that they have a visual on him at the east side of the building's fourth floor. No. "No, you can't shoot him,"

"He is murdering innocent kids,"

"They're far from innocent," I snap. "You can't kill him; he's just a kid too, and he's confused,"

"My job is to get the rest of you out safe and alive; I will do what I have to do in order for that to happen, now stay put. Swat will be there twenty,"

He gives the phone back to my parents. "Jayda, please don't do anything stupid,"

They know me too well. "You have to do something; they can't kill him. He's my friend," Even though he has killed a lot of people, he is still my friend; I know deep down he is a good person.

"Jayda, there is nothing we can do," he says. I guess he can't pay his way out of this one. "Just think of all these parents out here who are expecting their kid to walk through those doors; they aren't, maybe this is for the best,"

"No, they don't have to kill him! He needs help! He doesn't deserve to die!"

"Jayda-" My mom chimes in before she says more. I hang up the phone.

Robert doesn't deserve to die. He was the oppressor he was bullied; something must have happened to push him over the edge, to cause him to do something like this. No one just wakes up and decides to shoot up their school.