Battle Scars

Panicked

Melissa stared at her phone and the string of messages that she had sent Sarah on Messenger and got no response from her.  She had even sent a few text messages, still no response.  Granted, it was still rather early in the morning but some of those messages she sent the night before and Sarah never went to bed before 11:00 PM.  She trusted her friend but Melissa could not forget how she had looked that day in the hospital.  Sarah had confided in her that her instincts had warned her about him but she had ignored them.  Melissa was worried the same would be true with this guy.  She grabbed her Taser, keys, and bent her head against the rain that was still falling to the ground that morning as she ran out of her apartment.

The drive to Sarah's only took ten minutes and she saw that her car was still in the driveway.  All the lights were out in the house.  She checked the time on the clock.  It was only seven in the morning and Sarah usually didn't stir until nine on her days off.  She didn't care, her conscience would not wait another second.  She got out of the car and ran up to the door, fishing the spare key Sarah had given her out of her pocket.  She braced herself as she unlocked the door and slowly walked into the living room.

The house was quiet and nothing looked out of place... Her eyes narrowed as she caught sight of Sarah's phone up on a tall ledge out of her reach.  Son of a bitch!  Something had happened last night for that to be up there!  Nothing looked out of order other than that.  She wanted to check Sarah's room first but she wanted to make sure the guy was where he was supposed to be first.  She didn't want no unexpected surprises.

Melissa almost cursed out loud when she saw the bed was empty. She glanced back down the hallway to the bedroom on the opposite side of the house.  She groaned inwardly.  She was horrified that she was going to have to look in there but so far all the signs were pointing that something bad had happened.  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.  She dialed Matt up.

"You know this is my day off, right?" Matt groused on the other end.

"I'm at Sarah's... something is off here. Her phone is put up on a high ledge and the guy isn't in his room.  I'm kinda scared he might be in her room with her.  What if he's doing bad things to her in there?"

Matt cursed, "I'm on my way over.  Don't do anything stupid."

Melissa edged closer to Sarah's door and paused outside, listening for any signs of distress.  It was quiet on the other side.  She stood outside straining to hear and looked at the door handle ominously.  She slowly started to reach for it while frowning slightly.  She almost jumped out of her skin when a hand came down on her shoulder.  Matt covered her mouth with his hand when she almost screamed.  She hit him hard on the arm.

"What the fuck, Matt!  How the hell did you get here so fast?" She hissed in a whisper.

"I hauled ass," he whispered back at her while lifting up his .9mm.  "You stay back behind me."

Matt moved to the side of the door as he had been trained and dropped his free hand down to the handle.  He slowly turned it before gently pushing the door open.  He peered around the corner then lowered the gun, smirking.  He shoved the gun in the holster in the back of his jeans, glancing back at Melissa.

"Take a look for yourself," he said with barely restrained laughter.

Melissa pushed past him and her mouth dropped open.  Curled together in the center of the bed was Sarah and the stranger.  She looked rather cozy and Melissa blew.

"Sarah Lee De'Arr, I'm gonna kill you!"

Sarah jerked and sat up, her eyes going wide and around the room.  "Mom?"  She then scowled as she saw Melissa.  "What the hell?  I thought I was back in high school."