Lead Me Out of the Dark

Chasing Skye

DECK'S POV

John and I had pulled away from the school parking lot the second that we realized Skye was planning on doing something stupid. I loathed myself for doing this to her, yet I knew that if the roles were reversed, she would have done the same thing. I’d kissed that disgusting blonde girl to prove a point. I was too goddamn stubborn in that way. My dad used to say I would shoot a hole in my own foot to prove a point.

But I was trying to prove a point. I had just gone about proving it the wrong way. Jack was a disgusting excuse for a human being. There was no way I was going to let him go to prom with Skye. As far as I was concerned, Jack wasn’t going to walk again when I got my hands on him. He had caused this entire mess. Skye had no idea what he was really like. I’d tried to tell her so many times, yet she’d just thought I was jealous of him. I thought back to that night at the movies.

“You stupid son of a bitch,” I snarled, getting all up in his face and shoving him against the wall. Jack’s face changed into an expression I’d never seen on him before. He was gloating.

“You’re just jealous that she likes me better.” He teased. My fist flew into his face before I’d even realized what I was doing. It felt so good to use all of my strength. My blood was flowing, and I glowed with the exertion. My fist connected with his face easily.

“Oh yeah? Then why did she call me to come pick her up?” I asked. I had the satisfaction of watching Jack’s eyes widen slightly. So she hadn’t told him that she hated blood, I mused. One point for me.

“Oh well. We’re going to prom together, anyway. Her panties are going to drop so quickly-” Jack began. I lifted kneed him in the gut, gripping his shirt collar and using it to throw him to the ground. For a football player, he was a horrible fighter. I sat on him and fisted him three times straight in the face. He was squirming against my grip, barely trying to get a punch in. What a pussy, I smirked to myself.

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to talk about girl’s underwear?” I hissed in his face. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed but my fists and his face became inseparable. They were a winning combination, like peanut butter and jelly. The familiar endorphins that I got from fighting buzzed through my body. This was good, plain fun.

Rage reddened my vision and I focused in on the present. I had to find Skye.

“Where do you think she’s going?” I asked quickly. John knew her better than I did. He would know where she would go first. John’s lips twisted into a grimace, and I knew that I wouldn’t like the answer.

“Verve. It’s a rave downtown. She always used to go there when her dad would do shit to her,” John said. He executed a sharp left turn, and then my mind and body were sent reeling. Her dad? What had her dad done to her? Why hadn’t Skye told me that her dad did shit to her? How bad was it? Was that why she had never chosen a boyfriend? Guys at our high school drooled all over her. I wasn’t sure if she didn’t notice or if she just didn’t care. She even had a nickname in the boy’s locker room- Sexy Skye. The guys always made jokes about how good she was in bed. The thought pissed me off so much it hurt. My hands balled into fists.

“What did her father do to her?” I asked through gritted teeth. If he wasn’t dead already, I would have marched straight to his house and killed him myself. If he had so much as touched her, I would have wrapped my hands around his neck and choked the life out of him. The worst part would be that I would have enjoyed it.

“I thought you knew,” John said quietly. “It’s not my story to tell.” Before I could kick the shit out of John for not telling me, he parked the car.

“We’re here.” The club was illegal in every sense of the word. There were so many drugs being passed around that it made my head spin just looking. I had to be careful where I stepped- there were discarded needles everywhere. There were dirty sleazebags every two feet. If any of these disgusting shit heads had their hands on Skye I would make them suffer. We walked around the club twice, but we couldn’t see her. John asked the bartender if he’d seen a girl named Skye. The bartender had said no.

“She’s about ye tall, has blonde and pink hair, blue eyes?” I described. The bartender’s eyes widened in understanding.

“Oh, her. That girl was fine with a capital F. She was dancing on the tables for an hour before this guy started dancing with her. The entire club had their eyes on that girl. She left with him a couple minutes ago.” The bartender described. My hands tightened so much that my knuckles hurt. I could punch the lights out of this guy so easily. I could cut up every inch of his body and make it look like an accident. Instead, I turned and ran out of the club. Every instinct in my body told me to go back there and hit him so hard that my knuckles would rip, but I didn’t. I needed to find Skye first. The parking lot was crowded with people having sex in their cars and doing drug deals. It was a gruesome sight. I ran through, feeling much more corrupted than I had when I walked in.

“She’s right there!” John said suddenly, pointing towards a black Audi A7. Skye was all the way at the end of the parking lot. Some guy had his hands on her hips, shoving her towards the car. Another guy was getting in the front. Skye went to get in the car, but the guy holding her hips stopped her.

“Wait… what the Hell is she doing?” John asked, squinting in confusion. The guy was moving to sit on the hood of the car. He looked like a sleaze ball. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to stab him so hard he wouldn’t get up afterwards.

“Who the fuck is that guy!?” I hissed. The words had spilled out of my mouth unthinkingly.

“Skye! SKYE!” I yelled as we ran. I hoped she would hear me, but she was busy climbing on the hood of the car with the guy. What the Hell was she doing?

“Mother of God. They’re going hood riding.” John said. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that meant.

“You’re joking, right?” John couldn’t be serious. No one would actually do that… right?

“I wish I was.” John said. Skye turned, her eyes searching. I guessed she had heard us. I opened my mouth to call her name again, but the guy in the car was already speeding away.

“God fucking dammit!” I screamed, hitting the dashboard in frustration.

“It’s okay; we just lost her in traffic. We know which direction they were headed. We’ll find her soon.” John reassured. He was calm. He was much, much too calm. My heart had been in my throat throughout the entire ride. I felt like I was choking on my own air. She was laughing and screaming, sitting in the lap of that blonde guy. We had come to an intersection and we’d lost her. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to calm the sudden urge to hit something. John suddenly jerked the car to a stop, and I flew forwards, my head banging against the windshield.

“What the fuck!?” I cussed. John was leaping out of the car. I followed a little dizzily, my head still ringing from being smashed against the dashboard. My heart plummeted. The Audi A7 she’d been riding in was wrapped around a tree. No. This couldn’t be happening. John and I wordlessly began searching. We found the driver inside the car. The guy that she had been sitting on was still on the hood of the car. John dialed 911 while I searched. Why would she have left the wreckage? To get help? No, if she needed help, she would have just called the police on her cell phone. The only other reason she would have left was to… a strange smell overtook my nose. Did she leave so she could vomit?

I heard small conversational sounds coming from behind the tree. There she was, standing a foot away. She was getting into an SUV. Relief flooded through me and I ran towards the car like a bullet. I thanked every God in the universe that she was alive. But then the SUV drove away.

“Shit!” I shrieked, running towards the car. John barely got into the passenger side before I drove off. I tailed the SUV like my life depended on it. She was hitchhiking!? I was going to kill her when she got home. The driver ahead executed a perfect right turn, and my breath caught. I realized I knew the guy in the car.