Tethered

Chapter Four

1

"Sarah, look at me", her father said, jogging next to the paramedics as they sped Sarah into the ambulance. "Please, sweetheart, talk to me."

She couldn't hear as she was swaying in and out of consciousness. The pain had stopped but replaced with a ringing sound that made her feel like she was chewing on grit.

The medics put a respiratory mask on her, and quickly connected her body to a heart monitor. As soon as she inhaled, consciousness left her. The doors closed and the ambulance raced to the hospital.

2

Sarah watched in impending terror as the truck neared her. Her eyes were overlaid by a whitish film that drained their color. Her entire body had become impossibly still.

The headlights flashed bright into her eyes, and the horns roared. Sarah closed her eyes, accepting her fate. If this is how it could end, so be it.

"Why is it so easy now?" The familiar whisper-like voice asked. Before the truck could hit Sarah, she felt herself being rushed out of the road. It happened so fast; she couldn't register anything. But she had heard the voice, loud and clear.

She laid at the side of the road, eyes still shut and chest rising up and down rapidly. She dug her nails in the grass, and made a soft whimper. Am I dead, yet? She thought. But of course, that was silly to think. She couldn't be dead and asking herself that question.

"Hey!" Someone tapped her on the forehead. "Hey!"

Sarah snapped her eyes open, and frightfully sat up, then backpedaled. The figure standing in front of her was of a man. No, not a man, a teenager. He had medium-length thick black hair. His face was nicely shaped, especially his jaw line.

Sarah looked behind him. The truck was gone and she was safe. She was still alive.

"What were you doing?" He asked, firmness in his voice.

Sarah furrowed her brows, tears welling in her eyes. "It's...it's...the man...the truck...he...", she stammered on the words that couldn't come out. She started to cry, still digging into the grass.

"Hey, hey", he said, kneeing before her. "It's okay. I didn't mean to frighten you."

"Y-you..." She stopped, running her fingers through her hair with shaky hands. She drew out a shaky breath. She couldn't make sense of anything. A pain shot up in her ankle, and she immediately touched the area. It was sore. She winced.

"Are you okay?" the boy asked.

Sarah caught the guy's striking grey eyes, so clear, they seemed to be made of interchanging layers of light and dark striations. She licked her dry lips, and swallowed with difficulty.

"I don't..." Sarah didn't get to finish the minute the boy in front of her was knocked down by another boy. The boy who had knocked him down, climbed on top of him and started battering his face. Sarah's mouth dropped, fear striking every fiber in her body. She backed away, and watched.

3

The boy who had saved Sarah from the truck groaned in pain, his hands helplessly wanting to protect his already bloody face.

"There's no escape, pretty boy", the one beating him hissed. He climbed off the other boy, immediately seizing a handful of his hair, then slammed his head to the ground. He didn't do it once, but multiple times—slamming the boy's head mercilessly. Using the little space between them, the boy who saved Sarah's kicked the other boy in the stomach. He winced.

But before the one who saved Sarah made another move, the other grabbed his arm and twisted it, disjointing the elbow bone. The bone stuck out, ripping out of the skin. Blood splattered on the grass. The boy screamed.

Sarah watched, her eyes bulging out of their sockets. She stared in horror. She sat rigid with terror, too overwhelmed to move. Her heart pounded roughly in her ears.

The other boy barked a laugh. He was strong. Unnaturally strong and fast. His movement were quick and calculated. He lifted the wounded, bloody boy to his feet, and tossed him in the road; only to race after him and started kicking him in the guts.

Sarah recoiled in fear. What could she do? Save him? No way. She was not an inch closer to match the boy's strength.

4

The boy stopped all of a sudden, and everything seemed to have stopped with him, including Sarah's heartbeat. She held her breath, her nails digging deeper into the grass. They hurt. Her mind screamed at her to flee, but she couldn't just move.

Slowly, and ominously, the boy turned and faced Sarah; then he grinned. Sarah's mouth opened in a silent scream. No, it wasn't the grin that made her chest hurt straight through her back, but something incomprehensive. The undeniable resemblance between the bloodied boy and the one doing the beating. They were literally the same person, no kidding.

The same hair, the same face, the same height, the same him. It was him beating him!

But how?

Sarah let out a scream.