𝐀 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝

Chapter Eighteen

"Penny!" I screamed, tears prickling behind my eyes. Oh, God. Oh, God.

As I came closer to the man I recognized him as Hawke, or Hayden, or whatever. Derek's brother. It didn't matter at the moment anyway. He was beyond soaked from the rain, a wet cigarette sitting behind his ear and his tattooed arms bulging as he carried the small redhead. She looked so tiny in his arms.

"No!" I heard behind me, and Felicity ran up to us, right when Hayden dropped to his knees. He didn't let go of Penny though, his bare chest rising and falling quickly with exhaustion as he just sat there.

It was then that I saw that he had wrapped his shirt around Penny's naked body, blood seeping through the fabric.

Her hair looked dull and I tried to ignore the big bruise on her thigh, bile rising in my throat the longer I looked at her body. What the hell had happened to her? God, she must've been so scared.

"Penny..." Felicity squeaked out, falling to the ground next to me and slowly reaching for Penny's pale face with shaking hands.

My heart ached and my stomach turned at the sight of my friend. Hot tears ran down my cheeks as I looked at her, my vision blurring as I took in her bluish, white skin, and the freckles on her shoulders and face.

But it wasn't enough to keep us together.

Even Hayden seemed shattered by the girl in his hands, shifting in the grass and pulling her body closer to him. He seemed reluctant to let her go, and his eyes were red with unshed tears.

Felicity buried her face in my chest and cried, her sobs turning louder and more intense with the minute.

"W-we need to call someone. We need to call 911." I tried to grab my phone with shaking fingers, staring at Penny with wide eyes. "She needs to...we need to..."

This was a dream. This wasn't real. Not real.

I knew the longer she was missing, the smaller the chance was she would get back to us alive, but I guess I just hoped this would be different. That in Penny's case, everything would be fine.

Hayden let out a loud gasp that startled Felicity and me, and the both of us looked up. "What?"

"She..." He lowered his head to Penny's chest and listened, my heartbeat speeding up as I hopefully waited on his next words. "She's still alive."

I pressed the screen of my phone so hard as I dialed 911 that I was sure it was going to crack, but if there was any chance of saving Penny, I needed an ambulance here. Right now.

"Why is she naked? What did they do to her?" Felicity sobbed, taking off her coat and placing it over her friend.

I noticed a deep cut around Penny's neck where it looked like she had been strangled, and I swallowed hard.

She had been gone for a month. God knows what could've happened to her in that time.

I answered every question from the 911 dispatcher, trying to push my tears and sobs away to be as clear as possible, and felt some relief when I was informed that an ambulance was already on its way.

Hayden sat in the mud with Penny in his lap the entire time, holding the poor girl tight against his goosebumps-covered chest. He looked in shock as he stared into the grass. He found her.

Then a question popped into my head. What was he doing in the woods in this weather anyway? And why wasn't he at the game like everyone else? I shook my head, that wasn't important right now.

"Oh, Penny..." Felicity softly caressed her friend over her head, tenderly wiping some wet hair from her face.

"We need to get her inside. Someplace warm," I suggested, shivering as I took off my coat and placed it over Penny as well.