Everything Has Changed

Four

"He turned himself in." Detective Bordereaux says, for a third time. I stood there for a few minutes, processing what just happened. Then I asked the question that all of us had to be thinking.

"Why would he turn himself in?" I say, and everyone nods in agreement.

"He was probably tired of being on the run like this. Probably knew he would get caught sooner or later." He says, punching in a series of numbers into a keypad.

"On the run?" I hear Trent speak, for the first time since we've been here.

"He was released a couple years back. Because he passed the parolee interview with flying colors, Officer Smith was supposed to conduct the monthly interviews with him but nobody had seen him recently, until now. He was put in jail because he burned his brother's house down, right after murdering his brother, sister in law, and infant nephew. He wanted to burn the bodies to cover the evidence. Then he got caught. I never thought that he would kidnap and harm women, let alone teen girls." He says, with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"We need to go find Andrea and Sam. They could be anywhere." Trent says, and for the first time, I realize how much he loves Sam. We called an ambulance to take Hannah, who passed out during the phone call. Then we start going through the building.

Once we're upstairs, we hear screaming, like someone is screaming for help. We bust down the door of the second room and we find Andrea, this time tied to a chair.

Bruised, naked and bloodied, her hair is no longer on her head, but in a clump on the floor beside her. "What happened?" Detective Bordereaux asks.

"He raped me first and then he started whipping me, grabbed the clippers and shaved my head. Is he gone?" Andrea says, in tears. "Yes, he turned himself in. May I take the clippers, your clothes, and the hair? I need them for evidence." Detective Bordereaux says.

"Yes, do you happen to have a towel? When he dragged me in here, the clothes fell." Andrea asks, politely. I hand her a towel and make sure it's secure around her small body. We call an ambulance to come pick her up so she can get checked over by a professional.

After she leaves, I speak up. "These kidnappings are not coincidental. These girls all came from the same school, they're all the same age. Something else is going on here." And everyone nods in agreement.

"We'll get to the bottom of this. But in the meantime, we need to find Samantha Jenkins. Her or her child could be in danger. She needs to be scheduled into an OB appointment as soon as possible." Detective Bordereaux says.

We walk out of that room and Mr. Jenkins grabs the bags of evidence. We look through all the rooms on the top and bottom floors, but find no sign of Sam. Then I spot something in the middle of the floor in the lobby. A secret passageway.

We grab some flashlights from our bags and go down the ladder into the tunnel. Once we're all down, Roxie and Josie start sniffing the damp dirt, running to the right of the ladder. We find a door with a keypad on it at the end of the tunnel. Hesitating, I open it.

Inside, we find a hospital bed with an IV drip attached to her. She's awake but barely there. Her breathing is ragged, so I'm guessing the fluid is something to kill her.

"Cyanide, extremely deadly. We have to get medical professionals down here as soon as we can. Erica, use your phone to call for help, please." Detective Bordereaux says, walking over to Samantha. I yank my phone out of my back pocket and call 911.

"911, what is your emergency?" The operator asks.

"My best friend was kidnapped. We found her, she has Cyanide in her system. She's also pregnant." I say, with a shaky voice. "Okay, what is her name and age? Where is the address?" The operator asks. "Samantha Jenkins, seventeen years old. 42nd Ganon Avenue, San Diego, California. She may not make it so please send for help right away." I say, with tears in my eyes.

"Okay, help is on the way. We'll need you to fill out a form, okay?" The operator says nicely. I say okay and hang up. When help arrives, they take the IV out of her arm and start chest compressions. Then she's put on a stretcher and put in the ambulance. Since they'll only take one person in the ambulance, Mr. Jenkins offers in place of Trent.

After I fill out the forms, we all head to the hospital in separate vehicles. I picked up Dixie, who was chained to a post in the room. We all take turns going to see Sam, and Andrea's sister and Hannah's sisters come to see them. And then, Hannah's drunken father comes through the doors, slamming his hand on the bedside table and raising his voice.

"Why aren't you dead?! I could care less if that man killed you!" I hear him scream at her. Detective Bordereaux runs down the hall to the room to inspect what's happening. After a few minutes, he walks out with her father in handcuffs. Apparently Damion Lukes paid the man to kidnap and rape his daughter.

He never liked his daughters, only his wife. She was killed in a plane crash three years ago, and was pregnant with their fourth child, a boy that they hoped to name Tanner. After his wife and son's deaths, he turned to whiskey and whip.

He was angry, angry at God for taking the things most precious to him. He never loved his daughters, even when they were younger. He forced his wife to get pregnant in hopes of finally having a son. That didn't last long. He was planning on killing the two younger ones once the eldest had passed and then doing the same to himself.

He's an evil man. A nasty man. A man that just got caught by the police and now has to serve life in prison for endangering his daughter's safety and for the abuse afflicted upon all three of his daughters.

As soon as Trent walks out of Samantha's hospital room, I'm motioned back. When I walk in, she's lying on the bed, a tube taped to her mouth. She's in a coma. I sit in the chair beside her bed and start talking to her.

"Hey, Sammy. It's me, Erica. I just wanted to let you know that we all love you, maybe some more than others." I let out a small chuckle, thinking about her and Trent. "Um, I'd say right now you're okay, but that wouldn't be the truth. Honestly, you've been through a lot the past few days, if not weeks. I'm just glad you and the baby are safe, because it would've been crap without you here." Once I realize I can't speak any more, I kiss her on her forehead and go sit in the lobby, tears streaming down my face.

She was in the ICU for six months, out of the coma by three. She was okay I guess. Not like her old self, but okay. The baby did make it, and we had a gender reveal party in the hospital room when she reached five months. It's a girl. A strong, healthy, and beautiful little girl. When the day came for her to arrive, Samantha had a stroke.

She couldn't move. She was paralyzed from the waist down, the doctor said. She doesn't remember the C-section, or Trent telling her and our parents and the doctors that they would keep this little girl. Trent named her Laylah, because it was her mom's middle name.

I guess Sam and Trent will be fine after all. I hope so.