The only one

Chapter 15

I began to panic as my mind created nearly impossible situations that continued to trick my mind.

"What happened? Are you okay?" I asked nervously, frightened to know the answer.

"Listen, there's no time to explain, just meet
Me by the park by my house, but don't tell anyone" he squeezed getting quieter with every word. Then, he hung up, without warning or another word.

I sprinted out the door running as quickly as my injured legs would allow, attempting to push the terrible possibilities out of my head.

My legs were burning but I didn't care, Marcus was there for me and I wasn't going to let him down.

I continued jogging, my speed beginning to slow. I scolded myself for being so selfish. I began to quicken my pace. Tears making their way out of my eyes, I tried wiping them away, but they just kept coming.

I climbed on a large hill in the road, pushing myself to go further. Finally I reached the top and I began to make my way down, while still crying.

I trotted downhill, rubbing my eyes. No less than a second later, I was involuntarily moving downhill unable to stop myself from continuing. My foot must have tripped on one of the rocks, but whatever caused it, caused me a lot of pain. I fell, twisting my angle, but the hill was so steep, that when I was on the floor I kept moving down. As soon as I was able to, I got up and continued to run, ignoring the fact that I could barely walk on my left foot and that my knee, elbow, and forehead was bleeding... a lot.

I'm almost there. I tried encouraging myself to go faster, but I just couldn't, it was a miracle in itself that I wasn't collapsing in the middle of the road right this second.

At last, I saw a large patch of green grass filled with bushes and trees, topped off with colorful flowers and the sound of birds chirping happily. I've always loved this place because it reminded me that it was possible that the world could be peaceful and loving, not only war and hatred.

This place was part of the park, but this park was huge and there were different sections. I texted Marcus to see where he was. But he didn't reply, he didn't even read it. I was starting to get really worried.

What was happening? I hope he is okay.

I come here a lot and I've seen him here as well, he's usually by the basketball hoops, but clearly he wasn't playing basketball right now. Next to the hoops, there was a little kids area that had benches and swing sets. I decided to check there, but he was nowhere to be seen.

I looked though the entire park, and with my injuries it took me five minutes to realize that he wasn't here. I was panicking. When I get really upset or stressed, sometimes I'll get little panic attacks. But I worked through this one forcing myself to keep looking.

It occurred to me that he sounded very weak in his phone calls, meaning he wouldn't be able to get around easily. He also said to "meet him at the park" which happened to be near his house.

He never left home.

I'm not a stalker, but I know where he lives, his house is across the street from the entrance of the park. I would always see him come in and out of that house in the summer, then he would stay outside for a while and at night, when we were the last two people at the park, when our only source of light was the moon and stars, eventually he would go back inside, without a word. Of course I was never really paying attention to him. I would be daydreaming about some fantasy that would never come true.

I never fully realized this until now.

I slammed the door open without hesitation. There were no cars in the driveway so it didn't seem that his parents were home, and he did call me so he must be the only one at home. Even thought the situation is very serious, I couldn't help but relax a little because the air conditioning was turned up and it was about ninety degrees outside and I just ran about three and a half miles in the scorching sun.

But I knew that this relaxation would only be temporary.

"MARCUS" I screamed loud enough that it made my throat hurt. But nobody answered.

I had no choice but to go into all of the rooms and find out where he was because I was seriously beginning to worry.

I kicked each door open finding not a single human being.

Then it came down to the last door, the only one that I hadn't checked yet. I opened it slowly hoping that he would be in there, playing a joke on me.

But what I saw made my stomach flip and my heart skip more than just a beat, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it just stopped beating for good at that moment.

I automatically called the police. They would come fast because there is police station and hospital very close to where we live.

"Nine one one, what's your emergency?"

"Yes, my um friend is like p-passed out, and I think it's because he l-lost a lot of b-blood, he has a bunch of s-scratches and b-bruises. I need you to find out what happened and I need an ambulance right away"

I can't believe this is happening.