Forever Yours (More Than A Feeling|Sequel)

Thirty: When The Night Falls In Around Me

Jimmy's POV

"The house is clear!" A nearby officer shouts out as I stand here outside in a panic. There were a couple back up officers that came and have been attempting to keep me calm. They're doing an alright job, but I'm breaking inside, and as soon as the officer announces the house is clear after hearing him fire his gun, I bolt through the front door before anyone can stop me. 

On my way in, I hear things like, 'Get an ambulance' and '...Girl on the second floor at the end of the hall'. I also heard that Henry used Aubree's body as shield and she was caught in the gunfire, and they shot him from behind. Hoping that girl on the second floor is Elise, I charge up the stairs, past all the blood in the living room. There's even more blood in the hallway on the second floor, like someone was being dragged across the floor, and it leads to the room at the end of the hall, the room I heard the cop talking about.

It took longer than it should've for the police to trace Elise's number, it was harder from them for whatever reason. But then they found her, here in this house near the county line. The amount of relief I felt when I heard her voice earlier was huge, but then worry had come back over me as she gave me instructions. 

When she didn't come home from work a few nights ago, at first I'd thought maybe she was just a little late, but then I realized she was too late. I called Carly and asked about her, but she said Elise had left the same time that she did and should've been home by now. That was when I started to freak out and called Matt, because she wasn't answering her phone either. We called the cops, but they wouldn't do anything until it was twenty-four hours that she'd been missing. When those twenty-four hours came, we reported her missing and they set out to look for her, but to no avail, and they couldn't find evidence of her disappearance either. I hated being all alone, on the first night I went without sleep laying there in our bed by myself. 

I made my way to the end of the hall, following the trail of blood to a room that I could see had light blue walls, and I could see windows on the far side, and a dresser and mirror not too far from the door. I could see the end of a bed, too. I felt like I was in a horror movie with all this blood I was seeing, and when I got inside the room, there was only more of it. 

Pools of the stuff, everywhere. You could almost smell the metallic scent that blood had, you could almost taste it too. It was terrible, and at first that was all I saw until I saw a girl slumped in the corner of the room. Elise. 

She was covered in blood, and I could see her hands covering a deep wound on her upper leg, and there was a pool of blood surrounding her too. I realized that not all of this blood could be hers, and remembered her mentioning Katelyn. But Katelyn wasn't here, and I assumed she didn't make it. Looking at Elise, I noticed just how unnaturally still she was, how she didn't move and I couldn't see her chest rising. Oh God, I'm too late! 

Tears welled up in my eyes and spilled over my cheeks, a lump forming in my throat as I walked over and kneeled beside her, studying her blood covered face. Her eyes were shut, her skin pale. My heart broke.

"What did they do to you?" I whispered out painfully as I reached out and pushed back some hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. Just wanting to confirm it, I put two fingers to her neck to feel for a pulse and held still as I waited. 

But then I felt something unexpected. I felt a pulse. A very light pulse, just barely detectable, but it was there. She's still alive! My heart started racing and my tears stopped suddenly as I pulled her into my arms. Suddenly she flinched, trying to get away, and I knew that she thought it was Henry or Aubree.

"Hey, it's alright, it's just me. It's Jimmy." I told her softly, and I watched as her eyes opened halfway. Very little light was left in them. I caressed her cheek lightly with my hand as she squinted her eyes at me, as though she was struggling to see my face.