Is This True?

Chapter 12

Ringing. Spinning. Swirling.

My head spun in different directions, my sight growing hazy as my eyes blinked back the flying dust from the heavy impact.

Lying on the hard ground, I watched people scream and run in panic, their footsteps thundering as they ran past me. Alarms blared everywhere, and nearby sprinklers went off from the small fire in the center of the square. There was a small crowd in the middle, obviously those of the wounded. Families raised their heads and wailed as their hands shakily tried to help their loved ones. But, it was somewhat pointless; they were already either gone or close to the brink of death with what limbs they had left.

Blood was everywhere.

Pieces of the floor and the ceiling, including fragments of nearby shops embellished the center. Cups, papers, food, clothes, handbags, hats, shoes, phones, blood, bodies--this was just the beginning.

A pair of familiar arms lifted me from the rubble.

"Hey, you all right?"

I shook myself out of my stupor. "Yeah, I think so--what happened?"

"A bomb." Scott looked back at the debris sadly. "But we were too late."

"How could this happen? Who would do something like this?"

"I don't know, but they mean business. Whatever that was, it was big; but not as big as others."

"Why would someone place a bomb in the middle of a mall?"

"I don't know, you tell me." Scott turned to look back at me."Why does anyone set off a bomb?"

Was that a rhetorical question?

"To hurt people?"

"Right. Look, I'm going to go out there and see what I can find out. You stay here."

"Me? Stay here?" I became dumbfounded. "Why can't I go with you?"

"Because I don't know if there are any other bombs out there. We don't know who or what we're dealing with. This-this has never happened before in my career, and I don't know if this has ever happened here." 

"Yes, because that's why agents like us go out to investigate. Look at all of these people I could help! Why can't you all just let me be like you and stop minimizing me out of things?"

"Look at your face!" Scott grabbed me by the shoulders and twirled me in front of a mirror, his green eyes staring intensely into my blue ones. "That's the same fearful look you gave when Andrea grabbed you the other day. I know you want to go out there, but this isn't some crime show. This is the real world and there are some really ugly things out there. You're just not ready yet."

"I'm not afraid," I mumbled as confidently as I could, but deep down, I knew he was right. I wasn't ready for this.

I was terrified.

"I'm sure you're not, but the look on your face tells me otherwise. Just please, stay here."

I sighed, my stubbornness unwilling to fight.

"Fine."

"Good, because I'll be right back when the coast is clear," Scott assured me right before he left to disappear into the clouds and smoke.

Now, what was I supposed to do? Stay here?

Right.

I tottered over towards the store we were in and tried to locate the things I had left inside the dressing room. However, to my avail and confusion, they were nowhere to be found. Not my purse filled with my phone, wallet, and small makeup, nor the clothes I had changed out of.
Did someone steal my things? In that short of a time?