The Death of Colleen Rivers

Chapter 39: Colleen

Okay, maybe I didn't have a terrific plan, but I guess we would just have to see if it worked.

I positioned myself back on the couch like I was, and started to hold my breath, only gathering a small bit of air when I desperately needed to. It needed to look like I was dead — again.

"You ready, Ghostie?" Baylor asked me, quietly.

I nodded, keeping my eyes shut. This was going to be very hard on my part, but we had to try. If not...well, I didn't want to think about that.

I could hear Baylor take a deep breath then hop as fast as he could over to the door, beginning to pound on it.

"Hey, hey! Is anyone out there? We need help in here!" Baylor yelled.

Suddenly, I could hear the door slam open and a deep voice say, "What's wrong"

I heard Baylor begin to hobble over to me and stand by me. "She's not breathing! I was talking to her and she just passed out and she's not waking up I don't what to do! What if she never wakes up? Dude why aren't you helping her yet stop standing there like a baffoon..." he babbled on.

Geez, I kinda wished I was really dead so I wouldn't have to listen to this never ending sentence.

"Okay, okay!" the guy finally said. "Let me just check her pulse to see..."

The floor creaked as the man stepped on it to reach me. This was it, this was the only chance we would have to escape.

His fingers touched my neck, sending a chill through my body. They were cold and rough, not pleasant to have touching my skin.

He finally took his fingers off of my neck and the floor creaked again, telling me he stood back up.

"Um, she still has a pulse. She's not dead," he said, his tone sounding confused.

"But I'm serious! She is dead!" Baylor whined. I could hear him sniffling. Either he was just a big baby, or a really good actor. I couldn't tell at the moment.

"Sir," the man tried again, "if she has a pulse, she's obviously alive —"

"Just listen to me!" Baylor pleaded. "Put your fingers up against her nose! She wasn't breathing when I did it."

The man sighed. "Fine."

The floor creaked once more as the dude leaned over to me again. His cold finger was on my nose, alerting me to not breath out.

"Oh," the man said, removing his finger but not moving away from the couch yet. "I guess she isn't."

"See?" Baylor said in a very I-told-you-so tone.

The dude didn't say anything, but he didn't move either. I took this as my chance to act.

I opened my eyes to see a giant man's back facing me. He was punching numbers into his phone to call someone it sounded like. Baylor slyly grinned at me, like a grin that says "Let's burn this place down!" He then mouthed the word, "Now," to give me the signal.

I stood up on the couch cushions and hit the guy in the side of the head with a paperweight I had hidden in my hand. I didn't expect it to work, but he fell to the ground, the phone escaping his grasp and sliding across the hardwood floor.

"Way to go, babe!" Baylor exclaimed, throwing his fist up into the air in celebration. "You hit him right in the temple. He looks knocked out, but not for long. Of course he will have a concussion when he wakes up but —"

"Oh, stop babbling and grab the phone while I open this window," I demanded.

He rolled his eyes at me but followed my order.

I ran to the window and unlatched the locks holding it in place, then slid it up as high as it would go. I peered out to see that we were on the second story of the building. Not too high, but it wasn't going to be easy getting down. If we had to jump though, there were bushes scattering the ground. Hopefully we would land on one. "Baylor?" I called out. "Can you stand?"

I couldn't see him, but I saw a hand fly out of nowhere and grip the edge of the desk. Slowly but surely, Baylor's scruffy blonde hair came into view, then his face, then his torso, then his legs. I could tell he had all of his weight shifted on his good leg still. "Never mind," I said. I walked over to him and let him use me as a crutch as I guided him to the window.

"Please tell me you ended that call," I said.

"Oh I did better than that." He held up the phone. The screen was smashed in and black. Oh, he definitely did more than end the call. He completely destroyed the phone.

Every step we took, he grunted in pain. Each step was worse than the last for him, but finally we reached the window sill. He looked out the window at the ground and sighed. "I'll keep them off as long as I can. If you jump you can probably land on one of those bushes and escape —"

"Baylor, no. You're coming with me," I protested.

His face was sad, like he was about to say goodbye, but that wasn't fair. I was going to get him out of here too. I just got him back and I wasn't losing him to some crazy girl from our school. I looked out the window again to see if there was anything to help us climb down safer. I spotted nothing. So we were just going to have to jump and aim for the bushes. There was no way I was getting Baylor to jump out that window. He wanted to stay behind as it was. I was going to have to trick him...

"Baylor, can you see something down in that bush? I think it's moving." I pointed to the bush I was talking about and he leaned out the window, trying desperately to see what I was talking about.

"Where, I don't see —"

He didn't have any time to finish that sentence because I was already pushing him out of the window. I mean, I hoped he landed on a bush, but if not, he would be fine I'm sure.

I know, I know...I should get Girlfriend Of The Year for this stunt, am I right?

He screamed his head off on the way down. Hopefully no one heard him. Thankfully, he landed butt first into the biggest bush that was on the ground. His face looked disgusted as he spit twigs and leaves out of this mouth. Baylor looked up at me and shook his head, saying I did a bad thing.

I smiled and shrugged. Then I jumped down on top of him. We crushed further into the bush, causing a shallow canopy to form over our heads, covering us up just enough to not be noticed.

"WHERE DID THEY GO?" I heard someone shout from above us.

Someone else chimed end, sounding scared of the girl. "I-I dunno, Boss. I can go find them —"

"GO FIND THEM NOW!" Leila screamed.

I could tell she was becoming very frustrated and angry very fast. I could hear the window close and knew it was safe to move a little bit, hair to get more comfortable.

I wiggled my way under Baylor's arm and he wrapped it around me, letting me know I was safe in his arms. I laid my head on his chest, pretending we were somewhere else that wasn't a bush. Somewhere much safer for us to be together in. I could hear his heart beat under my ear, letting me know Baylor was still alive and still here with me. I wasn't alone as long as I had Baylor.

I started to drift off to sleep, listening to Baylor's steady heart beat.

"Goodnight love," Baylor whispered to me. He kissed the top of my head before I completely escaped into a deep sleep.