Her Saviour

Chapter 12

To Jake, it felt like time had just stopped, right then and there. Everything around him appeared to be frozen in place, except the paramedics carrying the stretcher out of the house which contained a dead body. . .

Jake stood there in his place, every bone in his body shaking as he continued to watch the paramedics carry out the stretcher carefully. The police officer was still talking to him, but Jake couldn't make out a single word he was saying to him. The older man had the shocked teen by his arm and was briskly trying to lead him away from the area and behind the yellow tape where he was supposed to be.

In a blink of an eye, Jake broke away from the officers' grip on his arm and ran to the stretcher in fear of what he might see.

It took the officer a minute to realize the boy had escaped from him. He ran after Jake, but he just couldn't keep up with the teen in time to catch him before he opened the body bag.

"What do you think your doing!?" The police officer cried out.

Jake quickly pushed one of the paramedics out of his way, and he went crashing down to the ground, landing roughly on his back before he even realized what had even happened to him.

Jake grabbed a hold of the zipper on the body bag and with his heart pounding in his chest, swiftly unzipped it with a quavering hand.

The teen gazed down at the precious face of his blonde lover. Her lovely sky blue eyes were now closed. She appeared to only be in peaceful slumber.

An eternal sleep.

"Kassidy! Kassidy, please wake up! Please wake up Kassidy! " Jake shouted as he cupped both sides of Kassidy's face in his hands and even shook her. He tried desperately to get her to wake up.

Instantly, Jake's legs gave away and he fell to his knees as he let out a sorrowful scream as reality hit him. He grabbed both sides of his head as he continued to cry out not caring that everyone was watching him. His head felt like it was spinning around and around as he fought with his mind that kept telling him that Kassidy was dead, he felt sick to his stomach as those words came across his mind. Kassidy was dead.

He couldn't believe that his Kassidy was now gone. He would never again hear her laugh, see her beautiful smile. Hold her lovingly in his arms. Would never sit beside her in class anymore. And would now never have a future with her.

He now lay on the ground as he continued to cry, many people now gathered around Jake talking very hastily and all at once to him, but the heart broken hedgehog couldn't hear a single thing, all he could think about was Kassidy. Memories, of the first time he ever saw her, came flooding back into his mind.

The memory of her quietly walking down the school hallway, carrying her books and minding her own business, played over and over in his mind. He remembered that he was showing off for the other jocks, so they would think he was cool, and thought it would be funny to push the "freaky" girl down to the floor.

He quickly sneaked up from behind her and roughly pushed her to the ground, everyone in the school's hallway broke out in laughter at the blonde as she lay on the floor, text books scattered every where.

Jake didn't admit it at the time, but as she picked up her books from the floor, she had tears in her eyes, the look on her face had haunted him for a long time. He knew from that moment there was something dark in her life, something people didn't know about. . .but in order to save his reputation,he continued to bully her. The awful memory made him scream and cry out more.

Then, he thought of the happy times, the times when they were in love. The night on the football field when she talked to him, showed him that she had kept the blue flowers he had bought for her after all, and that she would keep them as a token close to her heart. . .all the dates they had, all the laughter and smiles they shared together, the moment when they made love. . .

The next thing Jake knew, the same man was trying to help him to his feet, the crowd of people around him parted to let them through, they all watched silently with sorrow filled hearts as the officer helped the grief stricken teen to his feet and walked with him to his car and away from the house.

~XXXXXXXX~

Jake sat all alone in his apartment. He still had trouble accepting that Kassidy was gone. He felt like he was going to go crazy. The tears could not stop flowing from his emerald colored eyes.

By now, everyone knew what had happened, it was all over the town and on the news. The news told about how Kassidy's dad had killed her by stabbing her to death, and was now in jail for her murder. People came to Jake's apartment to offer their sympathy, but they never stayed for long knowing that the young and broken teen was in no mood for visitors after losing the love of his life.

Jake knew that Kayla and her evil little minions knew Kassidy was killed by her father, he couldn't help but wonder what it was she felt at this moment. Did she feel any regret with the way she treated Kassidy over the years? Sad thing is, she probably didn't. But right now Jake didn't want to think about Kayla. She didn't matter to him and she never would ever again.

Jake grabbed his cell phone sitting on the table beside the couch as he stared at the picture of him and Kassidy together that special night on their date. A night he would never forget.

All at once anger overcame the young teen has he suddenly rose up from the couch and threw one of the pillows from the couch across the room hitting the wall.

"Why did you go back to that house Kassidy!? Why!? Why did you have to leave me!?"

All Jake could do was fall to his knees as he began to cry.

"Why Kassidy? Why was it you that had to die?"

After a few minutes, Jake heard a soft knock on his door. Truth be told, he didn't want to answer it, he just wanted to be by himself for now.

Jake opened the door to find Kassidy's best friend Dawn on the other side. Jake instantly felt bad about not wanting to answer the door. Dawn's light green eyes were puffy and red from her crying. Even though her heart was bleeding from losing her best friend, she smiled a friendly smile at the boy before her. In her hand, she held a little wooded box with a heart on the top of it. One side of the heart was painted black, the other blue.

"Hello Jake, I hope you don't mind me coming over, but... I have something I would like to give you." Dawn sounded like she was about to break down and cry any minute. Her voice was shaking.

"No...It's alright...I don't mind." Jake was still wiping tears as he stepped out of the way to let the younger teen in his house. The two of them walked over and sat on Jake's couch.

"The shelter called my mother and I and asked us to clean out Kassidy's room at the shelter." Dawn's eyes began to water and her chin started to quiver.

"I found this hidden under Kassidy's bed, I wanted you to have it."

Dawn handed the wooden box over to Jake, he slowly ran a hand over the painted heart on top of the box before opening it. Inside, Kassidy had a picture of her and Jake together, a necklace he had bought for her, dozens of letters he had written to her in first hour class, all of this in this one little box.

Kassidy even had the roses he had bought for her when she was in the hospital.

Kassidy had kept the roses all this time, just like she said she would. The roses had lost their vibrant cobalt blue color, but were now pale and dry, falling apart petal by petal. The beautiful blue roses had died.

Tears fell on the withering roses in Jake's hands, as the awful words repeated in his mind finally sinking in.

Kassidy was gone.