The theater

Chapter 18

The young girl took away as much as possible the two unconscious girls before catching her breath. Then she went into the backyard and managed to snatch the volleyball net. She used it in a very different way. She threw it on the floor and rolled Rachel’s body into it. It was all she could find to neutralize her a moment. At least, she hoped so. Karen regained consciousness. She saw Rachel tied into the net. She didn’t really understand what had happened earlier. She turned to her friend, questioning her with her gaze. Julie shook her head as she answered simply to certainly not try to understand at the moment.

“It’s… too long to explain,” Julie said, helping her to get up. “Come with me. We need to find Joel and Nancy.”

Karen slowly turned to her friend, frowning.

“Find them…? Is something happened to them?”

“Do you think you can walk?”

Gently shaking her head, the girl put one foot before the other, resting on Julie’s arm. The latter stood to prevent her friend to see in what condition Philip was. He was still lying on the floor and he hasn’t yet regained consciousness. Julie worried about him. Rachel gave him a nasty blow to the head. But they should get help. They set off to find Joel and Nancy, shouldering each other. Julie didn’t know if Rachel was going to get rid of her improvised cords. Let’s hope for the best… Walking at a slow pace, they remained silent for a moment. Karen kept all her questions. Julie doubted it. She might provide some explanation to get her out of the fog.

“What do you remember?”

Karen shook her head.

“I suddenly was in pain and then, nothing.”

“It was Rachel who hit you.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw a tear slide down Karen’s cheek. She stopped to walk and put a hand on her shoulder.

“But…” Karen moaned. “Why…? I… I always knew she had problems…”

Julie raised her head without answering.

“Did she tell you why?”

Julie merely started walking, looking straight ahead. By cons, she knew that Karen wasn’t wrong. Rachel had very big problems from the beginning. She closed her eyes and sighed. Nancy… Where are you? She should focus on positive thoughts, saying that her friend was okay. She shouldn’t think about the worst. She had too much imagination to be rational. Nancy was still alive. Everything was fine. Maybe she wasn’t in great shape, but she wasn’t dying or dead. Joel was fine, too. They were both fine. But something happened to Dominique… I’m sure… Rachel hadn’t given many details about what happened. Sighing again, she just continued to walk forward. She had to keep her thoughts to herself. Karen didn’t need to hear them. Julie was suddenly overwhelmed with remorse. Before leaving, she should have taken time to examine each of her friends to make sure they were alright. But she only thought about her main goal: Joel and Nancy.

The rain began to fall again, cleaning her face from blood and dirt that were still there. Her shoulder was still hurting terribly, but her head was throbbing even more. She couldn’t think about it. She repressed a lot of things in order not to panic. She had to stay calm. She felt that Karen was about to cry. So Julie had to stay strong for both of them. They were totally exhausted. They walked for a while before seeing something in the distance. They had a sudden glimmer of hope before the angle of view was better. Without further ado, the two girls began to run as fast as they could to get to the crashed car that was in a ditch, embedded in a tree.

The vehicle was on its side. The impact with the tree had completely opened the hood which was then crushed against the windshield. It had completely broken into pieces because of the shock. Julie then began, in spite of herself, to imagine the scene. The car violently struck a tree near the ditch and rolled on its die. There was blood against the window of the driver’s side. Julie rushed to the door to take a look. Joel hanged at the end of his seatbelt. She tried to open the door but it was stuck. Karen came to give her a hand. In vain. She approached the front windshield and let out a cry of horror. Julie went to her. Nancy was still held by her belt too, but her face was pressed against the glass of the passenger side.