My Missing Piece

Part Four

The house sat at the end of a cul de sac, facing the south. It got good light throughout the day on a regular basis. That was one of the reason's Coraline's mom had chosen the cute, two story, two bedroom, two bathroom house. It was all the small family needed.

Coraline jiggled her key in the lock of the front door. It tended to be sticky, and it was quite annoying to have to deal with on a daily basis. She finally pushed the front door open after a few more futile attempts at unlocking the door. A frown played across her features as she took in the dark house. Her mother had taken the only car they had owned, and Morgan hadn't said anything about going to a friend's house. She slipped her shoes off, motioning for the others to do the same. Without hesitation, she allowed Ash to lean on her, exhaustion weighing their bodies down heavily. Coraline was about to nudge Ash off of her so she could turn a light on. She was held back, however, by Jason. He gave her a small smile before padding over to a lamp in the corner of the living room. He reached up to the switch and flicked the lamp on. A shadow jumped suddenly from behind the couch. A metal baseball bat was in his hand. Jason let out a rather high pitched scream, stumbling back onto the floor. The darkly clad figure screeched as well. He or she jumped backwards into a wall.

Tears formed in Coraline's eyes as she laughed. Her side cramped and she began coughing, but she didn't care. This was priceless. Ash and Eleanor eyes her, amused, yet said nothing.

"Oh my god," she giggled. "Jason, are you alright?"

"Just peachy," said the teen.

The dark figure groaned and stood up. "Coraline Elaine Price," he said, mocking offense. "Aren't you going to ask me if I'm alright?"

Coraline began to laugh harder. "I'm sorry. Are you alright, Morgan?"

"I'm fine, thank you. I'll end up having a giant ass bruise and a hell of a headache, but I'll live." He motioned to the others. "Let me guess, Jason and Eleanor. I already know Ash." He held out a hand and pulled Jason up. "So, sis, mind telling me what shit you've gotten yourself into now?"

An uncomfortable silence fell over the group. Sighing, Coraline limped over to the couch, Ash's arm still slung around her neck, and her own arm holding Ash's waist. They plopped down together. Worried, Morgan sat down across from them in an armchair. Jason settled onto the floor. He tugged on Eleanor's hand and pulled her into his lap.

Slowly, they began to describe the events of the day. Morgan's jaw muscles twitched at the prospect of his sister getting beat up. He seemed even more enraged when Ash's abuse was brought up as well. He raked his hands through his already messy dark brown hair. A deep breath moved through his body and his eyes were trained on the floor. When he looked up again, fear was shining in his sapphire eyes that were so similar to Coraline's. His sister could tell he was thinking by the way he drummed his fingers against his thigh. He blew his shaggy hair out of his face, shifting slightly. He had finally come to a decision.

"I think our first order of business should be fixing Ash up," he said. She was about to protest, but he cut her off. "You're still bleeding." She huffed and leaned back against Coraline. "Next, you guys need to get some sleep. We have some sleeping bags, an air mattress, as well as extra pillows and blankets in the closet. In the morning, we can talk about what to do next."

The younger teens nodded in agreement with him. Jason offered to help him carry down the sleeping items while the girls patched Ash's wound. They disappeared upstairs, leaving the females of the group alone. Coraline went into the bathroom and came out a few seconds later with a first aid kit, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and a wash cloth. She handed Eleanor the first aid kit then poured some rubbing alcohol on the wash cloth. Carefully, she peeled Ash's shirt away from her skin. The wound wasn't very long or deep, it had just bled a lot. She tried her hardest to be gentle when she cleaned the cut, but it was bruised pretty badly. Ash chewed her lip and winced whenever Coraline pressed the cloth to her side. After five minutes of eternity, most of the blood had been cleaned up. Eleanor put some cool ointment she had found on the cut, then pressed a gauze pad to it and secured it with medical tape. She squeezed Ash's hand reassuringly afterwards. She then turned around to clean up the contents of the first aid kit that was scattered across the living room floor.