Pattern

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty Two

// Avery //

I wasn't sure what to expect - blood, maybe, but not this much. As soon as I'd switched on the torch, my hands fumbling with the switch, I'd nearly tripped down the short staircase.

There was a figure, lying against the wall a few feet away. I could barely see her face, because there was a distinct red in the way. The smell of blood and urine was sickening. I could see the four schoolbags lined up, but I was focusing more on the figure, the girl. 

Prudence.

I approached her with care, suddenly scared. I wasn't sure why I was so scared of the girl I'd come to rescue. 

Robert followed me, just as hesitant. I walked over and kneeled down beside the girl, or what looked more like just a body. She was still, so still, and her eyes were closed, her face bruised. There was a long cut across her cheek, and the blood was dried along it. Her jeans were soaked in blood, but the worst part was her neck. It was exposed, and part of her top was unbuttoned. There was a long, deep slash leading halfway down her neck to the start of her chest, and it was bright red with the blood still oozing from it. I knew I had to stop it, but I didn't have anything to stop it with.

Silently, her father took off his police jacket and pressed it against the wound. I felt her wrist desperately, then after a minute whispered "There's no pulse."

He looked up at me, and he looked so done with everything, but my words seemed to create a response in his expression. "There is, there has to be."

"Ring the ambulance," I told him, and he took out his phone and dialled. While he was waiting for it to answer, he spoke. "She's alive, Avery, I'm serious, otherwise she wouldn't still be bleeding."

I wasn't sure if it was true or an attempt to reassure us, but I made myself believe it. She couldn't be dead. I wouldn't accept it, not ever. 

Wrapping my arms around her limp form, I picked Prudence up. She was cold, like dead bodies were. And though the signs were saying she was, I refused to believe it.

Prudence usually proves me wrong, but this time she was on my side. I felt her arm move, and when I looked down, her eyes were open, looking at me.

"A..ve..ry.." She choked, her voice barely audible. 

"Don't speak," I whispered. "It's okay. You're safe now, Prudence. I got you, you're safe now."

A single tear fell from her right eye as I carried her up the steps, her father right behind me, telling the ambulance crew our location. 

"They won't be here for nearly ten minutes," He said. "We should just drive to the hospital ourselves."

I nodded, still staring down at her. Prudence's breathing was shallow, but it was there. Her pulse was weak, but it was there. I held her like she would break any minute, like I was never going to hold her again. He waited as I carried her to the car, where Madison was waiting. I heard her before I saw her, whispering her best friend's name over and over, asking me was she alive, was she okay, what had happened.

I didn't respond - I couldn't, I just kept looking at the girl in my arms, checking every five seconds to make sure she was breathing. I sat in the back like before, while Madi pressed the jacket on the open wound, and looked over all her injuries, from the bruises on her face to the scars on her leg. Every now and then she'd move a little, and I felt more hope than ever before, because she had to survive this. She couldn't die in my arms, not now, when I hadn't said the things I wanted to say.

I didn't want my last image of Prudence to be her crying in my arms, blood covering her clothes. 

--

We arrived at the hospital and ran in, alerting nurses to the fact we were bringing in a half-dead girl. She was put on a bed immediately, hooked up to wires, and we all watched as the medics shout things at each other that we didn't really understand, and the desperation kicked in. 

She wasn't safe, like I'd told her. Prudence was dying, and none of us could do anything to help her.

We could only watch.