The Murdered Woman, The Stolen Horse

Chapter 7

-Wow, that was a bad ending. Anyway, sitting. At a computer. Raining. Bored. Here, read this.-

    It was probably really stupid of me, but I heard Jess and my parents coming. I signed back.

    'Get off my property'

     Maddeline's face flushed. She growled. I scowled at her. Then I went in my closet. When my parents had gotten their stuff, they'd brought me my old metal Louisville slugger. A metal baseball bat. When she finished breaking the window, She crawled in. 

      Knife against baseball bat. No contest, I'd want the baseball bat. See the old Louisville had a story. When I was younger, I played on a baseball team. When I walked home, a man had tried to kidnapp me. I swung this very bat at his face. He tried dragging me, but by then, someone had heard the bat, called the cops, and arrested him.

       When I played against another school, I hit a homerun. An angry parent had come after me, with a wood bat. I ran, but I was only nine, so he caught up. I swung the bat at him, straight for his stomach. He fell over. The bat felt perefectly balanced. I slammed him in the face, and finished running the bases. The guy had been arrested and fined.

      Maddeline knew I could handle the bat. But she had taken knife throwing class. It was crazy, I know. But it was part of her stupid Karate. Not me. I took Tae kwon Doe. Real fighting.

       She advance, then took a stab at me. I dodged. She started circling me. I twisted. keeping her in my sights. She might have stabbed me in the back as a friend, no way was she doing that litteratly. I saw my dad run. Probably for a weapon. Mom wasn't frowning. She knew I could handle myself just fine. Jess looked nervous.

     Maddeline took a lunge at me. I sidestepped, like a dance move. Yup. She hadn't gotten better. Time to confuse her.

    "Isn't the weather just great.?"

           She didn't even look confused. Bad thing about fighting your former bestfriend. They know all your tricks. There was a bad part of town, with bad kids in our district. Beleive me I could handle myself just fine, even if I was small.

      I asked her a serious question. "Why Maddeline?"

    She glared at me before answering. "You think I was ever your friend? You think your Aunts death wasn't planned? I am a terrorist. Boo hoo, we're so scary. We wanted to rattle up regular families, this was planned."

    "Jerk," I muttered.

   She was grinning like this fight was already won. If she ever saw me get mad at a fugitive, she wouldn't think so.

  We were circling eachother now. My dad returned. He had a bat, an old wood one. But he was shaking too hard to use it.It dropped, and for a second, Maddy was distracted. I took the second, and lunged. At thet prcise moment, she tripped. She put her arm out to catch her fall. She ended somehow fallig on the knife. I went into her side. She started crying and begging all at once.

      "Please help me, Ash. They have my parents hostage. I was supposed to kill you, make it look like terrorism. Please, Ash help me. Please," Her voice was getting fainter. She clutched her side. I could see the bloody knife, sticking out. It was gruesome, but her story made sense. I knew some of her family members had a shady past.

       I ran out of the room, and came back with a phone. I tossed it at my dad. I also had paper towels. I pressed them against her side. I could hear myy dad dialing, then "991 what's your emergency?" But I was focused on stopping the bleeding. My mother shoved me out of the way. I knew she used to be a nurse, till the company downsized. She worked efficiantly, binding the cut, every thing. Jess was there. I guess she believed Mad's second story. Maddy was only fifteen. She was a year younger than me.

      We could hear the sirens already. My dad went out, to bring them to the right room. They loaded Maddy onto a stretcher and left. I rode in the ambulance with her. Thew cut was deep, she had lost a lot of blood. She was pale. And she kept whispering 'Thank you'. I was still surprised that she was going to really kill me. Her family was in danger, but what would I have done?

       I don't know if she really would have. I don't know If I Would have. I didn't want to find out. With Maddy, you could always tell if she was telling the truth. I remembered something. She had had tears on her face, pressed up against my sill.

     I didn't know what would happen, now. Star Jewel was gone. Aunt Ash was gone. Even Maddy's parents were gone now. I wanted everything to go back to normal. I could ride Joe, Maddy could take karate.

        I wanted it but it wouldn't happen. Maddy had passed out. I wasn't sureprised. I followed her in even though the nurse told me to stay in the waiting room. She glared at me. Then she said pointedly. "Stay in the waiting room."

          I set my  jaw and kept walking with Maddy. The nurse called for security. I glared at them. They shrugged and back off. I knew I could scare people even though I was about half their size. I followed Maddy. They took off her paper towels. Then they sterilized the area, swabbing it with antiseptic. THey took out a needle, and stitched up the giant hole in my friends stomach.

        After that they gave her IV's, I watched. My parents had stayed in the waiting room, with Jess. I stared at my friend, who was so pale, and gray. A nurse, not the one I chose to disregard, but another one stayed with me. I looked up "She'll be all right, won't she"

      The nurse nodded "We can take care of her. Are you her sister?"

      "No, just her best friend."

       "Do you know what happened?"

       "She tripped and fell on her knife, when she was supposed to kill me."

        The nurse looked up, completly confused. I shook my head and told the story.

       "My aunt was murdered. and someone wants to get me too. They took her parents hostage."

       The nurse nodded as if this made perfect sense. I told her the longer version, Star Jewel, fugitive, fire, Aunt, all of it.

         The nurse nodded again. THis made sense. Then Maddy opened her eyes. She tried to sit up, but the nurse shook her head. It would aggravate her stitches. She looked over at me and said,

   "I'm sorry, please forgive me"

    I nodded at her. She looked at the nurse. My parents came in. A whole lot of stuff happened, then there was an officer questioning us. Maddy only knew a third of the story.

        The cop looked shocked. He asked me if I wanted to press charges. I burst out laughing. Of course I didn't! "No, God no." Maddy looked relieved.

        The police officer was wondering where to place her, when Jess walked in. She listened, Maddy had no close relatives or anything,

       Then she spoke up. "She'll stay with us."