Pimentel Princess #wattys2018

Chapter 2 | I guess I was wrong

The sky had been starry tonight and the moon was full. All the things for a perfect night, yet there had still been a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that I hadn't been able to shake all day no matter how hard I tried. When Christopher had called me a few moments later I realized that that was the feeling I couldn't shake today. Something bad was going to happen and this was it.

My heart had been beating faster than it had ever been before, but I raced out of the car and looked around for the alley he had been referring to. My body felt like I had been floating outside of it. I didn't feel real, nothing felt real. The air stunk with a smell I didn't care to name. I couldn't see anything and a part me felt relieved. Maybe he had found away to get help before I could come. My legs felt like jelly as I ran further down trying to spot the barrel he had been talking about.

I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and flashed my light around to see something. My heart had still been beating fast. The adrenaline I'd been doped was not helping my anxiety and I was trying to get myself to only think about what positive could come from me not seeing him.

"He'd gotten help," I whispered to myself over and over as I walked further down.

As I got down further, I could hear the squeaking of rats on the street and even one ran across the ground  causing a scream to spit from my mouth.

When I looked up, I could see the barrels he'd been talking about and my heart began to race faster again. Light from my flashlight had been reflecting off of something on the ground. A small black handgun had been laying there and for a moment, I stop and stand still, reality flashing in my bones.

He didn't get away.

When I had finally mustered up enough courage to keep walking, I did. A journal had been spiraled on the alley ground and red stained something had been splattered on the sheets of paper that had been blowing in the wind. I could see the bottom of a shoe—a pair of white Vans and instantly my heart sank as tears welled on my waterline.

I keep telling myself it's not Christopher. Not my Christopher and that this is a nightmare.

But even after I clench my eyes tight and reopen them the horror comes flooding back slapping me into reality.
This isn't a nightmare. 

Before I could think, I thumped in 999 and called for an ambulance immediately.

I rest my head on his heart, feeling the soft beats, but he remained unconscious.

"Christopher?" My voice cracks as I whisper.

"Christopher!" My scream echoed back. It sounded harsh and violent. But that was the only response.

I grab his hand, and trail my fingers across his.

"Chris? Remember when I was mad at you for giving Kelly your homework when I had asked you for it first? I didn't talk to you for 3 days? And then in Mr Milligan's class you drew a monobrow and did the chicken dance to crack the ice," I sigh loudly.

"It worked then. Is this just revenge is it for ignoring you?  Because you made me so upset. Just wake up because you're worrying me. It's not a joke now," I wait for him to get up. But he doesn't.

"This was us in secondary school. Look how far we've come? Huh? We're going to get married and have kids and-"
   The angry blares of an ambulance interrupt my speech. I curse it, as I lose my trail of thought.

"This is real isn't it?" I ask the lifeless body, waiting for a response.

"Ma'am! ma'am! what's wrong with the patient?" A mixed race woman asks, shaking me.

"He's..." I gulp search for courage even answers in this empty mind of mine. How could I give an answer to a question, when I didn't even know the answer.

"He got shot- his name is Christopher Brookes. He's 24 and has no medical conditions you should know about." I really don't know where that outburst came from. "Thanks that's all I need" the officer scribbles down on her note pad.

They place my Chris on a stretcher and take him into the flashing van. I run into the van with him, grabbing his hand before planting a kiss on it.
   "You're brave Chris. You can do it." I whisper to his heart.

A Middle Aged woman with purple dyed hair with a silver hair or too frowns at me, wrinkling her forehead.

"You're brave too pet. You witnessed something vile. Your loved one in a pool of blood. I promise we'll do the best we can to save him. Be brave." The Scottish woman says as she rubs my shoulder.

How can I be brave?
    

Christopher is my rock, my saviour, my light in the dark. His coy smile and his blue eyes, his blonde hair sticking up in 20 directions is the face I want to see in the mornings.

His coffee, with my favourite shortcakes and the scent of cinnamon filling the house, reminding me of my pops.

This is what I needed right now. I wish I could turn back time.

"Come on miss, we're here." I see Christopher being wheeled away into a building on a stretcher.

They make me wait in the children's waiting room as the other one is being fixed up. The familiar mustard wallpaper welcoming me, and I stare at the broken fire engine truck which has a wheel missing and half a ladder. The door  seems a bit disfigured too. But I remember when it was intact.

"Pops! I want to be a firefighter when I grow up! I want to save the people inside and hold them in my arms... like the movies! And save cats in trees." I blabbed on.

My pops hugging me. "Princess, that's beautiful. I was a firefighter back in my day" "Exactly pops. I wanna be like you" I pointed.

It was one of his routine check ups for his cancer before his cancer destroyed what was left of him.

I hadn't realised I'd been crying till the salty tears entered the corner of my mouth.

The hospital was never a good sign. Nothing good had happened here.

I wait for Mr Khan, who brought me into the corridor, to speak.

He waited a moment or two which felt like a lifetime, the wrinkles form on his head, as he contemplates what he's about to say.

He gulps hugely before scratching his head.

"We couldn't save him. He had too much blood loss, and very little time to find a replacement. When the doctor went to search, the doctors found him, lifeless. I'm so sorry."

"No... this can't be. No!" I cried, throwing the leaflet stand across the floor.

"Please calm down. We did everything we could." He says.

"Well, it wasn't good enough was it!" I cried before running out the hospital and hiding in the BMW.

My head resting on the cool leather, comforting me while I cry profusely.
He's gone.

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Authors note:
This chapter has been edited by the amazing
@-kalonly please please check out A Boy Next Door😭you will love it!