Invisible Killer

Chapter 12

Chapter 12 of "Invisible Killer"

It was the next morning at the Schafer household. Lyndsay was asleep until her mother called for her from downstairs. "Lyndsay, it's time to get up...unless you want to be late for school," she called from the kitchen.
Lyndsay frantically woke up from her slumber and discovered that it was 7:30 a.m. She scurried out of bed, threw on her outfit, and fast-walked down the sidewalk to school. She was on her way to school when she heard something.
"Lyndsay!" called Ryan as he pulled up to her on his motorcycle. Lyndsay turned around and saw Ryan. Ryan met up with her, and she was surprised to see him on the motorcycle.
"Hey...," mumbled Ryan.
Lyndsay quarterly smiled. "Hey...," she began. "Are you seriously going to ride that to school?" She softly giggled.
"Yeah...do you want a ride?"
Lyndsay thought about it. "Sure," she answered with a half smile.
"Hop on," he insisted with a sly smile.
Lyndsay climbed on the motorcycle behind Ryan, and Ryan handed her a helmet. She put the helmet on and wrapped her arms around his waist. Ryan started up the motorcycle, and they rode down the street to the school.
After passing a few blocks, they arrived at the school building. Ryan parked the motorcycle by the bike rack. Lyndsay and Ryan removed their helmets, climbed off of the motorcycle, and laid the helmets down on the seat. They were all settled and began to walk towards the front doors.
"That was awesome," cheered Lyndsay in a romantic tone of her voice.
"You were hanging on there pretty tight," smirked Ryan with a raised eyebrow and quarterly grin.
Lyndsay slightly brushed up against him and softly smiled. "Well, I just wanted to be safe. It's not like that I wanted to fall off." She delivered a wink at Ryan and headed on her way. Ryan's eyes immediately bulged up and scurried after Lyndsay.
They were half way towards the entrance when they suddenly saw Troy. "Hey guys!" he called, waving as he approached them. Lyndsay stared him down with a dead glare and instantly walked away into the school building.
"What's her problem?" he asked Ryan. The boys watched Lyndsay walk away in the opposite direction.
"It doesn't matter...," Ryan grunted.
"What's your problem?"
Ryan released a deep breath. "You!..."
Troy squinted his eyebrows.
"You're not doing anything to help us, and you're never around when we need you. Right now, all you care about is yourself, and it's really throwing me off. Rachelle is in so much pain that she could possibly die," Ryan continued.
Troy rolled his eyes. "She's not going to die..."
"How do you know that? You haven't been around long enough to know anything." There was a moment of silence. "The point is...," Ryan began again. "You need to stay away from Rachelle, you need to stay away from Lyndsay, and you need to stay away from me." He immediately walked away with dissatisfaction.
Lyndsay walked through the front doors and headed over to her locker. She slid her bag off of her shoulder and opened her locker. A few seconds later, Hillary walked up to Lyndsay.
"Hey Lyndsay!" greeted Lyndsay.
Lyndsay turned her head. "Hey, Hillary! What's up?"
"How are you doing?"
"My best friend's life is at stake, and my mind is going crazy with this case. Other than that, I'm just fabulous," answered Lyndsay with shakiness.
"If you don't mind me asking, how is Rachelle doing?"
"Overall, she's doing totally fine. She's just miserable because of all the pain she's dealt with and being stuck at the hospital for days."
"Well, I'm glad that she's doing okay."
Lyndsay began to have tears fill in her eyes. "Thank you!"
Hillary grabbed Lyndsay's hand. "It's going to be okay. You're going to find the one responsible, and you're going to nail them. Rachelle is not going to die. She's going to be just fine, okay? You're not going to lose her, okay?"
Lyndsay, slightly crying, nodded her head in agreement. Hillary hugged her in support.
Hillary then released the hug. "Let me know if there's anything that I can do."
"Thank you!" mumbled Lyndsay.
Hillary smiled at Lyndsay and walked away. Lyndsay then went back about her business with her locker. She began to sniffle as she pulled the books out of her bag and into her locker.
After a minute or two, Ryan showed up at Lyndsay's locker. "Lyndsay?" he mumbled with concern. She looked at him with puppy-dog, tear-filled eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked.
Lyndsay wiped the tears running down her face. "Nothing...," she sniffled. She continued to put hangs in her locker.
Ryan sighed as he rolled his eyes off to the side. "Are you upset about Rachelle again. Lyndsay flashed him a look of guilt and bowed her head down with a sigh.
Ryan placed a hand on her shoulder. "Lyndsay, she's going to be okay..."
"I know that..." Lyndsay began to cry again. "It..." She sniffled. "It just breaks my heart to see how miserable she is." She cried even more.
Ryan placed a hand on her head and gently laid her head on his chest. He held her in his arms as he rubbed her shoulder in order to calm her down a little bit. A few minutes later, the morning bell rang for the day to begin.
Lyndsay released herself from Ryan's hug and wiped her tears with her thumb. "I got to go to class...," she whimpered as she picked up her bag from the floor. Ryan kissed her on the left cheek and quietly walked off to class. Lyndsay turned her head to the right and made eye contact with Ryan. He winked at her, and she delivered a soft half smile.
Troy entered through the front doors, saw Lyndsay, and began to approach her. Lyndsay grabbed her notebook and the required textbook from her locker. She placed them in her bag and threw the bag over her shoulder. She then closed the door to her locker and started to walk to class until she bumped into Troy.
"What do you want?" she grunted her teeth.
"Can't we talk?" Troy pleaded.
"No!" Lyndsay tried to walk away until Troy stepped in front of her.
"Lyndsay..."
"There's nothing to talk about Troy. Now if you excuse me, I'm late for class." She tried to walk away again until he stopped her.
"Why are you so upset with me?"
"The fact that you don't know why I'm upset with you is another example as to why I'm upset. Now get out of my way..."
Troy became agrivated. He snatched a hold of Lyndsay's throat and slammed her into the lockers, holding her up in the air.
Lyndsay held onto Troy's arm. "Seriously?" she hissed. "Do you really think that strangling me is going to make everything better?"
"That's a chance that I'm willing to take," Troy hissed back at her.
Lyndsay squinted her eyes with a grunt through her nose. "So...," she began as she clenched his wrist. "You have me in your possession. Now what do you want?"
"Why are you so upset with me?" Troy grunted.
Lyndsay growled through her clenched teeth and rolled her eyes. "Seriously?...you are a sad little boy. A sad, sad, sad...little...boy..."
"Lyndsay!" Troy jammed her into the lockers.
"See? This is exactly what I mean..."
Troy clenched her throat a little tighter.
"You don't show any respect to us girls."
"Of course I do..."
"No...you don't!"
Troy lowered his eyebrows.
"Sure you say that Rachelle and I are your friends, but it's not like that you show us some support," Lyndsay continued.
"Lyndsay, you don't know what you're talking about."
"No! You don't know what your talking about," snarled Lyndsay. Troy squinted his eyes. "I mean, open your eyes you idiot. Rachelle could die, and you don't give a crap. Someone is after her, and you won't step up and help us investigate."
"Lyndsay, you're crazy."
Lyndsay lowered her eyelids and raised an eyebrow.
"Nobody is trying to kill Rachelle," Troy continued. "It's all in her head. I mean...if someone was really trying to kill her, then how come we don't have any 'real' suspects?"
"That's why we have to keep looking. We won't get anywhere to solving this mystery if we don't investigate."
"Oh please..." Troy didn't have a care in the world.
"Troy, Rachelle is in terrible condition right now."
"Whatever..."
"Troy, don't you get it? Rachelle nearly got shot. Her pool was sat on fire with her in it. She got a concussion and a fractured ankle. She was given hydrogen peroxide which gave her a seizure, and she was stabbed in the thigh. All of that clearly shows that someone is trying to murder her, and you don't care."
Troy began to feel her pain when she started to tear up again. "Oh Lyndsay...," he mumbled. Lyndsay sniffled.
Seconds later, the principal walked through the front doors and saw what was going on. "Mr. James!" he called.
"Mr. Wilkinson?" Troy muttered, shakingly.
"Release her...unless you want detention."
Troy immediately dropped Lyndsay to the floor. Lyndsay landed on her butt and looked up at Troy with tears still running down her face. Troy looked down on her with his mouth dropped and breathed heavily.
"I'm sorry...," he mumbled in a low and uncaring tone.
"No...," said Lyndsay, slowly shaking her head from side to side. She frantically grabbed her bag, threw it over her shoulder, and scurried down the hall to her class.
"I'm sorry for being later, Mrs. Williams. I had to talk to the principal," Lyndsay informed the teacher as she walked through the door. She sat drown at her desk next to Ryan. Ryan heard Lyndsay sniffling and became worried. Lyndsay rested her head on her knuckles.
"What's wrong?" asked Ryan.
"Nothing...," mumbled Lyndsay as she stared straight ahead.
"Whenever you have tears running down your cheeks, that usually means that something is wrong."
Lyndsay moved up into Ryan's face. "There is nothing wrong, okay? Now please, just let it go." She faced back to the board.
"Ryan?" said Kyle Arms. "She's just bummed out because she lost the battle with Troy.
Lyndsay became real agitated that she began to slightly yell. "You stay out of this, Kyle. It's none of your business." She crossed her arms.
"If it's none of my business, then why are you talking to me about it?" he hissed like a smart-elek.
"Shut up!"
Ryan laid a hand on Lyndsay's shoulder.
"Lyndsay? Did Troy hurt you?"
Kyle striked up from his desk and walked over to Lyndsay. He grabbed her head and yanked it up and back. "Ryan, of course he did." He showed Ryan the markings. "I mean, look at all of these bruises from Troy's fingers."
Ryan saw all of the bruises, and his eyes immediately widened up.
The teacher quickly saw all of the commotion. "Mr. Arms!" Her mouth dropped with anger. "Release your hands from Ms. Schafer and take your seat!" she demanded.
Kyle did what he was told.
"Are you okay, Lyndsay?" worried Mrs. Williams. Lyndsay's eyes began to fill up with tears and anxiously scurried out of the room. She stormed out of the classroom.
Kyle sarcastically laughed. "Oh look, she's too embarrassed to admit her defeat." The rest of the class was silent, and the teacher got onto Kyle for another time.
"Leave her alone, Kyle. None of this concerns you, so back off already!" grunted Ryan. He turned his attention back to the teacher and raised his pointer finger. "May I be excuse?" he requested.
The teacher nodded her head. Ryan grabbed is bag with Lyndsay's and hurried out the door to run after Lyndsay.
"Lyndsay!" he called. He threw his bag over his shoulder and walked out of the classroom. He searched all over the school for Lyndsay and didn't have any luck.
Lyndsay was sitting on the steps in front of the school. She had her head buried into her arms on top of her knees, crying her eyes out.
"Lyndsay!" called Ryan from inside the building. Lyndsay didn't answer. She didn't even pick up her head from her arms. Ryan called out her name one more time as he walked through the front door of the school. He immediately spotted Lyndsay having one of her moments while sitting on the steps.
"Lyndsay...," Ryan mumbled to himself. He dropped their bags on the ground beside her. Ryan kneeled down behind Lyndsay, wrapped his arms around her stomach, and laid his head on the back of her head. Lyndsay felt his arms and his head and slowly lifted her head from her arms.
"Ryan?...," she mumbled quietly, but loud enough for him to hear. Ryan released his arms from her stomach, raised his head from hers, and slid over to sit next to Lyndsay on the steps.
"I thought that you might have needed a hug," he encouraged, leaving a hand on the back of Lyndsay's shoulder.
"Thanks...," Lyndsay quietly mumbled. She laid her head back down into her arms.
"Lyndsay, don't let him get to you. He's just a big jerk."
Lyndsay raised her head up again. "Who? Kyle?...I don't care about him. He wants to act like an idiot, so I'm just going to let him. Besides, I'm not a sissy girl who lets guys get to her because of their obnoxious comments."
"Then why are you so upset?"
"I'm not..."
"Okay...then why did Troy give you those bruises?"
"He was just upset with me, but what's the big deal? It's not like it really matters."
"It does too matter. I told him to leave us alone, and he denied my command."
Lyndsay became confused. "Wait, what?"
"I told him, face-to-face, to leave you, me, and Rachelle alone. Unfortunately, he didn't quite get the message." Ryan stood up from sitting on the concrete steps.
Lyndsay's eyes widened up with worry. "Ryan? What are you doing? Where are you going?"
"I'm going to go find Tory and give it to him straight," said Ryan, holding up a fist as he began to walk away.
"What?" Lyndsay immediately stood up from sitting down. "Ryan, no!" She grabbed his arm. "You cant; it's not worth it!"
Ryan jerked his arm out of Lyndsay's possession. "It is if he hurts my girlfriend." He left Lyndsay at the school and began to run on his way to find Troy.
Lyndsay rolled her eyes. "Ryan!..." She grabbed her bag, threw it over her shoulder, and began to run after Ryan in order to stop him from beating up Troy. She chased him down for a couple of blocks. She eventually caught up to Ryan as he began to approach Troy, who was talking to another one of his friends, Lance Morgan.
Lyndsay was losing her breath from all of the running and chasing Ryan down so many streets. "Ryan!...Ryan!...Ryan!" she kept calling for him.
"What do you want, Lyndsay?" Ryan was still grunting from the anger that he had towards Troy.
"It's not fair."
Ryan stopped and turned around to face her. "What's not fair?"
"You can't tell Troy to leave us alone, and then beat him up the minute he takes some of his anger out on one of us."
"Lyndsay, I straight up told him to leave us alone or there will be some consequences. Clearly, he didn't think that I would actually do something about it, so I need to go and actually do something." Ryan began to walk towards Troy again.
Lyndsay quickly became agrivated. Her eye began to twitch, and her lips scrunched up.
"Nobody is going to hurt my girlfriend and get away with it!" called Ryan, slightly storming away. Lyndsay instantly lost her temper and ran after him.
Ryan saw Troy and began to walk up to him. "Troy!...," he yelled. Troy turned his head and immediately became surprised to see Ryan approaching his personal space. "You have some explaining to do," Ryan continued.
Lyndsay caught up to Ryan and immediately jumped on top of him to stop him from hurting Troy. "Get off of me, Lyndsay. I don't have time for this," demanded Ryan.
"Ryan, this is not the way to go," begged Lyndsay.
Lance quickly became weirded out. "I guess that I'm going to be heading home now," he informed. He waved under at Troy as he started to walk away in the opposite direction. Troy waved at him as a goodbye.
"Lyndsay, we've already been through this. I just want to talk to him," said Ryan.
"I won't let you," responded Lyndsay.
"Why won't you let me just talk to him?"
         Lyndsay rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine...," she muttered as she slid down from his back. She then grabbed his ear. "But if you take even one punch, you'll be sorry." She released his ear and let him talk to Troy.
Ryan sighed and approached Troy as calm as he could be. "Troy..."
"What do you want, Jones?" grunted Troy as he crossed up his arms.
"Listen here, James. You hurt my girlfriend, and that's not cool."
"What are you talking about? I didn't even lay a finger on her."
Ryan's eyes bulged up with anger. He pulled Lyndsay into the conversation, carefully lifted up her chin, and showed Troy the five bruises on her neck.
"Oh really? Then who else was it that put these bruises on my girlfriend's neck?" grunted Ryan, pointing to the markings. "I know that there's absolutely no way that she could've done it all by herself. Those bruises didn't just now appear."
"You don't know that; they could've just appeared."
Lyndsay crossed her arms and rolled her eyes in disgust. Ryan became frustrated towards Troy. He immediately lost his temper and viciously attacked Troy with a punch. Eventually, the boys were on top of each other, punching one another in the face and gut.
"Ryan! Troy! Stop it!" screamed Lyndsay. She walked towards them to try to break up the fight. She tried to pull them away from each other. Troy tried to hit Ryan, but Ryan dodged it. Unfortunately, Troy's fist accidentally punched Lyndsay in the eye. Lyndsay squealed and fell backwards onto the grass. The guys immediately stopped fighting.
"Lyndsay!" cried Ryan. He kneeled down on the grass beside her in order to help her up. Lyndsay leaned up with Ryan's hand behind her back, holding her left eye. "Are you okay?" asked Ryan, breathing heavily with shock.
"Yeah, sure," said Lyndsay, rubbing her eye. "Does it look bad?" She removed her hand as she looked at Ryan. Her eye quickly swelled up and began to have a light pink discoloration.
"Aye!..." Ryan pulled his bottom jaw backwards as he clenched his teeth.
Lyndsay sighed in depression.
"Come on, let me take you home," Ryan suggested. He helped her up from the grass as she held her swollen eye. Ryan turned Lyndsay around with a hand behind her shoulder. He flashed a look at Troy with disappointment as he shook his head. He then turned back into the opposite direction and began to walk Lyndsay home.
"I'm going to take you home," Ryan whispered into Lyndsay's ear. Lyndsay nodded her head in agreement. Troy watched them leave as he sighed for no reason.
Ryan and Lyndsay were walking down the street until they arrived at the Schafer household. "Do you have your house key?" asked Ryan.
Lyndsay nodded her head, pulled the key out of her pocket, and handed it to Ryan. Ryan grabbed the key and unlocked the front door to Lyndsay's house. He then, carefully and slowly, led Lyndsay through the front doors ad up the staircase to her bedroom. They walked into the room, and Ryan helped her down onto the bed. Lyndsay sighed in pain.
"Does it hurt?" asked Ryan.
"No...," began Lyndsay sarcastically. "I'm holding my painful eye because I want to. Of course it hurts! What do you think?" She sighed in misery.
Lyndsay noticed that Ryan wasn't speaking. "Ryan...," she began again as she leaned up from her pillow. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hissed at you."
"No, I'm sorry," replied Ryan. "I shouldn't have started that fight. I should've just let it go like you told me to."
Lyndsay half smiled. "But the fact that you cared so much is really sweet though..."
Ryan smiled and grabbed a hold of Lyndsay's hand. "I'm sorry that I let this happen to you."
"Don't worry about it. It's no big deal."
Ryan saw Lyndsay's eye beginning to turn purple. "I'm going to go get you an ice pack," he insisted.
"It wouldn't hurt. It's starting to swell up a little bit."
"I'll be right back." Ryan left the room. He walked downstairs to get an ice pack from the refrigerator. He then scurried back up to Lyndsay's room.
"Here you go. An ice pack for my patient," he said as he handed it to Lyndsay.
"Thank you..." Lyndsay quietly giggled. She quickly became concerned. "Patient..." She immediately remembered something. "Oh dear...," she freaked as she grabbed Ryan's wrist. "We were suppose to question Nurse Andrea."
Ryan released a sigh. "Lyndsay...I'm afraid that we'll just have to wait to do it tomorrow."
"Why?"
"Lyndsay, you just got punched in the eye."
"So..."
"So you need to rest."
Lyndsay lowered her eyelids in disappointment.
"Don't worry, she'll be there tomorrow," Ryan added.
"Okay...," mumbled Lyndsay in an unfortunate tone.
Ryan grabbed Lyndsay's hand, kissed the top of it and smiled with gentleness. "I'll be back in the morning." He stood up and stepped out of Lyndsay's bedroom door. He face Lyndsay and waved goodbye. Lyndsay smiled as she waved back and watched Ryan walk down the stairs. Ryan exited the front door. Lyndsay carefully placed the ice pack over her eye and laid down in order to snooze.