Moments of Reckoning (14 page)

Silence
filled me as I rummaged through the warehouse looking for a cell phone, keys to the vehicle outside, or even shoes to walk in. But I found nothing of the sort. So in my bare feet I took off walking towards the lonely dark road of freedom. The breeze from the night air had me holding onto myself to try and keep a little bit warmer. The thin material of my torn cotton pants and shirt wasn’t holding much of my body heat in.

My feet were aching as I continued to walk down the
deserted street with no sign of life anywhere around. The Hannah that I used to be was long gone and left in her place was this hollow shell of a person. A low roar caught my attention as I stepped off the side of the road. Turning around I noticed headlights gradually getting closer. Panic begin to set in thinking the person may not see me standing on the side of the road so I dashed out into the center of the lane. Standing lifeless, I faced the oncoming car as the headlights became so bright I couldn’t see a thing. I threw my hand up to block my eyes as the screeching of the car’s brakes wailed into the silent night air. I simply stood there, not caring if the vehicle ran over me or not at this point. My emotions were all over the place. One minute I was afraid the car wouldn’t see me and now the option of being struck down by the vehicle didn’t seem so bad. I guess I now knew what Matthew dealt with daily in his own mind. An unfamiliar female’s voice brought me back to reality.

“
OH MY GOODNESS, ARE YOU OKAY?! What are you doing walking down this road at night!?” she cried out as she took in the looks of my clothing. My voice failed me as I stood there emotionally lost. “Are you hurt!? Here, let me grab a blanket from the back of my van.” The lady took off running towards the passenger’s side of her van and soon returned with a blanket that she wrapped around my shoulders. “We need to get you to a hospital…” she stated as she slowly guided me to her minivan and helped me get in the passenger’s side. She ran back around to the driver’s side, climbed into the seat and turned towards me. She gasped loudly as I stared at her. “You’re the missing girl…You’re Hannah Davis…I’d know your face anywhere. Oh darling, everyone has been looking for you—I have to call the police!” she rambled on in shock. Exhaustion soon caught up with me and the last thing I saw was us speeding down the dark road towards the bright lights of the city.

Chapter 21
Jason

Boom…Boom…Boom

Boom…Boom…Boom…Boom…

“JASON!!! ANSWER YOUR DAMN DOOR!!!!”

“OPEN UP MAN!!!!!”

People yelling and banging on my front door jarred me from the deep sl
eep I was consumed in on the couch. I jumped to my feet and threw the door open angrily to find Abby and Xavier looking like complete hell standing in front of me.

“Grab some clothes and come on! Hannah’s
at the hospital.”

Their words punched me so hard
in the gut I almost collapsed. Gripping the doorframe for support I stared at the two of them in completely disbelief.

“Hurry up
, Jason! We have got to go
now
!” Abby smacked my arm.

I took off running dow
n the hallway and into my room to grab whatever shirt and jeans combo I could find and was headed back out the door in no time flat.

Was this a dream? Hannah was at the hospital—alive.
I couldn’t believe what Abby and Xavier had just told me. My mind was running a million miles a minute when I realized we were already close to the hospital.

“Did you hear me
, Jason?” Xavier’s voice caught me off guard.

“No—sorry.
What did you say?”

“They said she is in and out of consciousness due to the medications they have her on. Apparently she was in a state of shock when the woman found her walking down a deserted road back on the outskirts of town.”

My chest felt like it was going to cave in at the thought of Hannah—my Hannah—walking in the dark, traumatized from whatever that crazy fuck had done to her. Then it dawned on me, how did she escape?

“Did they say how she escaped?” my voice came out shaky as we pulled into the emergency room parking lot.

“All they said is she wouldn’t talk to anyone when they got her to wake up.” Abby spoke quietly.

When they got her to wake up…? She must have passed out at some point.

Throwing my door open before Xavier’s truck had come to a complete stop, I ran across the parking lot at full speed. Barreling through the emergency room doors I turned breathlessly into the waiting area and instantly saw Elliot holding Lisa. As soon as they saw me they got to their feet and met me in between the check-in station and the seating area.

“Where is she?! Is she okay?! I’ve got to see her!”

“Jason, calm down. She’s medicated right now until they can make sure that everything is all right. The doctor should be out shortly and then we will be able to take turns going back to see her.” Elliot spoke softly as Abby and Xavier joined our small group.

“I’m
kinda surprised that the media isn’t already here,” Abby commented.

“The only reason they aren’t here is because Detective Cooper hasn’t released anything stating that Hannah has been found. He is waiting until the morning so we aren’t bombarded with all that un
til after the police arrive. They are hoping to get a statement about what happened and as long as she has a clean bill of health we will be taking her home.” Elliot informed us.

We all made our way over into the seating area as the waiting game began.

∙∞∙

The last time I had look
ed at the clock it was well past eleven at night. With my head resting back on the chair the sound of someone asking for Hannah’s family made me open my eyes.

“Excuse
me, are you all Hannah Davis’ family? The doctor asked as quietly as possible.

“Yes, we are her family.” Lisa spoke up as she nudged Elliot awake.

“We have been gradually reducing the sedative we have had Hannah on. Now it’s up to her how long it takes her to wake up. All her scans came back good, although she has a sprained left wrist along with some bruises and bumps. But in all she is in pretty good shape. Because she is a private patient she has been placed in her own room since they moved her from the ER. The police informed us that the media is not supposed to know Hannah is here until they release a statement early in the morning so we are allowing all of you to go back together. Usually this is against hospital policies but in this case we can make an exception.”

After thanking the doctor we all made our way to the elevator. Relief was washing over me. Hannah was okay, minus her sprained wrist
; I couldn’t believe I was about to see her again. As much as I never wanted to lose hope, it was always in the back of my mind that she was gone forever. The ding of the elevator let us know that we had arrived on Hannah’s floor. Elliot and Lisa had seen Hannah when they first arrived so they allowed Abby, Xavier, and I to enter the room first.

The
silence of the room sent chills down my spine. The only sound was the beeping from the monitors and the lights were low so when she woke up they wouldn’t bother her eyes. I stayed back as Abby and Xavier made their way up to her bed. Tears were falling freely down Abby’s face and I’m almost positive Xavier shed a few himself. Watching Abby holding Hannah’s hand made me realize how very real this was. She was alive and here in this hospital room.

A few minutes passed before Abby and Xavier sat down on the window seat to the right of Hannah’s bed. Slowly I walked up on the other side of her bed and sat in the chair that was placed there. Her face had a bruise running across her cheek and her wrist was bandaged, along with a bandage on her leg.
Tears pricked at my eyes as I laced my fingers through Hannah’s. The others in the room didn’t matter to me, I began speaking softly to Hannah as I sat there holding onto her hand.

“Hey
, beautiful…I cannot believe you are here, right in front of me,” I placed a kiss on her hand, “I have spent many sleepless nights wishing I could find you so I could tell you that I love you once more. From this day forward, I will remind you how much I love you because losing you again—is not an option for me. Now I just need you to open those breathtaking eyes of yours and I will be one happy man.” I finished talking as I placed another kiss on her hand.

A strong hand on my shoulder caused me to turn around. Elliot was standing there with the look of pure happiness on his face.

“Thank you for loving our daughter. She couldn’t have a better man in her life, Jason.” He patted me on the back as he followed Lisa out of the room.

“We are going to head home for a bit to freshen up. When we got the call we had been at the gym and didn’t have time to shower. Do you need anything?”
Xavier asked as he draped his arm around Abby’s shoulder.

“No
, thanks, everything I need is right here in this hospital room.” I replied without taking my eyes off Hannah. Xavier patted me on the back as Abby told me they would see me in a bit.

Laying my head down on the side of Hannah’s hospital bed I let my eyes rest. The beeping became soothing after a while and I felt myself starting to drift off to sleep when I felt Hannah’s hand twitch. Snapping my head up, I watched as h
er eyes fluttered open. I stood up and leaned slightly over her bed so she could see me.

“Hey
, you…” I spoke softly.

“Hey…”she croaked out.

I picked up the pitcher of water from the bedside table, poured some in the plastic cup and held the straw to her mouth so she could drink. When she was done she smiled weakly up at me. That smile caused my heart to thump rapidly inside my chest. No matter what shape Hannah was in she was it for me and my heart constantly reminded me of that.

“I need to go get your parents from the nurses’ station.”

“Okay.”

I stepped out the door and
held onto it until it closed quietly. Elliot and Lisa were standing at the desk talking to a couple of nurses when I approached.

“Hannah’s awake. She just woke up a couple minutes ago and I helped he
r drink a little water.”

Relief flashed across both their faces as we hurried back down the hall and into Hannah’s room.

“Oh, baby girl…” Lisa cried as the tears began falling down her face. Hannah opened her arms as her mother embraced her tightly. The two of them continued to cry as they held onto one another as Elliot join in on the family hug.

I stepped
into the hall to give them some privacy and dialed Abby’s number.

“We are about to pull into the parking lot, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, things are great, Hannah’s awake!”

“
Omigod, are you serious?! Is she okay?!”

“
She seems good—talking and drinking some water.”

“I can’t wait to see her! We’ll be up in a sec.”

“All right, bye.”

Walking back into the room I noticed thing
s seemed a bit tense. Elliot was pacing the floor, Lisa was nervously playing with her hands while sitting in the window seat, and Hannah looked pissed off.
This cannot be good…

“Hannah
, honey, I’m so sorry that this happened to you. We should have been informed about Matthew’s release from the institution back when it happened,” Elliot’s voice was shaky from unshed tears.

“
Matthew was sick…There was still a part deep down inside of him that was the boy that I grew up with, the boy that loved me fiercely. Watching him kill himself right in front of me—that—that will stay with me forever…He didn’t deserve to go through what he went through and I refuse to hold him accountable for what happened. Everyone abandoned him, including me. It wasn’t his fault…it wasn’t his fault…” Hannah was crying so hard she was gasping for air in between sobs.

Matthew killed himself…Holy shit…This situation is fucked up more than I can imagine. Hell
, Hannah doesn’t even want to hold him accountable for what he did to her. I’m not even sure what happened to her yet…

No one had noticed that I was standing with
my back against the door until I started moving towards Hannah to try and calm her down. Elliot glanced over at me before he mumbled something about needing some air and exiting the room. Sitting down slowly on the side of the bed I hugged Hannah as she latched onto me with a death grip. It felt like pure heaven to have her in my arms again but the situation at hand was still gut-wrenching.

“I’m going to find your father
, Hannah, and give you two some privacy before the others return,” Lisa spoke sweetly as she opened the door. Stopping before stepping out into the hallway she turned back towards us, “Hannah…you know we love you and would do anything for you. Your father thought he was protecting you by not telling you about the letters. Even though I did not agree with his wishes, I did however respect them. I am so sorry about Matthew. I know he loved you and you loved him in return. Please try to understand where your father is coming from.” Before allowing Hannah to respond, Lisa stepped out into the hall and shut the door behind her quietly.

Not long after Lisa left the room Xavier and Abby came barreling through the door.
As soon as Abby locked eyes with Hannah they both lost it. Xavier and I just shrugged our shoulders at one another, allowing the two of them to have their crying reunion. I have no idea how they understood what each other said because the sobs were out of control. Xavier had also told me that Elliot and Lisa had gone to the cafeteria to get something to eat and to let Hannah cool down. The clock showed well after one in the morning and we all were running on fumes. Hannah had Abby curl up in the hospital bed with her as I planted myself on the window seat while Xavier took up shop in the lounger to my left.