The Beginning of Us (87 page)

I reach for my seatbelt when we go air born with the intention of removing it after we hit the water. The impact jars me so bad that it takes a few moments for me to understand what is happening. The car begins filling with water. I glance over at Nicole and see that she's unconscious. I unbuckle and try to open the door. The pressure is so intense that I can’t get the door to budge and the windows won’t work either.

I notice the gun in Nicole’s hand so I take it from her and throw it behind the seat.  I reach over and unlock her seatbelt.  The water level is rising quickly and I know that I need to work fast to get out if I want to live through this.  I lean over in the seat and start to kick the side window.  I kick and kick until finally I bust through it.  The instant I get my foot through the glass, the car fills with water.  I manage to take a big deep breath before my head goes under.

The car is being pulled under water until we hit the bottom of the river bed.  I work my way out of the window and reach in for Nicole.  As I get her out of the car she grabs onto my leg.  We begin to fight each other and all I want to do is get her off of me, but she won’t let go.  She keeps pulling me further under, so I kick her until she finally releases her hold on me.  I attempt to swim toward the surface of the water.  Before I make it to the top, the current catches me and starts to pull me down river.  My head finally surfaces for air.  I gasp in another full breath not knowing where the current is taking me. 

My body slams into a large tree limb and I manage to wrap my arms around it.  I'm physically exhausted.  I can hardly keep my eyes open, but the current is pulling me faster and faster.  My body is slamming into rocks and tree limbs and I find it harder to hold on to the limb.  I have sharp pains shooting up my left leg anytime something touches it.  I have no idea where Nicole is, but I don’t have the energy to care if she's near me. 

Finally the limb gets stuck between two large rocks.  The water is rushing around me and I'm constantly struggling with the pain of crap slamming into me.  I work my way to the rock nearest to land and manage to climb on.  The moss makes it difficult to keep a good grip, so I fight with my legs and arms to stay attached.  This rock is narrower on top, so I wrap my arms around it and hold on for dear life.

I'm freezing cold and my body starts to shiver. I'm not sure how far down river I am and I begin to pray that Talon heard me on the phone. I pray for someone to find me soon, anyone except Nicole.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Talon

Taron drives the truck right up to the edge of the water under the bridge. There is a service road that we know about since we have been here many times. I jump out of the truck and notice everything seems eerily quiet. I can hear the sound of the water flowing, but nothing else. I can’t see anything out of the ordinary and it's frustrating the fuck out of me.

“WHERE IS SHE?  FIND HER!”  Ivy begins to scream even louder than she did in the truck.   “EAVEN!  EAVEN WHERE ARE YOU?”  She starts running down the bank screaming the entire way.  Taron immediately follows her.  I run to the top of the bridge to see if I can tell that a car went in the water. 

I start to lose it when I see the evidence that proves that they're in the water.  The police and ambulance show up along with an ass load of our friends to help search for Eaven.  I can’t stand watching everyone rush around with no results.  The police have roped off the area near the bridge. 

I look at the water and see how rapid the current is. If she escaped the car, she will be down river. I can’t even think about her not escaping the car right now, so I start to run. Luke follows me. I see a limb in the water and notice it moving faster than I am. So I grab a loose branch large enough to hold me and get in the water. “I'm going in. Follow along to make sure I don’t miss her.” I tell Luke. I hold on to the branch and let it guide me down river.

Shit.  Everything is crashing into me.  I'm scratched all to hell in no time.  I begin to yell her name and hope she hears me.  I pass by Taron and Ivy on the bank yelling for her as well. 

I have to find her. This is my girl. The girl I love with everything I have. She has quickly become my world and I can’t imagine living without her. She has to live through this. I have to find her.

“EAVEN!  CAN YOU HEAR ME?  PLEASE YELL IF YOU HEAR ME!”  Fuck, I can’t hear because the water is too loud.  I notice two large rocks ahead and decide to try to get out so I can hear her better.  I make my way to the bank just before I notice the moon glowing on one of the rocks.  I think my eyes are tricking me, because it looks like someone is straddling the rock. 

The rock is just far enough out that I'll not be able to reach her.  I run along the water until I'm close enough to see that it's Eaven.  She's completely wrapped around the rock. 

“EAVEN!”  I notice her hand move.  Her hair is wrapped around her face, so I can’t see it.  She's shaking. 

I go back up river and don’t hesitate to get in again.  I yell for Taron as I go in, hoping he hears me.  I get far enough into the water to come in on the opposite side of the rock because I don’t want to pass her.  As I near her I notice a large limb wedged in between the two rocks.  I use it to stop and work my way to her.  She's as cold as ice. 

“Oh my God, baby! I'm here! I have you now! Are you hurt anywhere?” I say hoping she will respond to me.

“Hurt!” She whimpers.

I have to get us out of this water.  Taron and Ivy finally arrive and see us.  Taron dials his phone and starts to tell someone where we are.  I can tell she's hurting and I see her hands start to slip on the moss covered rock. 

“TARON FIND SOMETHING. WE CAN’T WAIT. SHE IS SLIPPING.” He starts to look around for something to help us.

Her arm slips loose and she starts to slide around the rock.  I grab her shirt and yank her back to me.   

“Hold on to me, baby. I have you.” I know we don’t have much time before she can’t hold herself in place anymore. I work her hands and legs around the front of my body. I kiss her entire face the second she's close enough to my lips. I release my hands from the limb and turn so that if we hit something I'll get the impact. The current instantly pulls on us and we are flowing down stream.

I'm constantly working us closer to the bank.  I can hear Ivy and Taron with us the whole way.  I finally get close enough to the bank and struggle out of the water.  She's weak and doesn’t have the energy to help, so I know she's in bad shape.  I crawl with one arm holding her until Taron can get to us and help us up.  She's crying out in pain as we pull her body completely out of the water. 

We lay her down and start looking for obvious injuries.  She has a shit load of scrapes.  Her leg looks broken and I don’t know how in the hell she was able hold on to the rock with it looking like that.           

“Baby, Can you hear me?” She doesn’t answer me, but does make a sound of pain and moves her head to face me.

“Oh Ev, Please fight.  Don’t you dare leave me in this world alone!  We are in this together.  You fight, do you hear me?”  Ivy grabs her face and forces Eaven to look into her eyes.  We get a small nod and I take that as a great sign.   

“Nicole.” Eaven whispers.

“Yes, we know Nicole did this. Don’t worry about her. They will find her body and we will never have to worry about her again.” I try to reassure her that she's safe, but the scared look in her eyes has me concerned that I need to be on the lookout.

“Swimming.” She says softly. I feel goose bumps break out on my skin at the thought of that bitch getting away after doing this.

“It’s ok.  They will find her.  You are safe here with us.”  Ivy says to her.  I notice that she keeps closing her eyes like she's going to fall asleep.  We keep talking to her until the EMTs arrive.  There is not a drivable path to this point down river, so everyone that has arrived had to do so on foot.

“We are in contact with victim #2. Please stand by for status.” I hear one of the radios go off.

“Victim #1 is deceased. Please call for coroner.”

~Chapter Sixteen~
 

Eaven

I wake up with a throbbing headache like none that I have ever experienced.  I can hear voices near and want to sit up and tell everyone to keep it down.  I try to sit up and can’t seem to force my body to listen to my mind. 

“She's improving. The doctors said it shouldn’t be long and she will wake up for us.” I can hear my mom. Man, I miss her.

“I just wish she would hurry.  I can’t stand seeing her like this.”  I should have known Ivy would be in my room. 

“Why do you think the police want to question her?”  What the hell?  Who said that?  Why would they want to question me? 

“Mom, I’m sure they just need her statement about what happened so they can close the case.” I definitely know that voice. That was Talon. I squeeze my hand as I realize that someone is holding my hand.

“She just squeezed my hand! Ev, baby! Wake up. I can’t wait to see your gorgeous eyes.” He begins to caress my hand and face.

“Head hurts.”  I say hoping someone will get me some good meds to make this pain go away.      

“I just pushed the nurse’s button and we will see if we can get you something for the pain.” My mom always knows how to take care of me. The nurse comes in and talks about something and I begin to sleep again.

“Where did they find her body?” I wake to hear Ivy talking.

“Luke found her along the bank.  She was bleeding from her head very badly.  I'm not sure if she was gone then or not.”  That sounded more like Taron this time. 

“We are so lucky that the same thing didn’t happen to Ev.  It could have been worse to her head instead of her leg.”  This time I can open my eyes easier.  There is less pain, but I can definitely tell that I won’t be moving around anytime soon.  I try to move my legs, but can’t tell if I'm making any progress. 

Ivy sees that my eyes are open and begins to talk to me. “Hey girl! Did you decide to join us?”

“Ya, I guess.” I muster up an entire sentence. This is progress.

“What is wrong with me?”  I would like someone to tell me how bad this is. 

“You have a broken leg, a concussion, and a lot of scrapes and bruising.  They're treating you for possible infections since you were wounded in a nasty river.  How do
you feel?” Ivy has never sugar coated anything. I knew she would give it to me straight up.

“Better. Thirsty.” I look around and see Talon still by my side holding my hand. He looks like complete shit, you know, like I feel.

“Hey! I missed you!” He says looking into my eyes as I turn to look at him.

I squeeze his hand and a tear falls down my cheek. I begin to feel very emotional. I start to remember how scared I was in the water. There was a time that I didn’t think I would live to see another day. I wouldn’t live to see the faces of those that I love.

“Baby, don’t cry. You are safe here with us.” Talon is talking to me, but I can’t seem to stop this waterfall of tears. My monitor starts going off and the nurse comes in. She messes with my IV and I begin to sleep shortly after.

“Talon! Will you be my boyfriend?” I hear a tiny voice when I come to and know that is Avery.

“I wish I could baby girl, but I love your sissy.” I hear him tell her.

“You gonna marry her?” Leave it to a child to go straight for the gut of the matter. I open my eyes to see what his expression is. He has his eyes closed and he leans in to her ear.

“If she will let me!” He says to her just loud enough that I can hear him. I smile at the thought of spending forever with him. He doesn’t know that I saw him, so I close my eyes hoping that no one will rat me out. That might have been the best possible medicine for me. Just inject me in the heart with the hopes of spending the rest of my life with this man and I'll get my ass up and dance the father-daughter dance right now. Let’s do this!

Ok so, I won’t be dancing today. I tried to move a little and I'm not having much luck because it hurts like a son-of-a-bitch. Talon notices that I'm awake.

“Look who came to visit you!” Avery looks scared as Talon lifts her to come closer to me. Do I really look that bad?

“Hey Avery! I missed you! Did you come to see me?” I try to smile as much as possible so she won’t be as terrified.

“Uh huh.” She nods at me, but tightens her hold on Talon.

“Your mom and Ivy just went down the hall for a second and they will be right back.”  Talon sits back down with Avery. 

“How are you feeling?” He asks me.

“Ok.”

“The doctors say that your head injury is healing nicely and if things go well we can break out of here in a day or two.” That news makes me very happy.

“It hurts to move my legs.”

“You are pretty banged up.  You will be sore for weeks until your bruises heal.  Not to mention that you are in a heavy cast for the break.  I'll be with you every minute to make sure you don’t need anything.”