Today, Wren’s evening has gone wrong.  She lost her business cards, she was knocked down by a stranger, and she had a long, drawn out walk in the rain.  She thought everything was going down hill.  Then, a little run in the rain accompanied by a friend made her feel better… until that stranger came to her house.  He was covered in blood and looking for help.  Unfortunately for Wren and Ellie, they are too kind and decided to help the man.  They questioned if they should help him, but the more important question is whether he will survive the night.

 

Chapter 2:  “Ever Think to Call A Medic?”

 

            First off, within an ordinary world, in a normal town, in a plain house, something out of the ordinary will rear its flawed face.  This “something” is an event that will cause things to change for better or for worse.  These “things” are the lives and habits of ordinary people, living out their ordinary lives, and living with absolutely normal abnormalities.

            On Sunday night, a man made his way to their house.  He was quickly found by the two girl residents.  Luckily the two girls were outside, running in the rain.  Luck was in still short supply that day.

            Ellie was unaware she was not pointing at the passed out stranger lying at the side of her house.  She was aware that when she could not bear to look at the bloody man, it was hard for her to point exactly at him.  She did her best to have her finger over him, though.  Also, to Ellie, Wren was not helping her at the moment either.  Wren was asking for assistance in moving the man.

            Two totally abnormal, ordinary girls were living their lives out fine, until fate intervened.  Ellie, the rough talking twenty-one-year-old had just stepped out of the shadow of her military family.  She took her current situation shockingly at first.

            “I… I can’t look at blood!”

            Wren, the stern, “properly raised” twenty-two-year-old was finally able to set her own goals.  However, her goals were in the shape of business cards that she lost.  Wren took this current situation not entirely at face value.

            “Com’on, it’s just a little blood.  Help!  I can’t carry him alone.”

            “A little? And you damn well can carry him!”

            “Eh… hmm, I guess you’re right… about the blood.”

            As for the man, he was in bad shape.  He unfortunately was also in the care of two girls whose medically expertise was as knowledgeable as two elementary students.

            “See!  You can pick him up.  Why don’t you just drag him?  So you don’t have to pick him up fully.”

            “Drag him?”

            “Yeah, just grab his arm and pull.”

            “Wouldn’t that do more bad than good?”

            “… How the hell should I know?”

            A lightning bolt cracked down in the far reaches of the city.  The rain began to lighten up more.

            These two girls had, not even three months ago, moved into their new home.  After only a month of searching, the two girls fell in love with a simple, yet cozy home.  The two of them saw it as freedom from their families.  However, their families decided to not allow the two girls to free themselves entirely.  It was decided that Wren’s family would hold the agreement for the two girls.

            It was a decision that was reached quickly.  Wren and Ellie’s families have been friends for the longest time.  However, the two girls knew nothing of each other.  They came to know one another through the two families taking a joint vacation.  The families got onto the topic of finding a place for the two girls to stay.  Wren said that it would be smart for the two of them to stay together.  They could save time looking for two homes and money.  Wren was motivated to leave.  It was freedom from her family forever.  The two families found it to be a great idea, but an idea without its share of rules.  Wren’s father decided to hold the deed.  Wren’s words with her father caused more damage than it resolved over the matter.  With no where else in mind to stay, Wren decided to live with the arrangement for the time being.

            During Wren’s argument, Wren turned to Ellie’s family to side with her.  They almost agreed with Wren.  Later, Ellie’s family decided to listen to Wren’s father.  Wren was a little steamed, but decided fighting was not going to get her a new home.  She had turned to Ellie’s family because Ellie had just moved away a few months ago.   However, Ellie’s place now was not suitable for her and she needed a new home.

Ellie had moved out because she found her family to be a too damn strict.  During her teens, she struggled to stay in good terms with them.  One tick her father had was that he believed in getting up early to start the day.  To Ellie, starting off at 4:30 in the morning was too much for her deal with.  However, Ellie’s family had the decency to allow her to be her own self when she turned eighteen.  So, Wren’s plan was an excellent idea in Ellie’s mind.  Ellie’s current home was too big and expensive.  To Ellie, Wren’s disagreement to the rules was her own problem.  Ellie made up her mind to allow a good thing to last as long as it could.  She wanted to room with Wren and she would not go back to her family’s home.

            In short, neither girl wants to return.  Unfortunately, both fathers are keeping their eyes on the place.  The girls compare the tenacity of their fathers to that of Ms. Ridge.  Both of them always have their eye on the place.

Now, those two with a home to lose, in a lapse of common sense, are now dragging a bloodied man into their home.

            “Okay… he’s in the house… Now what?”

            “Wren, what makes you think I know what to do?”

            “Hey!  It was your idea to have me bring him up here!”

            “Wren, dammit, he’s bleeding all over the carpet!  How am I supposed to clean up blood?”

            “No!  Not important! Give me an idea on what to do next!”

            “… Okay…  You’re right…  Okay, I have a plan.  I think this’ll work…  He’s bleeding everywhere, and that’s not a good thing.”

“… Yeah… and?”

“Okay, you can’t see wounds well if there’s blood everywhere, right?  So… so we need to clean him off!”

            “…”

            “…”

            “How?”

            “Um… we clean him off by putting him in the… uh… shower.  We could run water over his wounds.”

            “…”

            “…”

            “… Fine, better than leaving him here to heal.”

            Wren and Ellie’s fathers come to visit every Tuesday.

 

            Second off, these two girls also had no real stock of anything in their house.  Three months of living and they did not even have a flashlight or a toaster.  If they did not even have a toaster, they were quite unsure if they even had a first-aid kit.  If they had one, they certainly did not know were it was placed.  Wren was searching at the top of their closet in the hallway and Ellie was frantically checking in the bathroom’s medicine cabinet.

            All the while, I was in a bathtub with the shower head running.  I certainly love these girls, but I still can’t believe that it was in a bathtub.  I’ve yet, to this day, not been able to understand why the phrase “we clean him off by putting him the shower” was followed through.  The lack of common sense these two girls have can be unfathomable.  Thankfully, they weren’t at a total loss for common sense.  They were looking for a first-aid kit, hoping to patch me up before I bled to death.

            “Wren!  I don’t know where the kit is, but where should I put his coat!  It’s soaked!”

            “Never mind that!  We need to help him!  Where’d we put that first aid kit?  I know it’s around here somewhere.  Oh, my dad would kill me if he knew I didn’t know where it was.”

            “Didn’t we put it in the closet?”

            Wren stopped what she was doing and moved to the closet.  “You know, I think you’re right.”

            Ellie was right.  The first aid kit was in the closet.  Top shelf, back corner.  In my opinion not a very practical place to put a first aid kit, but I am thankful to this day that it was somewhere in the house.

Wren pulled the white plastic tub down, moved into the bathroom, and opened the case.  She then shook her head and sighed.  “I have no clue…” Wren said to herself, holding up some gauss to examine it.  “Well, only a faint clue.”  Wren unwrapped the gauss.  Only I knew that it was the wrong kind of gauss for my situation.  “Ellie, come here!” Wren yelled over the shower’s noise.

            Ellie came to the doorway.  “What!  Wren, where do you want me to put his damn coat!  His bloody coat, I might add…”

            “Nowhere.  You’re going to help me,” Wren said, expecting Ellie to show up at her side.

            Ellie didn’t move.

            Wren looked at Ellie.  “You hear me?”

            “Yes, and like hell I’m helping you touch that bloody man!”

            Wren stared at Ellie, and then squinted hard.  “You are going to help me.”

            Ellie looked confused.  Why did Wren not realize she hated blood?  “Wren, no!  I told you, I hate blood.  Why do you keep asking me to look at it?”

“Just help him!”

“No!”  Ellie snapped.  Then, she calmed down a little.  “So, I ask again!  Where do you want his bloody clothes?  You’re busy, so I guess I’ll move his coat to the laundry… --I can move bloody clothes with my eyes closed, mind you--”  Ellie said, trailing off.

            Wren had enough of Ellie’s avoidance.  She stood up, grabbed Ellie’s arm, and stared at her menacingly.  “You want him to die?”  Wren asked forcefully.

            “Um… no.”

            “Then… You are going to help me.”

            “But…”

            Wren tightened her grip.

            “But…” Ellie looked frantic, then dropped her expression and gave up.  “Fine… what do you want me to do?”

            “Thank you, Ellie,” Wren said, releasing her grip.  “First, we need to see what wounds he has.  Then we patch up his wounds.  Otherwise we’ll have a dead person in our house.”

            The girls brainstorming only came up with two ideas.  They were to decide what wounds I had and then to heal them.  What about calling the authorities?  What about calling their family?  To this day, I do not know whether I am relieved or very, very frightened about the fact that calling the proper authorities never came to that list.  I guess that fact is just a testament to how different these two girls are from normal people.  Not that them being different is a bad thing.  It just made living with them interesting.  Trust me.

When the two of them tell this story, around this part of the telling, the two of them are a little sketchy on the details.  I must say, I find it rather unnerving that they are.  From my understanding, the both of them just stared at my state of injury.  My left leg was lying over the side of the tub.  The other bent into a tub that was quite too small for me to be crammed in.  My jeans were no longer blue.  My white shirt was no longer white.  My coat, which I love, was no longer its right color.  My skin was also not its right color, either.  It was not light pink but a very pale white.

            When I ask what I looked like, the kind of reaction those two give me only make me imagine how bad I must have looked.  I know I had a broken leg and slashes all up my sides, but these were only the injuries that were easy to find.  I also had a dislocated right shoulder and bruises everywhere else I had no other injury.  The effects of these injuries still affect me to this day.  It is like a mild humming of pain behind all the other senses.

            All that I knew when the two girls were examining me was that it was only really Wren that was examining me.  Ellie couldn’t even look at me.  She couldn’t even speak and she didn’t move.  When I asked Wren what was running through her mind, she gives one and only one response.  “I was begging God to help you…”

She always trails off every time she answers as well.

            Around eleven o’clock of that night, Ellie and Wren kept on working on me as I laid there.  I had no way of instructing them on what to do.  I also had no way of thanking them for letting me in; for saving my life.

              They worked on me using only their instinct and basic knowledge that they picked up from here and there.  Wren hardly had experience on the matter.  She did what she could though.  She kept her eye on me, with her stern face glaring over me.  Ellie wanted nothing to do with me at the moment.  So, she was no real help either.

            Ellie did have a face of fright.  Why she was frightened was unbeknownst to me at the time.  Though, once she got over the fact that my blood was not so bad to look at, she decided that she would get a closer look at me.  I guess it was curiosity, because Ellie doesn’t know the reason she leaned up so closely to look at me.  She just leaned up right to my face.  So much so that I assume could feel her breath on my face.

            I have to assume, because I do not remember much of that night.  However, I remember one dream I had.  Though, if one would call it a dream is hard to say.  I guess it was more of my brain imagining I was having dream.  Whatever anyone wants to call it, I remember seeing Naomi.  I remember when I saw that face, I got a feeling of an ache that was far worse than any physical pain.  That ache came especially when I heard her voice.

            “I just don’t know. I think we’ll find out when I’m done.  I’m sorry…  You know I’m not that good with cooking.  I can’t believe you’re making me cook,” Naomi said, annoyed.

            “Oh come on, you know you’re better than me at cooking.  Plus don’t you worry, I still love you, even if your cooking is terrible.”

            “Hey, I’m making you a dinner and you give me criticisms as thanks?”  She said smacking the spatula down onto the counter.  “Where’s the logic in that.”

            “That you’re the most qualified one of us to cook.”

            “We could always go out… maybe, yes?”  Naomi said, pleading with her eyes and giving me a huge smile.

            …  That smile.

My mind skipped.

            “So, you want us to hit the zoo Friday?”  I asked one day in early fall.

            “I wanted too?”  Naomi said perplexed, telling me silently that she never said anything about going to the zoo before.

            “… Oh.”

            “…”  Naomi just looked at me oddly.

            “Okay, I want to hit the zoo on Friday, and you’re coming with.”

            “Sure!” She smiled.

            “Heh.”

            “Hey! Hey!  Don’t… stop!  AH! Hahaha, no!  Stop!”

            “What, are you ticklish?”

            “You know I’m ticklish!  Ha ha!  Stop!”

            We were made for each other.  We both loved each other deeply.  For three years we celebrated our love.  We were so happy.

My mind skipped again.

            “Happy twenty-second birthday!”  Naomi had said, giving me a hug.  She snuck into my house again.  She gave no prior announcement of her coming.  She did that a lot.

            “What?  Oh, it’s no big deal.”  It was my birthday, again.  My birthdays never were special.  For the occasion this year, I was listening to music.  Just what I do everyday.

            “You’re twenty-two now!  What are you going to do?”

            “Now?  What?  You’re question doesn’t make sense.”

“It makes sense!  Why doesn’t it make sense?”

“Twenty-two is no real breakthrough age.  It’s not like turning sixteen, eighteen, or twenty-one.  So, your question doesn’t make sense.”

            “Oh, come on, you must feel a little different.”

            “Different?  No, I don’t.  I feel the same as I always do.  Happy.”         I remember I kissed her right after I said that.

            “I’m happy too,” she said softly, but her face turned sour.  “But you can’t dodge my question.  It’s your birthday!  Set some goals!  Break a segment in your schedule.  Go get a new hobby.  I don’t know!  Just do something.”

            “Goals…”

She laughed.  “Yeah.  Goals.  Just because you get no new privileges from society doesn’t mean you can set new things for yourself.  Besides, I don’t know what to do for your birthday.  What do you want to do?  I only kind of got this one thing for your birthday…”

She laughed again, but more with a sense of teasing.  I remember thinking about her being so giddy.  She knew something I did not.  I had a feeling I was going to like it.

“Oh… a little something for me, you say?”

“But…” She trailed.

“But what?”

She placed a finger on my nose.  “You’ll just have to wait until tonight.”  She applied pressure to her finger. 

I just smiled.

“Knew you’d like it.  Anyway, I have to pick get some snacks.  No party with no snacks.  We’ll need to feed roughly twelve people, right?  Actually, I don’t know.  See, three of my friends won’t eat much, but one’ll eat for five… so I don’t know how many people that counts for.  Plus, that leaves your family.”

“My family?”

“Are they not coming?  Did you not get the message?” She asked, looking at me strangely.

“What!”

Never really heard the message.  At least, I don’t remember hearing it.  After that, there was so much screaming.  I started to shout.  I remember grabbing her hand, but the next thing I remember was a lot blood on my hands.  I knelt, staring at my hands, stained with her blood.  It was also raining.  My eyes were not wet from the rain, though.  It was the tears.  Her blood was running down my hands, using my arms as a bridge to my body.  She was lying before me.  The garbage cans and brick walls of the alley were mocking us, purposefully making the surroundings dark, dreary, and unfit for the living.

            “Don’t worry…” She said.  “Sorry…”  Her last words.

            I remember the rain beating down on me.  The rain was washing the blood away from her, me, and the pavement.  I couldn’t do anything at that moment.  So I just stared at my hands.

            How could I go on?  How could I care about life, when you have no life within this world?  I hate that fact.  I still hate it, and I hate that you’re gone.  I was truly alone.

            The rain kept pouring.  I remember thinking I could feel the rain pouring on me right then.  I can see that scene playing in my head right now.  And I can feel Naomi’s breathe on my face again.

            You’ve come back?  Naomi?

            “Naomi!”  I screamed.  I grabbed the sides of the tub and looked around frantically.  I could have sworn that I had just seen Naomi right then, in that room.

            Ellie screamed and pulled back her face, shut her eyes, and drew back one of her fists.  Then placed all her force into that fist, and thrust it right into my face…

Yep, Ellie punched me in the face.

She caught me right under my left eye.  I saw a white flash in my sight and then a pain in the back of my head as it hit porcelain.  It knocked me out again.

            Ellie opened her eyes slowly and looked at her extended arm.  She followed it down her arm and right to her clenched fist.

            “Holy shit!  What did I do?”

            “Ellie, why did you punch him?” Wren demanded.

            “No!  He startled me!”  It has been her excuse from that day on.

            “You knocked him out cold.  Are you trying to kill him or something?  Ellie, you’re not helping anymore!  Go find a place to put his coat.  I’ll deal with him, you go keep yourself busy.  Clean up, or something.”

            Ellie then stood up, passed Wren, and quickly left the bathroom.  She took a right into the living room.  There was a muddy path of footsteps from the back way into the house to the bathroom, and along the way a redish-orange wind-breaker jacket was thrown carelessly.  Ellie looked at the shoe prints and became aware of her own shoes still on her feet.  She removed her shoes, picked up the jacket, and just stood still.

            When I asked her how hard she hit me that day, Ellie says that she could still feel the pain in her hand after she left the bathroom.  She also said she could feel the pain ache more when she picked up my jacket.

            She also says that she prayed that I would not remember that punch.  I actually didn’t remember that punch.  However, her guilty conscious just got to her one day and she told me all about the punch.  She also told me what else happened during that moment.  That I had shouted a name.  Me shouting makes sense, I guess.  Ellie didn’t think much of it, though.  Thankfully.

            Ellie stood there with my coat in her hand.  Questions came to her mind.  “Just what the hell happened to him?  Was there an accident?  Or was he fighting?” Ellie frowned.  “If Wren knew he was fighting, I don’t think she would be as helpful.  Man, does she hate violence.  She would be pissed at him if he was in a fight.  Damn, I don’t want to think about it.”

            Ellie then looked down at my red coat.  I’ve been told it was so water logged, that it was still dripping water onto the carpet after all that time.  Well, Ellie brought the jacket down to the tile floor of the foyer and threw down my coat onto the bench.

            She turned to start cleaning up the carpet until from behind her a sound of something slipping across a nylon surface caught her ear.  She double backed to the coat to catch the mystery object before it pulled the coat down.  To her surprise, a very loud, solid, and metallic sound hit her ears as the coat hit the previously white, but now redden tile.

            A pocket of the jacket was now lying heavily onto the ground, while half the coat still hung from the top of the bench.

            In my pocket was something heavy.  “Huh?  Wonder what the hell it is.”  Ellie unzipped my pocket and dove her hand down into it find its contents.  A very cold, metal sensation hit her right hand.  She gripped the oddly shaped object and pulled it out.  When the object hit the light, Ellie gasped and dropped it.  It chipped a portion out of the white tile and settled heavily onto the floor.  “Who in the hell is this person!” She said.  Ellie then stopped herself before she carried out her plans to get Wren.  She put on a stern face and picked up the object cautiously.  So cautiously that she only used two fingers and tried to keep from moving too much.  She placed the object under her arm to conceal it and proceeded to her room up the stairs.

            I’m sorry but I am not going to tell you what it is.  I wasn’t supposed to ever have it near them.  It is a part of something I left behind.  This is where I’m going to end telling this story…

 

“Ellie?  Where’d you put his coat?”

            Ellie stopped dead in her tracks outside the bathroom.  What occupied her grip felt so cold and heavy.  Wren was not looking at Ellie.  She was turning off the shower.

            “I… ah… oh, dammit, um… I put it on the bench in the foyer.  We’ll need to clean it.  It’s the thick winter jacket with the in-liner.  So… uh, I don’t know how to clean it.  I, um… need to hit my room a- and change quickly.”

            “Oh!” Wren said, standing up and walking towards Ellie with cloth in her hand.  Wren looked relieved.  The man must be going to be alright.  “Before you do, because you’ll get a little messy doing this, could you please put some of his clothes that I removed downstairs in the laundry room.”  Wren pushed the clothes into Ellie’s folded arm.  Ellie awkwardly grabbed the clothes with her one free hand.

            “Sure.  I can do that.”

            “He should pull through, but Ellie, I’m going to call the hospital now, so gather all his things.”

            “Okay.  I’ll do that too.”

            “He should make it… but, I’m no doctor,” Wren said, moving past Ellie and into the kitchen.

Ellie glared at the man in the tub. “Who the hell are you?” Ellie muttered to herself.  She then made her way to her room and hid the object she transported underneath her bed.

            Ellie placed a hand onto her forehead.  She suddenly felt light headed.

 

            After a minute, Wren finally brought the receiver up to her ear.  She had never dialed for an emergency before.  She dialed three numbers and waited until phone rang twice.  Then a receptionist picked up her call.

            “Yes, hello, my name is Wren Lydel, el-why-dee-ee-el, Lie-Dell.  It is Wren with a double u.  I would like to request an ambulance.   I’ll need one immediately.  Yes… yes… Listen, can you please send one.  Yes, I think this is serious.  No, it isn’t a simple injury.  I have a man that is hurt and I need assistance very quickly!  No, I don’t know why I didn’t call nine one one!  Yes, send an ambulance ove—hey!”

            A bloody hand grabbed the phone away from Wren steadily and swiftly.  Then, the other wet hand was placed over the receiver end of the phone.

            Wren stared in awe at the bandaged man.  He stood next to her, supporting himself by leaning against the wall.  His head bobbed a little and he acted woozy.  Then Wren shot him a look of anger and demanded the phone back.  The man lifted his head and made eye contact with Wren.  He mouthed the words, “Please, no.”

            Then, without waiting for a reply, the man lifted the phone to his mouth and said steadily, “I’m sorry, appears we were mistaken.  We have no need for an ambulance, and sorry for the false alarm.  Goodbye and sorry again.”  Wren says that his tone betrayed his look completely.

            The phone was hung up.

            It took Wren a second to realized he hung up.  “Why did you do that!  You need an ambulance.  You may die!”

            “No, please, do not call for anyone again!  I-I’m sorry, but please don’t.”  He then brought his hand up to his temple and clenched his teeth.  Pain pounded his head.

            “Well, why?  Why not!  Tell me that, if you’re going to place yourself in danger.”

            The man just shook his head in bewilderment then and did not answer Wren’s question.

            “They cannot know where I am.”

            “They?  Who are they?  The hospital?  The police?”

            The guy started to wobble, repeating the same sentence over and over.  Then, he leaned too far forward and lost his balance.  Wren was able to catch him before he hit the ground.  He was heavy, and she could barely hold him up.

            “Oh my God, are you alright?  Hey!  Wake up!  You need medical attention.  I’m calling them again, right now!”

            “No,” he said faintly.

            “You can barely stand!  Please let me call them.”

            The man looked up at Wren.  She gripped him under his shoulders, and tried to stand him up, but he was only able to start falling over backwards.  Then his legs slacked off and he started going down onto his seat.  Wren was startled by his falling, but held on and gently rested him onto his back.  His head turned to one side, and one of his arms rested awkwardly to one side.

            “You’re pale!” Wren said frantically, positioning his slacked head so she could look into his eyes.  “That’s it, I’m calling!  Hey.  Hey!  Wake up.  Focus!”

            The man blankly stared at the ceiling.  His eyes were not focusing on anything and his chest was not rhythmically moving up and down.  Wren moved her hand over his mouth.  No air was coming in or out.  Wren looked solemnly at the man.

            That moment was the first time Wren had ever seen a dead person.  That moment was also the second time she would have to do something for him that she really did not want to do.  However, she started doing it.  Even though her panic took over.  Naturally, she jumped when a sound interrupted her.

 

            Third off, a very loud and solid rapping came to the door.

            Ellie took her hand from her forehead and looked at the round, analogue clock within her room.  It read 11:17 PM.  She turned her head to where the door was through the walls, which landed on a picture on her wall, and mouthed “Who the hell?”

            When she moved into the foyer, a second solid knocking came.  Ellie quickly positioned herself at the front of the door, flipped on the outside light, and looked through the peep hole.  Ellie just swore under her breath.  Her eyes gazed at blue uniforms and glistening badges.  Two officers stood on their front stoop.

            Ellie pulled up from the peep hole and stood there in dreaded thought.  “Wren!”  Ellie called, hoping for her roommate to come to her aid.  After a short while, Ellie answered to the no response from her roommate by saying, “There’re police officers at our door!”

            Ellie was once again met with silence.  Finally, Ellie opened the door slowly.  “Hello, officers, how may I help ya?”

            The right officer started.  “Yes, we have been getting calls from your neighbors.  Normally we wouldn’t think much of it, because the neighbor’s reason for us to respond was not adequate.  But, your neighbor’s made it sound very serious.  We also realized that in this area there have been reports of a stranger.  Your neighbors may have spotted the reported man around your house.  So we came to investigate.”

            “What?” Ellie reflexively said, because at this point she could not really think.

            “Have you seen such a man around?”  The officer on the left said.  “Ma’am?”

            “What!  Ah, no.  I haven’t seen anything.  Nope.  Nothing,” Ellie laughed nervously.

            “Listen, ma’am, I’ll get to a very serious point.  We’ve found blood in the front of your house.  We know he’s been around.”

            “Blood?”  Ellie choked, wide eyed.  “Oh shit!”  Ellie thought.  “Where’s Wren when I need her!”

            Wren was crouched in the living room.  She could not move.  One slight movement would alert the officers of the dying man in their living room.  The soon-to-be corpse.  The man’s body that was now screaming for oxygen and blood.

She could not help the man.  She was about to perform CPR, but the officers knocking scared her.  If she started the maneuvers now, the officers would hear.  If they found out, she would most definitely be a part of his death.

            “Uh, I haven’t seen anything out in front since I’ve been out there.  And I haven’t been out there for a while.  So, I haven’t seen anything.”

            Ellie then realized what she just told the officers.  Her fears were confirmed when the officers looked at each other and said:  “If that’s so, then he’s been here recently.”  One officer talked into their radio, calling for more officers to the vicinity.  “Ma’am, our records show that there is another resident in this household.  Is she available?  We would like to talk to her.  We need to find out if she’s seen anything.”

            “Uh… yes, Wren…”  Where was Wren?  She must be with the man, but they want to see her.  If she came down with blood all over her…  “Uh… Wren!  Wren, can you come here for a second?”

            Wren cringed when she heard her name.  She did not move an inch.  Ellie called her name again.  Wren pleaded for her to stop and for the officers to go away, but after a few seconds of silence and another call, Wren believed that her plea was not going to happen.  Every second that passed, the man’s chances of survival grew dimmer.

            Ellie turned back to the officers and shrugged.  “She must’ve gone to sleep, sorry.  Would you like me to go wake her?”

            The officers looked at each other and thought for a bit.  “No, ma’am, that won’t be necessary.  Just… uh, have her call us if she knows anything; anything at all.”

            “Uh, yes, I’ll have her do that,” Ellie said.  To her relief, Ellie heard in their voice that they were trying to wrap up the conversation.  They were about to leave.  Ellie put on a slight smile, but ended up staring awkwardly at the two of them for a minute.  They were not leaving.  Ellie frowned when the two officers then continued talking.

            “Now, ma’am, we would just like to ask you some questions.  Can we get your name…?”  Ellie frowned on the inside.

            Wren could not get her eyes off the stranger’s own pair.  She was also trembling.  Wren’s hopes were high when she thought they were leaving.  They had placed that awkward tone in their voice.  The same tone people place into their voice when they are bored and want to signal to someone that they are about to leave.  Wren heard that tone!  Nothing came of it.  So, with the cops in ear shot, the sliding down next to her too loud to open, and him being dead weight to move; Wren could do nothing but wait.

Wren could see death settling in.  His eyes were so hallow that they refracted light.  Like his eyes were made of glossy porcelain.

            Wren decided that too much happened today, and Wren hated being overwhelmed.  Her day started with a smile, but was now going to end being covered in blood and seeing a death in all its overwhelming power.

            Wren could not watch this man die any longer.  She decided she would get him help from the two officers at her front door.

            She was going to help him because watching this man die was partly her doing.  If only she could call.  If only she could stand up and move to the officers, then this man’s life would not be in the balance.  She wanted to get up.  It would be on someone else’s shoulders if she got up.  Someone else would take care of this injured man.  Even more appropriately, brutally injured man.  God only knows who would do such a thing, and more importantly, what action provoked this crime.

            “I don’t know who or what, but I won’t let this happen!”  Wren said to herself.  Wren then commanded her legs to get up.  She did and she swiftly moved to the officers.  She would stand before them and save this man.  She told the officers everything that had happened, and they called an ambulance, and the paramedics hauled him away.  He would live and Wren could sleep soundly.  Wren would be announced a hero.

            Unfortunately, Wren could only imagine herself doing that.  She thought she was moving, thought the words she would tell the officers, and thought she would be sleeping soundly tonight.  These images were too clear in her mind to not be real, were just as they were; images and nothing more.  She could not stand.  She tried again, but failed again.  So all she did was move her head in-between her knees and cry silently.

            Wren rationalized later that it was easier to do nothing at all than place herself on the line.  Wren felt dirty, guilty, and unworthy, but she also realized it was easier to do.

            So, between her head, Wren’s mind and ego felt soaked, miserable, and desecrated.  She felt a sense of people talking about her.  She could feel what everyone was saying about her.  What they were saying was about her as a person.  She felt that pain.

It was just that no one was a witness.  No one knew what she did or what she decided.  Only the unconscious was around her and not even he was making a noise.  But even so, Wren felt voices talking against her.  She felt that everyone saw her dirt, her guilt, and her unworthiness.  Everyone was blaming her for nothing she did, and only what she did not do.  There was nothing Wren could do to defend herself.  At this moment, Wren did not feel more alone.  She is a strong person, but today she could not deal with it.

            Those officers.  Those officers that keep talking to Ellie.  Then there was Ellie herself, talking away carefree.  Stop talking!

“Oh, I understand what I need to do.”

            Ellie!  Shut up!

            “We are doing everything we can to track him down.”

You two!  Leave!

…

LEAVE!

The officers did not go anywhere.  They never heard.  Wren was only shouting within her mind.  And even then, not even Wren truely heard herself.  She could not fully grasp what she was shouting in her mind and the feelings she was experiencing.  She just sobbed.

            “Alrighty officers, I’ll keep my eye out and I’ll make sure this place is always locked.”

            “Just stay safe.  This man is reported to be very dangerous.”

            “-Like hell-“ Ellie snickered under breath.

            The officers looked at her with suspicion.

            “Uh, nothing!  Heh, it was nothing,” Ellie sighed.  “I’m really tired, so if you excuse me.  I hope you find him.  Have a good night, officers.”

            “Yes, you too.  Thank you for your time.”  The officers turned around and stepped of the cement porch.

            Ellie shut the door and locked it tight.  She also turned off the outside light, giving the officers the cold shoulder.  “Well, that’s five minutes of my life I’ll never see again.  Damn it…”

            Ellie’s curiosity got the best of her.  She head off in search of Wren up the steps to the living room.  However, Ellie did not need to search far to find where Wren was.  Before Ellie’s ascension of the steps ended, she heard the quiet crying of a woman.

            Hastening her pace, Ellie’s mind jumped to terrible thoughts.  When the sight of Wren hunched over herself next to the stranger hit Ellie, she let out an “Oh my God!”

            “Wren!  What’s wrong.  What the hell happened!  Holy hell Wren, speak to me.”  Ellie received no answer.  Wren only tightened up her curl.  Ellie’s eyes moved onto the stranger.  Gasping, Ellie realized what condition he was in.  She moved in and started performing CPR.

            Seven.  It took seven attempts to get the stranger breathing again.  For each attempt, though, Ellie’s heart had sunk and her hope faded more than it had the last time before.  Wren would just hiccup and cough after every count of the resuscitation.  She was choked by her crying.  With the man’s breathing stabilized, Ellie turned her attention to Wren.  No words could bring her to talk.  She just kept herself in her ball.

            “Wren… The officers are gone now.  It’s okay.  Wren, tell me what happened?”

            Wren twitched.  Officers…

            Ellie stood back up.  She tired.  Her night has been far too rough to deal with this any longer.  She looked at the stranger.  He said nothing and did not move.  Something strange then hit Ellie about the stranger.

“You’re awake!?”  Ellie said, astonished.  He did not answer her underlying question of how he was awake, but he did turn his gaze to her.  When Ellie placed her arms under him, he helped support himself up.  His face only gave off grimace.  Saying nothing, he allowed himself to be led to the empty bedroom.

            After the two had left, Wren abruptly stopped crying.  She just stood up and wobbled her way to her bed.  She quickly shed off all her clothes, placed on her pajamas and plopped down hard onto her bed.  She went face first into her pillow and hugged it hard.  Not only did she not want to see anyone tonight, but she did not even want to see herself.

            Ellie shut the door of the guest bedroom when she exited it.  She moved to her own room, removed her clothes and went to take a long shower.

            Ellie looked hard into that shower head.  The water felt so refreshing and cleansing.  However, Ellie did not feel refreshed by it.  Her mind was elsewhere.

            “Wren, what the hell is the matter with you?  What was all that about?  Shit, I am sorry Wren, I will mind my business, but I hope you will tell me what is going on.  That you tell me what is wrong.”  Ellie let out a sigh.  “One more thing to worry about.”

            After the shower, Ellie moved to her room and put on her pajamas.

Ellie rested in her bed, deep in thought.  She thought about everything that happened and what she did.  It took her a while to sleep, but she did not sleep soundly.

Ellie had forgotten everything about what was below her.  She forgot that below her was a weapon that she hid from the eyes of her roommate.  For the sake and safety of a man whose name she did not even know.  Beside a photo album and next to a box of decorations was placed a loaded handgun.  The wanted stranger’s handgun.

 

            Wren’s face was starting to bug her.  Her face was mashed so deep into her pink pillow that it was getting hard to breathe.

            “Why couldn’t I do anything!?”  Wren screamed to herself.

            Wren moved her hands from under her pillow to the sides of her head.  She took as deep of a breath as she could muster.  She then began to press hard onto her ears.

            “Why could not I just stand up and explain everything?  Why did not I do it?  Because the officers were there?  No.  I do not see why I did that.  This… This has been the worst day I have ever had.  I.. I cannot stand it.  Why cannot this day be over?  I lost my business cards, a little punk kid harassed me, I was knocked over by the man that is now sleeping soundly in this house, alive and well thanks to us, and I was caught in the rain…  Dammit, that man just appeared out of nowhere.  He forces me to take unnecessary risks, and like a pushover I keel under and do his requests.  Every time, I keel under.  I could not help that man.  Why should I have helped him?  He could have died!  He asks me to do things that I did not want to do.  Against my better judgment, I do it.  Was my judgment flawed?  Was I at fault?  I should have called!  I… I… never want to back down from a decision I made again.  Never again…  Next time, when I can stand up and take the harder route, I’m going too.  Dammit, I was raised better.  I will become a better person…  Better than a pushover.  I hate not being able to back behind my words.  I just fear the consequences too much, I guess.  God, I’m horrible.  I’m not strong enough.  …  God dammit…”

            Wren felt tears coming up, but also another emotion.  An emotion she felt was easier to react to.

            “God, I hate him and I do not feel well.”

             

 

End Chapter 2

 

            Sitting on top of blue covers, I feel an urge to go underneath them.  However, I hardly have the strength.  I am alive, and I will thank the girls tomorrow.  My mind is still rushing and I feel extremely weak, but I am thankful.  Now I can find out what happened that got me into this mess.  It was all a blur, but I can piece it together if I try hard enough.  I’ll find the truth soon enough.  However, for right now, I’m going to find out about this place and the girls that helped me.  I only know of one.  I believe her name is Wren Lydel, and I believe I have something to give back to her.  Chapter 3:  Contacts and Karma.