by Jd Huber
Chapter 11
A tragedy that will leave her crying
“Kate! Jake is here!” Dalton yelled from the front door. I got up and threw a new shirt on since the one I was wearing was ripped from a year in working in it with a few of my friends from school. I ran to the front door and Rider was standing at the door looking as hot as ever. I ran up to hug him and he flinched in pain. I pulled away and pulled him inside. “Sit.” I demanded, pointing at the couch in the family room. He sat down, he had a sad glint in his eye, and he looked like he had just gotten the life beat out of him. “Dalton.” I said. “Yeah?” He asked. “I need you to go get me some gauze, tape, and a first aid wrap from mom.” I said trying to help Rider take his shirt off so that I could see whether anything was broken or not. His shirt was loose so I couldn’t tell whether or not it was bleeding. Dalton ran to the kitchen and seen that only Josh was in there. “Dad where is mom?!” Dalton said.
“At the store, why?” Dalton’s hand shot up to his forehead and he rushed over to my mom’s first aid cabinet. He knew that only the Adults--Brindy and Josh-- could get into that cabinet but he knew that he had to break the rules just this once. “Dalton Tucker Anderson! You know that you are not allowed in that cabinet!” My dad yelled. “Well mom isn’t here and you have no clue what I need and even if you knew you wouldn’t even know what half this stuff is called!” Josh shut up and Dalton grabbed the stuff I needed. Right when I got Rider’s shirt off Dalton walked in. I gasped and froze. “Kate? What’s wrong?” Dalton walked over to me and Rider and seen that Rider had a hole in his shoulder. He had been shot. Dalton raced out of the family room and told my dad to call 9-1-1. “Dalton no need for that bud!” Rider called. Josh walked in and called my mom instead of 9-1-1.
“Dad. I need you to put pressure on both sides of his shoulder till I get back.” Josh did as I said and I raced into the bathroom and got the softest wash cloth that I could find. I ran it under warm water and wrung it out so that it was still extremely wet but not dripping all over the place. I ran back to the family room and seen a bucket of warm water by the couch. “Katie sweetheart.” Rider said weakly. “Jake don’t say anything. Just let me take care of you.” I gently started washing the gunshot hole in Rider’s shoulder. It took fourteen times of dipping the cloth into the water before I got his shoulder clean enough that it wouldn’t get infected. Dalton handed me the two pieces of gauze and I put one on the back of his shoulder and one on the front. Rider winced in pain as the squares of gaus touched his shoulder. “I know it hurts babe but you have to be strong.” I said. Josh stepped back, still trying to explain to my mom what was going on and how she should get home A.S.A.P.
Dalton held the gauze in place while I carefully wrapped it with the surgical tape that my mom uses for these kind of bandages. I used almost a half a roll of tape before I finished wrapping Rider’s shoulder. I looked down at the first air wrap and seen that there was not only 1 or 2 but there was about 4 sitting in a row. I took the first one and started wrapping the shoulder a little bit from under the shoulder. I slowly and carefully continued wrapping. I had to wrap around his chest also since the wrap wouldn’t stay on just the shoulder itself. I used up all four of the first aid wraps and was done treating Rider. “Dad tell mom that everything is fine. I took care of it.” I said while getting up. Josh nodded and relayed the message. “Dalton, you know where my pain killers are from when I had the surgery on my knee are right?” He nodded. “Go get those.” I pulled a chair over by Rider and sat down. I held his hand tightly and started crying.
“Kate don’t worry. I will be fine.” He smiled at me and tightened his grip on my hand. I looked at him, still crying and nodded my head. Dalton raced back in with the pain killers and I helped Rider sit up long enough for him to take the medication. Soon enough Rider fell asleep. For the first time I had seen Rider with his shirt off. I laid my head on his stomach. His breathing was even and calm. Brindy got home and walked in to see me in the family room with Rider. She was very proud of me to see me so calm in a situation like this and to see how good of a job I did with bandaging up Rider’s shoulder. I lifted my head up and seen that Rider had abs, which made me fall in love with him even more. I looked behind me and seen my mom standing in the doorway. I got up and ran over to her and started crying. “Momma! This is all my fault!” I hugged her and Brindy hugged me back, running her fingers through my hair. “This is not your fault baby girl. None of us could have prevented this from happening. So please don’t beat yourself up over this. I talked to his parents and they are taking it to the cops in a couple hours.” She said.
I heard the soft whispers of my name. Rider was finally awake and trying to get my attention. I walked over to him and knelt down by him. “Kate, I want you to know that I love you.” I smiled as a tear runs down my cheek. Rider reached up and whips it away. His soft and tender touch was just heart melting. “I love you too Jake.” I put my hand on the side of his face and kissed him. “Katie,” He said when I pulled away from the kiss. He looked at the doorway and seen that no one was there. “Go back to the main world. It’s not safe for you here. They are coming for you---” His voice trailing off. My heart sank. “Rider!” I said, patting his cheek gently. “Rider!!” I started crying. He wasn’t responding to anything. I got up and ran to Brindy and Josh. “Mom! Dad! Help!” I cried. My voice cracking from me crying. Josh and Brindy ran into the family room and seen Rider laying on the couch.
Josh ran into the kitchen and dialed 9-1-1. Even though my mom is a Nurse at the hospital there is very little she can do here at the house. A few minutes later the ambulance arrived and took my mom and Rider to the hospital. As soon as the ambulance pulled out of the driveway and raced down the road Clove pulled into the driveway. He parked the car and ran inside, practically breaking down the door. “What is going on?! Why did that ambulance just pull out of our driveway?! Is mom OK?!” He was asking questions left and right. When he was done I answered. “Jake was shot and now he is going to the hospital.” I started crying even more and Clove came over to me and hugged me. “He will be alright. I promise.” Clove let me go from his embrace and I darted out of the house like a bullet from a gun. I jumped into my car and drove over to the forest. I got out my pendent and transported to my main world. I ran to the territory. I didn’t bother looking back or to watch who was a head of me. I just ran. I was about to do something crazy and I knew that if Rider survives it would hurt him tremendously. I ran into the territory and seen my sister. “Kayla!!” I yelled. Tears still streaming down my face. She opened her arms and I ran into them she hugged me tightly and the sounds of my sobs were muffled since my face was buried in her chest. “Arrai? What’s wrong? Where is Rider?”
“He was shot! Now I don’t even know if he is alive. All he said to me was to come here because someone is after them me then he quit talking and his breathing faded.” Her eyes widened and I could tell that she was worried. “Does Justin know?” I shook my head. “I just got here.” There was a break in my voice when I said ‘here’. “We need to go tell him.” She insisted. She didn’t give me a chance to say my opinion before she started running toward Winter’s den. I ran the opposite way. I was going to my house. If there was anything that was going to help Rider it was the Herbs that I got for sicknesses when I was living on my own.
I was searching for the right ingredient when I seen something in the mirror. It was something that was indescribable. Something, unliving. I turned around and nothing was there. “There is a price you have to pay to save the one you love the most.” The unliving object said. Then out of nowhere it vanished. Leaving nothing but a paper with ten small words written on it. They said, “The price you must pay is hidden in the shadows.” I understood what that meant. The term ‘shadows’ means ‘death’ for the unliving. Everything just hit me. I ran out of the house and back to the territory. I had the note in my hand. Kayla was nearby, her and Winter were talking about Justin’s condition. “Kayla!” I yelled, gasping for a
ir. I collapsed to my knees exactly in front of her and held up the paper. “Arrai! No you are not going to die just to save Rider! I am not going to allow it!” She yelled. “I am 18 years old now I can make my own decisions. Besides, look at how your ‘logical’ thinking works out!” I yelled.
Because of the so thought good decisions that Kayla made a few years ago her children’s father had died because of something that she thought would never happen. Ever since then Kayla has been terrified of The Unliving. I ran off and half way through the camp I seen an image. It was of me and Rider. We were in the den with Beka and a little baby girl. I stopped. Was the image real? Was it the future? Then another image popped into mind. It was the present day, at the hospital, Dalton and Clove were sitting by Rider’s bed side talking to Rider. He had a oxygen mask on so that he could breath and a monitor that was monitoring his heart rate. He was asking the boys where I was at and they said that they have no clue. I snapped out of the image and came back to reality. I snapped back right in time because as I was in the vision I forgot that the way I was going there was a cliff at the end of the territory.
I guess that this is what The Unliving meant by my price is in the shadows. I started to back away slowly. With each step the Snow was starting to slip off the side of the cliff. When I got far enough away from the edge I turned around and started running toward the camp. I tripped over a log and slid. My cheek, arm, shoulder and my knee was scraped up. I stood up and ignored the pain that shot up the left side of my body. I continued to run. I ran straight past the territory and to the Vampire Village. I knew that I had to get to Rider before The Unliving did. Nothing seemed normal anymore. The world that I grew up in, the life that I knew, the people that I love. All of it has changed, it has turned around, it has made a turn for the very worst in the world. I knew that I had to get Rider away from all of the trouble before either one of us got hurt.
