Chapter 22
Indescribable
(Olivia)
I am falling to the ground as my scream dies in my throat. My breath blasts out of me as my attacker’s body falls against mine. Terror races through my veins as I try to kick out at him, hit him, knee him, anything! My elbow connects with something hard. The attacker groans, but his grip only tightens.
Suddenly his weight shifts on top of me. He rolls to the side and yanks me up to my knees. I try to scream again, but he shoves a hand over my mouth and yanks me upright. Desperate, my foot crashes down on his instep.
The pain loosens his grip just enough that I can turn myself in his grip and wedge my hands between us. The fierce fury in his green eyes stabs at me viciously. A lock of blonde hair falls out from his hood, across his forehead and scarred cheek.
Even that seems terrifying, sending my panic into overdrive. I shove against him, trying to break his grip. A surge of relief shoots through me when I gain a little separation. I bring my knee up hard into his groin, hoping it will be enough. He doubles over, groaning in pain, and I spin out of his arms.
The two steps I take are fueled by panic before his hand snaps down on my ankle and my feet jerk out from beneath me. Screaming and kicking out with my free foot, I connect with his shoulder. He growls as he launches himself forward, crashing down on top of me. His fist follows, right into the side of my head.
Spots of light wink in and out as my head falls back to the ground. Pain throbs through my skull as a dark shape flies in from the side and crashes into my attacker. The sudden loss of crushing weight on top of me makes me roll onto my side. Trying to get up only sends me sprawling.
Shaking my head, I try to clear the spots away. The pain of moving sends a wave of nausea coursing through me and I collapse back to the grass. Breathe. Breathe. It’s all I can manage. The seconds that pass feel like hours, but when I finally manage to look up and see Hayden grappling with the attacker my head suddenly clears.
“Hayden!” I call out in panic.
I scream when the attacker’s fist pummels Hayden. He fights back, landing a punch to the guy’s chin, but takes one to his side right after. A million thoughts race through my mind as I try to reach Hayden. I don’t know how to fight. My phone is nowhere to be seen. I have no idea what to do, but I have to help Hayden!
Blue and red lights flash through the neighborhood, pulling the attacker up off Hayden in an instant and sending him running for the opposite street. Hayden scrambles back up to his feet and tries to take off after him, but I grab his arm and hold him back.
“Don’t!” I cry. “Please!”
“Olivia,” Hayden calls out as he folds me into his arms, “are you okay?”
I don’t have time to respond. An officer rushes up to us, but Hayden hurriedly points him in the direction of the fleeing attacker. Just as he takes off after him, another officer comes running up.
“Are you two alright?” he demands.
Hayden pushes me back and takes a look at me. “Are you?”
I don’t know, but as I stare at him my heart breaks to see the blood running down his lip, the bruises springing up on his arm and face, and I know the hits to his side have got to be agonizing. “I’m fine,” I say, “but you …”
“I’m okay,” he says as he pulls me against his chest. “It’s okay. Everything’s alright now.”
The officer puts a hand gently on my shoulder. I flinch at his touch, but his calm and reassuring voice keeps me from freaking out. “My name is Officer Kimball. You both look like you’re going to need some medical attention. Stay put for a minute while I call this in, then we’ll figure out what happened.”
We both nod, but I don’t think either of us was planning on going anywhere anyway. I lay my head against Hayden’s chest and close my eyes. I start to curse my luck, wondering why some idiot would try to attack me like that when Hayden was still nearby. My body goes completely numb when I remember Mason’s nightmare from last night.
That lunatic wasn’t trying to rob me, he was trying to abduct me! This wasn’t some random mugging in a park! I know without a doubt that this was a Sentinel attack. They’ve probably been watching me since the day we saw the car. This is just the first time I’ve been away from the house without Mason or Evie for a significant length of time since then. They saw their chance and took it. Dread fills me as I realize this won’t be the only attempt to find out where Mason is.
“Paramedics are on their way to check you both out,” Officer Kimball says. “Now, can you two tell me what happened?”
Hayden takes the lead, thankfully. He starts off by giving the officer our names and explains me heading for my car after we finished playing basketball.
“I should have just waited for you,” I whisper, feeling like an idiot. Mason had even tried to warn me about walking around at night alone. I told him I wasn’t that stupid, but here I was being exactly that stupid.
“It’s okay,” Hayden says as he strokes my hair. He finishes telling the officer about seeing the guy jump out and attack me, calling the police as he ran over to me, and launching himself at the attacker.
Officer Kimball doesn’t say anything for a moment while he finishes his notes. When his pen goes still, he turns to me. “Is there anything else you want to add, Olivia?”
I shake my head.
“What about a description?” he prods.
“He was blonde, with green eyes.”
“Taller than me by a few inches,” Hayden adds, “and pretty well built. The guy was strong.”
I close my eyes and force myself to picture him again. It makes me cringe to think of his horrible eyes and twisted sneer, but as I picture his mouth screwing into disgust I say, “He had a scar that ran from his cheek to his lip.”
I draw my finger across my own face to show him what I mean, starting at the height of my cheekbone and moving down to the section of my lip just below the corner of my nose. The officer notes it down in his notebook and thanks us for our help. About that time, the first officer comes back, panting and empty handed. I’m not surprised.
“I couldn’t catch up to him,” he says apologetically. “He jumped into a waiting car a few blocks away and they took off. No license plates on the vehicle, but I got the make and model.”
Not that that will help us, I think. Unless it just happens to be an exotic, rare vintage, we’ll never find it. And let’s face it, that only happens in shows like CSI. In real life, the getaway car is something plain and common, impossible to track.
As the two officers confer with each other and talk into the walkie-talkies on their shoulders, the paramedics arrive, sans flashing lights and sirens. The officer must have told them it wasn’t life threatening, because they walk over to us with just a portable medical kit.
After giving us both an initial once over, the two paramedics lead us over to a picnic table and start cleaning up our cuts and bruises. It doesn’t take too long, and the paramedic working on me announces that I’ll live.
“Just keep a bottle of pain reliever on hand for the next few days, okay?” one of the paramedics tells me. I nod, but my attention is on Hayden as the second paramedic lifts his shirt to examine his abdomen. I cringe at the red and purple blotches dotting his side.
Hayden winces a few times as the paramedic presses on his abdomen, but he toughs it out for the most part. The paramedic finally lowers his shirt and says, “I don’t think there are any internal injuries, but if the pain worsens or you have any unusual bruising you need to go to the hospital for further examination, okay?”
When the paramedics step back, the officer who took our statements, Officer Kimball, moves back in and asks for our contact information. That leads to questions about parents. I don’t think he realized we were both seventeen at first.
“I’ll need phone numbers for your parents as well. We need to call them and let them know you’re both okay and let them know we�
��ll be bringing you home.”
“I can drive home. I’m fine,” I argue.
The officer shakes his head. “Someone can come pick up your car later. Now both of you follow Officer Carl over to the cruiser, please.”
“Can you ask my parents to meet me at Olivia’s house?” Hayden asks. “It’ll be more convenient that way.”
Officer Kimball nods that he can do that and clears us to go gather up our belongings strewn all over the grass.
It takes a few minutes for Hayden to gather up everything he abandoned when he saw me getting attacked and for me to figure out where I dropped my keys and phone. Once we finally have everything, Officer Carl ushers us over to the cruiser and shuts the door behind us once we’re seated. Hayden automatically wraps his arm around my shoulders and leans his head against mine.
“Boy, when you say you’re having a really bad day, you mean it.”
“It’s enough to make a person want to steer clear of me, right?” I ask, not sure whether I want him to agree or not.
Hayden smiles and pulls me closer. “Not a chance.”
It seems to take a really long time for the paramedics to shove off and the officers to join us in the car. I can feel the weariness settling into my bones by the time we finally get moving. The officers mainly just talk to each other as we drive. They find my house without any problem and pull into the driveway. Seconds later, my parents come barreling out of the house. Evie is close on their heels. It doesn’t escape me that Mason is nowhere to be seen, but I refuse to dwell on that.
I want to throw myself into my dad’s arms, but I can’t open the stupid car door on my own. Locked in like a criminal, I have to wait for Officer Carl to let me out. When he does, my dad snatches me up before I have the chance to say or do anything else.
“Olivia, sweetheart, are you okay? We were so worried when the police called!”
“I’m fine, Dad, I promise. Just a few bruises and a black eye.”
Hayden comes around the side of the cruiser and Dad surprises me by releasing me and wrapping Hayden up in an almost violent hug. “Thank you!” he says to Hayden.
Right away I am smothered by Mom and Evie, but I watch Hayden as my dad nearly strangles him with his hug.
Dad holds Hayden out at arm’s length and thanks him again. Hayden looks a bit embarrassed and mumbles a quick your welcome. He seems relieved when his parents’ car screeches to a stop in front of my house. They come hurrying up the driveway and wrap him up in fierce hugs as well.
After that, the questions start flying. The officers fill in both our parents on everything we told them, give them their cards, and let them know that they’ll be in touch to follow up and possibly have Hayden and I sit down with a sketch artist. I nod willingly, but I know they’ll never catch the guy. Not with him being a Sentinel, which I am positive he is now.
It’s kind of a relief to watch the officer’s drive away. In the back of my mind I know this is far from over, but I want it to be over for tonight at least. I want to crawl into bed, carefully, and sleep for the next two days. Instead of granting my wish, Dad invites everyone inside for a few minutes to calm down and decompress.
Mom refuses to let go of me as we head into the house. Someone’s hand slips into mine on the way, and I half expect to see Evie clinging to me when I look over. I see Hayden instead, and look away immediately. But I don’t pull my hand from his.
As soon as we reach the living room, Mom finally lets go of me. She introduces herself to Hayden’s parents and leaves me to escape to the couch. Since Hayden is determined to keep a hold of me, I tow him along behind me and collapse. Neither of us says anything. I don’t want to lean on Hayden, but exhaustion drops my head against his shoulder eventually. As my eyes start to close, I think I hear a noise from the back of the house, but I’m too tired to care.
Only a few minutes later, Mason steps into the chaos. My whole body goes rigid as I watch his eyes fill with confusion as he surveys the crowd. I shrink in on myself as his eyes find mine and sees me sitting with Hayden, sporting a bloody lip and black eye. The expression on his face is indescribable.
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