Holding On To Goodbye

Chapter 3

 Thank you for the interesting looking banner! I was greatly intrigued by the look!

Donnie and I finally made it to the fairgrounds entrance where we were supposed to meet Kit. We arrived about five minutes early, and patiently waited for Billy to escort her back to us. In the mean time, Donnie and I held hands and snuck small kisses as if no one was looking.

The minutes passed though, and I began to wonder what was taking the two so long. Billy wouldn't have tried to pull anything ill-mannered, would he? No, I couldn't think like that. They would be back soon. It was very unlike Kit to be late, so it had to be only a matter of time.

"Hey," Donnie said, pointing in the crowd of bustling individuals. "Is that Billy?"

I squinted and tried to look in the direction of Donnie's finger. "Oh, yes I think that is him." I couldn't see Kit.

"Billy, how are you?" Donnie asked politely. The nice, lovable, young man who took Kit away to have a good time was now stiff. His essence was almost that of a ghost's. He wouldn't even look at the pair of us, he was just looking into the distance.

"Is something wrong, Billy?" I asked nervously. All of a sudden, a nauseating dread cast over me.

"I--you..."

I looked at Donnie and he looked down at me. "We...what?" I asked, starting to feel a bit frantic. "Where is Kitty?"

"Kitty," he whispered. It was almost like he had never heard the name before and was just trying it out on his lips for the first time.

"Billy," Donnie said loudly, jolting him out of his deep thoughts. "You need to tell us where Kitty is and what's going on."

Billy turned around and started running for the back end of the fair. I didn't even let two seconds pass by, I started running after him. In that moment, I didn't care if dust dirtied my dress or if I stepped on someone's toe, I needed to figure out what in the world had happened. Five hours had been a long time, I was beginning to realize. Anything could have happened. But I wasn't going to guess, I wanted the truth. "Billy!" I screamed. "Don't you dare run away!"

He looked back once he heard my voice. I saw in his eyes that he wasn't running away from something, he was running to it. In my moment of realization, Billy came to an abrupt halt and stood at the back of a large crowd of people standing behind two police officers, by their feet was a girl. A girl with auburn curls and wearing an a-line dress much like mine. I stood there, looking at the body lieing limp on the dusty ground. The dark green fabric of her dress was turning an almost black color right around the area of her stomach. This poor girl. What happened to her that...

"Kit," I whispered. "Kitty? Kathleen!" I screamed. Billy rushed over to me, grabbing my middle. I elbowed him in the gut, not wanting anyone to touch me; I had to get over to her. "Kitty." I pushed through the crowd and tried to run over to her, but one of the police man stepped in my way before I could drop down next to her.

"This is a crime scene, Miss," the officer said. "I'm going to have to ask you to step away."

"No, but that's my friend! She--"

"I will not tell you again," he said sternly.

I looked up at him. I looked at the crowd staring before me with wide eyes. They must have thought how improper it was for a young woman to sob in the dirt with her hair out of place and makeup smearing. My first thought was to fight the police away. Kitty needed me. We were always there for each other. She was always there for me, and the one time that she needed me the most, I was being pushed away. I used all of my force and power. I began screaming, yelling, clawing, kicking. There was no way I was going to stand there and watch her suffer. But before I could get out of the officer's vice, Donnie emerged from the wall of ladies and gentlemen. He came in support of the officer and took me into his arms, telling me to calm down. There was nothing left to do. It was done. It was over. Kitty was gone.