Why Her? (13 Reasons Why)

Chapter 17

"Aftermath"

[Zach Dempsey's POV]

I saw her, all pale with bruises everywhere. I started crying just as I grabbed his hand and didn't feel his reaction. I waited a few more minutes and neither did. I didn't want to be in this reality. I had failed her and now she is like this, just as she told me it would stay. I did not protect her when I preferred to listen to her and give her space a few days ago. I also failed him when I didn't think he was gone. I'm a failure with her, even though I just found out she was Hannah's sister.

"Zach, it's very late," her mother snapped. "Go home and rest. You have to go to school tomorrow."

"Please, Mrs. Baker," I said with a small voice, "Don't tell me to go..."

"Jackie left, just like Vanessa's father," she sat in one of the two armchairs, "Why don't you go as well?"

"Because I had promised that I would protect her, and in that I failed," the tears began to come out again, "She warned me they would hurt her and I promised that I would protect her. And I didn't--"

"Oh, Zach ..." she sighed. "You protected her in high school, take that into account. You walked her home every night."

"Yes..." I answered, "I overprotected her a lot everywhere."

"You're a good boy, keep on like that."

"Thanks, and what happened with--"

"Leave it, darling. Focus on the present if you are truly in love with my daughter, just as she is with you."

I nodded. I told her to go home, but even for me it was the most foolish thing to articulate. How can I tell a mother to leave her own daughter? 

I spent the whole night awake, watching her how her face was still purple in certain parts. I interlaced her hand with mine and pulled over the remaining sofa to sit. She had been kneeling for a long time. Time ticked by so fast that I fell asleep in no time.

[...]

[The next day]

[Vanessa Baker's POV]

Everything hurt. From my head to my thighs. I opened my eyes more and more, and there was a bright light above me. I thought I was in the same white room where I had seen Hannah, but I think it was just my imagination messing around with my problems. My vision cleared until I saw that I was on a stretcher. How did I get here? I tried to move, but my arms hurt too much and I let out the loudest scream I could make.

"Thank God!" My mother reacted and I panicked.

"Where am I, Mom? What is this?" I looked at my hands that had a couple of cables connected.

"Honey, you're in the hospital," she tried to tell me without starting to cry, "Somebody kidnapped you for two days and threw you in front of our house--"

"He's here..." I whispered still in panic, "Mom, he's here. Is here! He did this to me!"

"Who, my love?" she  asked, "Zach was here all night, he went to breakfast--"

"He's... here... mom..."

"Vanessa!" My dad exclaimed as he arrived with chocolates and flowers, "Oh, honey --"

"Nessie?" Zach appeared with a plate of food, which he left on a table and approached me, "Oh, my love..."

"Zach..." I looked at him and started crying. I didn't have the time or the strength to tell him to go away, "It was him, Zach. He took me off the street and put me--"