Don't Let Him Get You

Chapter 17

Kiara lay unconscious on the hospital bed. The gauze wrapped around her head absorbed the last of the blood that leaked through her stitched wound. Her heart monitor beeped steadily as the IV provided her body with necessary fluids.

Ronan was talking to the EMTs that had brought her in from the party as well as two officers who were called to break up the party and arrived just as Kiara was placed into the back of the ambulance.

Lillian stood in the corner of the hospital room, looking out the window and talking on the phone with Moira. It was two in the morning and Kiara had yet to wake up. Kiara's friends sat around the hospital bed listening to the quiet sounds of the heart monitor and Lillian's whispering. "... should wake up soon... purposeful... dark figure..."

Kat held Kiara's hand. "We promised her we wouldn't leave her alone."

Garrett sat on the floor across from Kiara's bed, his head in his hands. Guilt consumed him as tears welled in his eyes. He shouldn't have let her stay outside. "It's all my fault," he whispered.

Alisson immediately turned to her twin with a stern face. "Stop that. You didn't know this was gonna happen. We promised not to leave her alone because we didn't want her to feel overwhelmed at her first party. How were we supposed to know that some psycho would attack her when she was left alone?"

"I still left her alone Alisson! I promised her I wouldn't, but she still convinced me to go in without her."

Austin looked up from his hands. "See man, she convinced you to go inside. It's not like you abandoned her!"

Their heightened emotions were overwhelming them and they knew a shouting match would break out.

"All of you, stop blaming yourselves," Lillian sternly said as she hung up the phone. "Kiara has a mind of her own and felt safe enough to be alone. Clearly, someone took this opportunity to strike."

"Do any of you know of any trouble she was having at school?" Ronan grumbled from the door. His form was stiff as he stood with his arms crossed and a stern expression.

The voices faded away from Kiara as she was pulled into another memory. Her mother was reading her a bedtime story using silly voices and faces. Although it was supposed to make the little girl fall asleep, it only excited her. Kiara's eyes began drooping, but she tried desperately to stay awake and hear the end of the story.

"We can finish tomorrow, sleepyhead," Her mother teased.

Her father popped his head into the room to see the girls, who were his entire world, cuddled up together. "She asleep yet?"

"Daddy!" Kiara reached out her arms.

Her mother huffed, "not anymore." Kiara giggled at her mother's words.

Her father reached down and set her on his lap, cradling her head to his chest. "Alright, sugarplum, why aren't you sleeping?"

Kiara yawned. "I wanna finish the story." The soothing strokes of her father's hand on her back lulled her to sleep before she realized what happened. She felt them kiss her head.

They never got to finish the story.

Ronan glanced sternly at his niece's friends. "So, you're telling me that something is going on with her but none of you have any clue?"

The kids all looked at each other, shame coating their faces. Alisson was the first to answer. "She's always looking around herself as if she thinks someone will jump out and grab her."