Enemy Beloved

33 | where you are

"She isn't picking up my calls. Can you call her, please?" I ask the girl and she shakes her head.

"I'm sorry...but I lost my phone last night," she says. "I'm just about to buy a new one. Can you please tell me what happened? You're making me nervous."

"I don't know what happened," I sigh, rubbing a palm over my mouth. My tongue feels dry and my head starts to spin with this worrying for Claire. "Claire isn't picking up her phone and she only typed half of a text she sent me."

"Mr. Jackson, your nose!" Nina suddenly lets out, and I pull my hand away from my face to find blood on my fingers.

This blood pressure rise is a cherry on top of my existing troubles. I pull a handkerchief out of my pocket and bow my head as I put it over my nose to stop the flow.

"It's nothing. Can you tell me where she might have gone?" I mumble to Nina.

"Have you checked the coffee shop? She usually goes there with us but she might have gone alone too. Jesse didn't come today."

"My driver did." I straighten my head back and look at her but keep the handkerchief on my nose, pressing hard. "She wasn't there. Any other place?"

Nina looks to the ground, her eyebrows narrowing together and then she lifts her head to look at her surroundings.

"Where might she be..." she muses, scanning the buildings until her gaze lands on the big one-story building beside the campus. "She's probably at the warehouse. We often go there to hang out. She wouldn't go there alone though..."

The rest of her words tune out as I run for the building she pointed out. I hear footsteps following me and know it is her and Rick trailing behind. As I reach near, I spot a tape with a 'DO NOT ENTER' tape and jump over it.

"Mr. Jackson, wait!" Rick shouts. "Here, madam, you go first..."

I enter the warehouse and see curtains tied between two pillars each to form little compartments. Mats peek out from under them. I walk to the first one and snap it open to find a boy and a girl, covered in sweat and smoking weed.

"Hey, you!" the boy growls at me as he gets up from the mat.

I brush him off as I walk to the next curtain and open it to find another boy sitting with his laptop and headphones on. He looks up at me but doesn't say anything. As I look around, I find Nina and Rick opening the other curtains to search for Claire, and yet, she is behind none. The place reeks of alcohol and cigarettes, the air blurring with smoke. A cough leaves my throat as I walk further.

"Claire!" I shout her name and my voice echoes through the warehouse.

"Claire!" Nina and Rick shout too. The people come out from behind the curtains and look at us worriedly.

"Hey man, is something wrong?" the boy from before with the headphones on asks me, stepping forward.

"Have you seen a girl?" I ask him. "About this height, blonde, gorgeous..." I show him Claire's height and he lifts an eyebrow at me.

"There was Claire Hill screaming Nina Lewis's name here before," the boy says, throwing a glance at Nina who stares at him with confusion on her face. "She went that way." The boy points to the far end of the warehouse.

I dash for the direction.

"Claire!" I scream her name frantically. "Claire—"

I stop when I spot something lying a little further and walk towards it. A bag lies on the ground and I recognize Claire's phone immediately in a pool of muddy water. There is another broken phone beside it, smaller in size. The screen of Claire's phone is shattered completely and my name with the caller ID stays frozen on it. With shaking hands, I pick the items up.

My heart beats fast, blood pressure rising even more. My breaths come out in short gasps, anxiety tearing through my nerves.

I am scared. I am terrifyingly scared.

"Claire!"

Where the fuck are you, love? Just come back.

I lay crouching on the ground with the bag in my hands, hands above my knees, and blurry vision. I hold my head between my hands and see black spots on the ground below. If this continues, then I will have a stroke in no time.

"Claire..." I mutter under my breath. "Please...where are you?"

Suddenly, running footsteps come to a halt right in front of me and the person lets out a shriek.

"Vaughn!"

Claire?

I look up from the black boots before me and find the subject of my worry looking down at me with a red face, dirty clothes, and...blood?

I stand up with a jerk and for a second, just stare at her as she stares back at me before I find my voice.

"Claire!" My voice comes out as a breaking whisper.

Tears escape her eyes as her lips break when she hears me and the next moment, she is in my arms, clutching me tight. I squeeze her instantly, holding her to me as she bursts into tears, her body shaking.

"He...tried...to..." She pants as she cries, unable to speak. "To...kill me, Vaughn. He...he was...he was here...I...am hurt. I'm so..."

I rub my hands slowly on her back, closing my eyes and inhaling the scent of her hair, telling myself that she is alive. She is in my arms. She will be okay. Whatever happened to her, she is with me now. I will keep her safe.

Her body stills suddenly, her words stopping in their flow and I look down at her face to find that she has fainted.

"Oh, my God!" Nina exclaims, covering her mouth with her hands. "Her head. She needs stitches."

"Claire, love...open your eyes." I hold her chin, moving her face gently but she remains limp in my arms.

Tears spring from my eyes as I hug her again, holding her close while Nina takes the bag from me.

"I got you, love..." I whisper slowly. "I got you..."

"We should take her to the hospital," Nina says to me and I see tears in her eyes too as she takes in Claire's appearance.

"Yeah, yeah...hospital...yes..." I place a kiss on Claire's forehead as I put my other hand under her knees and pick her up in my arms.

I bite back my cry as I start walking while pressing her face close to my cheek, afraid that something will take her away from me again.

For someone who was lying awake beside his best friend's corpse for two hours, I am not ashamed to admit that I have never been this scared to lose someone in all my life.