Aftermath

1

[un-edited]

Chapter 1

It felt like everything was moving in slow motion. I watched, frozen in fear, as the paramedics stopped the blood pouring out of Connor’s chest onto the once beautiful carpet of the hidden library. It felt like there was a constant buzzing in my ears, like I had gone deaf, as the paramedics talked while lifting Connor onto the gurney that would take him to the ambulance. Maybe I was deaf. I mean, gun shots are loud. Gun shots. The one that was supposed to hit me hit Connor instead. My saviour. Being pulled out of the library. His blood on my hands and knees from when I tried to stop the bleeding before. That blood should be mine, not his. 

It’s as if time suddenly caught up with me. Everything that was moving in slow motion went fast again. I heard people screaming my name as I ran after the paramedics—after Connor—but I didn't care. I needed to stay with him.

I felt a hand push on my chest as I tried climbing in the ambulance.

“Miss,” the voice said, “you can't come with us. We need to leave now.” 

It was all gibberish.

I felt a person grab my wrist from behind, but I couldn’t, wouldn’t, disconnect my eyes from Connors body laying motionless in the back of the ambulance. My eyes started getting blurry, the tears finally kicking in. I knew that much. 

The person holding my wrist pulled me around to face them gently. It was a woman I didn't recognize with her hair styled above her shoulders, and aging wrinkles on her face. Not many, but just enough to show her age. The bags under her eyes were dark and droopy, but what had my attention were her eyes. So familiar, so full of worry. 

I snapped out my trance when I heard the sound of the doors of the ambulance closing and its tires peeling off. 

“No!” I cried turning around again, watching it speed into the distance

“Sweetie,” the woman coaxed me back in her soothing and motherly voice. 

A sob finally released itself from the back of my throat.

“Come with me,” she tried saying but I shook my head, refusing to listen.

“No, I need to see him!”

“You will! I will take you to him now, lets hurry,” she said while taking a firmer hold of my wrist and pulling me to an awaiting minivan. She quickly ushered me inside while saying a few words to a police officer standing near by. My eyes stayed focused on her the whole time, not daring to look at my surroundings. That was until I felt a little tug on the cord of my camera which was still hanging around my neck. 

My head snapped to a little girl in a purple dress sitting in the seat next to mine. Her brown hair was tied in two neat pigtails and her beady brown eyes looked at me.

“Are you Conny’s girl friend?”

Before I could answer, the passenger van door slammed shut and the woman said one word: drive. I hadn't out on my seat belt and was nearly thrown out of the seat as the man who I had failed to notice before hand pulled off the side of the road and shot down the street, following the ambulance four blocks ahead. We could still see the sirens from where we were which was good. That means that we weren't far behind. 

“Well are you?” the girl asked me as I finished buckling myself in.

“Is she what, honey,” the woman asked while turning around in her seat to face us.

“I asked the lady if she was Conny’s girl friend,” she said with innocence. The woman let out a forced chuckle and looked at me.

“No, I’m not. Are you his sister, Jasmine?” I asked with a shaky voice.