Let Me Help

Escaping

"Wake up, please wake up!", Jason screamed with the very best of his ability. His tear streaked, sweaty face graveling mercilessly in desperation. We just stared at his shaking hands, barely hovering over her face, as if she were a glass doll, ready to break at the slightest touch.

"Emily!" His lip quivered as he started mumbling. "Please, oh god. Oh god please." Choking on tears, he began gasping his pleas, saliva flying out of his mouth.

"Jason, she's gone", Damien said, resting his hand on Jason's shoulder as a sign of comfort.

Jason looked up at him with weary eyes and a broken heart , then nodded. He leaned down and kissed her forehead and whispered something too quiet for anyone else to hear, then kissed her forehead yet again. He slowly got up from his knees, and with a hard fist, wiped the tears from his eyes. "Let's go", he mumbled in a stern voice.

"Where?" Aiden asked, loading his gun, dropping the empty casings one by one with a clang on the ballroom floor.

"The cabin, up in the hills, they won't even think of looking for us there," Cass suggested. Her hair, early tied in an elegant braid, now ruffled and splattered with blood. Her makeup, running and smeared, dirt and crimson taking its place.

"Good idea," Samm said. Her dress was ripped at all angles, covered in blood from when she slipped into a pool in the kitchen. She carried herself so well, even after everything we had all just endured, it was astonishing.

"We'll take the company van. Matt has the keys, right?"

"Yes, I mean yeah, yeah I do," Matt said shaking, stumbling on his words. He wiped the blood from his mouth and shook his head. "Yeah, it's in the back, we just, um have to go out that door and to the left, it's by the dumpster."

"Okay, we'll stop in town for supplies, too", Jason said gripping his bracelet, the one Emily had given him. "Is everyone okay with that?"

Murmurs of agreement filled the room and it was decided that we would go, so we followed Matt and loaded into the van.

We pulled into a Walmart parking lot and sent in the least dirty, blood covered. You know, the ones who didn't look like they had just barely escaped a gruesome, heinous act? So, that left me, Matt, Jared, and Melanie. We got out and fixed ourselves a little, to direct all suspicion from ourselves.

"Lilly, do you want to use my hair brush?" Melanie asked me looking away from the mirror and reaching it out towards me.

"Yes, thank you," I smiled and took it from her. I looked in the mirror and brushed the long brown tangle of curls I had carelessly surrounding my head. When I finished, I used my sleeve to wipe the dirt from my right cheek. The nights events had made my cheeks rather flushed from exhaustion, and the cool October wind brushing over me felt like the biggest relief as of recent.

I turned back around and surveyed my company and looked at Matt first, who was adjusting his tie and brushing the dirt off his white shirt. Jared was leaning against the car, head up toward the sky and his arms were crossed. Melanie was looking at the car window to see herself in order to apply lipstick. I looked down and walked over to her to hand her the hairbrush. She took it, put it in her purse, spun her dress a little and said, "Let's go."

We started walking towards the door in comfortable silence, only the sound of our shoes clicking the pavement, dividing our sanity. Tonight was horrific, and here we were, going to go buy Poptarts and soda. I have watched so many people die tonight, and that's something I'll never forget, but the silence started to pull and tug at my well being, so I said something.

We were headed down the cereal aisle when I opened my big mouth. I am so so stupid. Why didn't I just hold it in, why? I could have if I had tried a little harder.