Follow Me, into the Mist (#OnceUponNow)

Chapter 3 - Life & Death

             Jenna floated above watching as a S.W.A.T. team came running out and secured the scene. As soon as he could get up, Derrick ran and checked the boats. He found his sister and her friends. Yelling for his mother and step-father, they came out but a deputy stopped them from boarding the boat. Quickly the deputy took pictures of the girls, and then as he untied each from the rail, Derrick helped the victim onto the dock and his parents then walked them to the edge of the floating docks. Eventually they had all of the girls on shore.

        Derricks mom turned to him. "Where's Jenna?"

        Derrick ran checking every slip until he found her. She was barely alive. He didn't even realize he was screaming until an officer wrapped his arms around him and tried to make him stand. He refused. A first responder arrived, spoke into her radio and then began giving Jenna blood as soon as it was brought to her. "We will treat her here before we make any attempts to move her."

        Standing after fifteen minutes, he noticed a coast guard boat coming up river from the Ohio. All of the light made him see his grandfather sitting on the bank, hugging a tree. Kneeling, he bent over, kissed Jenna, and whispered in her ear, "I love you Luna Ray, please don't leave me alone on this earth." 

        Standing, he rushed to the end of a boat and jumped the four feet, landing on the river bank. Quickly he made his way over to his grandfather. Wrapping his arms around the man, he hugged him and cried. "Oh grandpa, I never worked up the courage to tell Jenna I loved her until now. I hope she lives long enough. You just witnessed our first kiss."

       Atsadi held his hand out and was moving his lips as if he was praying. Derrick began praying, while holding his grandfather. It was probably a half-hour before emergency personnel made their way to where he and Atsadi were. They carried Atsadi back to the parking lot where a triage area was set up.

       Derrick stood and watched as Jenna was loaded onto a gurney and then into the coast guard boat. They motioned for Derrick, so he jumped from the bank, back onto the dock and then boarded the boat.

       They nodded towards Jenna, so he leaned over and put his ear by her lips. "Find my parents, say to them  papa bear dink-dink still loves you and mama bear binky said arf. Tell them I love them. Promise me Grey Wolf. I love you."  She drifted back into oblivion. He climbed back onto the dock and watched as the Coast Guard boat sped off with the woman he now knew he loved, totally. They would take her up river where it was clear and she could be life-flighted to the city.

       As he made his way, Derrick was stopped by the deputies. He explained where knives, guns, other evidence he could think of fell into the water. After showing them the areas, he made his way back to the parking lot. His parents were still there. He climbed into the squad with his grandfather and smiled when they explained they were going to transport him to the hospital.

       "Grandpa, they found Jenna and gave her blood. She told me she loves me. Please go and get checked out so perhaps they will let you go out with us again. I'm fine now. I've walked through the mist but I now see the sky." Kissing his grandfather, he climbed out, signed a paper giving the nursing home phone number and watched as the squad left. 

       Swallowing hard, Derrick walked towards his mother. She was standing outside the back of a squad with her husband in an embrace. A deputy was inside, getting Darcy's statement. "Mom, Mr. Reed, I need to go and find Jenna's parents and let them know she might not make it and to deliver a message. Tell Darcy if she ever does this again, she better hope you two find her before I do."

       Climbing into his vehicle, he noticed the wheelchair setting beside it so he got out, put it in the back, then climbed back inside. Looking through Jenna's purse, he found her phone. Happy it was not password protected, he looked up her mother's phone number and called.