How Do You Do?

28: We Don't Have Time!

Lately- Shapes & Colors

   "Stevie, please, I need your help," Drea cries in my arms, and I start to notice things: the yellowish bruise on her cheekbone, visible through the streak marks of makeup that her tears washed away, the cut on her lip, the bruises littered along her chest and arms that can be seen through the rips of her shirt. Her normally straight hair is messy and slightly waved, almost like she'd been letting it air dry, and her eyes are swollen and surrounded by mascara from crying. Her brown eyes look broken, causing me to hug her tighter.
   "Anything, Sweetie, but you've gotta explain," I beg, and she hiccups, shaking her head violently.
  "I-I," she tries to breathe again, but comes out just the same. She desperately grabs my hand with both of hers, and leads me to the door. I start to follow.
   "Stevie, wait!" Remington says, making me turn, confused. "Let me go with you," he says, and I start to protest. "Look, you don't know what you're walking into, and it's obviously scared Dee to the point where she can't even speak, so I can't let you two get hurt anymore than you've already been hurt." I sigh, and gently tug my hand away from Drea, giving her a reassuring smile. She stays close to me.
   "I don't know, babe," I tell him, shrugging helplessly. Drea is trusting me to help her with whatever this is.
"He's right, Love, you can't go alone. Wherever she came from is obviously not friendly," Tom says, eyes traveling over Drea's small figure. We all notice that blood is starting to drip from a hidden cut on her scalp onto her forehead, and there's a lot of it. Tom pales, and walks towards her, reaching out to inspect her wound, but Drea whimpers, cowering away from his touch. Tom's eyes soften at her fright, and he says to her in a gentle voice, "I'm not going to hurt you, Angel," her eyes widen at his niceness, as they should since she's witnessed the other side of him. "But that cut looks bad, and if you don't treat your wounds, you'll loose too much blood." She averts her eyes to the floor while she continues to shake like a leaf, and shakes her head no slightly.
   "We don't have time! H-He needs me, Stevie, I can't be too late ever again." Her eyes well up and she rushes out of the house, and we all call out to her, rushing to the door.
   "No arguments, Stevie, I'm going with you," Remington growls, and I cave, knowing we don't have time and it's better to be safe than sorry.
   "I'll go too," Scarlet offers, but Fom spins around.
  "Oh no you don't, firecracker, you're staying right here where it's safe. I won't loose you like I lost her." Scarlet's eyes soften, and she nods, quickly hugging her brother before he rushes out with us. We see Drea quickly sprinting down my street off to god knows where, and suddenly Tom is racing after her. I look at Remington before both of us rush to my jeep, speeding out of my driveway and after the two. I'm aware of Drea struggling in Tom's grip while his face is emotionless, holding her bridal style to prevent her from running and or giving herself anymore injuries. We stop right next to them, and Tom climbs in with the struggling Drea, his jaw clenching every time she manages to get a good blow in. I wince as I watch her claw his face, cutting his cheek, and he hisses, but does nothing more. I'm shocked at his level of tolerance, I don't know how I would've handled it.
"You don't understand," Drea cries, pounding at his chest, trying to free herself. She's shaking violently.
"What don't I understand, Angel?" Tom asks her softly, and she whimpers.
"I can't be too late! I can't! If I am, I'll never forgive myself. If he goes through that again," she trails off, whimpers and cries taking over, and we all watch, heartbroken.
"Drea, if you want to get there before 'it' is too late, you've gotta tell me where to go." Her doe brown eyes look widely at me, and she nods, calming down to tell me.

•.•.•.•.•.•.•.•

She's out of the car before it stops, stumbling a bit from the quick change of movements. Tom curses, rushing out after her while I stare at the old house. The screams coming from inside shake me to the bone, and park right here in the middle of the street, both Remington and I jumping out to follow. We catch up to our group in time to see Drea fling the door open and gasp. Inside we see the house all but turned upside down, and the screaming gets louder. Drea rushes in cursing, and the three of us share a look before hesitantly going in after her. We follow her to the kitchen area to see blood smeared all over the walls, a woman unconscious with three needles stuck in her arm that were most likely filled with meth, a small boy cowering in the corner, and a teen boy getting the life beaten out of him by a man with black-brown wavy hair. Drea rushes to shove the man away before she throws her body over the boy's, and the man gets pissed. He grabs his belt and pulls it off, whipping her back with it to get her to move. The boy is screaming at Drea to move as she loses consciousness. Tom is the first to react, throwing the man beating Drea to the ground before punching him profusely, and the boy sits up with my friend in his arms. The small boy from the corner rushes over to the two and cries while looking at her. A redhead rushes passed me and I see Scarlet kneel by my unconscious guitarist and the boys that're surrounding her.
"Sweetie, you've gotta stay with me, I can't lose you," the eldest boy murmurs to Drea, rocking her in his arms. She smiles hazily.
   "I couldn't be late again, and I'm sorry I was. I promised you and Liam that I would never be late again." She's then unconscious fully, and Scarlet starts to dial 911.
   "No, don't! They can't help us! They sure as hell didn't last time," the eldest boy snaps, and our eyes widen.
  "She could die if we don't help her, mate," Tom says, chest heaving as he wipes the blood from his cheek. The boy sighs.
  "Just take her anywhere but here and the hospital."

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