Getting Away

「THIRTY EIGHT」

Damone Williams is tackled down and placed in handcuffs despite his bleeding hand. Take that you jerk.

A police officer who seems to be in a good mood unlocks the chains on me using the keys that they took from Damone when they searched him. I guess it was just as big of a deal to the cops to catch that fucking pick.

Without thinking about the excruciating pain in my legs, I immediately run to Ridge who is now on a stretcher. 

“Ridge! Wake up! Don't die please. I love you, I lo-” the officers nearby hold me back from getting near him as they rush him to the ambulance.

“Miss. You cannot be anywh-”
“Yes I can! He's the man I love please let me go with him,” I sob loudly as Ridge disappears from my line of vision.

“Calm down Miss.”

“Chief! There's someone down here,” the cop who uncuffed me says to the detective telling me to calm down.

“Stay here Miss. You still have to give us a statement,” he says then goes to the opening on the floor where the other cop is shining a light in. 

James walks in and comes to hug me, taking me by surprise. He rubs my back as I sob into his shirt. I pull back a few seconds later and from the corner of my eye I see someone rushing to the detective with a ladder. The detective then goes inside the hole, and under the floor. 

“Hey are you okay? Why aren't you with Ridge? He needs you? Why are you standing up, your legs are weak,” James asks and I nod my head looking at him.

“I know I know. They wouldn't let me go with him. They said I need to give a statement first,” I tell him and he lets out a breath. 

“PULL HIM UP!” the detective yells from beneath the floor. The other officers around start pulling someone up. 

My whole world stops when I see his face. I run with all my might to him ignoring the pain in my legs and the officers block my way again as the others pull him up and place him on the same stretcher like the one Ridge left on. 

He doesn't look the same. But it's him. He's skinny and frail. The huge muscles he used to have are all gone. He looks old and undernourished. He still has the same eyes and face. But his hair has streaks of grey in them.

My knees give out and I fall to the ground.

“Grandpa. What have they done to you,” I cry out and James pulls me up. He comforts me as they rush grandpa Max to the other ambulance. 

James and I answer the questions from the detectives in less than seven minutes and we rush to the hospital. We drive through traffic and everything just seems so real to me in that moment.

A month ago I was just a recent highschool graduate, living alone, with a few friends and I was just a girl with the hope of finding her grandfather one day. 

It never occurred to me that the day would come so soon. And it certainly never crossed my mind that during my search for him, I'd fall in love and go through such an epic battle to get to where I am now.