Time is weird. Isn't it?
Sometimes it is the slowest thing in the world. Other times it is fast than light. Now, I'm not sure how I feel about time. I am trapped in a weird state where time is flying by quicker than it is meant to but I also feel like I'm stuck in the same moment.
Replaying it over and over in my mind. If I could time travel I could. I want to go back to before Virgo was taken.
I want to stop my emotions. I want to stop the events. I want to stop this feeling of pure, gutless sorrow drowning me. I want to the world around me.
Most importantly I want to stop time.
Time works in mysterious ways.
I was dancing with Alex at eight-thirty. Then everything was a blur and suddenly it was nine-eighteen.
When I had woken up, my head was pounding. I swore I had woken up from a nightmare and that everything wasn't real. My horse hadn't really been taken from me. That I was back up at the clubhouse and nothing was amiss.
I soon realized a blanket was wrapped over my legs and I wasn't in my bed at all. Instead, I was laying on the couch in Antonio's office with Ella's green dress still on and the clock showing nine-18.
I had just been sucked back into the nightmare.
A knock came from the door and in walked Alex.
"Good you're awake," he said. "I was coming to get you anyway."
I lump formed in my throat and I just brought my knees to my chest.
I didn't want to talk to him.
I didn't want to talk to anyone.
"What's happening?" I asked.
Alex approached the coach and tears just ran down my face uncontrollably.
"W-what's going on?" I had blubbered.
Alex crouched before me. "The police are here."
"Did they find anything? Have they brought him back?" I gushed.
There was still hope in my heart. What if the thieves hadn't gotten away quick enough. What if they had brought Virgo home?
Alex didn't reply though and just hung his head. The feeling of my heart breaking in two was brutal and my whole body had started to shake.
I started wailing and sobbing in my hands.
"He's gone!" I wept.
"Hey!" voiced Alex. "Don't say that we are going to get him back. It will be okay."
I felt Alex pull me into his chest and I grabbed a fist full of his shirt.
"Where is he? Where's my boy!" I grieved. Tears continued to stream down my face and pool onto Alex's shoulder.
"Where are you, Virgo? Who took you? Please! Please come home," I continud to sob.
Alex stroked my shoulder as I continued to bawl and howl.
Now it is ten-thirty. I had answered the police's questions and so had everyone else but their statements weren't like mine. They didn't have a lone name scribbled all over them.
Justin.
I had finally had told everyone the truth. I had handed in the video of Justin taking the sedatives. Told them all about the hoodie and the cut on his hand. The police believed me. The truth was out there.
Justin is a horse thief.
Alex and I stand outside of Antonio's office. The police, Justin and Antonio were in there. The two of us were told to join them but my legs feel like Jelly and I can barely process anything going on around me.
"You sure you can do this," Alex asks, his face very stern. "It is totally alright if you aren't."
I am not alright. Not at all. The only thing that matters to me has just been stolen. But I still have to do the right thing.
I wrap my arms tighter around myself. "Yeah. I'm cool."
The feeling of vomiting starts creeping up my mouth.
Alex sighs and opens the door for us to walk in. The chatter and yells die down. I stop in the doorway, not feeling ready to move. An arm is draped around me and Alex guides me over to where Antonio stands at the corner of the room.
Justin sits in a chair while two officers tower over him. He watches me with his eyes as we enter the room.
"Look at me Mr. Stone," the tall officer continues. "So you have no alibi on the night of Marth 5th at nine to nine-thirty."
"No! I was mucking out stalls by myself," Justin pleads.
"Yet you didn't see a float or car enter the SEC gates?"
Justin wipes a hand over his face. "N-no."
"So you also don't have an alibi the day of the New Castle Show?"
"As I told you I was by myself taking a nap on the bus!"
"The same bus that an unidentified person was caught taking photos around?" the shorter officer questions.
Justin slumps in the chair with a sigh. "This is preposterous. Antonio, you can't be seriously believing this?"
Antonio doesn't look at Justin. "I don't know what to believe anymore."
Justin rolls his eyes. "I had nothing to do with this."
"Well, then why was it that your hoodie has been seen twice being worn by suspected thieves?"
"My hoodie? That went missing months ago. Someone must have taken that!"
"Mr. Stone five horses have been stolen now," states the tall officer. "Let's not be lying now."
"I. Am. Not!" shouts Justin.
"We have you on film taking horse sedatives from a medical cabinet then saying you will give them to someone else, the same day a horse was drugged and taken from here," the shorter officer growls. "What do you have to say about that?"
Justin looks between me then Antonio then back to the officers before sighing. He doesn't have an answer. He has been caught.
"Where did you get that video anyway? How can you be sure it was me?" he snaps.
"Because I took the video! I saw you taking photos around the show, stealing sedatives and making deals with thieves," I yell.
I'm so frustrated that Justin won't admit to it! There is proof and evidence. My horse is gone because of him!
"Miss Maddie, I promise you I would do nothing to hurt you or your horse," Justin pleads.
"Liar!" I scream.
My head starts thumping again and my legs start to shake. "Now tell me where he is?"
"I don't know, I have nothing to do with this."
"Just admit it!"
"Alex," Antonio sighs.
I see Alex reach for my shoulder but I pull away.
"No! Where is Virgo, I know you have had something to do with it."
Tears are flowing faster and faster.
Just puts his face in his hands. "I'm sorry but-"
"Don't say sorry that word means nothing in your mouth!"
"Miss Maddie, I have no clue where Virgo was taken," Justin cries.
Why is this happening? How did I let this happen?
I lunge forward. "Fucking liar!"
At the last second Alex reaches for my forearm and suddenly I am whipped into his chest. I try and fight against him with screams and pushes but he just holds me tighter.
"W-where is he?" I scream in a mix of tears and spit.
I feel myself being pulled from the room and suddenly the cold night air is hitting my wet cheeks with a sting.
"Why did he do this?" I try to scream into Alex's chest. "That is my horse! My Virgo!"
Alex squeezes me tight around the shoulders and starts tracing small circles. "It will be okay Maddie."
"No, it won't! Stop saying that," I hiss, banging a fist on his chest.
Alex doesn't react though. He brings me in closer to him and I can feel him plant a kiss on top of my head. "Sorry."
Another wave of sadness hits me and wail after wail escapes my mouth. But Alex never let's go.