When I came to, I was still in the backseat with Christy while Bodie drove and Jack panicked in the passenger seat. Christy was cradling me like I was some kind of child that had just scraped its knee. The last thing I needed right now was anyone's fucking pity, especially when I have to worry about why I'm suddenly bleeding during this part of my pregnancy. Not to mention, Billy...
"Easy now, easy now... we're taking you to the hospital," Christy whispered in a soothing voice as I waved her away and sat up. "Everything is going to be okay."
Without hesitation, I pulled the gun from the waistband of my jeans and pressed it against the back of Bodie's head and cocked it, "Where's Billy's car?"
"Amber! What the fuck are you doing?!" Jack and Christy both exclaimed.
"Jamie's t-taking it to Bones' shop... what the fuck you doin'?" Bodie gulped, staring at me through the rearview mirror.
"Amber put the fucking gun down!" Christy screeched.
"I know what you're feelin', I do. I loved him too, he was closer to me than my own fuckin blood, you know that!" Bodie shouted.
"Don't take me to any fucking hospital," I said in a low but dangerous tone. "Take me home to pack a bag."
"Damn girl, that's all ya had to say. Put the fuckin' gun down." Bodie replied.
"Amber put the fucking gun-"
I pursed my lips and yanked the gun away in defeat. The gun fell in between Christy and me on the seat and I buried my face in my hands and started to sob. Christy pulled me close and remained silent as I silently sobbed and trembled in her arms.
The rest of the drive was silent. Megan was already parked in the driveway of mine and Billy's house, waiting impatiently. She jogged over to Jack and started demanding answers and asking if I was okay. I ignored her as I slowly got out of the car and stared up at the sky. The sun would be rising in the next couple of hours.
Just as I was about to head up the driveway and go inside, Bodie grabbed my upper arm and stopped me from going away. I stared down at his hand in disgust before making eye contact with him.
"This is a bad time dawg, I know that... you know that. But we still got shit to do, ya hear?" He nodded at me in expectancy, "Get yourself some sleep and meet me at Bones' shop when ya up for it. Ya gotta run the shop, take care of the mechanics payroll and the side shit..."
As much as I wanted to tell Bodie to go and fuck himself, I knew he was right. I had to be strong and I had to do this. So instead of telling him off, I just nodded slowly and yanked my arm out of his grasp. Luckily for me, I didn't even have to say anything before Megan stormed up and slapped Bodie across the face.
"Use your fucking head! That's the last thing on any of our minds." She growled as Jack jumped between Megan and a now furious Bodie.
Christy, Jack, Megan and Bodie continued to shout at one another about what they thought was "important" at this time. I ignored them and made my way inside. I was too exhausted, too lifeless to care about anything that was currently going on around me. There was an ache in my heart and a numbness in my mind. All I wanted to do was go upstairs, crawl into bed, cry myself to sleep and wake up tomorrow to find that this was all just a bad dream.
Bodie's right... I have to be tough...
Chop ran over to me and jumped up, wanting me to play with him. Tears that I've been fighting to hold back suddenly won the battle and poured out the corners of my eyes. Chop whimpered as I fell to my knees and wrapped my arms around Chop's neck and bawled.
The baby was finally moving again, but every movement or every kick brought more tears with it. Mostly tears of relief while some were caused by the fact that their father's dead. I had to be strong, I had to pack my bag to stay at Christy's and then head to the hospital and find out why I'm bleeding this far into my pregnancy. I had no contractions yet so there's no possible way that I could be going into early labor, but something is off.
The door opened and in entered Christy, Jack, and Megan. Megan immediately came to my side and held me while Christy jogged upstairs to gather some of my clothes and stuff to stay at her apartment for awhile. Jack whistled for Chop who immediately ripped himself from my arms and chased after Jack outside to the car.
"We're gonna go now, okay? We're gonna drop Chop off at our place then take you to the hospital okay?" Megan said softly as she stood herself up and offered her hand.
Reluctantly I took her hand and allowed her to pull me up to my feet. My eyes were puffy and red and sore from crying as hard as I was. I hiccuped as I tried to breathe slowly and calmly so that I could speak.
"I'm bleeding..." I whimpered.
"You're what?" Megan asked slowly as if she barely heard me.
Tears started to roll down my cheeks again, "I-I- I'm bleeding."
"CHRISTY!" Megan called out almost instantly.
Christy ran down the stairs, nearly falling down them as she did so, "What?!"
"Amber's bleeding!" Megan exclaimed.
Christy's mouth fell agape and she chucked the bag she had packed for me at Megan. Megan caught it and threw it over her shoulder while Christy ran to me and wrapped her arm around my back and started to lead me out of the house as if I was unable to walk on my own or something.
"We have to get you to the hos-"
"Drop Chop off first." I winced as a sharp pain around my pelvic area nearly knocked me to my knees, "Oh my fucking God!"
"What?!" Christy and Megan both asked at the same time.
"Something's wrong!" I whimpered.
"Jack!" Megan roared.
Both Jack and Bodie ran over to the three of us. I was now hunched over and gritting my teeth, my hands feeling around my stomach, desperately trying to get baby to kick or move, anything to give me reassurance while we made our way to the hospital.
"What the fuck is going on?!" Bodie demanded an answer, staring at Christy and Megan.
"She's bleeding!" Christy snapped.
Bodie's eyes widened and before I could even protest, he had me pulled up to my feet. I cried out in pain as he placed one arm around my back and knelt down and scooped my legs up with his other arm. Before I knew it, I was shoved into the backseat of the car.
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"Well, looks like we can get you off of this machine now." The doctor said as she entered the room. I sighed in relief as I watched her start to pull the yellow bands off from around my stomach. "We managed to calm baby down."
"Baby is okay then, right?!"
The doctor nodded, "Baby is fine. However..."
"However?"
"However, the bleeding was caused due to your stress level, hence the reason we had you hooked up to this machine for the past hour. We had to monitor baby to make sure everything was alright." The doctor explained.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded, "I've had a stressful day."
"I'm putting you on bedrest for the next two months of your pregnancy, Amber." She said sternly, "It's for the best."
"But you said baby was okay-"
"Baby is fine... right now. We don't want any further complications such as stress... the last thing we want is to jump start labor two months early." The doctor said with a frown.
"Do you understand?" She asked.
I nodded, "Yes."
"Good." She replied with a small smile, "I'm releasing you. Go home, have a shower, get some sleep. If the bleeding persists, come back in, alright?"
"Thank you, Doctor." I thanked her in a low tone.
Once I was re-dressed, I made my way out into the waiting room where Megan, Christy, and Jack were all impatiently waiting. I could tell by the looks on all of their faces that they were stressed out to the max and exhausted. I couldn't blame them... after everything that's happened tonight, plus a trip to the hospital...
"Everything is okay, right?!" Megan asked with a worried look on her face.
I nodded, "Yeah... yeah everything's fine. I... I just want to go home."
"Home? you're coming with us." Christy stated, cocking an eyebrow.
I shook my head, "I'd rather be at home right now..."
"We're not leaving you alone there," Jack said firmly. "Not after everything."
"If you want to go home, then we're coming with you and staying with you there," Megan said as she crossed her arms across her chest.
"Fine..." I breathed, "Let's just go... please."
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After what felt like forever of arguing with Christy and Megan that I was fine with them both sleeping upstairs in my bed while I took the couch, they FINALLY agreed to allow me to do so. Jack, on the other hand, decided to sleep on the other couch across from me, to keep "an eye on me". Sleep wasn't coming easy. It didn't help that I could hear possibly every little noise throughout the house - the clock on the wall ticking, the faucet dripping in the kitchen sink, Jack tossing and turning on the other couch, the fridge. Fucking everything.
Eventually, Jack fell asleep and I found myself slowly drifting off into a slumber of my own. I had told myself that I wasn't going to sleep tonight at all, but I was only lying to myself. My body was craving sleep, it felt amazing to lay down and shut my eyes..regardless of everything that had happened earlier.
It wasn't even twenty minutes into my sleep before I was woken abruptly. I sat straight up and blinked my eyes a few times, trying to focus on the sound that had woke me. Jack had clearly heard it too as he was now wide awake and off of the couch, reaching for the baseball bat next to the T.V that Billy had always had there conveniently.
"Jack?" I whispered.
Jack put his index finger in front of his lips, indicating for me to be quiet. I gulped and watched him glance around the dark house, trying to pinpoint where the noise had come from. It sounded like someone was trying to unlock the front door. Jack slowly crept across the living room and over to the front door. I watched as he slowly opened the front door and peered his head out the door, looking in both directions for any sign of anyone being here.
"Nothing" Jack called out with a sigh of relief.
"Thank God...." I grumbled.
Jack ran his fingers through his hair as he placed the baseball bat back where it was, before plopping back down on his couch and covering his face with his hands, groaning with frustration. Frowning, I laid back down and faced the back of the couch. Jack climbed back up off of the couch and grabbed his pack of cigarettes. I tried to block out the sound of the front door opening as Jack stepped outside for a cigarette.
Just as I was about to close my eyes and attempt to sleep again, a gun shot prevented me from doing so.
"Jack?!" I called out.
"Amber?!" Christy called out from upstairs.
"Stay upstairs!" I demanded as I jumped up off of the couch and picked up the baseball bat, gripping it tightly.
I bit my bottom lip nervously as I slowly made my way across the living room and over to the window. I climbed up on the other couch and pulled back the curtain a little bit, just enough to see outside. My eyes scanned around, laying upon Jack who was clutching the front of his shoulder near his chest and running towards the front door. The man who had shot Jack, fired again and again, hitting Jack several times in his legs, and sending him flying face first onto the ground. Jack immediately started to scream out in agony.
Gasping in terror, I pushed myself off of the couch and away from the window. I gulped as fear coursed it's way through my veins, making my grip on the shaft of the bat even tighter. A whimper escaped my mouth before my mouth became dry as I frantically took five steps back, looking from side to side before I hurried towards the staircase to get to Christy and Megan.
Without warning, a man jumped out from behind the wall causing a small yelp to escape from my mouth before my instincts kicked in and I raised the bat above my head and swung down, hitting him repeatedly until he stopped howling out in pain and finally fell to the floor.
I glanced over my shoulder, seeing the man who had shot Jack, was now in the house with a sawed off shot gun running straight towards me. My eyes widened and without hesitation, I spun back around and leaped over the intruder on the ground's body and running up four steps of the stairs. Before Jack's shooter could run up the stairs behind me, I stopped and turned around, gritting my teeth as I swung the bat, hitting him so hard in the shoulder that he yelped out in pain as I lost grip of the bat. I acted fast and booked it up the stairs, almost slipping and falling down on my face. Jack's shooter growled and cocked his shotgun, raising it up and firing it at me.
The shooter had missed me by a thread, blowing a huge hole in the wall behind me. My heart felt like it had stopped as soon as I heard the boom from the shotgun, falling to my knees and running up the rest of the stairs like a crab. Luckily my upstairs was hardwood flooring, allowing me to slide into the upstairs bathroom as he cocked his shotgun again and fired - this time hitting the wooden stair railing, sending pieces of wood flying. Whatever the case, I somehow just managed to avoid being shot twice.
I quickly jumped to my feet in the pitch dark bathroom, running to the toilet, grabbing the porcelain top of the toilet piece. The shooter ran in the bathroom after me, struggling to flick the light on at first. He gritted his teeth as he turned on the light, but as soon as he did his eyes widened as I swung the heavy porcelain piece, hitting him dead center in the face. Just like the movies, blood and a tooth or two flew out of his mouth as I did so. I dropped the porcelain piece as he fell to the ground.
Meanwhile, A third intruder had made his way up my stairs with a single barreled rifle in his hands, as he came into view in the bathroom doorway, he pulled back the trigger on his rifle and aimed the barrel towards me. My eyes widened and all I could hear was the horrific cries of terror coming from both Bria and Julia in the other rooms and Jack howling in pain from the front steps.
I dove onto the floor, just missing the shot that the third intruder had just fired. He aimed his rifle at me again as I rolled on to my back, propping myself up with my elbows while I panted heavily, trying to catch my breathe. My eyes went even wider as I watched him pull back the trigger. Out of fear and my instincts kicked in, making me kick the bathroom door closed, watching as it swung in front of the third intruder's gun, the bullet ricocheted off the door, hitting Jack's shooter in the kneecap.
Jack's shooter screamed out in agony, crying little a newborn baby. The third intruder gasped staring down at his friend's leg, giving me time to jump up on my feet. He shot his head up in my direction as I charged at him, lunging forward and grabbing onto his shoulders, shoving him out of the bathroom and straight into the broken, wooden railing.
Boards flew as the third intruder and I flew off the landing. The wind literally was knocked out of me as we went over. It felt like we were flying for a moment until we hit the cold, hard, wooden floor. The intruder landed on his back - surprisingly not breaking his back - with me falling roughly on top of him, breaking my fall, thankfully for both mine and my child's sake. Rolling onto my now painful side, I coughed and gasped, trying to catch my breathe and remain conscious as pieces of boards from what once was the railing, flew down on us.
A piece of railing flew down and smoked me in the head, splitting the skin and blurring my vision, nearly knocking me the fuck out. Slowly, I blinked my eyes and looked around, seeing that Jack had either been dragged back inside of the house or had somehow drug his way back inside. He wasn't screaming anymore, but he was groaning and coughing as if he were choking.
Now the sounds of both Christy and Megan screaming were becoming clearer as the two other intruder's fought to push or drag them down here from upstairs. The second intruder that I had hit with the baseball bat had a fist full of Christy's hair, struggling to drag her down the stairs as she fought to free herself from him, slamming her elbows into his chest roughly, almost freeing herself too, but failed. Megan kicked and screamed, flailing around in the other masked intruders arms as he packed her down the stairs without any struggle.
"JACK!" Megan screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Let me go! YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" Christy screamed as she spun around - her hair still entwined with the man's fingers as she punched him in his masked face.
The intruder who was laying beside me slowly got up and towered over top of me, chuckling to himself before spitting on my bleeding forehead, "This bitch is knocked up"
I didn't recognize his voice, at all. I gulped and blinked my eyes a few times, fighting to stay conscious. The intruder pulled out a pistol from his belt loop and aimed it at Christy. I tried to scream, but no words came out of my mouth as he shot Christy in the thigh, causing her to fall face first down the stairs, a chunk of her hair being ripped out from the other intruder still holding her by the hair as she was shot.
"CHRISTY!" Megan screamed.
Christy's cries of agony echoed throughout the room as all three intruders walked past the three of our bodies and took hold of Megan.
"NO!" Jack gurgled out, watching as the intruders slammed Megan down on the coffee table.
One of the intruders laughed hysterically as he watched the two other intruders fight to hold Megan down. He walked backward until he was standing next to me. He stared down at me before lifting his leg up and slamming his boot down on my already split forehead. My world felt like it was in slow motion as my ears rung and my vision blurred in and out of focus. My eyes slowly scanned my surroundings - Jack lying there near death, Christy clutching the gunshot wound on her thigh and crying out in agony, Megan being pinned down on the coffee table as her clothes are ripped from her body and she's raped before all of us.
"Looks like we've finished the job." One of them said to the other after a few minutes.
The three intruders stopped and stared down at me, "That's for Matt, Syn and Zack."
Another kick to my head and this time I was knocked out cold.
As soon as the front door slammed behind them, Megan jumped up and grabbed her cell phone from the kitchen counter where she had left it before going upstairs to sleep earlier. She immediately fell to her knees beside Jack, not caring that she was naked from the waist down. She was scream crying and fighting to keep Jack from dying.
"Jack! Stay with me!" She roared.
"I NEED AN AMBULANCE!" She screamed into the phone.