I See You

47

BAM

That was the last thing Lena remembered hearing, her arms were pushed back by the force of the gun, something she had never used. She stumbled back but held the gun tight in her hands as the bullet crossed the space between her and Ryan and impacted him on the shoulder.

A scream.

Junior would never know if it came from Lena’s throat, or if it had been a pain scream escaping Ryan’s lips or it had been him as Ryan was pushed off his torso and landed on the floor with blood gushing out of his shoulder.

The sirens.

Junior turned his head to Lena, she was standing near the living room with the gun in her hands and her eyes locked over Ryan, Nicola lay next to Junior, the young man scrambled towards Nicola, he needed to know if he was still alive.

The red and blue lights flickering through the windows, like distorted, twisted monsters.

Junior pulled Nicola towards him as Ryan continued to scream and scramble around the floor, holding his shoulder, never thinking that in his plan he would be one of the people to get shot. Junior turned his attention for a brief second to the boy that had just a few hours ago been one of his best friend and that was when a crack echoed in the house and the entrance door of the Severide house was kicked almost out of its hinges.

Then it all became a blur of images and distorted sounds.

Lena stood there with the gun in her hands, her legs holding her steady in her position and her eyes locked over Ryan, he was holding his shoulder, screaming and cursing and crying; but Lena wasn’t hearing him, she wasn’t even seeing him.

She was just standing there with a buzzing in her ears.

Somewhere in the distance a siren was howling, she had no idea that the distance was her driveway, five policemen had rushed into the house, weapons up and flashlights darting around the darkness.

The horror scene unraveling before them; these things didn’t happen in this town.

Didn’t they?

Junior over the floor was screaming and crying, screaming that Ryan was there to kill them, crying because he wasn’t sure if Nicola, who lay motionless next to Junior, was still alive, and crying because he couldn’t believe he was still alive.

“We made it” was the last rational thought Junior had before his emotions took over him.

Had they made it?

“Help him!” Lena heard someone scream although she would never be able to recall, it was Junior as he pointed at Nicola “Help her!”

Lena blinked and for the first time since she had been holding the gun she took a deep breath and the air entering her body felt like a million daggers up her nose. An officer ran up to her, screaming something but Lena couldn’t hear him, she could only hear the buzzing in her head. The young woman felt someone pulling the gun out of her hands, the metallic thing slipped away from her fingers with no effort as the officer continued to speak to her.

“Miss!” cried the police officer as he looked at Lena, Lena turned her eyes towards him, but this time she couldn’t see him as the stars made out of light blinded her vision. “Miss, are you ok? Are you hurt? Can you hear me?”

Lena looked at him and the pounding in her head simply took over, she blinked once more and opened her mouth before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed in the officer’s arms; she didn’t hear Junior screaming her name.

“HELP HER!” Junior kept screaming, two ambulances had arrived to the Severide driveway, the whole neighborhood was standing outside the house.

Stuart’s Camaro stopped near one of the ambulances and Meghan and Stuart jumped out of the car as a paramedic rushed into the house, with a stretcher. A police officer stopped Meghan and Stuart from going any further, Meghan was screaming and crying, demanding to be let inside.

The stretcher came out, two paramedics pushing it down the stairs of the porch towards one of the ambulances; Nicola laid over the stretcher an oxygen mask over his face and the female paramedic screaming something about blood loss that Meghan couldn’t understand.

Just like that a second stretcher appeared out of the house, Lena was over this one, a mask also over her face, the paramedic taking care of her called out to the second ambulance that they needed another stretcher, there were two more injured men inside.

“LENA!” screamed Meghan, she felt her knees betray her and almost send her to the floor, Stuart grabbed her by the waist and pulled her up, he made her turn around and look at him.

“Calm down” he said “Breath, we’ll meet them at the hospital, you need to call Alana and Nicola’s mother”

“I don’t have her phone” sobbed Meghan, she covered her mouth, how was she supposed to tell a woman that her son might be dying when he was supposed to be out having fun?

“Meghan listen to me!” said Stuart, he gave her a gentle yet firm shake, he needed her with all her senses on point “I’ll drive you the hospital, you call Alana and I will go get Nicola’s mother”

A paramedic and a police officer walked out of the house with Ryan between them, handcuffed, Stuart felt his heart sink as he turned to look at Ryan, who was screaming at the top of his lungs “Junior Please” and finally Junior walked out of the house with another paramedic, he didn’t notice Stuart or Meghan as he made his way towards the ambulance before the pain in his back made him collapse over one of the stretchers.

“You survived” said a female paramedic to Junior as the ambulance started its journey to the hospital, Junior looked at her, his eyes fluttered as the adrenaline left his body and the pain started to spread through every inch of him.

“Did we?” he asked “Did we all?”

Then the darkness came.