When the Rain Never Stops

Chapter 5

Sarah

I heard the panic in Winnie's voice and I was no longer half awake. I jumped out of my bed and ran downstairs. "I'll be right there," I said as I tried to find my car keys. I've only driven once since the crash but it was about to be twice. I vowed to never drive again but I've already broken that. I found my keys and set out to the garage where my car had been sitting. I got into the driver's seat and started my car. I sat there for a moment, wondering if I could do it. I had to. Winnie needed me. I backed out of the driveway and sped off into the night.

I got to the hospital to see Winnie sitting outside on the concrete. I quickly parked my car and ran over to her. When she saw me she jumped up and ran into my arms. I've never hugged someone so tightly. We hugged each other for what seemed like forever. When we pulled away, I immediately noticed the handprints on her throat. "Are you okay? What happened?" I said, looking her up and down.

"Oh Sarah, he tried to kill me," Winnie said as she threw her arms around me once more. This took my breath away, knocked the air out of my lungs. I squeezed her once more before pulling away. For a split second, when I pulled away, I saw Stacy looking back at me.

"He what?!" I said in shock.

"Can I tell you about it in the morning?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's fine. Come on, let's get you back to my place," I said as I led her to the car.

We got back to my car in no time and were on our way back home. Winnie sat in silence the whole time. There were times where I'd think she was asleep because she was so silent but when I'd look over, she was awake. We got back to my house and went upstairs to my room. When I got upstairs and saw Winnie in the light I realized she had blood all over her hands. She saw me staring and looked down at her hands to see the blood that was decorating her fingers. She stared in horror at her hands. I rushed over and led her down to the bathroom. We stood in the bathroom at the sink scrubbing all the blood off of her. I gave her new clothes and threw her other ones in the wash. I came back to her still in the bathroom scrubbing her hands. More blood seemed to come off, the water ran pink as it diluted the blood. I stood by her side trying to rinse the rest off when I saw my Dad walk by. He hadn't come home in a week and he decided to come home tonight, out of all the nights. He looked at me and then looked at the sink and the blood that was still on Winnie's arms. I shut the bathroom door and went back to helping Winnie.

We finally seemed to get all the blood off of her. We headed back upstairs and laid in bed. I knew she wouldn't sleep so I decided to stay up with her. After a couple of hours, I drifted off to sleep. I think I slept for a couple of hours before Winnie shook me awake. "Sarah. Sarah, he's dead," she said as she shook me.

"What, what? Who?" I said, half awake.

"Josh is dead. He died in surgery and they just announced it," Winnie said to me. I sat straight up after hearing this. I couldn't read Winnie's tone. It sounded both sad and happy. "He's dead. Oh my god, my stepmom killed someone. He can never ever hurt another woman," now she started to sound excatic. But then her hand covered her mouth, "He's dead." She just kept repeating that Josh is dead.

"What happened?" I asked.

"He showed up to my house and I let him in. He wanted me back and I rejected him. He.. he put his hands on my throat," she said as she put her hand to her throat, "he tried to kill me. I escaped and got my Dad to call 911 luckily. He made it down the hallway and pulled out a gun. Oh my god, he almost shot me. My stepmom fired her gun first and it went straight into his chest," as she said all of this, it seemed like she was making the realization that this actually just happened.