Molding Stone

Never Ready For The Unexpected

I closed up just like every other night. Happy had gotten a call around one thirty and had run out, so I closed up on my own, locking the door, shutting off the signs, turning off the jukebox and then putting up the chairs before counting out the money from the register and putting it away in the safe in the office before heading upstairs to bed.

I'd changed out of my clothes and into a pair of yoga pants and a tank top before slipping into bed and drifting off to sleep. I knew I hadn't been asleep long before I sprang up in bed wide awake. I didn't know what woke me till Ace sprung off the bed and went running out of the room with a bark. I got up to follow him, I'd only made it just outside of my bedroom door when I heard a man scream and the bang of a gunshot. I heard a whine and saw Ace laying on the floor across the room with a man standing over him. The man turned quickly as the floorboard creaked under my weight, seeing me he raised the gun and fired off another round. I felt a searing pain in my left leg and I screamed as my legs gave out from under me.

I grasped my leg with both hands, tears already falling from my eyes from the pain. I could hear the man starting to panicked, he paced my living room a couple times and I could see him pulling at his hair. He seemed to be giving himself a pep talk.

"It's okay. It's just her leg. She'll be fine, she'll be fine. Just do what you came to do." The man wheezed through most of it before he seemed to calm himself enough to walk through the living room and then around me into my bedroom. As he walked by I could see him in the light coming through the bedroom window. He had long light-colored hair, was thin as a rail and had clothes that looked three sizes too big. He had a tattoo on his arm that was half covered by his shirt sleeve, but looked like a heart with an arrow through it.

I could hear him moving around in my room and started looking around. The phone in the kitchen was knocked off the hook and the coffee table was knocked over from what I assumed was Ace attacking the man. Poor Ace was still whining across the room. I stretched my neck looking for the hand-held phone that had been on the coffee table. I spotted it under the couch and looked back toward my room, I couldn't see him, so I took a chance and started dragging myself across the floor. The movement sent new spikes of pain through my leg. It was so intense I almost screamed. I'd had to move my hands away from my wound to move and I could feel the blood soaking down my pant leg. I knew if I looked down I'd see blood spreading on the floor, but I couldn't bear to look at the damage. I'd only moved a couple feet when I heard him moving toward me.

He didn't spare me a glance as he ran past me and down the stairs. I heard the doors slam as he ran through the bar and out into the night. I listened for the sound of the car, but never heard one. Ace whined again and I renewed my efforts to get to the phone. I don't know how long it took me, but I eventually got to it and dialed 911. The simple task was much harder than I expected, my fingers were growing cold and my hand was shaking.

"911, what is your emergency?" A woman's voice answered.

"I've been shot." I cried.

"Ma'am what's your address?"

"591 Henry Lane. I'm in the apartment above the bar." It was getting hard to hold up my head, I pressed the speaker button and laid the phone next to me. I curled into myself to reapply pressure to my leg. I grit my teeth to prevent screaming into the phone as the pressure sent more pain up my leg.

"An ambulance has been dispatched to your location. What's your name?"

"Jade. Jade Banks."

"Alright, Jade, I'm Natalie. Does anyone live with you? Is anyone else hurt?"

"No. No one, just my dog, he's been shot, too."

"Jade, where were you shot?"

"My left leg."