Demon King Series Books II & III

Chapter 17

"Joelynn? Joelynn are you okay?"

A hand was touching her forehead. She tried to open her eyes but they burned. "Too bright. What...what happened?" she whispered. The bright light was blinding her. She didn't know where she was at.

"What were you doing here?" Joelynn recognized the voice. It belonged to Officer Dempsey. She could hear the sound of a siren coming closer. "I called an ambulance. Can you move?" he asked.

Joelynn tried moving her body and a sharp pain shot up her left arm. "Oh crap that hurts."

"You fell down the stairs. Thank God you didn't break your neck."

"Where is he?"

"Where is who?"

"Jacob. Is he in the basement? Is he okay?"

Officer Dempsey was confused. "There's no one else here Joeylnn. Was he supposed to meet you here?"

"The lights," Joelynn said as she tried to sit up. She could hear the paramedics making their way into the house.

"She's down here," Officer Dempsey shouted. "What about the lights Joelynn?"

"They weren't working earlier."

"They worked fine when I came inside. I saw you come in and I waited for about fifteen minutes."

"Did you see anyone else?"

"No, I shouted for you but you didn't answer. I saw the door leading to the stairway open and you were down here unconscious."

The paramedics told Joelynn they were going to check for any broken bones. When they were done, they carefully transferred her back upstairs and into the ambulance.

"Joelynn, I'm going to follow you in my car."

Joelynn was still in too much shock to understand everything that was going on. She wanted to know where Jacob was and who had pushed her down those stairs. She felt pain coursing through her body. She wanted to shout, "My friend Jacob is missing and hurt!" Instead she closed her eyes and let the pain take over.

At the Hospital

"You're a complete asshole!"

Edward laughed, "Look, I'm sorry but I needed to make it look realistic."

"So you knock me out with a vase?" Jacob had a bandage over his head. The gauze still had blood staining it from where Edward had hit him over the head.

"I'm sorry but if I told you, you wouldn't have agreed," Edward was sitting with Jacob in a hospital room. He had just returned with a teddy bear from the gift shop downstairs. Jacob had been knocked out for a while.

"Of course I wouldn't have agreed. Who would agree to let someone else bash them on the head with a vase? Are you psychotic? I don't really know you but so far I think you have mental problems."

Edward pretended to be hurt, "Hey...aren't I paying for your hospital bill? I said I was sorry."

Jacob groaned as he thought of Joelynn going to the empty house that was for sale. It wasn't his idea. It was Edward's. After Jacob came to, Edward had explained why he had knocked him out with the vase.

"I'm sorry Jacob. I didn't think it was really going to knock you out. I just wanted to give you a small cut to get real blood so I could take the picture and we could send it to Joelynn. I would never want to hurt you for real. Or I mean really hurt you. Ugh I'm horrible at apologies. Do you forgive me?"

At the time, he looked so apologetic that Jacob believed him. Now he wasn't so sure. Edward thought it would be a good idea to scare Joelynn into thinking Jacob had been abducted. He had already sent the picture and texts to her by the time Jacob had gained consciousness. Edward said that Joelynn had probably already been to the house even before he had woken up. The problem was that Jacob didn't think it was a good idea. Joelynn had already been through a lot and adding one more thing to scare her probably wouldn't make too much of a difference. He wanted Joelynn to regret not caring enough for him and to worry about him. He didn't want to cause her more psychological damage. Edward's idea was cruel.