Red

Chapter 19

Clarissa

When I woke once more, my vision was back to normal and my head was spinning, making me dizzy and disoriented.

"Where am I," I said, placing a hand to my head, not really expecting an answer. I jumped a little when I got one.

"You're still in the hospital, my dear." I looked to my left. Dorado was sitting there, watching me.

"How long was I asleep?"

He thought about that. "Depends on what you mean. From the last time you woke, about twenty minutes. You were hopped up on every drug imaginable, so you probably don't remember that. Since Mike left, more like sixteen hours."

I bolted upright, but immediately regretted it and laid back down as my vision swam and my pulse started beating a drum beat in my head. "He's been gone for almost a full day? Where is he?"

Dorado shook his head. "I haven't got a clue. He called your phone a couple hours ago. Hope you don't mind that I picked up. He said he knows who took him, but wouldn't tell me. Said to call him back when you woke up."

He hadn't even finished his sentence before I grabbed my phone from the little table beside me and was calling my brother. It only rang once before he picked up.

"Hello?"

"Mike! Where is he, do you know?"

"Hey, slow down, Clarissa, you'll hurt yourself. Nice to know you're awake. No, I don't know where he is, but I know who he's with, and it's not good."

"Who? Come on, Mike, tell me!"

"His father."

"What? That doesn't make any sense! I mean, I know he has family issues but–"

"His father abused him, Clarissa. Has since he was ten."

There was a long silence. I couldn't wrap my head around that. Nate was always so care-free and happy. He always did shut down, though, when I asked him about his family. A wall was put up and it took me days sometimes to tear it back down again. I just stopped asking.

"Wh-what about his mother?"

"Dead. He killed her. Right in front of Nate."

"How do you know all this?"

"He told me. That's where we went after we woke you up from your nightmare. I caught him cutting the night before and I wanted to know why."

Tears started to pool in my eyes. "He...he cuts?"

"Said he has for six years. Ever since his mom was killed."

"And...and he didn't tell me?"

"He didn't want you to worry. He was trying to protect you."

I was silent.

"Look, he needs us right now. We–"

"We?"

"Marley and I. He sorta convinced me to let him help, if you can call it that. Anyway, we found his glasses in a dead-end alley, near some skid marks leading to it. I'm assuming Nate left the house for a walk or something and his father, ballistic that he didn't come home the night before, took him." He took a shaky breath. "I...I called his phone and he somehow answered it. What I heard was...Never mind. All I know is that he's hurting him. Really badly. We have to find him before it's too late."

I set my phone down. I could still hear Mike talking, but couldn't quite comprehend it. Nate has–is–being abused. By his father. A person in his life that should love and care for him. We had to find him before his father did something drastic. According to Mike, the man has killed before. I doubt he'd be afraid to do it again. I held phone back up to my ear.

"Clarissa? You still there?"

"Where do we start?"