Demon Hunters: Book 1 Faith [editing]

Chapter 45

Author's Note:  In this chapter, we encounter a character who we haven't seen since the first day Zoe arrived at Central West. (Go back to chapter 10. She's the girl who was making out with Mr. Brady.)  In the revision of this work, I'll add more references to Clarissa in Austin's chapters. I also need to plant Austin's last name earlier. Oops.  **Oh, the joys of revision!** 

Zoe sped through the tunnels. Faster and faster, all the way to Kansas City, well over two hundred miles passed Central West High. She paused and reluctantly backtracked. The school would call home if she skipped. Zacharias would be all over her...again.

She opened the gateway and stepped into the girl's restroom at the back of the school. That's when she noticed that someone else was there.

Zoe scolded herself for being so careless. She should have checked before completing the gateway. Now, the strange circular doorway was clearly visible from the wall behind her. How was she going to explain this and the sparkling dagger in her hands?

But the girl hadn't even noticed. She sat crumpled on the floor against the wall by one of the sinks, her knees up and her face buried into her hands, sobbing. "Why? Why?"

Zoe extinguished the electricity from her dagger. The gateway disappeared.

The cellular phone on the floor next to girl buzzed. She snatched it up quickly and punched in four numbers onto the screen. "Why? Why?" She cried harder, dropping the phone down and picking up a small glass bottle. She hugged the bottle, keeping her head lowered. Vodka.

Was this girl drunk?

Against the wall, the girl's back pack was opened. Some clothes had been packed, like she was traveling somewhere. Also on the tile floor, an medicine container had fallen over and a few pills were scattered about.

Before Zoe could read the words on the label, the girl reached out blindly for one of the pills and guided it into her mouth and then took another swig.

"What are you doing?" Zoe furrowed her eyebrows.

The girl huddled closer to herself. Her blond hair acting as a cloak. "Go away," she groaned. "Please."

Sleeping pills.

Zoe sighed. "How many of those had you had?"

"Leave me alone," she cried.

Zoe moved closer. "Those could kill you. You don't want to leave the Earth this way."

"I said, leave me alone!" The girl looked up, her eyes red and hair frazzled. Then, her face angered. "You! You did this. You made him hate me. Now he won't see me anymore." She shook her fist in the air, but soon deflated.

Clarissa. This was the girl who was seeing Mr. Melvin Brady when Zoe interrupted them on her first day at school.

Her heart rate fell sharply, blood pressure dropping. "You're not well."

"I want to die. Okay? Can I just die now?" She flung the bottle of Vodka at her, but missed.

Zoe couldn't understand. "Why?"

Clarissa looked at her, eyes surprised by the question. Then she burst into a mixture of laughter and crying. "Because I'm ugly," she answered, as if it was the most obvious statement in the world. "Nobody loves me, and I hate myself."

"But you're not ugly," Zoe said.

Clarissa curled up into a ball and sobbed. "Yes, I am." She snatched up another blue pill.

Zoe lunged forward and grabbed her wrist.

"Just leave alone. Let me go." Clarissa struggled to pull free. "Just let me..." Her body went limp, and her head slumped. The blue pill fell to the ground.

The girl was still alive, but barely.

What to do? Zoe stood up and listened. Cars were pulling up outside, forming a line in the front. Already a series of school buses had arrived in the back of the building. Teachers were congregating into the teacher workroom and lounge areas. The hospital was only a few miles away, but based on Clarissa's vital signs, time was running out.

She could pump Clarissa's stomach, but the girl would need medical attention that a warrior angel couldn't provide.

Zoe retrieved her dagger, ignited it and reformed the gateway. She could only portal into a location she had been to before, and she could only think of one place in the hospital which might be safe enough. Still such things were risky.

Clarissa moaned and coughed when Zoe lifted her up with one arm. In the other arm, she carried both their backpacks and held her dagger. They lifted off the ground slowly and entered the portals.

She wasn't going fast, not this time. Within a minute, she floated at the exact location and listened for humans inside the room.

"Am I dead? Are you an angel?" Clarissa mumbled.

Zoe sighed. "I'm not that kind of angel."

Clarissa had already passed out again. They were running out of time.

Zoe placed the gateway along the back wall of room 445 of the intensive care unit, the same room where Jack Donovan stayed after the accident over a week ago. Had it only been that long?

Inside, the heart monitor beeped and a respirator pumped oxygen into the patient's lungs. Clarissa's breathing diminished. Need to hurry.

The emergency room was downstairs on the first floor. She cradled Clarissa in her arms and wrapped her protectively within her wings. Then she shot backward against the glass window, bursting through it. The glass shards exploded outward from the building.

Zoe reached the ground softly within seconds and retracted her wings. She ran the short distance to the emergency room entrance. "We need help here. She's dying. Swallowed sleeping pills. Blood pressure low. Now!"

The receptionist looked up, shock and confused.

"Now!"

She nodded and pressed a button. "Take her inside."

A doorway unlocked, and a doctor stepped out. Upon seeing the girl, he beckoned Zoe into the corridor.

"Sleeping pills. Vodka," she said.

"Oh. We need to check her blood pressure and get her stomached pumped."

Zoe put Clarissa down on the bed. "It's sixty-seven over forty-one." On the edge of death. "Trust me." The girl looked ghostly pale.

The doctor looked at Zoe skeptically. Then, a team of nurses rushed in and began checking vitals. "Sixty-seven, forty-one," one of them called out.

"Let's stabilize her before she goes into cardiac arrest." The doctor turned to Zoe. "You need to leave now."

Zoe stepped out into the waiting area. "Ma'am," the receptionist called out to her. "Can you give us some information about your friend."

"Yes." From inside Clarissa's backpack, she retrieved her school id and a wallet. Then, she held up the cell phone. The password has been easy to remember: 1-3-9-7. A box. Zoe scrolled through the contacts and found the mother's phone number. "You can reach her mother at this number. Do you have a restroom?"

"Just down the hall to the left," the receptionist pointed.

"Thanks. By the way, I think one of your windows got hit with something. There was glass outside when I pulled up."

"Oh? I'll call maintenance."

Zoe walked out of hospital before the receptionist could ask for her name. Zacharias would be furious if she gave out that information, but he wouldn't be upset that she kept Clarissa's cell phone.

She had seen a text message to someone named, Johnny, begging to participate in the photo shoot. I'll do whatever pose you want and screw whoever you want. Please, let me come.

This could lead them to the scion. Muriel needed to see this right now.