Heart Shaped Lies

Chapter Nine

Sawyer raced into the bathroom and helped Hannah  to her feet, wrapping her in a thick white robe. He began to ask what had happened when they both heard it—rapid gunfire from outside. 

"Stay here," Sawyer said, kissing Hannah  quickly and taking off for the back door. 

"Sawyer, no!" Hannah  screamed. 

But he was already outside, caught in the crossfire. Hannah  sobbed, stumbling to her suitcase and pulling on jeans and one of Sawyer's T-shirts. She ran to the window and pulled back the heavy drapery. Down below, she saw flashes in the darkness as triggers were pulled again and again. He can't be stopped, Hannah  thought as a new wave of panic consumed her. Finally, she could take it no longer. She hurried to the door and yanked it open. 

The sudden silence was deafening. 

"Oh, God, no," Hannah  moaned, feeling the bile rising in her throat as she gazed at the bodies of officers that littered the ground. That's when she spotted him, lying in a heap in the middle of the driveway.

Sawyer.

Hannah  stepped carefully around the bodies, trying not to look too closely at them, hoping most were only wounded, but knowing the silence meant it was much more than that. She stumbled and fell, looking back to see what had tripped her. It was Sheriff Carson, a bullet wound in the center of his forehead. 

She thought of his daughter, a quiet girl that sat beside her in math. 

"I'm so sorry," she whispered before scrambling to where Sawyer lay. She dropped down beside him, feeling the gravel dig into her knees through her jeans. 

"Sawyer, no. Please, please be okay."

She rolled him over, tears streaming down her cheeks. He didn't appear to be shot, but severely beaten instead. His closed eyes were already beginning to blacken, his lips swollen and bleeding. Cuts covered his beautiful face. He was unconscious, but not dead. His chest rose and fell slowly, his breathing ragged. 

"Wake up, baby. Please, don't leave me alone!" she wailed, burying her face in his chest, listening to the weak, fluttery beat of his heart. She didn't care how vulnerable her position made her. She would stay with him until the end. 

"My, my, how you've grown up." 

The voice that came from behind her was calm, gentle, a voice she recognized immediately without turning around. 

"I hate you," she whispered.

"That's okay, Hannah ," her father said softly, but his voice was weak, as though her words had stung. 

"You've taken everything I love and destroyed it," she said, surprised by how even her voice sounded, although a blinding rage was filling her, burying the fear she had felt since all of this had begun. She jumped to her feet, turning to face him, standing protectively over Sawyer's broken body. Hannah  held the gaze of the eyes so much like her own. William Hawkins smiled invitingly. 

"How beautiful you've become," he sighed, almost wistfully. "Beautiful like your mother was."

He began to advance on her, stalking her like a wild animal. Hannah  held her ground. 

"Hannah , Hannah , Hannah ," he hissed, enjoying the way she acted so brave but seeing that she was unable to hide the wild fright that filled her eyes as he drew closer. "It will only hurt for a moment." Like a tiger, he pounced.

Hannah  didn't even have the chance to struggle before everything went black.