“Lunch detention,” Eryx sniggered.
“What’s he in for?” Bill asked biting his sandwich.
“Making the substitute believe he was a student teacher finishing up university and hitting on her in front of the entire class.” Eryx threw a piece of ham from the sandwich he was eating down on his foam plate. “She fell for it too. She was putty in his hands. He’s evil, that boy.”
No one mentioned a word about the Gabriel ordeal. I figured everyone just wanted to go on with his or her life and forget it happened. This afternoon Claire would have news for me, and we would all have to remember.
The final test of the day came with a headache for me. After the exam I sat and played with my phone until I was almost asleep. David stared at me from across the room the whole time with eyes of a prisoner begging for mercy.
Fourth period was almost over when I got a text. I looked over at David certain it was from him. His phone was in his hands.
“Please help me,” the message read. It came from Gabriel’s phone.
Chapter 16
My pulse raced.
“Where are you?” I replied.
“Student parking,” the last message read.
I jumped from the seat and grabbed my bag. I looked over my shoulder at David who gave me a questionable look.
“I need to be excused,” I told Ms. Vincent and ran out of the room.
My heart was beating in my ears. I felt nervous and eager to see Gabriel alive. I ran down the halls as fast as I could until I reached the exit.
Gabriel was standing in the middle of the parking lot, drenched by the rains that had come with the northern winds. His clothes were ragged and he looked even thinner and paler than before. I thought he’d drop on the ground as I ran toward him.
“Gabriel!” I screamed hoarsely.
He ran toward me smiling. I eased my pace when I saw him pull something from his back. It was the gun.
I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to run from him. It seemed like it was all in slow motion. My legs didn’t carry me more than a few feet when I felt a violent pull on my hair. He covered my mouth before I could scream and dragged me to a truck.
He threw me in the truck, locked the doors and started cussing at me profusely. I screamed at the top of my lungs for him to stop.
He called me a whore and a back stabbing bitch and gave me a heavy blow on the side of my head with the gun. I fell back and he violently beat me in the face until I was knocked half senseless.
My vision blurred. He continued calling me names and ripped open my blouse.
I tried fighting him off, but it was no use. His weight was too much for my frame.
“No.” I could barely whisper.
I saw him reach for his belt.
“Stop… please.” I cried. “Gabriel, stop. Please, stop!” I pled with him.
He forced open my jeans.
The last of the adrenaline in my body forced out a scream.
“No!” I cried. “No! Please, don’t!”
Suddenly, I heard the loud crashing of glass and Gabriel flew back and out the driver’s side window.
Something warm and thick trailed down my face.
“Don’t do it, brother!” I heard Galen scream. “He’s not worth dying.”
“David, think of
her.
Think of Isis,” Eryx said loudly. “Let him go.”
“He doesn’t deserve to live,” David growled. “I’ll tear off his limbs with my teeth.”
“David,” Galen called his name. “Isis is injured. Tend to her!”
I heard a thud and gasping coming from Gabriel.
“Hold him down!” David commanded.
I saw David’s blurry silhouette open the door to the truck.
“Isis…” he gasped. “What has he done to you?” I could hear rage in his voice.
David took his shirt off, wiped my face and covered me with it. I realized the warm trickle over my face was blood when I saw the stained shirt laid on me. He carried me out of the truck.
“Get an ambulance over here!” Principal Miller screamed into her radio.
I felt David trotting with me from the truck. I could see Galen holding Gabriel down and Eryx in front of David ready to stop him from attacking Gabriel.
A crowd had gathered in the parking lot. Gabriel was screaming at the top of his lungs in a language I couldn’t recognize, squirming under Galen’s constraint.
“Where do you think you’re taking her? She’s on school grounds. I’m responsible for her until her parents arrive.” Principal Miller followed behind David and me.
“I assume full responsibility,” David said without turning to view her. He carried me to the Land Rover and placed me in the back seat. Eryx slid into the driver’s seat and revved the engine.
“Isis, don’t close your eyes, my love.” David pleaded with me. “Don’t close them.”
His hands were slippery as he wiped the blood from my eyes. They must have been covered in blood too.
“It hurts,” I whispered.
David snarled loudly followed by a whimper and tears. “Shh…” He rocked me. “Be still, precious. We’re almost there.”
I could feel the speed at which the truck was turning corners. My head was throbbing.
I took one last look at David’s watery eyes before I closed my own.
“Open your eyes, my lovely. Open your eyes.” I could feel David’s hand lightly shaking my face.
When I regained consciousness, I felt them place me on a hard surface with a white bright light over me. My eyes were barely open. I could see blurry images of people applying pressure to the side of my head, nose and lip. I didn’t recognize any of them.
A woman opened my eyelids and shined a bright light into my eyes. “She’s awake,” she announced.
“Keep her awake,” one male voice said, “and get me a head scan after she’s cleaned up.”
“How many fingers do you see?” The woman asked holding her hand before me.
“It’s blurry,” I whispered. It hurt when I moved my mouth.
I was taken to a white room and put into a tube. My vision was still obscured. I didn’t know what was happening. There was a loud humming noise coming from the machine.
“Be completely still, please,” I heard a male voice say.
How could I move if my head felt like it was about to explode?
“If you feel nauseas or dizzy, let me know,” the same voice said, “I’ll stop the machine if you do.”
The loud humming of the machine didn’t last long. Or maybe it was the fact that I felt like I was coming to and from consciousness that I don’t remember.
I was taken out of that room and carried off into the hallways and into a room with a lot of medical equipment in it.
My eyes were heavy, and I wanted to ask for some painkillers, but the nurse was arguing with someone at the doorway. I heard her telling them they could not come in.
My eyes felt heavy and tired. The pain on the side of my head was unbearable.
“Sweety, stay awake,” the nurse said. “I have to ask you some questions.” She injected a substance into the I.V. going through my arm.
“Do you know your name?” she asked.
“Isis.” I replied trying not to move my mouth.
“Do you know what happened to you, Isis? Do you know why you’re here?” She continued questioning me.
“Yes.” I answered.
The door to the room opened. Claire rushed in and stopped when she saw me. She placed her hand over her mouth and gasped. The tears immediately started flowing from her eyes. She took several more steps and wiped her face.
“Isis, do you know who this is?” The nurse asked.
“My mother,” I answered, as I started to cry.
Claire started crying as she looked at me.
“Mom,” I reached for her hand.
Claire’s face reflected agony. She was pale from the shock of seeing me like this. I must have looked gruesome.
“I want a mirror,” I said.
The nurse looked at my mother and my mother at the nurse.
“You don’t need a mirror right now, Isis. You’ve suffered several concussions. You’ll be kept under close observation until further instruction from the doctors.” The nurse spoke softly. “Your mother is here to keep you awake. Be a good girl and stay awake, okay?”
“‘Kay,” I tried to nod but I felt throbbing pain. I reached for my head, but my mother quickly grabbed my hand and set it down.
“Don’t touch,” Claire warned me in a broken voice.
“My nose hurts too,” I said.
“I know,” Claire wept. “Honey, you’re going to have to stay here for a few days. The police will be coming in to take a report from you.”
“Mom, don’t cry.” I rubbed her hand.
“Isis…” she gasped as she cried. “That son of a… Gabriel was taken away by the police. He’s not well. They say he’ll be taken to a psychiatric ward.”
“Where’s David?” I wondered.
“He’s outside. They won’t let him in. He was arguing with them earlier. You’re in the Intensive Care Unit. Only immediate family is allowed.”
“I want to see him,” I whispered to her, squeezing her hand.
“Yes, but he’s not allowed in here,” my mother whispered too.
“Please?” I asked.
“There’s only one person allowed in here at a time and it must be family. I’d have to leave and lie about who he is, and I don’t want to leave you.”
Claire stared at me, trying to hold back the tears. Gabriel must have really done a number on me for her to be this distraught.
When they finally told Claire I could go to sleep and rest, I told her to go eat something. She wiped her tears and touched my cheek ever so gently with her fingers before she left for the cafeteria.
I started to close my eyes when I heard the door open. David had somehow gotten past the nurse’s station and stood at the doorway gawking at me.
“It’s bad?” I asked.
“Oh, Isis…” His look worried me.
David walked to the bed and laid his head on my chest. “I was so afraid.”
“I’m fine.” I ran my hand through his silky black hair.
He wiped his eyes before he barely touched my lips with his. “You’re not fine. You should see yourself. I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”
There was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” David called out.
A police officer walked into the room. His badge read “Cortez”.
“Officer.” David extended his hand.
“Morning,” Officer Cortez said shaking David’s hand. “I’m here to take a report of the incident from the victim. Is she up for it?”
“Yes.” I slightly nodded.
The officer posed a series of questions, and I had to recount the incident. It was as if I were reliving it again. David’s lip quivered, enraged as he heard my account.
My mother came into the room shortly after I was done giving my testimony. The officer was on his way out as Claire was coming in.
“Do they know you’re in here?” she whispered to David.
David shook his head, “No”.
“Mrs. Martin, you’ve been here all night. Go home and rest. I’ll stay here with her.” David tried to persuade her to take leave.
“No,” Claire answered. “The one that needs to go home is you. You’ve been in that waiting room all night. Go home to your mother, young man. She must be worried sick.”
“I’m not leaving.” David stared at me as he spoke to my mother.
“Well, suit yourself,” She said rubbing some ice on my lip.
A couple of days went by, and I was released from the hospital with stitches on the side of my head. There was purple and red bruising around my eyes and over most of my face. The swelling on my lip had gone down, but my nose was broken and the headache was persistent.
I wasn’t allowed back to school for a week. When I returned, stares and low mumbling greeted me. David took a leave of absence for the same amount of time for “emotional distress”. He and his family visited me everyday. Claire took some days off work again until Nyx offered to watch me for the rest of the week at my house.
My face was a wreck. Make up only made it look worse. I had some markings on my arms where I had struggled with Gabriel to free myself, so I wore long sleeves until they became less noticeable.
David didn’t have to persuade Claire this time; my mother insisted I stay with David and his family afterschool. Alezzander visited me the week I resumed my classes.
“There’s something we have to tell you about your friend, Gabriel.” He paced around the Den.
Just when I thought things were going better, more bad news arrived.
“The language you heard him speak on the day of the incident was not his own. Am I correct?”
“Yes, that’s right,” I agreed with this statement.
“Isis, Nyx went to visit him at the psychiatric hospital where he was admitted. He claims to have been hearing voices. The doctors have stated he was in a manic state and hallucinating. They think he is schizophrenic, but my wife has uncovered a truth.” He looked at me for a reaction.
“He has been interrupted by the Turpis.” Alezzander revealed.
“I don’t understand?” I told him.
“The Turpis are unseen demonic creatures. They are shrewd and evil and they do not take prisoners, child. They were using him to get to you.”
“What?!” David stood up from his seat. “Father, why was I not told of this before?”
“I am telling you now.” Alezzander motioned for David to sit.
“Why are they after me?” I asked.
“We have reason to believe that you have been discovered. You seem to possess some key element that draws them to you. We need to find out what it is they seek,” Alezzander explained. “You need to find your father.”
“That’s impossible. I don’t know who he is, much less where he is,” I told him.
“We will have to find a way. The Turpis will not rest until you cease to live. We cannot allow that can we?” He pointed at the Star Crest on my chest.