Shattered Krystal

by Claire Lalique

  “DAMN IT! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!” I scream as I ran back up the stairs. It’s 10 o’clock at night and I did not know where my beautiful, fragile, stupid girl was.

  I yelled out to Maeve to call Captain Frank as I pulled on shoes and a shirt. When I went into the kitchen I saw a tiny post-it note written in Flower’s rounded handwriting. It said she left at 7 to go to the grocery store and would be back shortly. That meant she'd been gone at least three hours.

  Maeve came tearing up the stairs with her phone in hand. “The Captain wants to talk to you,” she said breathlessly.

  Taking the phone, I told the Captain what I knew while I gathered my keys and gun. I pulled out some extra rounds and tucked them into my pocket along with my wallet.

  “Where are the cops that are detailing her!” I demanded of the Captain while I run back down the stairs, bursting out the door to get in my truck.

  “Son, I don't know. Let me hang up and order some BOLO’s and APB’s and get some patrols out in this area and the West End.”

  I hung up the phone and drove the most likely way she would have gone to the grocery store. There was no sign of her until I got to the store. There locked in the bike rack was her new neon pink bike and beside it, splayed out on the concrete, was her bright red knapsack. My heart sank. I knew now, for certain, that she’d been taken.

  I stared at her knapsack dumbly. All my promising to protect her--I fucking fell asleep. I screamed, a loud pathetic cry to the universe, “FLOWER-R-R!” I knew people were looking at me and I just didn't care. I was numb with shock and fear. Who knew if she was even still alive?

  As I stood there trying to decide what to do next, a young boy sidled up to me. “Hey Mister, you looking for the girl that dropped that knapsack?”

  “Yeah, did you see her,” I growled at him.

  He stood up straight, not at all afraid of my size or animal growl of a voice. “Two guys on motorcycles picked her up. The fat one acted like he was glad to see her but she didn't seem too interested in him. They were some of those motorcycle gang men that hang out in that old abandoned school on Lucia Ave.”

  Now I had a possible destination. I prayed it would be enough to find her. I tossed the boy a twenty-dollar bill and asked, “What’s your name kid?”

  “It’s Jeffrey. I ain't afraid of ya or those motorcycle men. They is mean even when they don't have to be. I help you find the pretty girl and they go to jail. I help you.”

  I thought his reasoning made good sense so I told him to wait for the first police car he saw and ask to talk to Captain Frank. When he gets the Captain, he needed to tell him what he told me. I handed him a twenty dollar bill.

  “Awww, I don't need no money. She a pretty girl and those motorcycle men—they just bad.”

  I ignored him and peeled out in my truck and drove to a few blocks north of Lucia Ave. and the old school. I parked and was out of the truck and ran catty corner over fences and through yards to get to the abandoned school as quietly and unnoticed as possible.

  Krystal

  I woke up and tried to figure out what was happening. My mouth tasted like a horse's behind and my head felt like someone was pounding on my head with a steel bar. I started to open my eyes but it hurt just letting in the tiniest bit of light. When I tried to shake my head, I let loose a tiny groan. I suddenly remembered what had happened. I wondered what Greasy Man planned to do. Maybe I’d be dead soon. If so, I was glad I had time with my Blue.

  I opened my eyes just a slit and saw I was in some old mop closet. There was an old dirty bucket in one corner and in the middle of the sloping floor was a drain with nasty bits of dried gunk stuck to it. The room was lit by a single bare bulb that didn't even light the corners.

  I carefully got off the floor, hopefully without touching it any more than I already had. I laughed quietly to myself. I was amazed that a few days in Blue’s clean apartment could make me squeamish about dirt, the kind I always had around me my whole life. I tried the door to the closet. It seemed sturdy and was locked from the outside.

  As I looked around the small closet, I was relieved that not more than one or two bikers could get in here with me. So, unless they were planning on putting me elsewhere, they wouldn't be able to gang rape me like they did the last time. There isn't enough room. I knew inside of me, I was terrified, but I kept that feeling pushed down so deep it seemed as if I was calm unless you looked at my hands. I couldn't seem to stop my hands from trembling.

  I knew Blue would not be able to rescue me this time. He wouldn’t know where I was. It was going to be up to me to get out of this if it was even possible for someone so tiny. I thought to myself, I would not be a victim, I would do everything I could to save myself. I had no doubt that the Greasy Man planned on killing me. I was lucky he hadn't killed me when I was passed out. It was up to me to keep myself alive.

  I looked around, to see what was available. Besides the old mop bucket there was an old rickety stepladder and some empty wooden crates. Then I noticed above the door was a tiny window. No regular sized adult could ever get through that window, but suddenly I grateful for being so small. I suspected I could fit through that window.

  I listened carefully and didn't hear voices, so I pushed and slid the first wooden box up against the door. The crates were too heavy to lift another on top, so I put the stepladder on top of the crate and pulled myself up to the top as well. I unfolded the ladder and carefully climbed the wobbly three steps to the very top.

  So now I was balanced on the very top of that ladder like I was on a balance beam. I realized I was going to have to jump and grab the edge of the window. If I missed I would fall to the floor. If I didn’t miss I was going to be grabbing the frame where loose shards of glass were sticking out of the frame. I won't be able to push them out of the way before I grabbed the frame.

  I took some deep breaths, hoping to calm down as well as shut down the tremors in my hands. I bent my knees and leaped to the window edge grabbing for it as quickly and as hard as I could. My left hand caught the edge and I held tightly to the edge. Two pieces of the broken glass pushed into the palm of my left hand and as I swung my other arm and hand over the edge another piece of glass scraped a long cut down my inner wrist.

  I noticed I was bleeding pretty hard from the cut on my arm, but the adrenaline was rushing through my body and I so pulled myself up and slid over the frame and broken glass on my belly and slithered through the window and fell to the hard concrete below. I cracked my left elbow on the floor. The pain was instant and recognizable. I realized I have broken the arm that had already been broken in the shed. My chest hurts from the scrapes and cuts from sliding through the window and I was leaving a nice puddle of blood from the wound on my wrist.

  I took off my t-shirt and wrapped it tightly over the bleeding cut on my arm and tied the edges together. Then I finally looked around. I knew immediately what kind of building it was. All the schools built in the late 40’s and early 50’s used the same architectural plans. So even if this wasn't my school, it was exactly like it.

  I thought for a few minutes and bent over so I’d be under the windows in the doors and could not be seen if anyone was in the classrooms. I needed to go left to get out of the exit door, at the end of the hallway, so I started running that way as fast as I could.

  I was getting dizzy and looked down to see that blood had soaked through my t-shirt and was dripping onto the floor. I just prayed that I could get out and hide someplace with a phone as soon as possible.

  Chapter 11

  Samuel

  I ran through the weeds and bushes to the side door. It was the door farthest from the front office where I hoped the gang members might be.

  At one point, this door was padlocked from the inside and the door windows had metal mesh embedded in them. Now the windows had been broken and the mesh cut away. The padlocks were long gone and the door swung open and shut just a little bit.

  I timed my entrance to slip in while the door was open so
I didn't interrupt the rhythmic thud, thud, as the door banged open and shut. I pulled out my gun and chambered a bullet. At this point I was going to rescue my Flower and kill every single one of her tormentors. I couldn't even think about her being dead. My world could not continue without Flower in it. What would I do if she was gone? I refused to imagine it.

  As I quietly walked down the hallway, I heard the faint sounds of police sirens in the background. I figured they might be coming here and I hoped I could kill some of these bastards before the police interfered. I no longer considered myself a police officer. I was just a man coming to rescue his girl and get revenge on the assholes who had hurt her.

  I was coming close to the center circle near the front door of the school when I suddenly noticed some heavy red drops on the floor leading to a classroom doorway. The doorway had smears of blood on the glass and on the doorknob. My instinct said to check it out.

  My heart was in my throat and my teeth gritted when I carefully and quietly slipped into the room. The room was dark and at first I saw nothing. But then in the shadows near the door was my sweet girl curled into a tiny ball with a small puddle of blood lying under her.

  Sudden tears sprang from my eyes and I blinked furiously as I went over to my girl and felt her neck for a pulse. At first, I couldn't find it, but then suddenly I did. It was very shallow and beat as fast as a hummingbird’s wings. She was alive, just barely, but none the less, alive. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to capture the sudden onslaught of tears.

  At that point, it was all about saving my Flower. I pulled my phone and dialed 911 and quickly reported Flower’s situation and the possible fight between the gang members and police.

  Then I picked up my precious girl and carefully carried her with one arm and used my other arm to balance her and to carry my gun. I needed to get her out of the school and into an ambulance as quickly as possible. It looked as if she was escaping on her own when she passed out from blood loss. While I was horrified at her injuries, I was so proud of her. She was a survivor. She hadn't let the horrible events in her life break her.

  Then I heard the crash of the police SWAT team break through the front door, with their radio chatter and gruff voices. I just kept going.

  Suddenly, a big dirty looking beer bellied man slipped out of a bathroom door. He had a gun in his hands and he grinned at me, showing broken stained teeth. “Well now, here ya two are, together. I recon you caused all our trouble in the long run. I'm happy I’m gonna kill both of ya before this ends. That way when I get ta prison I can tell Jag yur dead. He’ll like that.”

  I didn't wait for him to say anything more. I just swung my gun up and around and shot into his throat. He looked surprised and a trail of blood trickled from his mouth.

  He barred his teeth that were rimmed with blood and as he tried to point his gun, I emptied my clip into his chest, throwing him backwards down the hall leaving a smear of blood. He looked at me and shot his gun one more time as I twirled around to protect Flower with my body. I felt a sudden push at my back and a burning sensation. I couldn't breathe and I started to fall down, doing my best to be on the bottom so Flower could rest on me.

  I felt the bubbling of my breath in my lungs and realized that I might die from a bullet through my lung. “I'm sorry Flower, I couldn't do what I promised and keep you safe,” I whispered, “but darlin’ I love you with all my heart. Just because my heart stops doesn't mean my love ever will.”

  I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around my girl and the world went away.

  Krystal

  I was dreaming. I saw smoke all around me . . . and Blue. He was holding me . . . then I felt us falling into space . . . I hear Blue’s voice whisper, “Just ‘cause my heart stops doesn't mean my love ever will.”

  Then I woke up to the beeping of machines and the smell of antiseptics. Tears were rolling down my cheeks. Where was Blue? That dream seemed so real.

  I kept my eyes closed and took inventory. I was very tired and my arms and stomach throbbed with pain. Finally, I opened my eyes just a bit and gasped in relief when I realized I was indeed in a hospital. Somehow, I had been rescued. It was just a dream.

  But then I heard a voice next to me and I recognized the warm kindly tones of Mrs. McDonald, my best friend Donna’s mother.

  Tears continued to pour from my eyes and down my cheeks. “Mrs. MacD, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. I couldn't save her. It was all my fault.” My voice sounded rusty and whispery, but at least I was still talking.

  “Sweetheart, they found our girl’s body and that was because of your bravery. Right now, you just need to start healing. Don't you know Mr. McD and I love you like you are one of our own? I'm staying right here with you . . .”

  A lady in a white coat walked in the glass door. “Ms. McKenzie I'm glad you are awake. How are you feeling?”

  “Like I've been hit with a truck and stabbed with a million knives.” I was rather fretful because any movement at all caused pain. “Where’s Samuel?” I said, “Does he know where I am?” I was nervous and my breathing was shallow. Somehow, I knew something was wrong. Nothing would have kept Blue from my side. Yet he wasn't here. “Where is my Blue-Samuel Donahue? Where is he? What happened to the Rattler Kings? Are they captured? I started getting louder. “Where’s my Blue?”

  “The police captain will be here in a moment to answer some of your questions.” said the lady in white. “Do you remember me, I'm Doctor Chow. I've been taking care of you again. Your biggest problem was a major blood loss. We’ve given you three liters of blood and stitched up your wounds. Unfortunately, you will have some scarring. Also, you fractured the same arm that was broken the last time you were here, so we had to do surgery and put a bolt or two in it to stabilize the break. We couldn't put a hard cast on that arm because of the stitches, so you will have to be careful about keeping the splint in place. Mostly you are just going to have to rest. Losing that much blood is going to keep you very weak for quite a while.”

  “But where is Blue? I need to see Blue!” I realized I was getting hysterical and having trouble with breathing, but Blue had been my rock for the last month and without him I was feeling uncertain and afraid. That dream had scared me. I needed to see Samuel.

  Suddenly, Maeve came rushing into the door, almost as breathless as me. “Krystal! Oh honey! I meant to be here when you woke up! I'm sorry. Are you okay? I'm so glad you're doing okay!”

  I was so glad to see Maeve. She would know where Blue was. “Maeve, where is Blue? I need to see him. I had a bad dream about him. Can you call him and tell him I’m awake and asking for him?”

  Her face dropped, so I couldn't see her eyes. She came close to my bedside and grabbed my undamaged hand. “Oh Krystal, he just got out of surgery. He is in critical condition in ICU. Jag’s second in command evidently shot him as he was rescuing you. It went through his lung. The doctors had to repair the damage and re-inflate his lung. The concern now is possible infection and bleeding. They also want to make sure that the lung won't collapse again.”

  My heart dropped. My dream was true. “Maeve, I have to see him! He thought he was going to die!”

  The doctor frowned. “Ms. McKenzie, I can't recommend that you get out of bed. You just woke up yourself. If you have a collapse, it will set back your recovery.”

  I really didn't care about my recovery. I needed to get to Blue and tell him we would both be okay. He needed to know I was with him.

  “Doc, I don't care. He needs me right now. He never let anything stop him from getting to me, including risking his own life. I WILL GO TO HIM.” I shouted the last sentence, however breathless and weak it was. I started trying to pull the covers down and moved my legs to the side of the bed.

  Finally, the doctor sighed, “If I get a stretcher and let you go to ICU to see . . .” Her voice softened, “Your Blue . . . will you promise to leave after 10 minutes?”

  I smiled, knowing I was probably lying through my teeth, and said, “Of course, ten minutes.
Maeve can help me keep track of time.”

  Mrs. McD smiled. She knew me as well as anyone. She patted my shoulder. “I'm going down to the cafeteria, darling, to get some coffee. I’ll come back here in a half hour. You please do your best to obey Doctor Chow and keep that promise. When Samuel wakes up, he isn't going to want you unconscious.”

  Mrs. McD made sense so I nodded my head at her and smiled. She left the room and I marveled at the fact she was so willing to help me, even though Donna was gone.

  A stretcher was brought and two orderlies helped me onto it. They laughed and commented that I wasn't big enough to need both of them. I smiled at them, because I didn't want any of my watchers to know that moving me to the stretcher had caused my head to whirl dizzily and my vision to gray out for a few seconds.

  We moved down the hallway and in and out of an elevator. My little entourage came to the ICU doors. After some muttered conversation between my orderly and a disembodied voice on the other end, the sliding doors opened and we all went into the sterile white atmosphere of the Intensive Care Unit. My stretcher and I were the most interesting things to notice in my little crowd. Several nurses came over and were talking to Maeve and my orderly, Calvin. Finally, I had enough. I was exhausted and needed to see Blue.

  “Maeve! Please take me to Blue, now.” I tried to make my voice urgent but it came out as a hoarse whisper.

  “Oh darling, I'm sorry.” Maeve said. Then everyone scurried around and my stretcher was taken into a small room made of glass walls. On the bed was my beautiful Blue.

  His eyes were closed and there were such dark circles under them he looked like he had two black eyes. The rest of his face was almost as white as the sheets underneath him. Another crisp white sheet was pulled up to his waist and there were two tubes entering his right side. He looked shrunken and lifeless, I figured partly because he wasn't awake. His personality was so big, it made him seem even bigger than he actually was.