Blank

After the party Cat and Lee took off, a little dizzy, but not drunk at all. They laughed and stumbled on the road only because they were felling really good.

-How was I supposed to know that?!

Lee shouted laughing at Cat.

-They have the same name!

Cat laughed along punching his shoulder. They were talking about the Smiths and how Lee asked if that boy, J is shagging Angela. They calmed down and continued walking down the street to Lee's house. He had to pick up some stuff to take it to Cat's. The silence between them was nice, but it didn't last too long. A pitched scream shattered it to pieces making them both jolt and look around for the source.

-What the hell happened?

Cat's voice rang in Lee's ears as he tried to see something through the dark. A shout for help got to them through the air. They looked scared at one another and started to run to the direction. There was a small portion of woods between the village and Hunter's house. It was a wood turned into a park when they built the village, there were no animals or anything like that and there were lights on the principal road and some into the wood. They ran until they didn't hear anything anymore. The panting from their lost breath was the only sound around.

-Hello?

Cat shouted around to get another signal and Lee's hand on her shoulder made her turn around. He pointed in the distance and Cat's eye caught something moving around a tree. They went over there and the shock made Lee  turn around. The "thing" moving was a girl and she wasn't moving, she was hang, balancing from side to side.

-Oh my God!

Cat ran up to her and tried to lift her by her legs so she could breath, but she didn't know if the girl could still recover.

-Lee! Get your ass here and help me!

As she never got a response she looked over her shoulder and saw him running on the opposite way from where she was.

-Lee! What the hell?

She rolled her eyes and took her phone out of her boot with a shaking hand. She opened it and typed her dad's number through a blurry vision caused by her tears falling down her cheeks.

-Come on... Please be ok... Please be ok...

She was whispering to herself and to the girl she was keeping up.

-Hi, bitch. How's the party?

-Dad! I need you to call an ambulance and take David to the location of my phone! I'm in the woods and there's a girl hung in a tree.

-On my way! Stay where you are!

She shut the phone and put it back in her boot.

-Like I can go anywhere now...

Her eyes darted around trying to avoid looking up at the girl again when she saw a glass bottle down near the tree. She pulled it closer to her with her foot and watched it closely. She tried to bend down to pick it up, but she couldn't reach it without letting go to the girl. She looked around again to see if there's anyone to help her, but it looked like there was no one in the whole world. She took her phone out again and called Lee, but nothing.

-Fuck you, Hunter!

Nothing could describe how furious she was at him in that moment. What the hell made him run away like that?

Another 3 minutes passed by and her body started to give up under the girl, when she realized something. She held her breath so that the only sound she'd hear was her heart pounding in her chest. She made herself look up and focus on the girl's chest. She was breathing. Faintly, but still, she was breathing. Just as soon as she realized that she heard the ambulance and her dad calling her name.

-I'm here! Dad! I'm here!

She saw a flash-light that went from the ground to the tree then to her face forcing her to close her eyes. Will ran by her side and took her spot holding onto the victim's legs. When she let go a sudden dizziness took over Cat and she fell to the ground unable to keep herself up. Paramedics came along and while one was checking on Cat she forced herself to get out a few words.

-She's...

-What's that, Cat? What are you saying?

David was now kneeled near her, holding her at his chest.

-Alive. She's alive.

David's eyes darted to Will's.

-She's alive! Hold onto her!

The next things that happened were a total blur to Cat. Her vision was blurry and only now she realized how cold it was outside in the woods. It was late October, what did she expect? She was shaking and couldn't get out a word from her mouth. She passed out, then she opened her eyes once more and saw one of the paramedics, a woman, climbing on the tree with a knife to release the girl. She heard David talking to her, but it was muffled and she couldn't put together what he was saying. She opened her mouth to talk once again.

-What is it baby?

She heard her dad's voice coming from her other side and managed to point a direction.

-Lee... Look for Lee.

And then blank.

............................................

As she opened her eyes, a bright light made her grunt. She tried to sit and when she managed she looked around. The first person to see was Emily, the best doctor in the world. She's been Cat's doctor ever since she was born.

-Emily?

She was confused as she took her hand to her head that was slightly dizzy.

-You gave us the hell of a scare.

Cat's face immediately turned to the voice when she realized it was Will talking. Suddenly she remembered the girl.

-That girl. How is she? Is she alive? Do you know who did that?

She was talking fast and she tried to stand but her dad pushed her back on the bed.

-She's alive, yes. But not ok. The doctors are taking care of her.

She breathed out and relaxed, falling back on the pillow from her bed.

-You saved her life, Cat. If it wasn't for you, she'd be long dead and probably still hanging in that tree.

-A real hero, I'd say, Emily said. You are fine so I'll live you two alone.

She walked out the door and shut it behind her.

-It was nothing, dad. Really. We heard her screaming for help and found her hanging there. We... Oh my God!

She jumped on her feet not giving a damn about her dizziness.

-Where's Lee? Did you find him?

Will's eyes got red all of a sudden and Cat felt her blood rushing through her body, adrenaline taking over her, fear making her heart pound loud in her chest.

-Dad?... Where's Lee?

-Number 102, he simply said.

As soon as those words left his mouth, Cat felt her heart crumble to her feet and she ran out the door checking every door for the number 102. When she finally got there, she took a deep breath and walked in. The only person in the room was Lee leaned back in a hospital bed, bruises all over his face. She got closer and she felt her cheeks getting wet by her tears, but didn't bother to wipe them off. He had blood in his curly hair and one of his brows was sewed. A perfusion was linked to his right hand, opposite from where Cat was. She dragged a chair near the bed and sat by his side. She interlaced her fingers with his and placed her head on the bed near their hands, falling asleep.

Will waited for her to come back and since she didn't, he went to check if Lee's up but he stopped in the door taking in the image in front of him. It hurt him seeing the boy like that. He got attached to him and started to truly care for him as he cared for Cat. He loved that he almost moved at their house because he brought so much happiness to his daughter. It was like they were meant to be and Will started to feel like he adopted a second child. They fought all the time on stupid things, there was so much noise in the house from them screaming, fighting, arguing, laughing, beating the shit out of one another. There was life in that house again.

He walked slowly and covered Cat with a blanket, then took off to the office, after telling Emily to check on them from time to time.

............................................

The sun was braking through the window when Lee opened his eyes. He tried to move but he hissed in pain. His head felt hard and dizzy and every muscle in his body hurt. He tried to raise his hand to his head, but the perfusion didn't allow him. That's when he realized he's in a hospital and his eyes started roaming the room. His heart dropped and all the pain left his body when he saw Cat by his side sleeping and holding onto his hand. Her hair was over her face and a white blanket covered her body. He gently rubbed his thumb over her hand and she woke up slowly.

-Hi, beautiful.

She took a moment to wake up and realization kicked in.

-Lee. Hi, dumb-ass. How are you feeling?

Her hand went slowly over the bruises on his face as he tucked her hair behind her ear.

-Now that I take a better look, you look like shit, he grinned at her.

-So you're fine, she answered rolling her eyes.

She leaned back on her chair crossing her arms at her chest.

-You're the one to talk. You look like you crawled from hell and then fell back.

They both chuckled at this, Lee finishing with a grunt of pain. Cat stiffed in her seat and took a serious face.

-What happened to you?

-I turned away may gaze so I won't see the girl and I saw a person watching us from behind a tree. He was wearing an all black outfit, with black leather gloves and a hood on his head.

-You're telling me you ran after a possible serial killer?!

Cat's voice raised as she felt her blood boiling in her veins.

-You're so fucking stupid! You could've died, dumb-ass!

-But I didn't so stop screaming! My head will explode!

She sat down crossing her legs and her arms looking at the floor.

-Cretin, she spat.

-Bitch, he bit back.

They eyed each other and chuckled both shaking their heads.

-So was she dead?

-No. I kept her up so she could breath until everybody else came. Did you see his face?

-No. It was really dark. All I saw was a scar on his neck. It looked really nasty.

He crunched his face as he remembered the previous events.

-I'll call my dad to come and take a statement from you. He has a way of asking just the right questions making you remember stuff you didn't even know you had in your memory.

She took her phone out of her boot as Lee nodded, letting her know that she can live the room if she wants. She went to the hall and saw her dad two rooms ahead.

-How did this happen?!

He was screaming at the two officers who were supposed to guard the girl's door.

-How did she fucking die? She chocked on too much air?!