Suddenly I was startled as something heavy landed on my right leg. I opened my eyes as Bruno threw the van in reverse and tore out of the warehouse. I could hear the sirens in the background getting louder, but as Bruno drove away they became a distant sound.
My eyes finally focused on the heavy weight on my legs. I gasped when I saw that it was Mark. Bruno had grabbed him before we fled from the building.
I cried at the sight of Mark’s body. Why would Bruno do this to me? I could not bear to look at Mark’s lifeless body.
“He’s still alive,” Bruno told me. “I felt a faint pulse before I grabbed him.”
I pulled my legs out from under Mark and kneeled at his side. I put my shaky fingertips to his neck and wept with joy when I felt the faint pulse under my fingers.
My hands became frantic as I searched for Mark’s wound. I pulled up his shirt that was soaked in his blood and found the wound. Darkness threatened to pull me under when I saw the blood flowing out of the wound but, I fought it back.
He needed me and I was not going to let anything get in the way of that.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts and looked around franticly for something to staunch the bleeding. The van held the same equipment that had been in the lab. My scan of the interior told me there was nothing in the van that would help Mark.
I did the only thing I could think of, placing my hand over the wound to try and stop the steady flow. His warm blood ran between my fingers. I cried silent tears as I felt his pulse growing weaker.
“Please hurry,” I pleaded to Bruno in a broken voice. “He’s slipping away,” I said with a broken sob.
“The hospital’s right up the road,” he said.
I felt relief at his words as he began to slow the van down. I looked up thinking we were at the hospital, but to my dismay we were parked on the side of the road.
Bruno jumped out and jogged around the vehicle and opened the door.
“Why are we stopping? We have to hurry he’s dying!” I yelled at him in a hoarse voice.
Bruno stripped off his shirt and pushed it under my hands that were still pressed over Mark’s wound.
“I can’t take you the rest of the way, there will be too many questions. Drive the rest of the way, its right up the road. Tell the doctors that you were walking on the beach when some thugs jumped out and robbed you and shot your boyfriend.”
I looked at him in confusion.
“I don’t know if any of this talk about angels is true, but you didn’t deserve any of this,” he said as he turned to run away.
“Wait!” I yelled. I threw my arms around him and gave him a quick hug. “Thank you.”
I watched him for a brief moment as he jogged away and then adrenaline took over. I raced to the driver’s side and threw myself into the driver’s seat. I slammed the vehicle into gear and flew down the road. I hit the hospital parking lot going ninety and did not stop until I reached the emergency room.
I tore into the E.R. yelling that my boyfriend had been shot and was dying in my car. Several doctors rushed after me as I raced back to Mark.
Within moments they had him on a stretcher and had started C.P.R. I watched as they searched for a pulse. I fought to hold onto his hand and begged them to save him as they raced him into the hospital.
I felt a nurse tugging on my arm trying to pry me away from him, but I fought her off. I was not letting him go. I knew that as long as I continued to touch him, he wouldn’t die.
I felt the sharp pain of a needle being plunged into my throat. I felt my hand slip away from Mark’s and tried to call out, but it was too late. I didn’t get a chance to tell them how important it was for them to save him. That I could not survive without him.
I knew I was dreaming. I was sitting on the soft sand that I had sat on hundreds of times before. I looked around for Mark, but saw him nowhere. I sat and watched the waves approaching and the birds flying throughout the sky. It was actually quite peaceful. There was a slight breeze that carried the scent of the amusement park in the distance. Just when I was about ready to give up, I saw him approaching. I was surprised to see that he was not alone. Four others stood behind him.
I recognized Sam and Shawn and thought one of the other couples looked familiar too, but couldn’t place them.
Mark stopped in front of me and held out his hand to me.
I stood up and faced him. “Are you dead?” I asked him.
“I don’t know. This isn’t my dream, it’s yours.”
I looked at him in horror. What did he mean this wasn’t his dream? We had always shared the same dream.
My screams echoed throughout my body and I felt like all of the air was leaving my lungs.
Chapter 14
I was awakened by my own choking as I gasped for air. I sat up abruptly on the hospital bed I was laying on and looked around frantically for Mark.
I felt a gentle hand pushing me back down on the bed and was surprised to see Sam standing over me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked in a hoarse voice. “How did you know I was here?”
“You told a nurse that I was your next of kin and they called me,” Sam told me.
I faintly remembered in my drug induced sleep being asked who they should call.
“Where is Mark?” I asked in a pleading voice, dreading the answer.
“He’s in recovery,” Sam said, wiping the tears off my cheeks.
I thought I misunderstood her.
“He’s okay?” I asked, not daring to believe.
“Mark’s going to be fine. They say the bullet passed right through him. They went in and fixed the damage it caused, but they said he was lucky that it missed all his vital organs.”
“What about my mom?”
“She’s getting better; she finally regained consciousness last night, but only for a few minutes. You can go up and see them later when you feel better.”
I started to get out of the bed, but Sam laid a restraining hand on my shoulder.
“You have to rest,” she told me.
I ignored her and pushed myself off of the bed. I gripped the rail when a moment of dizziness hit me. Closing my eyes, I fought to regain my equilibrium. The dizziness left and I turned to Sam with determination.
“I need to see him; will you take me to him?” I asked with steel in my voice.
Sam looked at me in surprise. She was used to seeing me struggling with my weaknesses, but those days were over. I was no longer weak, and I would no longer be the victim of my emotions.
Sam grabbed my hand and guided me out of the room. We walked past several rooms and stopped in front of the bay of elevators. Sam pushed the up button and the elevator doors opened. She helped me into the elevator and pushed the button for the fourth floor... Sam turned and looked at me. I knew that she had many questions, but I could not answer any of them until I saw Mark.
I had to see with my own eyes that he was okay. Only then would I be able to function again, but until I knew for sure, my body was simply moving on auto pilot.
The elevator doors opened on Mark’s floor and we stepped out. Sam led me past a waiting room that had a sign proclaiming it as, Surgery Waiting Room. I did not give a single thought to the three other people in the waiting room nor did I acknowledge them as they watched Sam and I walk down the hall.
Sam stopped in front of the nurse’s station and told the nurse behind the counter that I was her brother’s fiancée and wanted to see him.
I gave her and odd look.
The nurse filled out a pass and handed it to me. I put it on with trembling fingers.
I walked toward his room leaving Sam behind. I paused outside his room with one hand on the doorknob and for the first time since he had been shot, I felt the first stirrings of hope.
I twisted the knob and walked into his room and approached his bed with quiet feet, but stopped when he turned to look at me.
I felt hot tears burn down my cheeks as he gave me a small smile. I muffled a
half sob as I rushed to his side.
I reached for his hand and was surprised by his strong grip as he held onto my hand.
“I was so scared you were going to die,” I said in a broken voice.
“I know. I could hear you. I wanted to answer you, but nothing would work,” Mark said in a scratchy voice. “What happened?”
I filled him in on everything that had happened, sugar coating nothing. I told him how I thought he was dead and had wished for death myself. I told him about the gun fight and Bruno saving us. Finally, he knew everything.
He held my hand through it all and his eyes clouded over when I told him about wishing for death. He cringed when he realized how close I had come to being shot and his eyes turned deadly when he heard that his dad tried to shoot me.
“I’m going to stop him,” Mark swore in a voice I had never heard him use.
I did not shy away from the suggestion since I had similar thoughts when he had shot Mark. He tried to destroy us and we would not rest until he was stopped.
With all my words spent, I laid my head on his heart while he stroked my hair. I felt all the emptiness in me disappear and soon I began to feel the familiar warmth from his touch spread through my body.
I turned my head and pressed a light kiss to his jaw and heard his murmur of approval. I was just about to trail more kisses along his neck when the door opened.
Two police officers entered the room. One looked to be in his sixties with more gray than brown hair on his head. He had the typical beer belly you expected to see on a cop from the cliché of being doughnut eaters. The second officer was the exact opposite. He was well over six feet tall and was as thin as an anorexic model. He looked only a few years older than me and had the kindest eyes I had ever seen. I felt instantly at ease in his presence.
I sat up straighter as they approached the bed.
“We don’t mean to intrude, but we have a few questions about the shooting,” the older officer asked.
“Okay,” I said, answering for both of us.
“Where did it happen?” He asked as he pulled a notebook out of his pocket.
I plunged into the story that I concocted. That we were walking on the beach when two masked men jumped us and how they grew angry when they discovered I had no purse. They knocked me down and when Mark tried to protect me they shot him.
“They ran away after they shot Mark. I think they thought he was dead,” I said in a shaky voice.
“You were very lucky,” the younger officer told us as they got up to leave the room.
“One more question?” The older officer said just before they reached the door. “Where did you get the van?”
I felt a moment of panic; I had not thought that far ahead. Suddenly the answer flashed through my head as Mark sent his thoughts to me.
“It was on the road when I helped Mark up off the beach. I know I stole it, but the keys were in the ignition and I felt I had no choice. You can tell the owner I’m sorry,” I added knowing they would never find the owner. I knew for a fact that all our captors had vanished.
The cops seemed satisfied and left the room after promising to try to catch the men who shot Mark.
I looked at Mark who returned my grim smile. We knew that the true perpetrators would not be caught; we would have to find them ourselves.
Another knock sounded on the door.
The person at the door knocked again slightly louder.
“Come in,” I called.
Sam stepped into the room followed by Shawn and another couple.
I knew who they were instantly. Lynn and Robert had found us.
Sam took over with introductions.
“Krista, Mark, this is Lynn and Robert,” Sam said pointing to the couple next to Shawn.
Lynn was taller than me, probably about 5’10.” She had dark brown eyes and brown hair that was cropped off in a cute haircut that I would have loved to try, but lacked the guts. She was dressed in jeans that had tears throughout them. They looked like the jeans girls spent hundreds of dollars on, but I could tell the tears were genuine, they were just worn. She wore a black shirt advertising a band I had never heard of. She was quiet and pretty and even though she had more piercings in her ears than most girls I knew, she didn’t seem over the top Goth, but more like a person saying, This is my style if you don’t like it too bad.
Her significant other though was a complete contradiction to her style. His light blonde hair was parted and combed nicely to the side. He had the prettiest shade of green-blue eyes I had ever seen on a guy. He wore chinos that looked like they had been pressed with a half of can of starch. He had a casual polo shirt on, but even that showed signs of being ironed using the other half of the can of starch. He looked like one of the models on the cover of GQ, the only thing missing was a sweater slung over his shoulder.
They seemed as different as day and night, but there was no denying their affection for each other. They were as in sync with each other as a couple that had been married for twenty years.
“So fill us in on what we missed?” Shawn said coming over to give me a one arm hug.
I looked at Mark and he gave a small nod. There would be no story telling for them. They all deserved to hear the truth and to know about the evil waiting for us.
I did most of the talking since Mark had such limited contact with anyone at the lab. I filled them in on everything, about our parent’s death, our separation and about the other two that Russo had stashed away. I held nothing back, laying it all out there in the open and watched as the others looked at me in horror as I told them about Mark’s dad. I gave Bruno his moment in the spotlight and told them how he saved Mark and me. Finally, I told them about Mark being shot and about my heart breaking when I thought he was dead.
“This was not grief. We can’t live without each other, which I already knew since Mr. Russo had filled me in on that part. I felt everything in me die when I thought he was dead,” I told them.
It took me over an hour to catch them up to speed. None of them interrupted, they all listened to me with rapt attention. I explained how Sam was right when she suggested that we might share a twin link we just needed to learn to open our minds to it.
“Mark and I were able to do it after he broke down a wall that separated us in our current dreams and figured out how to send thoughts back and forth,” I said looking at the others. Sam and Shawn looked shocked, but Lynn and Robert just exchanged a look.
“You can already do it?” I asked them.
“Yeah, we figured it out a few days after we found each other when things got sticky on the road,” Lynn said answering for both of them.
“Wow, that’s wild,” Sam chirped in. “Do you think we can do it with the rest of us too?”
“I think so because Russo had no problem reading my thoughts,” I said bitterly.
My last comment broke the silence and soon all of them were peppering me with questions. I answered their questions as best I could. The bigger questions were harder to answer. I didn’t know who our arch angel was supposed to be, and I didn’t know where the last couple was being held.
The guys quickly got into a discussion about our parent’s and our origins while us girls soon lost interest and drifted to the corner of Mark’s room. Sam and Lynn caught me up on what I missed while I was held captive.
Lynn was as easy going as Sam with the exception of having a bit of a hard edge about her. I chalked that up to the fact that she had been adopted by people that always wanted to hospitalize her for her abnormalities.
I learned that she and Robert had found each other six months ago while she was on a class trip to Washington. He recognized her instantly, but she thought he was some kook. When he tried to explain that he knew who she was, she quickly ditched him, but that night he stepped out of the shadows in her dreams. When she walked down to the lobby of her hotel the next morning, he was waiting for her. They spent the rest of the trip together. Once she got home though, they rapidly discovered t
hat they couldn’t be separated. They tried to explain it to her parent’s, but they thought she was crazy and that she needed to be hospitalized.
“We discovered that both of us had the urge to visit here, so we hit the road. We both had already graduated high school, the Washington trip was a special bonus for those of us in the state of New Mexico that graduated early,” She added.
My ears perked up at Lynn’s last statement. “You were both found in the same state?” I asked.
“No, Robert’s dad was transferred there for work. He was found in Texas.”
“What do his parent’s think about you guys taking off like that,” I asked.
“They were fine with it. We stayed with them for a few weeks before we headed this way. They’re left over from the hippie days. You know, free love, follow your dreams, which by the way, they completely believed us about the dreams. Of course, I think in their younger days they smoked a lot of pot, so I’m not sure if them believing us was an endorsement or not,” she added with a smile.
I returned her smile. Lynn was an easy person to talk to. She had enough of an edge to keep things interesting.
I looked over at Mark and could see he was struggling to stay awake. I shooed the others out of the room and promised to call if anything happened with Mark during the night.
Sam paused to give me a hug at the door.
“Hey, why did the nurse think you were Mark’s sister?” I asked.
Sam looked sheepish. “Well are all practically related anyways. Shawn thinks Robert is my brother,” she added looking hopeful.
“It’s a possibility, both of you share similar features,” I said giving her a reassuring hug.
“I am so happy you guys are okay. Shawn and I were so worried; we thought we had lost you both. It really tore Shawn up to think he lost his sister just as he was getting to know you. I felt the same. I was afraid I had lost my best friend,” she said tearfully.