Chapter thirty seven
Ryleigh shrugged off Anika's decline to help get the food. She probably wants some time to collect her thoughts, he told himself. Which was a good idea because he wanted to make sure he explained everything to her. Yes he was drug dealer but there was so much more to it than what Anika thought. He knew that Anika could see past his previous life style but there was still the part of her that was still slightly disgusted. Hell, even he was disgusted with himself but he had his reasons, and by tonight Anika would know them as well.
The thought of them actually talking about their pasts made him want to smile yet frown at the same time. A part of him wanted to never keep a secret from Anika and he couldn't help but feel anxious about telling her his whole story.
Then there was the part of him that wanted to disregard Gelsey's words when she said they were alike in more than one way. He hoped not. He had noticed Anika making more frequent trips to the office and then there was the day that the police cruiser had pulled into the parking lot. At the time he had thought that it was just a regular check up on Gelsey with the station. But then the fact that Anika had gone to see Gelsey about an hour prior to the officer's arrival and she still hadn't come out slightly worried him.
"You okay Ryleigh?"
Ryleigh looked up from his feet to meet the curious faces of Anika's friends. And now his friends as well.
"Yeah. Just lost in thought." he gave a casual shrug and looked around. They were back at Anika, Mel, and Keira's cabin. Seeing how close the girls all were made a small smile creep onto his lips. Sure he had a cabin mate, but they hardly ever talked and the kid almost always slept elsewhere so he was pretty much left alone.
"Alright, while we wait for Anika to get back with food what should we do?" Ivy asked but any replies that she was going to get was cut off by a blood curdling scream.
By the way it echoed through the tree tops, Ryleigh guessed that it had come from the center of camp where the office, cafeteria and other buildings were.
"Help!"
Without a second thought, Ryleigh sprinted down the path they had just come from with Skinner hot on his heels while the girls followed behind him.
"Who do you think screamed?" Ryleigh heard Keira ask but there wasn't a reply.
Pushing their legs faster, Ryleigh was running around the last bend on the path when he could hear more shouting.
"Get off of her!"
"Stop it!"
"Someone get Gelsey!"
"Call nine-one-one!"
The trees cleared and Ryleigh wiped the back of his hands across his eyes to clear his vision from the rain that stung in his eyes. As they ran, the sky had opened up again and dumped buckets of water on the already slippery mud paths.
A group of kids blocked Ryleigh's gaze from whatever they were surrounding. Some girls were crying and screaming while there was an evil cackle from the center of it all.
"Stop it Victoria!" Ryleigh momentarily froze as a random voice screamed.
Ryleigh broke through the layer of kids and ran a hand through his soaked hair to get it out of his eyes so he could see. What he did come to face with made his stomach churn uneasily.
Two guys were struggling to keep Victoria on the ground. She thrashed and bucked around in the mud as she tried to slide away from their hold. One of her hands still clutched at metal baseball bat.
Two other girls Ryleigh recognized as Vicky's friends were there too. One of them was already lying face down as another girl laid her full weight over her to keep her from getting up. An angry scowl distorted Vicky's friend's face as she strained to reach for another bat in the mud a few feet away.
Hurrying forward, Ivy kicked the bat further away from the girl and pounced on her, causing the girl on bottom to let out a strangled cry.
Mel snuck around the other girl undetected. The last of Victoria's friends was still standing and swinging her bat at anyone who would try to tackle her. A kid clutched his arm after the metal bat collided with it when he reached to grab the bat.
Mel jumped forward at the girl and landed on her back with her arms around the girl's throat. Skinner rushed in after Mel and ripped the bat away from her when she tried to hit Mel with it. He tossed the equipment away before he quickly knocked the girl's feet out from her so her and Mel's combined weight brought them crashing down into the mud.
"Ryleigh!" Keira frantically grabbed his wrist and began to tug him over to where a group of crying girls and a few cafeteria ladies were huddled around. Someone was holding one of the camp sweat shirts out like a tarp over the center of the circle.
More and more kids parted out of Ryleigh's way as he trained his eyes to peer through the rain and bodies at the figure crumbled in on herself in the mud.
"Oh god." Keira froze in front of Ryleigh when they broke into the center.
The only thing that Ryleigh could see around one of the lunch lady's slightly plump body was the pair of muddy sneakers.
Taking two long strides around to see the girl's body better, Ryleigh had to swallow back the bile that rose into his throat.
He didn't need to see her face under her raven hair, still slightly curled even when wet, to know who she was.
Anika was curled into herself on her side in the mud. The cafeteria lady beside her was trying to brush the wet sheet of black hair out of her face without jostling her head too much. It was impossible to tell where the blood was coming from, but the ground around Anika's head was a rusty brown color as her blood mixed with the mud.
Ryleigh lost all sense of feeling in his limbs but his legs still carried him to Anika's side where he dropped to his knees. A hand reached out to brush the last few strands of her hair out of her face and it took a second for him to realize that it was his hand.
One of the lunch ladies let out a choked sob when Anika's deathly pale face was revealed. Her lips were a lifeless blue color and her sunken in cheeks were a dull marbled grey.
She looks dead. The thought raced around Ryleigh's mind but he forced it away. He wanted to reach out and pull her onto his lap, out of the bloody mud but he didn't dare. One look at her bruised arms and legs made him freeze never mind the red that seemed to continuously stream out of her hair with the rain that managed to soak through the hoodie that someone held above her.
Instead, Ryleigh settled for taking one of her hands holding her knees up to her chest and held it lightly. The skin on her knuckles was raw and broken but the rain washed the blood away.
"Anika?" Ryleigh was briefly aware that Keira was calling out her name through her sobs. Gelsey had also arrived, taking the cafeteria lady's spot on the other side of Anika. But all he could focus on was how cold Anika's skin felt against his. She really could be dead if it weren't for the fact that he could see her chest expand every other second as she labored to breath in her unconscious state.
"Ryleigh..." Ryleigh forced himself to look away from Anika's beaten state up to Gelsey's watery eyes. She gazed back into his eyes and read the fear and blame in his swirling blue eyes.
"Hey, this isn't your fault." Gelsey spoke with a slight edge of anger to her voice and the hand not placed on Anika's shoulder came to cup Ryleigh's cheek in a motherly way. He didn't even know that he was crying until his shoulders shook and his chest burned with his suppressed sobs. Ryleigh inhaled deeply to calm himself and turned his head to the side where Keira was crying beside him. He pulled away from Gelsey's touch to slide his free arm around the trembling blond's shoulders.
"Where the hell is that ambulance?" Ryleigh glanced at a very pissed off Mel. He couldn't be sure, but he thought a few tears leaked out from the feisty girl's eyes and mingled with the raindrops that ran down her cheeks.
"I hear the sirens!" someone at the back of the crowd shouted.
"I need everyone to go back to their cabins or go into the cafeteria except for those who are holding down the girls." Gelsey ordered in a strong voice despite the frantic look on her face. Like a swarm, kids scattered around.
Six or seven police officers ran around up the path and immediately handled the girls by handcuffing their wrists behind their backs. Victoria didn't struggle like her two friends did. Instead, she stared at Anika in her battered and bloody state with a snarl like grin. As three of the officers led them back down the path their shouts and cussing died in the growing distance.
Next to come up the path were two paramedics running in the mud as best as they could with a gurney in between them.
Gelsey gently pulled Ryleigh away from Anika as Mel and Ivy took each of Keira's hands. They heard one of the paramedics swear under his breath at Anika's condition as they cautiously moved her onto the gurney and strapped her in. Their worried faces only made the girl's cry harder.
"Come on. Genevieve is getting a car ready for you all." Gelsey quickly followed the paramedics out to the parking lot where the ambulance sat with the back doors open. Only one police car remained as the few officers left were talking with the kids that witnessed Victoria attack Anika.
"We can only take one person m'am." one of the paramedics said as he climbed into the back.
"Genevieve-" Gelsey looked at her sister over the top of her car. The other blond lady nodded quickly already knowing what her twin was going to ask.
"I'll take them in the SUV. Just go."
With a sniffle, Gelsey pulled herself into the ambulance and sat beside the paramedic as the other shut the door and ran to the driver's side. He jumped in and turned the sirens on again as they disappeared out of sight down the road from the parking lot.
"Come on. Everyone in." Genevieve instructed as she clicked her seat belt in once in the driver's seat. Once all the doors were closed and everyone was seated, she drove out of the lot and towards the hospital.
The only thoughts running through Ryleigh's head as he looked blankly out of the rain obscured windshield was....
I should've gone with her to get the food.