As Cathy and her husband finished cleaning up, Cathy made herself a cup of her favorite tea, and sat down for the first time all day. She rummaged through the pile of mail on the table; she noticed the letter from her son. Cathy opened it.
“Dear mom, I’m sorry I haven’t been answering or returning any of your calls, I will contact you as soon as I can. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. Miss you and dad. Love you,
david
* * *
As David walked out from the library he couldn’t help but worry. David thought to himself “I don’t understand, I thought James and Finn took care of this all, I just don’t understand, none of this is making any sense to me.” It was getting late as the sky was very dark, and the moon was already shining with a luminous shine. He quickly walked back to his dorm.
* * *
Cathy read the letter from David aloud to her husband, who was relaxing in his favorite brown leather recliner, reading the newspaper from this morning. “ Steve said, I wonder why he wouldn’t call… it doesn’t seem like David to write.” Cathy was a tad confused and wondered why he would just send a letter out of the blue like this; she began to think out loud, “I wonder why he wrote… why wouldn’t he just call us back, or even come home. I’m really worried, Steve.” “I really hope he’s alright.” “Steve, maybe we should go check on him… what do you think?” Steve began “I think that sounds like a plan. We’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning.”
* * *
David walked as quickly as he could; his phone began to ring and he immediately reached into his pocket, to grab it, but was completely distracted by a large wad of something; he was so distracted by what he found in his pocket that he forgot to answer his phone. David pulled out a white envelope with his name on it, his eyes widened “MY GOSH” he thought to himself, where in the world did this come from, how did this get in my pocket? “Somebody must have slipped this into my pocket with out me noticing.” “Hmm I don’t understand, I thought James and Finn took care of this. Something awful is going on…” he said, “ I need to get back to the dorm right now.” David pulled his phone out and begins to dial Finn, “Finn, what in the world is going on?” “Meet me at the dorm, we have the car packed, we need to get out of here as soon as possible, Finn said.” David immediately hung up the phone and began to run.
* * *
Cathy couldn’t sleep due to reading the mysterious letter she received from her son, She slipped out of bed as quietly as she could, trying not to wake Steve. She picked up her phone and dialed David’s phone number; only to get his message machine. She dialed his number over and over hoping to hear her sweet, precious, son’s voice. But she got no answer, she began to pace around the house; She finally decided to sit down, she went into the living room and sat on the sofa. Her eyes began to get heavy with tears; “My precious boy, my sweet little David.” She began to think of how precious David was to her and Steve. as she did, began to drift off to sleep.
* * *
David quickly walked down the cold, silent hallway. He made it to his room and walked inside to see James and Finn standing there already; with one of his duffle bags; “fill it now, we have got to get out of here as soon as possible,” James said.
“ I want you to explain everything to me now.” David said. “I’ll explain everything on the way there.” Exclaimed Finn.
David agreed to that, and packed his things up, “alright boys I’ve packed up everything; I just need to put this key away, he tucked it safely in the plant pot by the door, and shut the door, as they then went down the hall, and down the back steps to Finn’s car. They hopped into the old rugged station wagon, and quickly left.
* * *
Cathy was awakened by the beautiful, sunshine gleaming through the living room windows, she sat up to glance at the clock “my goodness, it’s already 7:15, I should go wake up Steve, she quickly went up the stairs and turned on all the lights and opened the blinds “Wake up darling, you need to get ready to go.” Cathy walked into her closet and grabbed her clothes for the day, and put them on, “Steve you really need to get up it’s already 7:55.”
“Alright I’m getting up right now, he hopped out of bed and went into the bathroom where Cathy was brushing her hair, he gave her a kiss on the cheek, “I’m up and getting ready now, honey.” Cathy went down stairs and grabbed a couple of snacks for the car ride, and yelled “Steve I’m in the car.” Steve quickly came down the stairs dressed, and ready to go. He locked the front door and walked to the car.
“Okay, we’re off.” Said Cathy
* * *
“Okay, Finn I demand and exclamation from you and James now!” Finn said, “alright, alright, alright. This all started about a year ago, when we started talking to Richard, and we all started hanging out, well remember how we started doing the drugs in front of him, and selling them, Richard got really upset and started telling everyone including one of the professors, after he did that me, James, and Richard got in a huge fight.’’
“OH MY GOSH WATCH OUT FINN.”
* * *
Cathy and Steve have been driving for a hefty amount of time, how much longer Steve?
We have about another half hour. “My, my this trip feels so much longer than normally.” Cathy said. Cathy picked up her phone to notice that she had three missed calls, all from David, how could this be? I haven’t heard my phone ring once; she dialed David back only to hear his voice on the message machine again. “Steve I really pray he’s alright, I don’t know what I’ll do if something’s happened to my David. I’m just unsure why he’s called, but when I call him he doesn’t answer.” “I’m sure everything’s alright, and if something’s wrong, we’ll find out within the next half hour.” Said Steve.
* * *
There was at least 5 police cars and 2 ambulances at the scene, the rugged brown station wagon no longer looked, in it’s fine condition, it was toppled over and all the windows were smashed. James was thrown out of the car instantly, he was on the verge of death; a puddle of blood right underneath his body, all he could say was “Richard, I know where, I know where he…”
* * *
Cathy and Steve pulled into the college, and immediately parked. They got out of the car in a rush and started walking over in the grass, and behind the dorms, to the back steps. They got inside the dorms and started walking down the hall, Cathy muttered under her breath as they walked passed each door “room 226, 227, ROOM 228, she said with great excitement,” Steve opened the door with quite a force, realizing that the door wasn’t locked. Steve said curiously “Why is the door unlocked, yet the better question why is everything gone, and WHERE IS DAVID?”
* * *
David and Finn were slightly injured, but James was rushed to the hospital, “why was James not wearing his seatbelt?” said Finn. David was terribly sad and could barely say a word, he said a quick prayer “O, Lord, please help me, I don’t know what’s going on, but whatever it is, please give me strength and faith to get through it. And please save James, I pray that if he does die that he would come to know you and profess your name before he does, in Jesus mighty name, amen.” They were all in the ambulances rushed straight to the hospital.
* * *
Cathy searched around looking for the spare key David always kept around. Suddenly Steve gets a phone call from a blocked number.” He answered it only to hear a very odd voice giving directions to an unknown place.
* * *
The ambulance rushed straight away to the hospital, David, James, and Finn were in the same ambulance, and James was out cold, they were unsure if he was going to make it.
Tears filled Finn’s eyes, “we’ve been through everything together, he just can’t leave me like this, he truly has been such a good friend to me, and I’m nothing but a nasty, mean, jerk, who truly didn’t deserve such a good friend, if he dies…. I don’t know what I’ll do.”
David just closed his eyes again and prayed, “Lord, please whatever is going on I pray that you would just reveal it, and nothing terrible happens, please save James, amen.”
The paramedics were hovering over James body the whole ride making sure he was breathing. They reached the hospital and rushed James in straight away. The ER was extremely packed but they took James, Finn, and David back right away, James went into surgery right away, he had already lost so much blood, that they were pretty sure there was no way for him to survive. David and Finn just had some cuts and bruises. The doctor walked into meet with them, “Hi guys, I’m Dr. Sullivan, and it appears as if both of you were wearing seat belts, correct?
“Yes, said David.”
“Well you should be very thankful, if you guys hadn’t been wearing your seatbelts you would have been severely injured like Finn.”
“When will we know how he’s doing?” said David.
“Well we should hopefully know anytime now, just sit tight and we’ll be with you guys as soon as we hear anything!” said Dr. Sullivan.
* * *
Steve tries to dial the number back, but it connected him to an unknown machine, Cathy, honey, you need to call David, I feel like something is going on; Cathy immediately grabbed her bag from her shoulder, and started digging through her purse, she sat down on the bottom bunk of David’s bed, she noticed a white piece of paper on the ground, immediately she picked it up, and opened it slowly; “1698, Brooklyn Williamsburg. NYC.”
Cathy called Steve over to look at the note, “Honey do you think this has to do with our David?”
Cathy’s eyes began to turn red and tears began to run down her face; “Steve we are going to Brooklyn NOW.”
Cathy grabbed the note and Steve’s hand and they quickly ran out of room 228.
* * *