The Story of Alexandra

The setting sun bled into the waves of the city shore. The sea lapped lazily at the blood-red sand. There, a small group of teens combed the beach slowly. They picked up feathers and sea shells, tossing one another into the cold shallows. Their laughing and shouting sent gulls screeching into the air and crabs scattering in their wake. The sounds of the city were distant and far away.
“Hey! Hoshi! Say somethin’ in Latin!” One of the younger boys called to a girl up at the front, walking with a man and girl quietly. She looked back, her amber eyes gleaming in the fading sun.
“Learn it yourself, Kaden!” Her tone was light and playful, and there was a smile on her face that reached her eyes. “venit!”
“That’s come on!”
“Good job, genius! Now shut up!” Hoshi’s tone stayed light, but the boy got the hint and turned back to the others.
“She’s kinda weird sometimes…” One of them whispered lightly.
Hoshi looked back to the two she was walking with. “Let’s take these guys home. They’re gettin’ on my nerves.”
The man looked down at her for a second. “You invited them, Hoshi.”
“No, Leo, I didn’t. Jade did.”
“Hey! Kids are cute!”
“We are not!” The boy from the back shouted.
Hoshi gave an irritated sigh. She felt restless.
“Look, we’ll take them home, alright?” Leo gave her a playful shove. “Just have a little more patience.”
“Whatever.”
The group quietly led the way from the beach to the car. Leo got into the driver’s seat and pulled out. They quickly returned to the city. The younger kids still jostled each other around. One by one, Leo dropped them off. By the time Kaden was home, it was completely dark and third shift workers were pulling out.
“Thank you Leo.” Hoshi sighed, rubbing her temples.
Jade suddenly inhaled. “Leo…stop the car.”
“What? Why?”
“Look.” She pointed out her window at an ally, where two men stood holding a woman against a wall. She was slumped, as if she weren’t quite awake.
“We should call the police.”
“Why? They would never make it!” It was Hoshi, who suddenly opened her door. Leo slammed the vehicle to a stop. Hoshi and Jade jumped out. Leo followed more reluctantly with a gun.
The men had huge knives. Hoshi shouted “Stop!” just before one of them plunged the knife through the girl’s stomach. Leo shot the guy’s arm. He yelped, looked over and ran. The other man hesitated, holding the coughing girl up. Then he shook his head, dropped his blade and fled with his companion.
Jade reached the girl first, but Hoshi was right next to her.
“help…me…” The girl breathed, grabbing at Hoshi. Jade ripped up her sweater to bind the bloody stomach.
Looking closely, Hoshi gasped. “Her eye!”
It was unfocused and drained of color. It was her right eye, and the reason had to be the clotting blood on her temple and along her cheek.
“I’m not worried about that as much as I am stopping her stomach from bleeding out!”
“What about the shoulder wound?” Leo pointed to black puddle on her shoulder and down her arm.
Hoshi and him both removed their jackets. Leo plastered his to her shoulder, pulling her broken arm into a sling. Hoshi wrapped the girl’s face with her shredded jacket.
The girl began to shiver.
“Shit!” Jade swore. Hoshi didn’t like that.
Jade’s mom’s an EMS!
“Call your mom, Jade.” Leo said. His voice was shaky. “Tell her she’s got a new patient.”
Jade flipped out her cell and pressed one. Her mom’s image popped up. She pressed talk and put it to her ear.
“Mom?” Her voice shook. “No, I’m fine. But there’s a girl who’s been stabbed in the stomach, left shoulder and hit cut on the right temple. She’s going blind, shivering and losing a lot of blood. We don’t have enough jackets to keep her warm and stop all the blood flow. She’s losing consciousness.”
“Cold…” The girl muttered.
Hoshi knelt down.
I have to talk to her!
“Talk to her, Hoshi!” Jade encouraged. “And Leo – get her in the car! But be careful! Don’t hurt her, and keep her sitting up. We’ve got to take her to the hospital.”
“I know you’re cold. My name is Hoshi, and I’m here to help.”
“Hoshi…” She muttered. Then she looked at Leo.
“His name is Leo, and she’s Jade.” Hoshi pointed to her friend.
When Leo came closer to her, she whimpered and tried to scoot away.
“It’s alright.” Hoshi soothed. “Don’t do that. Leo’s going to help you. He needs to put you in his car.” She spoke quietly and calmly, even though inside she felt like a mess. Her head hurt and she was queasy. But at least she could think.
Jade hung up the cell. “Get her in that car you two! We need to get her into heat.”
“She’s afraid of Leo.”
“Then we’ll have to pick her up.”
The two of them slowly and carefully picked her up. When Leo tried to help, the girl just began to struggle. So all he could do was direct them and open the door while they climbed in the back and put her on their laps. Leo got in the front, rolled up the windows and cranked up the heat. He turned the music off.
“What’s your name?” Hoshi asked carefully.
The girl shook her head. Jade sighed.
“How old are you?” Leo tried.
This time, the girl flinched and began to cry.
“It’s alright. We don’t care; we’ll help you anyway.” Jade soothed. “You’re very safe with us.”
She slowly stopped sobbing. Hoshi felt her forehead and gasped. She was shivering like mad, but her skin was burning up!
“We need to get her there, Leo.”
“I know.” He didn’t stop at a red light and took a turn just sharp enough to make Jane Doe gasp in pain. He flinched. “But as you can see, I’m taking the shortest route as fast as I can go without hurting her. I’m also not stopping at stop lights and stop signs. If we don’t get hit and all die first, we’ll get there twice as fast as usual. Keep her awake and we’ll keep her alive. Let me drive!”
Jade re-calmed her. Hoshi kept her awake without making the girl talk; instead, she talked about the beach.
“I’m sure you’ve seen it.”
She shook her head.
Hoshi was shocked.
“Well…the beach is a long stretch of flat land. It’s got some grass, but it’s mostly sand. Then, at the very edge of the land is a huge stretch of water, as far as you can see. It goes on for what feels like forever. In the sky are seagulls. They hunt the fish and crabs.”
“Crabs…?”
“They’re small red crustaceans with pinchers. They scuttled sideways on the sand.”
“There are shells on the sand, from crabs and sea snails that have abandoned them for new ones, as well as from dead clams. Then there are sea turtles and sea stars.”
For some reason, just talking about nature kept her awake. Jade tried talking about something else, when Hoshi had named a lot of animals, but she would start to drift or cry.
Finally, Leo parked at the hospital. There were people waiting for them. They were all female, thankfully. But when they’d put her on the stretcher and began to take her away, she began to scream.
“NO! Hoshi! Jade! NO!!!!”
The girls ran to her, soothing her.
“You’ll have to stay with her.” One of the women stated sadly. “One of you will need to remain in sight at all times.”
They nodded and walked by the stretcher until all they could do was watch her go behind a door. Then they listened as they sedated her, sat down on the waiting bench and…waited.