How He Saved a Life

Ellie

Love.
A four letter word that means nothing unless you were saying it to someone that you care about.
It can be a goodbye. It can be a hello. It can simply be a way of letting someone know you still care about them. But for me, it was goodbye.
It had been hours-days since we had spoken. When I left Jack neglected to watch. He stayed in the bus while the other four just watched. Alex hugged me, it felt nice to be met with his warm embrace once more, however now I yearned for a different set of arms.
So much had changed.
“Come on Constance,” I sighed as I walked away from the best thing that had happened to me.
He was going to run after me.
Wasn’t he?

---

Jack

“You’ve got to fucking come out sometime!” Zack knocked on my door. It had been almost a week since she had gone, a week too long.
I didn’t even say goodbye.
For that entirety I didn’t do much. All I could think about was her. I had missed shows, thus they had to be cancelled, not one member of the band was happy with me. Alex had completely blanked me. He fucking hates me now.
“Oh come on Jack, stop being such a girl!” He bashed again. It was no use, I wasn’t coming out for anyone. Not even the rancid scent of rotting beer would influence me to confront the outside world. There was no longer anything out there for me.
Could they not tell that I didn’t want to be spoken to?
“Jack…” I guess they didn’t. Rian’s soothing was muffled by the door, but I still reluctantly heard it. What the fuck did Mr. Perfect want to say? His life was made. He had Cass while I had nobody.
“Go…AWAY!” I kicked the door to stun them. It seemed to work as they backed away after that. A few more hours of silence were what I needed.
That’s when my phone rang.
Anxiously I approached the glowing electronic device, wondering what on earth it was screaming about. When I picked it up there was an unknown number printed on the fluorescent screen. Annoyed I hung up.
Seconds later it rang more.
Again I hung up.
It rang.
I hang.
It rang.
I hang.
It rang.
I didn’t hang.
This time it had rung for a completely different reason – the mysterious caller had revealed them self so that they could give me this message. It was Alex and he was dead serious.
Turn on the TV you ignorant bastard. Now.
With a confused look on my face I fiddled with the switched behind the plasma screen that sat in my segment, it hadn’t been used for the entire tour so it wasn’t plugged in. Eventually I got the thing working and the words in the screen scratched my heart to pieces.
25 year old girl found dead. 16 year old sister traumatised and is now missing.
My screams filled the entire bus. I collapsed to the floor in a bundle. Dreadful images filled my brain and wouldn’t fade away.
It was Ellie.
Constance was dead.
And now she could be too.
I am a monster.
My mental soliloquy was disrupted by my phone ringing. With a stumble I approached the counter where it was lying, frightened to read the text. As I lifted the phone off the counter the bus began to move, flinging the portable device across the room. Without looking at the text I knew exactly what it was saying.
They were taking me to her, even though I didn’t deserve it.