Venemous Turn

“Lacy thinks she crashed on the dirt road. I’m going to call the police and I think you should get up here too. We’re going to need help finding her if she is lost in these woods.” Amber Rose told me.

“Crashed…” I whispered as I tried to wrap my head around it.

“Leon, are you there?” she called again.

“Yeah I’m here. I’ll get in my car and drive up there as fast as I can. I still have the directions she gave me.” I said hanging up.
It felt like I couldn’t drag my feet to move faster. I had just talked to her yesterday and now I don’t know where she is. I made her so pissed and I never got to tell her I loved her. What if she was dead now? No, she couldn’t be dead, but could I really be so sure. I sped up the car as my mind kept repeating over and over this debate. I had been an idiot as I was so preoccupied with so many other things. I didn’t do anything special for Avery anymore. Hell I barely got to see her anymore, but I was trying to set things up for a better future. I wanted us to have a good future and now maybe all my planning didn’t even matter. What had we even done the past few weeks or Months? All I could think of was her arguing with me and crying. I screwed up and now I don’t know what happened to her. Does she even remember how I feel about her anymore?

I shut my thoughts off as I arrived to the dirt road. I stopped at the turn and saw what Lacy saw about 3 trees had fallen and it didn’t seem to be of a natural occurrence. I hurried up to the cabin as I saw two ranger cars parked there as well. I hurried out of the car and into the cabin. I was questioned by the rangers as they told me what seemed to be the only plan of action they had for right now. They had an ambulance on standby a few miles back just incase we found her but it seemed likely that she did crash on the turn. We still had about 3 or 4 hours till sunset and they wanted to start right away. The eight of us set off down the hill of the turn as we searched. I searched around the trees in one direction but I saw no sign of the car or my girlfriend. Lance screamed for all of us and when I got to where he was I felt the wind knock out of me.

There was the car looking as if it had been put in a junkyard crusher or whatever they called those machines that made the giant metal cubes. I held my breath leaning on a tree as I watched the ranger search the car for any signs of Avery.

“She’s no in there but there’s blood. She was probably injured and thinking she knew which way to go stumbled off to try and find the cabin. I want you each to pair off with an officer and we’ll start searching till about nightfall. We can only hope her injuries weren’t too severe.” The ranger in charged instructed.
I was paired off with one of the younger rangers. He looked at most ten years older than I was. I learned his name was Thomas Carrington, but he told me I could call him Tom. We talked a little as we searched. For the first hour I listened really. He was married and had a little girl, and a sister about the same age as Avery, who was really only a few months younger than me.

“So how long have you and she been together?” Tom as me

“About three years now I think. I met Avery at the end of my junior year but we never got together until our senior year of high school.” I told him thinking back on that first year.

“Been a long time hasn’t it. Well hopefully she’ll be ok.” He said quietly.

“Do you think her chances are good?” I questioned looking at him hopefully.

“I honestly can’t say. I don’t see how she was alive honestly with the way her car looked, but maybe she got lucky. I don’t know how lucky she can be seeing as it’s almost been twenty-four hours since the crash. I don’t see why she wasn’t a little more cautious on that turn.” He sighed as he looked more ahead down the path we were taking.

I looked down knowing that I probably wasn’t going to like the answer he was going to give and I didn’t. I knew the truth though about what probably happened though as I told him looking towards the trees in front of him, “we had been arguing before she came here. We’ve been fighting a lot lately and I knew it was bothering more and more but I didn’t know how to make it better. I was supposed to come up with her yesterday but I had thing to take care of and had to cancel. I made her mad and she always has a cloudy mind whenever she fights with anyone.”

“You can’t blame yourself. Let’s just focus on finding her for right now. She’s going to need you to stay focus so you can make it up to her once we find her.” He said. I know he was just trying to make me feel better because he had just finished telling me before how her chances were probably slim by now. Still I fooled myself with his words to stay more focused on where she could have gone.

As we walked further I heard a piece of glass break. I looked at Tom as he bent down to search around the ground. He didn’t seem to find anything around the ground but he paused as he lifted his foot to reveal a cracked key chain. I picked it up to see the photograph was the Hogwarts School Crest. Avery had always been a Harry Potter nerd and I had bought her the key chain for Christmas with some other small things.

“This is her key chain Tom.” I told him already eyeing around the immediate area trying to guess where she may have gone.

“Leon you don’t know that. Plenty of people get lost around these woods. There may be a chance its Avery’s but don’t get your hopes up.” He said trying to get my attention again but it was of no use.

“It’s hers, and don’t tell me it’s not. I gave her this damn key chain for Christmas so I should know if it’s hers or not damn it. She ahs to be close by.” I started to walk ahead going over a little mini cliff that separated the higher and lower ground by a few feet. I was yelling Avery’s name as I kept going ahead scanning all around for her. I had to find her.

“Leon, she’s over here!” Tom yelled at me back from the mini cliff.

I ran towards him and there she was laying down her clothes covered in blood in the lower part of the ground. I wanted to scream but I couldn’t. It felt like the whole world had stopped as I looked at the girl I loved laying so still in front of me. My knees gave in as kneeled on the ground beside her. I wanted to reach for her but I was afraid she would be ice cold in death. I think Tom was trying to tell me something but I couldn’t hear him. He leaned down next to me and took Avery’s wrist. I wanted to push him away instead of allowing him to touch her. Then he started waving his hand in front of me until finally I turned to face him I saw something odd in his eyes, something that didn’t make sense to me with the sight before my own eyes.

“Leon, get a hold of yourself! SHE IS NOT DEAD. SHE HAS A PULSE!” he finally yelled at me.
It broke through to me as I repeated his words to myself for a few minutes as he ran off telling me he was going to get the medics to come and take her to the hospital. I just scooted closer to her and placed my hand on her wrist. There I sat just whispering to myself she wasn’t dead as I reaffirmed it with her pulse beating under my fingertips. It was faint but all I cared about was that it was there. Then suddenly two dark brown eyes were looking into mine.

“Leon……” she whispered weakly.

“Shh… baby you don’t have to talk. I’m here you’re going to be ok. The officer went to go get the EMS people to take you to the hospital. Don’t you go scaring me like that again ok? I’ve been out of my mind since you hung up on me last night. I almost lost it when Amber Rose called to tell me you were gone. Do you know how scared I was to think you had left me for good.” I whispered loud enough for her to hear as I gently stroked her hair with my free hand.

Avery smiled weakly at me as I heard footsteps and voices heading towards us. I yelled that we were over here as I told her to hold on for awhile longer. She moved my fingers from her wrist as she grabbed onto my hand. I held onto her as if both our lives depended on it. I wasn’t making the mistake of letting her go. She was slowly lifted onto the stretcher as I followed her into the ambulance. I promised her friends I would call them as soon as we got there before the doors closed and we drove off with my hand still in hers.