I should have taken the bus!

The door creaked opened and an irritatingly cheerful voice called out,
"Shannon, Shannon wake up, eat your breakfast, it’s time to get ready for school!"
I was feeling especially lazy that morning because it was a Monday. Oh, and the irritatingly cheerful voice, that was my mom Dana.
I hate Mondays.
I quickly put my clothes on, but I couldn't find my socks, so I kept looking, rummaging through my drawers. Nope, no socks, damn.
"Dad do you know where my socks are?" I called out.
"How would I know? I told you last night before you went to sleep to make sure everything was ready for this morning, hopefully you know where your backpack's at."
Oh great, now the advice is starting.
"I see where Shannon gets her sarcasm, George." My mom piped in
"She got the better genes then." He winked. " I will buy you some socks on the way to the school. That way it'll be a whole 10 days before we do this again. They come in packages of 10, right?
That’s my dad, funny guy extraordinaire.
I glanced outside and saw it was starting to drizzle.
"Mom, could we let Coco come in out of the rain?" I asked.
"I was thinking the same thing actually, " she said "but Coco has disappeared. He's probably waiting out the storm under someone's porch somewhere." I thought about Coco hovering under a porch somewhere with his shiny black fur matted against his skin. I could almost hear his whining and see the pitiful look on his cute little doggy face. He hates the rain. "When he comes back let him come in to dry off ok?"
"Of course honey"

On the ride to the school, I looked out the passengers window and saw a crowd of people standing around something. It was probably an accident.
"I think it's going to be one of those days" I sighed
If you have a bad attitude, it will be a bad day. Be excited!" My dad said."
"Uh-huh. This is my excited face." I replied.

He parked in front of the K mart so we could grab a package of socks. "You stay here, I'll be right back," my Dad said. Bracing himself against the rain, he covered his head with a book and ran inside.
10 minutes past. I was watching for him out the window, but I could hardly see anything past the fog gathering from the mixture of breath and cold in the car, so I opened my door to see if I could catch a glimpse of him walking out the sliding glass.
Nope, not yet.
I looked at the ground and shuddered at the sight of a row of ants pulling a dead locust on their backs. "Be excited!" I grumbled to myself, mimicking my dad.
I closed my door to block out the cold. Seconds later, my Dad scotched behind the steering wheel.
We drove in silence for a while. Then I remembered, it was late autumn, not the season for locusts or ants. The bugs were all hibernating by now. Why had I seen them there then?
"Dad, while you were inside, I saw something so gross!" I said
"What did you see?"
"A row of ants pulling a dead locust on their backs."
"It’s not the right season for bugs," he said. "You must have been so bored you imagined it.”
"Whatever" I rolled my eyes "I know what I saw.”

My dad dropped me off in front of the doors to the school. Inside I saw my friend Jen.
"Hey! What's up chickadee?" I greeted her with a broad smile.
"Not much," she shrugged "How was your weekend?”
"Boring, except for a few creepy dreams."
"Boring here too, but without the bad dreams." She answered.
We started laughing. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad. We headed to class.
The lessons started, and everything was pretty normal. Except for a strange moment when someone knocked at the classroom door. I got a strong sense of foreboding like they were going to ask for me and bring me bad news, but that didn't happen.

When I finished my classes, the school secretary paged me over the intercom. There was a message for me that had been called in by phone at 1:55pm. I read. "Shannon,
You’ll have to find your own ride. Flat tire. Sorry! Dad.”

This must be the bad news. What perfect timing, just beautiful, it would have been nice if they had paged me before the bell rung and all my friends were rushing out of the building! It was nearing 3 o’ clock now.
As I was formulating my new plan (1st, try to find Jen. If she's gone, I would have to ride the bus) two guys in maybe their thirties walked over to me. One of them was mid height with rusty brown hair, chubby face and a goatee. He was chewing his gum like a kid chewing a gumball. Smack, smack, smack. The other one was tall and thin, almost gaunt. His hair was slicked back and his dark eyes were scanning the empty hallway. What was he doing? Memorizing locker numbers?
Chubby face said: "Shannon?"
"Yes?" I responded, surprised.
"My name is John, and this is Charles. We work at the firm with your dad. He asked us to come by and pick you up. Said something about a flat tire."
I hesitated. I didn’t really know these guys, but they obviously knew my dad, and about the flat tire. Actually, didn’t John work for the cleaning company that took care of dads building? And Jen would be gone now for sure. I could either hop in the car with them, or ride the UTA. I remembered the creepy guy who'd stared at me for 20 miles last time I'd ridden the bus... "Nice to meet you John" I smiled. "Where's your car?"

My first inkling that something wasn’t right came when Charles finally started looking at me. Or rather, leering at me. I shifted uncomfortably, and turned to say something to John. I stopped to pull whatever was poking me, out of my side. It was a cigarette butt, lovely.
They were all over the floor too.
"Uh, John? I…I think you missed the turn." I stammered
"Oh yea, uh…well, I just need to drop Charles here off at home first."
As the car rolled on, my panic increased. 10 minutes turned to 20 and city smog was soon replaced by winding country roads. Charles lit a cigarette.
"I'd really feel more comfortable if you'd drop me off at my house now. My parents will worry if I don’t show up soon." I said in a voice that was a bit too high to be my own.
John tilted his rearview mirror back at Charles. "I'd really feel more comfortable if you'd drop me off at my house now." John mimicked. (Smack, smack, smack)
Charles and John burst into fits of laughter. Oh shit, I thought, I'm in trouble.



I don't know how long I sat there in the dark. The only tools I had to measure time by were sensation. There was a tingling in my shoulder blades, from the unnatural position of my hands above my head, and the biting of the ropes into my hands….
I was more concerned about the implications of my actual wounds. I could feel a throbbing around my eye where Charles had whacked me during the struggle, and I hoped to God that Charles got an infection in the spot where I bit his cheek. He'd finally decided to take things beyond leering, but I wasn’t going down without a fight. I lost! I could taste blood on my lip (mine or his?) and various parts of my body were bruised and sore. I was pretty sure my ribs were broken, and wet blood was leaking out of my head, and down my legs. I'm not perfectly clear about what happened, I lost consciousness after they beat me with the chair. But I guessed that you didn’t have to be a genius to figure it out.

After awhile there wasn’t any pain anymore, there was just a cool darkness. In that darkness, I fell into a deep and troubled sleep. When I woke up I found myself lying outside the building in the bushes. Had one of them come back and set me free while I slept? But wouldn’t that be a stupid move? I'd seen their faces. What if only one of them had felt bad and come back without the other knowing about it? And what if he changed his mind? Shit, I'd better get out of here. I grunted as I pulled myself out of the dirt.
My head felt like a hot air balloon hovering above my body, my ribs were splinters of bone and glass jabbing at me sharply with each step. My whole body was throbbing as if to the beat of music I couldn’t hear, my hands were turning a blue color above the rope marks, and my fingertips were already black. "I just need to see a doctor." I told myself, as the tears streamed down my face. Some painkillers and a few days rest and I would be ok. Coco would sit with me. Yes, Coco would sit with me and we could watch some T.V. together while I drifted in and out of sleep. Take a few days off of school right? No problem. I just needed to get some help.
I looked around for someone who could help me. The windy country street was completely vacant. I guess that’s the whole point of driving to the country, huh? So I decided to just knock on someone's door. I had to get off the street right away.
"What if they come back?" I thought, sucking in a painful breath. "What if they come back?"
After a 10 minute wander I hobbled up to a house. But what if this house was one of their houses? I hadn’t thought of that.
My vision was starting to blur with the pain. I saw a church in the distance ahead of me. A church, yes that felt safe enough. And the brown of it, the brown of the brick on the building was vibrant and sharp. It was the most brilliant place in the whole neighborhood. Who knew brown could be so beautiful? It was calling to me, almost like a sign. I'd go there.

I stumbled into the church, looking for a phone or a friend. I needed to call home. Where were all the people?

I pulled open the doors to the chapel, my head screaming at me to stop moving, and my ribs feeling as if they might burst right through the skin.
There, sitting in a pew, was a friendly looking lady wearing a very colorful sac dress. Her hair was a long mix of grey-blonde-brown, and a scarf held her hair out of her face. As I opened the door, her dramatically made up blue eyes, turned and locked with mine. Sitting next to her, licking his fur, was Coco.
"Well my lands young lady, it looks as if you've been through the wringer." She smiled sadly.
The hackles on my neck rose at the sight of Coco next to this woman. Something was not right here. "Who are you? What is Coco doing here?"
"He's been waiting for you Shannon." She offered "He loves you very much you know. And he's quite good company. Why, he was just telling me about…"

"Lady, I'm sure your conversation with my dog was lovely. But I'm in a lot of pain and I need to get out of here before they come after me. They might come after me." I whined. (Please God; don’t let this lady be in on the kidnapping.)
"No Shannon." She tsk’ed at me, "You only think your in pain, don’t you worry now,nobody is after you anymore."
That made me angry. What did this stupid lady know about what kind of pain I was in? Couldn’t she see? My ribs were broken for hells sakes! My head was a pounding mass of pain! And how did she know my name?
Coco looked at me with compassionate eyes. He kept licking his fur, which was matted with blood around his leg and belly. Was that a tire track above his leg?
"Coco! What's happened to you Coco?" I hurried to his side, forgetting that I was broken and battered myself.
"He's dead child, and so are you. You’re so lucky to have a companion to go with you to the light! Coco has made a very unique sacrifice for you. On the other side your wounds will be healed and you will become one with love and light." She said encouragingly. A beautiful white light began to descend from the ceiling. It started in a small point and widened…

I woke up with a gasp. Dripping sweat made my clothes cling to my body.
The door creaked opened and an irritatingly cheerful voice called out:
"Shannon, Shannon wake up, eat your breakfast, it’s time to get ready for school!"
My brain tingled with the memory of something while I strained to get up against stiff limbs. I could hear the sounds of a drizzling rain pouring outside my window.
"Mom? Where is Coco?"