The hurt soul

My head hit the ground causing a loud thud. I grabbed my head, which was now bleeding from the open wound right above my bangs. I got up and ran outside, but I could hear him following me catching up no matter how fast I ran. My heart pounded as I ran into a dark alley, and since it was the middle of the night it would be extremely hard for him to see me. I saw him run past the alley screaming, “Where the hell are you Jess?” My name was Jessica, but everyone called me Jess except for Thomas, my step dad. The only time he called me Jess was when he was pissed. I thought to myself, “I can’t go home. He will stay up and wait for me, and my mom won’t believe me. But where was there to go?" The only person that I knew of who was close enough for me to run to is Denel’s. He's one of my friends that is so protective of you that if a dude looks at you the wrong way he will get ready to punch them in the face. If he found out what was really going on then there would be more problems because there was no way Denel was going to stand back and watch me get abused.


I ran down 8th street, and by the end of it, my side was cramping so bad that tears fell as I kept running faster and faster, not stopping for anything. The road ended as i came up on Denel's house. I saw a window to the right of the front door and knocked. The lights were on and Denel usually would be the only one up at three in the morning on a school night so I kind of knew it would be his. I was right, it was him! He slowly came to the window. Once he saw me, he shot off down stairs. I could feel blood running down the corner of my eye now. As Denel opened his front door the alarm sounded. I wanted to hide, but he went upstairs and told his mom that he needed the code to shut the alarm off. He told her that when he opened the door to get a cd from his truck the alarm started blaring, scaring the shit out of me. She gave him the code to get the alarm to shut up. Once the alarm system was off Denel said, "What happened to you Jess?" I looked at him with tear filled eyes and said, "I can’t tell you the truth." He looked at me and said, "Jess that’s bullshit you wouldn’t have ran all the way to my house to get my help if you weren’t going to tell me." I was crying by then so I looked up at him, tears running down my cheek, "He hit me," I said. Denel said, "Who hit you? I'll kick their ass!" I looked up at him and said, "You can't. Its Thomas, my step dad." He grabbed me and took me inside cleaning the wound on my head. It finally stopped gushing blood and I was pretty happy about that. Then Denel said, "Does your mom know he does this to you?" I looked at the floor when I answered the question. "No, she doesn’t believe me so I stopped trying to tell her." Denel didn’t say anything, but he was writing on a sheet of paper. Then out of nowhere he picks me up and carries me to his blue, four door Chevy truck with 24 inch wheels. It was pretty, but the wheels didn’t need to be that big. Once he sat me in the passenger side I asked, "Where exactly are we going and won’t your parents be mad if you’re not in your room ready to go to school tomorrow?"


He looked at me and said, "We are going to your house, and if your mom still doesn’t want to believe you then we’re going to the police." I looked at him crying “They’re going to take me away and I won’t ever be able to come hang out with you or anything is that really what you want?" Denel looked at me and said, "They’re not going to take you away. I love you Jess! I wouldn’t do anything to tear us apart from being friends." Tears were falling, and I couldn’t hold them back no matter how hard I tried. I sat there my head against the window dozing off for the first time all night when suddenly Denel wakes me and say’s were here. I started crying again and he held me saying it was going to be okay. I walked in and Thomas was sitting at the kitchen table. When he saw me walk in he got up and said, “Where the hell have you been?” I looked at him and said, "Somewhere I won’t get killed." Thomas got mad at the comment and went to throw me, but when he did Denel came and picked him up by the neck and said, “You sorry bastard! Hit her again and she will be the last thing you touch!” I ran into my mom’s room screaming. "Momma!" No answer. I shook her and she woke up saying, “What baby? What’s the matter?” She saw my face, sat up, and asked, "What happened?" Then out of nowhere Thomas came in. He had a knife, the tip covered with blood. I screamed. My mom got up and was holding me, while I was screaming screaming, "No stop!!" He came toward me, and my mom jumped in front of me screaming, “What the hell is wrong with you Thomas?” He looked at her and said, "You’re no good either," grabbed her, and slit her throat right in front of me. I ran in the living room where I saw a trail of blood leading to outside so I followed it, hoping it would be Denel.
I was right. Denel had managed to crawl his way to his truck. I jumped in the passenger seat screaming and crying. He looked at me and said, "If I would have known it would have been this bad I would have gotten the cops or came with a gun. I smiled a little. I then thought to myself, "It was bad that Denel could still joke with a knife wound through his upper stomach. I could tell he was in pain, just as anyone could have if they saw him. I got out, went to the driver’s side and got him out, helping him to the passenger seat. Before I could get him completely into the car, Thomas came running out holding my mom screaming, “ You bitch look what you made me do!” I finished helping Denel and ran to the driver seat cranking up his truck, I locked the doors and sped out my drive way.
We got a few miles up the road when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw Thomas gaining on us and fast. I didn’t know what to do I just sped up and went straight to the hospital. Thomas followed us all the way there I turned the car off and tried to get Denel out but every time I tried he would grunt and I didn’t wanna hurt him so I took off running in the hospital locking the doors to his Chevy. I ran to the desk and said I need a nurse my boyfriends been stabbed in the upper region of the stomach. She called a lot of other nurses. Finally two came with a wheel chair I ran outside just in time to see Thomas trying to knock out the window. Then he saw the nurses and took off running.
Denel's part 1
Thomas was screaming through the unopened window, "You make a deal with me or I will slaughter you and your whole family, your choice what will it be?? I looked out the window staring at Thomas. He was a big guy, at about 6'0 ft tall and 230lbs. He worked out at the gym all the time so his muscles were well built. I knew his threat was serious. I started crying because I knew what I would have to do, but that choice would soon haunt me for the rest of my life. I felt bad, but I had to do it. I couldn't let my family die over a girl I loved. It would hurt me not being able to hold her, but in the back of my mind. I knew it had to be the right choice. I made the deal with Thomas. He wrote the plan out and it was up to me to learn it.

Jessica Part 2
The nurses got Denel out the car and said they would have to do immediate surgery. I sat in the room he was going to stay in and fell asleep. I was awakened a few hours later by the bed hitting the door frame. The nurse said "sorry" and I said "I need to be awake any way" and smiled. Denel woke up about 10 min after that. He looked at me, and said "Thank god, I thought he got you". I looked at him and said, "No he left. When he saw all the nurses, I explained what happened and they called the police. We gave them police reports and then the police officer said, "Since I was 17, I could live with Denel if I wanted to and if his parents would allow it." He looked at me and smiled.
A week later he got released from the hospital, and his mom was in the lobby waiting on us. When she saw me she hugged me and asked, "Are you okay?" I looked up at her funny and said, "How do you know what happened?" She said,"Because Denel left a note the night you came to our house saying your dad had hit you. He called us after he was stabbed and your dad came after you." I looked at Denel and he hugged me. He said, "Yea, by the way, thanks for saving me." I looked at him and said, "How did I save you?" He answered with, "Because if you wouldn’t have gotten me to the hospital I would have died." I looked up at him and said, "No problem." He looked at me and said I have a surprise for you at my house. His mom and dad started to laugh which made me feel uncomfortable. We got to his house. I looked up as he was saying, "You know how I told you thanks for saving me?" I looked up and said, "Yes." He looked down at my lips slowly grabbing my head then kissing them. He then said, "Sorry, but I can’t save you this time, I refuse to die for you but I love you!" He kisses me again but a lot longer this time. He then says, "Jess I'll always love you." I was confused, and then in the window was Thomas with a rifle. Denel looked up and nodded and then Bang I fell to the ground I had been shot in the chest. Denel looks down at me, tears running down his face, "I'll always love you, remember that," and he kissed me again, except this time I didn’t kiss back. I couldn’t. I was numb, then I blacked out and never woke up.



Jessica Sanders died June 16 1989