AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The woodland spanned on for miles, but I knew that Sam was a reluctant walker, so the chances of them still being close were good. I thought about going in and looking for them. I thought about the scene that I might walk into, though, and the idea of Sam’s hands being anywhere on Tilly’s body was enough to set my poorly circulating blood boiling.
“Hey, man,” Sam said as he appeared from some bushes a little further on than I had walked.
“Where’s Tilly?” I asked him outright without a thought of trying to hide why I was sniffing around.
“Oh man,” Sam said with a grin on his face as he took in my reaction. “You really are crushing on her, aren’t you?” he said, and his voice was full of playful laughter that at the moment made me want to punch him in the face, until it stopped.
“I asked you where Tilly is,” I said with narrowed eyes that conveyed all the warning that my voice didn’t.
“Chill out, man,” Sam said as he rolled his eyes. It was like he thought I was overreacting. “She walked off in some kind of bitch fit like ten minutes ago; she’ll be back at the party by now,” Sam said with a shrug.
“Are you sure?” I asked him suspiciously.
“Scouts’ honor,” Sam said, grinning at me again. “Hey, are you ready? It’s time,” he said with his eyes glowing in anticipation of the trouble we had planned to cause.
“Sure,” I said distracted. My eyes had returned to the crowd as I tried to find Tilly among it, but I couldn’t find her.
“Come on then,” Sam said as he pulled me away from the party and towards the large selection of fireworks that had been rigged to set off at midnight.
Sam pulled out a torch when we reached the table and started to follow the fuse wire to a small timer that was pinned behind a tree for safety. “I’ve found it,” he said as he bent down and started to look at the simple interface. “I’ll be able to sort this out, no problem,” he said with grin as he started to twist the dial, until the slow clicking had turned into a louder, more frequent beep. “She’s good to go in five minutes.”
“We better get out of here then,” I said quickly as I glanced around us to make sure that no one had seen us.
“Yeah,” Sam said as he eyed up the huge cannons that were rigged to blow right at the very end.
“You’re sure this is safe, though?” I asked him as I followed his line of sight to the disturbingly big fireworks that were lined up.
“Sure, no one is going to be in the woods,” he said with a shrug, and then he started to jog slowly back towards the wedding party.
I could feel a weird sense of wrongness in my gut as I followed him, but I knew that it was already too late to go back on the prank. The timer had already been pushed forward and our examination of the fireworks had already spent precious time that we didn’t have. I slowed down when I reached the crowd and casually blended back into it, as the light started to set on fire.
The whole crowd looked up as the unexpected bangs caught their attention, and for a moment there was panic, before everyone realized that they were all heading towards the woodland and far away from them. I looked around as the crowd stayed mesmerized by the sky, but I still couldn’t find Tilly anywhere.
The cannons started to blow, and I felt a wash of relief as I realized that it was almost over. Everything was going to be alright, that’s what I really thought—and then it happened. The last cannon didn’t shoot up into the sky like a rocket; instead, it fell and started to shoot through the open air like a torpedo, directly into the woodland.
The whole crowd seemed to take in a deep breath as the cannon started to explode, and for a moment, her sickening screams were hidden by the explosions. They died away, though, and then the night air was full of the sound of her pain. I could feel my legs running, before I’d even registered what was making the sound.
I stopped when I’d reached the place where the cannon had gone off. She was lying there, in the blackened grass. All I could see was smoke and her body, so small against the landscape. Her hair spread around her, as though it was the lasting flames from what had just attacked her. She let another pain-filled cry leave her lips and I fell to my knees by her side. “I’m here,” I whispered to her.
“James?” she asked me, just before her eyes fell shut and, for a sickening moment, I thought that I had killed her.
*******
Chapter 11
Tilly
I didn’t remember falling asleep, but suddenly I was waking up. I tried to open my eyes, but I could feel them lagging behind the instructions from my brain. They opened slowly and, at first, there was nothing but pain as blinding white light filled my vision and left no room for anything else. I closed my eyes, which happened much more quickly than they had opened.
My throat felt dry and itchy, as though I hadn’t had a drink in a week and I’d just finished a four-mile run. I forced my eyes back open and waited for the pain to fade. It took a while, but eventually the room came into focus, and my brain was thrown out of its loop by confusion. Where am I? I asked myself as I looked around the crystal-white room that smelled like disinfectant.
“You’re awake,” James’ voice came from somewhere to the side of me, but I found that my head couldn’t move at all. It was like I was stuck on something, or something had me clamped down. “Don’t try to move,” I heard him say as I struggled against restraints that I couldn’t see.
I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t because my throat was too dry. I coughed instead and, for the first time since I’d opened my eyes, I felt fire running down the right side of my chin and neck. It was as if someone had taken a lighter to my skin and was remiss to pull it away. I felt like I was melting, and as soon as I noticed it, my whole body seemed to, and I could feel my temperature rising.
“Here,” James said softly as he put a plastic straw to my lips, and I started to drink quickly from the cup in his hands. Every time I swallowed the water, my chin and neck hurt, but I tried to ignore the pain. I didn’t even know why they were hurting—I didn’t even know where I was. I had enough to think about without being a baby about a bit of excruciating pain. “Do you know where you are?” James asked me with eyes full of something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
“No,” I managed to croak out as I looked at him with desperate eyes, silently pleading with him to explain what was going on.
“We were at the wedding and the fireworks went off early,” James said, and his eyes flushed with sadness and the shine of tears that were yet to be cried.
I couldn’t help but feel confused by how sad he seemed to be. We’d never been close, so his reaction seemed a little over the top, considering.
“One of them didn’t make it into the sky. You were walking out of the woods and it hit you. You’ve been pretty badly burned, but you’re going to be alright. I’ve talked to my dad and he’s agreed to pay for any reconstruction surgery you want, but to be honest, I don’t think it’s even that bad,” he said as he trailed off into a ramble.
“What’s not that bad?” I asked. I’d understood everything that he’d said, but my brain couldn’t put any of it together. It was like the drugs the doctors had given me were working against my brain to ensure that no signals got where they needed to go. That kind of made sense to me, though, because it was blocking out the pain receptacles, so why not everything else?
“You’ve been left with some scarring,” James said, as though he was trying to break the bad news to me gently.
“Scarring?” I asked as I reached up and felt the heavy bandages that had been wrapped around my shoulders and neck.
“Well, yeah,” James said as he shifted uncomfortably. “I mean, the firework full-on exploded in your face; you’re lucky it wasn’t worse, or so the doctor tells me. You’ve got some scarring on your right shoulder than runs up to your chin, but to be honest, it isn’t as bad as it sounds,” James said as he downplayed the fact that I’d been scarred for life in a place where everyone could see.
/>
“How long before I can get out here?” I asked him, because every other question I had would have resulted in my tears.
“The doctor says you’ll be good to go home soon, but it’ll be a while before you can get back to normal life,” James said as his eyes flickered to the two police officers who were standing outside of my room. I noticed a nervous swallow as he watched them approaching the door, and I tried to make a mental note to ask him about it later, but I was unsure how much of the conversation we’d just had I would retain, never mind such a small gesture.
The police officers knocked on the door, and James looked back at me for a moment before he walked over and pulled the door open.
“I was hoping we might be able to have a word,” the police officer said in a stern, deep voice that seemed to fill the room.
“Can you come back a little later?” James asked as his eyes continued to flicker between me and the officer standing in front of him.
“It’s fine, James, I’ll be fine; don’t waste his time making him come back later,” I said lightly as I let my eyes drift closed.
“I’ll be back soon,” James promised me, and then I heard his footsteps leave the room and the door close with a soft click behind him.
