Save Me.

Not even a minute after Brian and I walked into the sound booth, I watched Emily walk out of the studio.

"Where's she going?" I asked before the door closed.

"Said something about needing some fresh air," Jimmy said, shrugging. "She should be back in a few minutes, though." I nodded, trying not to let myself worry.

She had been avoiding me for a few days now, and I knew she thought I didn't notice. But I did, and I knew why, too. I wasn't an idiot.

After about five minutes of her being gone, I started to get antsy. Emily still wasn't back, and it was unusual for her to not be around one of us. Yeah, that made me sound clingy. But knowing her past, I didn't want her to be alone.

"Should someone go check on her?" I asked after a moment. I couldn't take it anymore, I knew something wasn't right.

Before anyone could answer, I heard someone yelling. And I would know that voice anywhere. I was grateful that the rest of the guys heard it too. We all rushed out as fast as we could, words not needed.

As soon as we got outside, we saw what the yell was about. And it was fucking horrifying.

Emily laid on the ground, covered in a pool of blood that I assumed was her own. Meanwhile there was a man - definitely older than her - beating her to a pulp. The sight of it sickened me, I was borderline shaking with anger. It was a good thing that Matt and Jimmy got the guy first, because if I did, he wouldn't be breathing.

Johnny was already on the phone with paramedics, so Brian and I walked/ran over to Emily.

"Are you okay?" I knew it was the worst question I could ask. But I wasn't sure what else to say, and I had to keep my anger in.

"Dude, that's a stupid question and you know it," Brian said. "It's obvious that she's okay after getting the shit kicked out of her." I glared at him, and he shut up after that.

"Emily, stay with me. Help is coming," I told her, noticing that she was beginning to close her eyes. "Don't go to sleep on me. Just stay awake."

I tried to move the hair out of her face as best as I could. There was blood everywhere, and it didn't take much for it to get on my hand. She must have saw it too; fear flickered in her eyes for a brief moment.

I took a look at the man who attacked her, who was currently pinned against the ground by Matt and Jimmy. The man sort of resembled Emily; the same shade of hair and face shape.

I looked back down at Emily, noticing that her eyes were no longer open. "Fuck," I muttered, "Brian what do I do, she's out, she needs to stay awake--"

"Zacky, calm down. The medics are here," Brian reassured me, pointing to the ambulance and police car approaching us. "Quick question, though."

"What?" I asked him.

He took a quick glance at the mystery guy. "That's her father, isn't it? The one that attacked her?"

I felt my stomach drop. I knew in the back of my mind that Brian was right. And I couldn't even protect her, I thought.

After a quick talk with the EMT's they got her onto a stretcher, wheeling her to the ambulance. "You go with her," Matt said, finally able to approach me. The police had taken the attacker, placing him in the back of the car. "We'll meet you down there. Just go."

I nodded, not protesting, and followed the paramedics to the ambulance, hopping in the back.

There was an older woman in there, checking her vitals while holding a clipboard. She said a bunch of medical crap to the two people up front; nothing I could understand. After a moment, she turned to me.

"Since this girl is unconscious, I'm gonna need to get most of this information from you. Okay?" I nodded, giving her as many answers about her background as I could, like her name, age, and all that. "Any hospital trips within the past year?"

"Yeah," I muttered. "Around a month ago. She had broken ribs that we were unaware of. That is, until she bumped into someone," I said, recollecting the horrendous volleyball game.

"Alright." She jotted it down on the clipboard. "Any history of mental illness?"

I hesitated, not sure what to tell her. "Uh, well she's had a history of self harm, but as far as treatment, no." Again, she wrote it down.

"Can you give me as many details as you can about what happened?"

I sucked in my breath. "I wasn't... We weren't out there when she got attacked. We were in the studio. We heard her yell and," I paused, "when we went out there, he was just beating the shit out of her." I didn't bother stopping the foul language.

"The man we arrested, correct?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Listen, when we met her, he was-- that's her father, and he was abusing her pretty bad. That's how we met her, she left and we kinda, rescued her, I guess."

"So there's a history with this guy?"

I nodded again. "A week ago he sent a voicemail, it's still on her phone I believe, threatening to find her and kill her. I wanted her to take it to the cops, but she wouldn't listen... And now this happened..."

~*~

The ambulance beat the guys by only a few minutes, and I met with them in the waiting room. I knew that the doctors wouldn't let me in any further, and I didn't want to get thrown out of the hospital.

One of the guys had called the girls, so they met up with us, too.

"How are you holding up?" Val asked, noticing how secluded I was from everyone else. At least everyone else was trying to make conversation.

It had been two hours now, and they still wouldn't let any of us see her. We had already talked to the police, who now had Emily's father in custody, so there was nothing left to do but wait.

"I'm okay I guess," I said, giving her a weak smile. To be honest, I was a wreck. But talking about it wouldn't help.

I felt guilty. On one hand, I knew it wasn't all my fault that she got attacked. But then again, I shouldn't have left her alone.

She seemed to have read my mind. "Quit blaming yourself," she said, giving me a light pat on the back. "It'll be fine."

A few moments later a doctor came up to us. "You're all here for Emily Pinney, correct?" He asked. We nodded.

"How is she?" Johnny was the first to ask.

"She's stable. She lost a lot of blood, but she fought through it." He took a quick glance at the chart in his hand. "She's still unconscious, but you're allowed to visit her if you wish." And with that, he left.

I let out a breath that I had been holding for too long. We all made our way to the elevator leading up to her hospital room on the third floor. Everyone was eager to see her, whether she was awake or not.

Notes