Chapter 9

Dangerous Dicovery

    "What a wonderful day." Hannah smiled happily. The two girls, Hannah and Brianna, rode on Tinker-Ponys through the forest. The black-and-white dappled horses, a mare and a gelding, trotted down the green path. The girls were laughing and cheering, the sun shone and the horses enjoyed this ride. Kian managed to get these two Tinker from a friend who owned the stables round Dublin.

    Brianna started quotating her favourite poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.

    "Time present and time past

    Are both perhaps present in time future

    And time future contained in time past...

    What might have been and has been

    Point to one end, which is always present."

    This poem seemed to suit that wonderful day, there was no time, no better place to be. Hannah joked: "If past and present are the future which already was, then everybody is presently out to lunch!" She laughed and speeded up the pace. The two girls did racing against one another, but nobody won, the horses were not willing enough to leave one another behind.

    In a distance they saw a wide field enticing for letting the Tinker-Ponys run again. But before the girls reached the forest's end, Brianna noticed a black shirt hanging down a tree. Suddenly she felt so menaced, insecure. Somewhere she knew it from, a boy wore it...

    "Hannah..." she called strainedly. The brown-haired girl turned her horse around and came up beside Brianna. She frowned, she was irritated because of seeing her friend in such a confused mood.

    "Bry...what's up with you?" Brianna didn't listen, she was far to shocked. She just looked at the shirt, becoming more and more embarassed. The blond girl got off her horse, walking towards the black piece of cloth, touching it. Suddenly she broke into tears, wincing.

    Hannah called her name, but there was no reaction. "Brianna...!" the girl screamed, exasperated. Brianna turned around, her eyes begging to the brown-haired girl, with a painful glance she fell down. One moment later Hannah was beside her friend. She tapped Brianna's shoulder, trying to calm her down, then took her into her arms.

    "Shhh, what has happened? Tell me..." Hannah sobbed. Brianna didn't move, she weeped and gritted her teeth.

    "Everything's ok, Hannah, don't worry!" she managed to mumble.

    Hannah didn't give up. "Bry!" she cried. "Come on, answer me!" She gave her a shaking. "Brianna! Girl, you hear me? Hey...answer me...Bry!" Hannah pulled the other girl a bit.

    "Han...Just leave it there...everything is ok! Just leave it there." Brianna quickly wiped away the tears straining her pale face. When Hannah wanted to touch her friend, Brianna winced and opposited. She pushed the helping hand aside, crying. Hannah was confused, what was up with her friend?

    The two girls got up, went over to their horses and continued the ride, silently. Brianna's gelding somehow felt that something was wrong, it shook it's head from side to side, it seemed to be worried.

    Brianna pretended to be happy, she smiled and laughed to make Hannah believe that she was okay again. The latter tried her best to keep her blond friend smiling, she joked and denied her own feelings. Suddenly she thought to see a person, a man or a boy, running through the forest, trying to hide from the girls trotting down the path. But she didn't pay much attention to that incident...Would have been better if she had done it!

    The two girls set their horses at a lope, as they heard the motorbikes behind them. Brianna's horse started shying and rearing up. But she tried her best to calm it down. Hannah wasn't prepared, her mare bolt and she fell off the ground. There she laid, first moaning, then silent, unable to move, unable to breathe.

    Brianna jumped down from the horse and ran to Hannah, as fast as she possibly could. Her friend had closed her eyes, she winced when Brianna touched her forehead. It was hot and bloody.

    She heard a dark voice, screaming at her: "Don't forget what you've seen right now! If you won't keep quiet then some more of that will happen!" The voice turned into laughter, as evil and vicious as even possible. Brianna gulped, then bursted out in crying, cursing, cussing and scolting, without even recognizing what she was doing. She just hold her friend, bobbing and weeping.

    Sometimes she cried for help, unsure if anybody would ever hear her. But some people noticed the horses running free and called the ambulance car, knowing that something cruel had happened.

* * * * *

    "This happened intentional, but why would anyone do anything like that?" Kian jumped out of the ambulance car, Shane, Mark, Brianna and Emily followed. Sam and Bryan were waiting inside the hospital.

    Brianna was confused, she had a shock. She stumbled when she attempted to take four steps of the stairs with just one step. Mark catched her, he was weeping. Softly he touched her face, tried to calm her down. The girl tried to ward off, but Mark got hold of her and retained her closely.

    The blond girl grasped at Mark, he lifted her up and they followed the nurses pushing Hannah into the X-Ray-room.

    "Hannah..." Brianna muttered with a stifling voice. Mark squezzed her hands tightly.

* * * * *

    Brianna caressed Hannah's pale face. She was still without conciousness, her injuries were really bad. Shane sat on a chair next to the window, staring out watching the clouds passing by. His eyes were swollen.

    Mark touched the blond girl's shoulder gently.

    "He's lost in quiet desperation..." she mumbled, without looking away from her friend laying on the bed. Suddenly she turned around, and fell in Marks open arms. She whined: "I'm so moronic! This is all my fault...I...I should have cared more...my fault...I must have known..."

    "He's going to get them..." she cried, "He's going to get them all. And this is all my fault...my...my...all my fault...He's going to get all of my friends...Just because of my moronic behaviour...I can't go on anymore...don't want my friends to be hurt!!! He's gonna get..." Mark took good hold of the girl, crying and trying to get away. Brianna thrashed and striked but Mark was stronger. He held the crying and whining girl in his arms, disconcerted.

    "Who is he?" the black-haired boy asked himself. "What is she talking about?" He shook his head, sadly, but kept silent. Mark embraced her once again, closely, tightly, so close that he could her heart skipping some beats when she cried these words out.

    "I'll take her home." Kians voice trembled, he had just entered the room. The blond boy refused to look at Hannah, he could hardly bear seeing her laying there, but seeing Brianna in this confused mood was as bad as well. "She needs some rest."

    "No, I'll do that." Mark offered. "Take care of Shane..." Kian nodded sadly.

* * * * *

    The two sat in the kitchen of the guy's appartment, silently as a grave. Brianna avoided looking into Marks face. He softly touched her hand.

    "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams go, life is a barren field, frozen with snow." Mark slowly started speaking. He chose a poem to make Bry talk about this big secret what she seemed to die for.

    But the girl didn't have the heart to tell Mark what had happened. There she sat and looked down to the ground. Timidly. With a stifling voice the girl said: "Mark...I can't talk about it...not yet...I just can't..."

    Mark caressed her left hand, he could feel her warmth and passion, but this one thing restrained everything. "I won't push you...but you need to talk about it! You're gonna kill yourself."

    "I wanna go home!" the girl cried.

* * * * *

    Kian took Emilys hand. The girl quickly wiped away the tears, trying to smile.

    "Will she ever regain conciousness? Will she ever become well again?" Emily looked at him, with a pale face.

    Shane still stood at the window. He didn't move for hours, it seemed. Kian didn't dare to talk to him, he could feel Shane's fear and solicitude.

    "Let's go outside for a few minutes." Kian didn't wait for Ems answer, he pulled her out of the room softly.

    The brown-haired boy stared out onto the street, but he didn't recognize anything. Shane was unable to think of anything else but Hannah. Why did he let her do the ride? Why alone? Why the hell was she the injured one? Why didn't he accompanied the two girls?

    He tried to be the guilty one, although he knew that he was not. But who else to blame? Brianna?

    "Don't even dare to think that!" Shane skook his head, furiously. He felt like going mad.

    "If you have to die, I'll follow you..." he whispered quietly into the curtains. "I could not go on living this life without you." Tears were strainign his face

* * * * *

    Brianna started crying, hot and salty tears ran down her cheeks. Mark took her hands, and wiped away the tears draining her face. Brianna refused to look into his eyes.

    "Hey, Bry...Forgive Samantha, will ya? She didn't know what to do, she just wanted to help you!" Mark continued, almost whispering.

    "Why didn't you tell me 'bout that?"

    Bry gave a little laugh. "How could I?", she said bitterly. Her voice trembled. "The whole situation was completely suspicous, from the very beginning, but I didn't care, I wasn't even really able to care...Then...then..." she stopped for a moment, „he started to bother...I couldn't resist...it all happened too fast. I was lying to myself not to tell you the truth. I tried to isolate, to forget about that incident, but it didn't work, you see."

    She pretended smiling through her tears. "I don't want to be weak...I..." "You are not weak, you are the strongest person I've ever met!" Mark touched her shoulder.

    "I didn't want to hurt you..." Brianna stroke up crying again.

    "You didn't hurt me, just with not trusting in me. Trust me, that's all I ask of you!"

    Mark stood up, taking her hands. "Let's go outside, go for a little walk with Lucas, ok?" He smiled at her. Lucas, the light-brown-haired sheperd seemed to smile, too. She fondled through it's thick fur, then got up and let Mark leading her outside into the garden. Lucas followed the two, carrying his dog-collar and the leash with it.

* * * * *

    "There are a lot things to digest, I am a little bit confused...I need some time for ..." Mark shook his head sadly. Brianna stared at him, in a resentful mood, and stiffened.

    "Maybe, it had been better not to tell you..." she cried, then turned around furiously and ran away.

    "Bry..." he screamed. "I didn't mean it that way..." But Brianna couldn't hear him anymore.

    Mark broke down on the verge of the road, totally confused. Brianna had confessed what had happened two years ago. She didn't look into his face, unsure of what she would see.

    But Mark listened, without interrupting her. But what he heard, drove him crazy, made him lose his mind.

* * * * *

    She first saw him at a local dance, he sat melancholic on the edge of the scene, staring into the nothing. She started to quiver heavily while he got nearer to her direction and became more and more embarassed of him. The boy wore dark clothes, behaved also very dominantly. A mysterious look, but the thing that made her crazy for him were his eyes. A kind of agony was in these blue diamonds, paired with some sense of amazing wildness.

    He hypnotized her while their eyes met, her shivering body didn't even try to show some resistance. He didn't say a word, then started to touch her lips in a way she never imagined such a feeling could be possible. His hand was cold, but the girl didn't seem to recognize. He took her hand, leading her out of the house, towards his car, started the engine and the two drove away.

    Brianna didn't realize what was going on, she felt like being completely off the booze, like being in a daze. Blurred pictures hit her eyes, but the pain was real, more than real. She could not move, not able to scream or to defend. She closed her eyes, wishing she could die.