The masked person pushed over chairs, knocked over our foos-ball table, and
finally their eyes landed on me and Graham, frozen to the couch.
"Kersey, MOVE!" Graham screamed, pulling me up and pushing me towards
the nurses. The nurses shoved me to the back of the crowd, fearing that I was the
target. I pushed my way to the front again and saw Graham and the intruder having a
stand off. The intruder was swinging the knife all over the place, a few times
skimming the edge of Graham's arms.
"Graham, be CAREFUL!" I screamed, tears pouring down my face. A few of
the nurses alerted everyone to go back to their rooms. Eliza and Emma pulled me
away from the crowd and pulled me into the room. Everyone was told to lock their
doors and windows.
I was hysterical. I heard cops yelling and nurses yelling. It was horrible. I finally
gave up and went to the door and peeked out.
The cops had handcuffed the man, after they had pulled his mask off. I saw
his face and collapsed onto the floor in tears.
Emma rushed over and helped me up. She looked out the door and gasped.
She put her hand over her mouth and I saw tears pour out of her eyes within
seconds. It was Jeremy.
Eliza opened the door and ran out to check on Graham. I ran out too, still in
tears, Emma not far behind. She didn't even look at Jeremy, she was more
hysterical than I was. Graham was in a pile in the corner, holding his arm. Medics
were crowded around him, and I pushed my way through.
"Graham! Are you okay?" I cried.
"Miss, you'll have to step back. We need to take him to the hospital." one of
them said. I quickly kissed Graham on the forehead and got out of the way. Eliza
hugged me, and we pulled Emma in. She was crying so hard, she almost collapsed
like I did in the room. We sat her on the couch and got her some water.
"He...he... I can't b-b-believe it." she said, after she had slowed down the
crying.
"It's gonna be okay, Emma. It's gonna be okay." I said, hugging her. I was
crying again, I was scared to death of what would have happened if Graham wasn't
there. He was a lifesaver.
It was now almost 1 o' clock, the nurses ushered everyone to bed. We
stayed out in the rec room, disobeying the nurse. We wanted to get Emma settled
down before we went to the room to avoid waking anyone. We stayed up until past
three, then we walked Emma back to the room. I didn't sleep much that night. I was
worried about Graham. And I was worried for my own safety.
We all woke up around the same time the next morning. We wandered out to
the rec room and saw some workers taping up the window. Graham was back, both
arms bandaged and casted. He was on the loveseat, just sitting there, all alone.
"Graham?" I said quietly. He turned around to face me.
"Hey." he said quietly.
"Are you alright? Is something wrong?" I asked, sitting down next to him.
"I'm fine." he said. "Tired.'' I rested my head on his shoulder and he rested his
head on mine. Everyone was staring at us, one, because we looked weird, two,
because of the fiasco last night. We took our walk, and it was quiet most of the way.
"I'm sorry about last night." I said, looking at my feet. "Really sorry."
"It wasn't your fault, Kersey." he said. We stopped walking and I looked at
him.
"You saved me, Graham. If you wouldn't have pushed me out of the way, he
could have easily gotten me. I was frozen."
"I know. But it's all okay now. They told me they took him to jail." he said. He
hugged me and we walked back inside. It was getting colder everyday, we couldn't
stay out too long.
Graham, Emma and I got called to the office soon after. We were to meet
with the counselor, Rachel. Emma needed it more than either of us, but we all went
together.
"My name is Rachel, I will be your counselor. So, do you want to tell me how
you are related to Jeremy?" she said looking at me.
"I, well, I was his girlfriend, I guess. We were really good friends, we maybe
kissed once or twice, but I never really thought of it as a relationship." I answered.
"He's my b-b-brother." Emma replied. Graham just nodded towards his casts
and she got the point.
"Ok. So what happened between you two, Kersey?" she asked.
"I don't know, he just got really overprotective all of a sudden, like I wasn't
allowed to have guy friends and stuff. He changed really fast." I said, fidgeting with
my hands again. We talked a little while longer, then she excused Graham and I and
someone else came in to talk to Emma. Heather came up to us as we were leaving.
"Is Emma okay? I'm kinda worried about her. She's a mess. Anything?" she
asked.
"She's a wreck." I said, to put it bluntly. Graham and I walked back to his
room, he shared with Drew.
"Kersey, I need to get out of here." he said. "I hate it here."
"What?" I asked, astonished. "We can't just leave."
"I need to. I'm going insane." he said, pacing the room.
"Well, when are you scheduled to get out?" I asked, getting up and putting my
hand on his shoulder. His pacing was making me nervous.
"I don't even know. I've been here for months." he said. He had tears in his
eyes. This was really hard on him. I really didn't know what to say to him.
"Let's go play foos-ball." I suggested. We went and played a few games then
went to dinner. I ate more than usual, I don't know why. I was really tired so I left and
went to bed early.
"Night, Cracker." I said. Cracker was his nickname. I used it only when I
needed to cheer him up. I went to bed at around 10.
I fell asleep quickly. Emma was with her parents, she didn't need to be
locked up here at the facility. Eliza was staying with Heather, because they had soon
become great friends. I had the room to myself.
I was awoken at 4 in the morning. I yawn and looked at what had woken me
up. I looked and saw Graham in my room packing up all my things.
"Graham? What the--?" I asked, rubbing my eyes and getting up.
"We're getting out of here, Hun. Come on, we're getting out." he said.
"But how? There's camera's at the entrance, Graham!" I said. I got up anyway
and put my slippers on. I grabbed my meds out of the drawer beside me and tossed
them in my bag.
"Don't worry about those. I cut the wires before I came to you." he said. He
was serious about this. I wrote Liza and Emma a note and stuck it on my pillow. I
really didn't want to leave, but I knew Graham needed me. I'd keep in touch.
He pulled me towards the door and we looked both ways before we ran out
into the hall. We ran out the door and into the freezing cold air.
"Graham, I don't know, this is really risky. They will find us." I said, holding
back.
"Kersey, I don't care if they find us. I just need to be out in the open for a
while. I need to do things on my own, pick my own food, not have supervised
meeting sessions. I'm going, and if you come, you come. I'll be pretty lonely without
you." he said, turning around. He began walking again. I ran up to him.
"Wait. I'm coming." I said, hugging him. We started a small jog towards the
gate, laughing the whole way. This would be a blast.
We got to the road and began walking towards the city. I was shivering like
crazy, but I didn't care. I was having fun. We got a cheap hotel room, and partied the
night away. I got tired fast, so I had to lie down after a while. Graham plopped down
next to me and we both looked up and the stained ceiling.