Beautiful Dreamer

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

“Is she going to be okay?”

I chattered the fearful question to a white-clad woman who stood, looking tired and exasperated, in the blue-painted hallway of Butler County 24 Hour Pet Hospital. Aubrey was beside me, gnawing pensively on her pinky. There were bags beneath her eyes.

The veterinarian sighed, swiping the back of her hand across her forehead. “Zipper will be perfectly all right,” she informed me. “A little beaten up, sure, but nothing stitches can't fix. But it'd probably be best if you leave her here for the night and pick her up tomorrow. We wouldn't want anything more to happen to her, after all.” With a barely disguised yawn, the woman led us away from the operating rooms and back to the lobby. She glanced at us over her shoulder as she walked. “It looked to me like she was attacked by something—a raccoon, maybe. You need to keep a better eye on her in the future.”

I quickly bit down an attempt to defend myself, remembering what I'd said to them when we first arrived: that the back door had been unlocked, Zipper had sneaked out unnoticed, and I'd found her when she started making noise. The veterinarian hadn't even blinked.

“We'll keep that in mind,” Aubrey said, speaking for me. We stepped into the waiting room, our shoes clicking against the pale linoleum. Both of us were still in our pajamas, which probably explained the look of pity on the woman's creased face.

“Great.” She flashed a half smile, already beginning to close the door connecting the lobby and the hallway. “You can get pick-up information from the desk.”

The man sitting at the desk had disheveled hair and vacant eyes, but he told us that we could pick up Zipper after noon the following day. He then stared at us, hovering across the table, until we took the hint and turned to leave.

A few feet from the door, my cell phone began to buzz. I dug it out from my boot, immediately pressing accept when I realized it was Logan. I'd called him on the way over and left a frantic message, but he hadn't answered his phone.

“Parker?” he gasped, lethargy clouding his words. “My God, are you okay? I just got your message. Where are you?”

Relief swept through me at the sound of his voice. “I'm fine,” I replied. “Aubrey's here, and we're at the pet hospital in Butler. If you can meet us here, I'll explain everything.”

There was an affirmative sound from the other side, and Logan hissed, “Be there soon,” before hanging up the phone.

“He's on his way?” Aubrey asked, watching me stow my phone with her hand on the door handle. I nodded silently, and she pushed open the door.

The snowfall had ceased, making a clear path to Aubrey's car from the building. Unlike when we had arrived, I could actually see air in front of me; it wasn't just sheet of white. It was still cold, though: colder than the cruel boy's frozen lips.

Aubrey silently unlocked her rental truck with a beep that echoed across the parking lot. Her hands, like mine, were buried deep into her sweater pockets. I crunched through the snow en route to the passenger door, pulling my sleeve over my fingers to open the door without freezing to the metal. That, I thought, was the last thing I needed.

Sighing, I slipped into the car, parking my butt on the seat just as Aubrey keyed the ignition and the heat came on at full blast. I tried to focus on the smokey airflow rather that the metallic smell hanging in the air: the scent of iron, the carmine stains on my sweatpants, the blood that rushed from the three claw-like wounds slashed into Zipper's side.

Don't close your eyes, I told myself, or you'll see it all again.

But I couldn't help it. I was tired—exhausted—and the car was so warm that I thought it wouldn't hurt to let by eyes drift shut, just for a moment...