BLOODSPORT
CHAPTER SIX !

HER STOMACH AGGRESSIVELY CHURNED as she sprinted from her car to the front door of her home. She felt sick. The news she had just unwilling learned had ripped through her like a butter knife through a raw slab of meat. Part of her had hoped and prayed that what she had heard had been wrong. There was no way, after all.

   How could both the Sheriff and her son, one of Pauline's best friends, just be gone? How could either be dead? It hadn't made sense to the young girl but as she'd driven home from the Meeks-Martin residence, the sight of police cruisers and ambulances stationed outside the Hicks' home had been all the proof she'd needed.

   The soles of her shoes slammed hard against the wooden boards of the porch as she ran up them and burst through her front door. All she wanted in this moment was comfort. She sought out the comfort of her mother. The idea of knowing a loved one could be stolen from you in such short notice fucking terrified her.

"Mom!" She desperately called out. Her voice carried throughout the house as the front door slammed shut behind her. "Mommy, please!"

   Jaqueline Summers rounded the corner of the kitchen with a mix of confusion and concern painted across her face. "Pauline, what's wrong? Are you crying?" The woman worriedly asked as she met her daughter in the hallway.

   "It's Wes, Mom." Pauline hiccuped out as she attempted to catch her breath. Her heart pounded violently in her chest while the beginnings of tears started to sting along her waterline. "He's dead. H-he and his mom, they were both killed!"

Jaqueline reached out and yanked her daughter into her arms in an instant at those words. As the woman held her sobbing daughter, she couldn't help but feel a sickening sense of relief. Someone and their child had died and that was horrible, well and truly tragic and she hoped that their killer would be caught but, and she'd would deny this if ever asked, Jaqueline Summers was just glad that she and her own child still lived.

She felt terrible for even thinking it. She knew it was wrong to feel relief at another person's demise, but she also just couldn't help it.

"I'm so sorry, baby." She softly spoke as she gently ran her hand down the back of Pauline's head, calming my running her fingers through the strands of dark hair. "I know he was one of your best friends. I can't even begin to imagine how you feel."

   The young girl sniffed back another choked sob while pulling back from the embrace. "He's gone, Mom." She muttered weakly as her sleeve wiped away the fallen tears that streaked down her cheeks.

   Saying the words aloud made everything so much more real. First Tara had been attacked, though thankfully had lived to tell the tale. Then at the very hospital where her sister lay recuperating, Sam was attacked but again had lived. Yet, apparently fed up with their victims evading death, the killer had decided to take out an entire family in mere minutes.

"Who the fuck is doing this?" Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper. She just couldn't understand why someone was doing this. How someone could be capable of such violence. "What do they want?"

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   "DID YOU HEAR ABOUT Wes and his mom?" The young Summers girl asked as she relaxed into the lone chair that sat beside Tara's hospital bed.

   After her emotion heavy embrace with her mother, the woman had been called into the hospital last minute. Not wanting to stay in the house alone after the brutal murder of Wes and his mom, Pauline had jumped at the chance to tag along. She figured it would be a good chance to visit Tara, who had been quite hard to see ever since Sam's attack.

   Tara's head nodded. "Yeah. I can't believe it. Part of me thinks he's just gonna come walking through that door." She said with a tilt of the head in the direction of the door. She absentmindedly gripped onto the white blanket that lay across her body.

"With that fucking goofy looking smile. God, he had such a crush on you." A grin pulled at her lips as she imagined the boy fawning over Tara. He had been absolutely terrible at hiding his feelings. The mood quickly turned somber once they realised that they'd never see Wes smile that way ever again.

Pauline released a heavy sigh as she slumped back into the chair. "I miss him so much already."

There was a brief pause before Tara softly replied, "Me too."

   Not wanting to get caught up in her emotions anymore than she already had that day, Pauline was quick to switch the topic. "How you doing? How's your ankle?" She questioned with a gesture of the hand at Tara's busted up and booted ankle.

   "It's been better." The Carpenter girl sarcastically quipped with a short laugh. "No, but I'm doing okay considering. I just hate having to lay in this bed all day. I can barely do anything for myself."

   Tara had been fending for herself for quite some time now, what with her mother constantly away on 'business meetings' which was honestly just code for an opportunity for the woman to get drunk, and Sam having taken off so long ago, that her inability to do anything for herself frustrated her greatly.

"That sucks. Well, if there's anything you want me to do, I'm here for probably the next hour. My mom's here to help out for a while so Mindy said she'd pick me up." Pauline informed with a smile.

A cheeky little smile appeared upon Tara's lips at the mention of the Meeks-Martin girl. "Any chance you two have gotten together since I've been in here?" She jested knowing that, of course that hadn't happened. If it had, Tara knew Pauline wouldn't have been been able to shut up about it.

Pauline sighed while she began to pull at the fraying fabric of chair's upholster. "Nope, still just best friends. I feel so stupid sometimes like I want to tell her but I just can't. Any time I've ever tried, it's like my tongue swells up and I can't speak." The young girl explained with a disappointed frown.

   Her many prior attempts to tell Mindy of her feelings had backfired, leaving her usually stuttering out a pitiful string of misheard words. Each time she attempted and failed, Mindy had just laughed at her or assumed that she wanted something but had been too afraid to ask for, such as a snack.

   At this point, the idea of ever telling Mindy the truth seemed so far away and out of reach. Pauline had long since resigned herself to a lifetime of loving her best friend from afar. Unless Mindy someday returned said feelings and confessed, the likelihood of them being together, of them being a couple was essentially at zero percent.

The features of Tara's face screwed up as she grimaced at the woeful aura her friend exuded. "You could write it down and give it to her." Tara weakly suggested while scratching at an itch through the fabric of her hospital gown.

"Knowing my luck she'd end up throwing it in the trash." She grumbled out with a heavy sigh. "No, I've just accepted the fact that I'm destined to live a spinster's life."

   The two girls chatted away for the next hour until it was time for Pauline to head on home. With a quick hug goodbye and a promise to visit again the next day, Pauline bid her friend farewell and took her leave. The bright fluorescent lights overhead slightly  burned at her eyes as she made her way through the hospital.

   Her stomach twisted horribly as she walked as a harsh realisation hit her. Somewhere in that hospital, deep down in the lower regions that only staff were permitted to see, Wes and Judy Hicks lay upon cold, metal slabs. Mother and son slain by a bloodthirsty killer. The idea of their lifeless corpses mere floors below her feet had the young Summers girl rushing out of the hospital and into the night.

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jamielee's thoughts.
chapter six. not proofread.
short chapter I'm sorry but it's mostly filler. so i decided to add some more scenes with pauline with some people other than Mindy. I love her but I hate fics that only ever have the oc interacting with the love interest. anyways hope you enjoyed :)