۫ ּ  ִ ۫   ˑ ֗ 𓏲˖ 𑁍 ࣪ ִ ۫ ּ  ִ ۫   ˑ ֗
࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ ✩◿𝓓𝓣𝓐◸ 🂱 ࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE—
the cut that always bleeds.

tw: slight self harm.

Twenty-Four hours confirmed it all.

The police station took action, developing a story and a missing persons report. He was the third boy to disappear out of thin-air, making it connected and likely from someone in the community. They formed a warning for kids in the area, spreading the news quick. The twenty-four hour mark was the end of it for Sarah, it's what tore her apart in small pieces as she screamed and destroyed her entire room.

She couldn't handle it again, she couldn't. Her best friend, then the love of her life. Sarah wanted to hurt something, she wanted to wake up from this nightmare and have them both. She went to sleep in hopes of Billy replaying in her head. But, those were just memories, he couldn't tell her anything. Ella tried her hardest to be with Sarah, but she shoved her dresser and her bed against the door so no one could get in. Not even Bingo, who was scared of her right now.

Sarah sobbed as she sat on her floor, her back to her bed as she cried and cried and cried some more. Her fingers dug into the carpet, gripping onto it like that would bring Vance back. She opened up her closet door, her map to finding Billy. Sarah stared at it, trying to find a way to place Vance in on it now. All that did was hurt her worse, because that didn't do anything. It didn't bring Billy back to her, and it wouldn't bring Vance back.

Sarah screamed at the top of her lungs and yanked the papers off the closet, hitting the wood over and over until her fist broke through and her knuckles were covered in splintered. Her Mom hit her door and begged for her to answer, but Sarah didn't even hear her. She just crumbled up all her papers and broke her closet door, but that didn't help either. The rest of her room was already destroyed. Broken snow globes on the ground, picture frames shattered, the window had a crack in it, her posters ripped in half and crowding in the corner as if they were scared of her too. Her bed sheets were torn, feathers from her pillow cases crowding the room.

There was nothing else to destroy.

Sarah winced as she sat down, her hand digging into broken glass. She yanked it away, it was human nature to do so. Our bodies were designed to pull away and cradled ourselves at the feeling of pain, so that's exactly what she did. She clutched her hand, the little shards of glass sticking to her as she gently pulled them out. It stung each time she did so, letting them drop on the floor again. When she was done, Sarah stared at her bloody hand, staring at the little amount of blood.

Nothing was left to hurt except herself, so she shoved her palm into the broken glass as hard as she could.

Robin and Finney weren't sure why an assembly was being called on the second day of school, during first period. Finney looked around to try and spot Gwen, but she was likely across the gym on the other set of bleachers. Him and Robin sat together on the first row, near the end. He glanced back, Matty and his friends lucky no where near them. Robin shrugged. "What do you think they wanna tell us? Stop shoving homework in the toilets?"

"Maybe." Finney laughed, he saw Jason standing near the doors and was talking to their principle. "That's Sarahs Dad."

Robin followed his gaze, not being able to say anything as their principle took the mic. Her voice was mellow. "Good morning, students. I've already informed your parents, calls are being made as we speak. School will be canceled for the day-"

Everyone began to cheer, cutting her off. She looked down, shutting her eyes. "Please. Quiet."

Her voice cracked, they all knew it was serious then. Finney looked to Jason, he looked upset. He immediately thought something happened to Sarah, moving to the edge of his seat.

"School will be canceled for the day because a young boy from our community has gone missing." Finney felt relieved by her words, Sarah wasn't a boy and every boy he cared for was in the room. "There's reason to believe that someone is taking these children. You'll recognize the names of Griffin Stagg and Billy Showalter, two boys who have gone missing over the past two years. We've advanced all students to go home immediately after school, to be cautious at all cost, and to have a friend with you rather then going home alone."

She cleared her throat and grabbed the missing paper, trying to keep it together just a little longer infront of the many scared and gapping eyes. "Please be on the look out for this boy. He'll have curly blonde hair, and blue eyes. Around 5'7, and last seen wearing blue jeans and a cut off blue jean jacket."

"Holy shit." Robin made the connection before Finney did.

"He goes by the name of Vance Hopper-" she began, but everyone began to talk then. The entire community in North Denver knew who Vance Hopper was. Everyone spoke at once, their principle gave up on trying to silence them again. Vance's name bounced off the middle schoolers voices, questions on how he got taken and theories. Some even expressed their relief before all staring to leave in a hurry, spreading out to her home.

"Holy shit." Robin said again. Vance wasn't necessarily his friend, but they'd spent enough time together for him to be affected. "We need to go to Sarah."

"Yeah. I just need to find Gwen." Finney tried to look around the gym in search of her, but there'd been too many.

"I'll get Gwen." Robin knew Finney and Sarah well by now, if Billy wasn't here, Finney would be the only thing that would comfort her right now. He knew he needed to be with her. "You go to Sarah. We'll meet you there."

Finney nodded quickly, satisfied with the plan as he hurried out of the gym. He was a master at running away, he got out of the school fast and met Jason in the parking lot.

Ella was a mess. She was crying and making herself sick over Sarah. She worried for her, but couldn't get to her. Jason tried to comfort her as Finney hurried up the stairs. Bingo laid infront of her bedroom door, just laying there. He whined when he saw Finney, getting a little pet to his head. Finney held the door handle, even though he knew it was locked and something was infront of the door to keep anyone out. "Sarah? Sarah, it's Finney. Can you open the door?"

Nothing.

"Hey." he leaned his head against the door. "Come on, let me in. We don't have to talk, I just wanna check on you. Please?"

A weight lifted off his shoulders when he heard a loud screech, something sliding across the floor before the door wiggled, opening up. Finney never thought he'd think it, but Sarah looked terrible. Absolutely terrible. It was like she was hit by a car. His eyes panicked at the sight of her hand. "What happened?"

He walked in as she shut the door again, shoving her bed and dresser infront of it again. Finney wasn't sure how he was gonna get out, but he wasn't worried about that. Sarah laid on her destroyed, ripped sheets, and featherless pillowed, bed as the blood from her hand stained the white sheets. He knew she kept a first aid kit in here, she brought it with her every time she babysat and every time he'd get a busted lip from a bully at school.

He found it in no time, going over and kneeled next to her bed. Sarah's damaged hand hung off the side of the bed as she laid motionless next to it, her blood now dripping into little drops on the floor and onto his jeans as he moved closer. Finney wasn't totally sure what he was doing, but he used the plastic tweezers to remove the glass sticking out of her palm. Sarah's eyes winced, but her body was frozen. Finney met her eye as she stared right at him. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." she whispered it, her entire voice was gone from all the screaming she'd done. Now she was just tired, she felt weak and her hand hurt so bad. Finney didn't get all of the glass, he wasn't as trained as Sarah had been, but he got the major pieces. He didn't clean the wound either, he wasn't sure what to use on it. But, he did wrap it and made a little bow at her palm. Sarah balled her hand into a fist when he was done, scooting back on her bed.

Finney laid down next to her, her feet hung off the end of the bed but he wasn't tall enough to do the same. It was weird. Most of the time, Sarah laid next to him while he recovered from a bad day, it was never the other way around. He didn't even know if it would help, but he wanted to do his best. Her boyfriend was taken, Finney knew how much she loved Vance, that much was always clear. "Sarah, i'm so sorry about all of this."

She shut her eyes, a few tears escaping her eyes after they'd already been closed. Finney leaned over and kissed her on the forehead, just like she did for him when he had a bad day. Maybe it did make it better, because maybe she needed to cry the way she did after he did it. Either way, he stayed next to her and kept one hand on her arm as she cried onto her destroyed bed.

If Finney reminded her of how she had Billy, who'd remind her of how she had Vance? It couldn't be Bruce, because that just felt like they'd been missing apart of themselves when together. It was no one, she had no way of connecting Vance to anyone except herself. But, she'd lost herself too, so that wasn't much of an option anymore.

•

kylie speaks

should one of my oc's
from one my my bruce
fics have a cameo in
this book? like pop up
for one chapter and
then go hang out in his
own book