WILDly (12 page)

“I’ll take a
look, I think I still have it,” she said, and pressed a few buttons
on her phone.

She gave me the
number and then sat down on her desk. “I’m not mad at you, Val. A
little jealous, yes, but not mad. I just need to be left alone. I
guess I’m sulking a little.”

I grabbed her
hand. “Jennifer, look at me.” I waited for her to look me in the
eyes before I continued. “You’ll be fine.”

“I guess so,”
she said lackadaisically.

“Now, I really
don’t mean to leave you alone to sulk all by yourself, but I need
to make a call.” I threw her a sheepish grin. “And I have a heap of
studying to do.”

“It’s fine.
Thanks for popping in. I know you didn’t really want Ronald’s
number, you only came to check on me. I appreciate that.”

“True,” I lied.
“But I might really phone him up, if I find the courage.”

Then she did
something completely out of character. She bent forward and hugged
me. “Thanks,” she said in a cracked voice.

“Anything for a
friend.” I meant it. She was a good friend, in her own unique way.
A little self-absorbed sometimes, but a true friend at least. My
only true friend, I thought sadly. Lisa and Alex were just sly, sly
deceivers.

“Oh, tell me
something else,” I said, almost at the door already. “What dorm is
Ronald in?”

She answered
with a smile. “You little rascal, you do like him, don’t you?”

I grinned at
her. She had no idea. She took my grin as an affirmative, and then
she explained where his dorm was.

I hurried to
get my car keys. On my way down the stairs, I dialled Ronald’s
number, but he didn’t answer and it went over to the answering
machine.

I was almost at
the bottom, when I remembered that Benjamin was probably in front
of the dorm again. And he was probably watching the parking lot as
well. With my heart in my shoes, I turned and went back up again.
I’d have to take the emergency stairs.

Oh,
great
, I thought. Me and those stairs in the dark again, and
this time it wasn’t even to hide from seniors.

I felt so hurt.
I liked Benjamin a lot. And Lisa. And even Alex, sometimes more
than I wanted to. And they had betrayed me, deceived me. But I
should have known better, after all, Duncan had warned me in the
beginning not to trust anybody.

I sneaked past
Lisa and Jennifer’s doors and softly opened the emergency door.

After a hard
swallow, I collected my nerves. I had to do it for Duncan; he would
have done it for me, no doubt.

Clinging to the
railing as best as I could, I slowly approached the first step. It
was the third time using the emergency stairs, but it wasn’t any
less scary. The first four steps were okay, but then it happened.
Step number five gave way under me. Luckily I didn’t fall to the
ground, the railing held. But my left leg was cut deeply by the
rusted metal plate, I felt the blood flowing quickly. A burning
sensation came from my shin and knee.

I had to
continue, Duncan was in danger, so I pressed on. Shaking with pain,
I slowly climbed down the stairs, clinging more tightly than ever
to the railing. At the bottom I sat down, ripped off a piece of my
jeans and wrapped it as securely as possible around my leg.

I was stuck. I
wouldn’t make it to Ronald’s dorm on foot, not with this blood
loss. The dizziness was already setting in. So I tried the phone
again. This time he answered.

“Ronald,
hello?”

“Hi Ronald,
this is Valerie. Sorry to bother you. But I really need your
help!”

“Why me?” came
the antagonistic answer.

“Ronald, I’m
hurt and I think Duncan is in serious danger. There’s no one else
that I can ask. Please?” I begged.

He was silent
for a moment.

“What do you
want me to do?” he asked.

“Come and get
me, please?” I asked with all the persuasion that I could manage
through the pain.

“Fine,” he
answered. “Where are you?”

“I’m at the
dorm, but you can’t use the main parking lot. You have to pick me
up closer to campus. I’ll push on, look out for me. I’m wearing
jeans and a pink t-shirt.”

“Okay, I’m on
my way.”

I sighed with
relief. Help was on the way. True help. I was worried about my
parents as well, but they weren’t in immediate danger. And the
lines weren’t safe, so I couldn’t let them know what I had learned.
I had to help Duncan first.

Ronald came
quickly in his little car.

“How did you
manage to get so far?” he asked, shocked by the amount of blood on
my leg.

“I had to. I’m
so worried about Duncan. Do you know where he lives?” I asked,
trying my best to ignore the pain.

“I think so. Do
you want me to take you to him or do you want me to take you to
hospital first?” he asked, looking at the increasing pool of
blood.

“No, don’t
worry about me. Let’s go to Duncan’s first. But we need to hurry,
please. He’s in grave danger.”

Ronald opened
the door for me and then helped me into the passenger’s seat.

“Sit back, or
no, rather not: put pressure on that wound, it’s not looking good
at all. His flat is about ten minutes away.”

“Thank you,
Ronald, thank you so much, for helping me. And... and I’m sorry
about the date.” It felt great to be sitting down and off the
leg.

“Forget about
it. It’s history,” he answered and took off.

We weren’t far
away, when he glanced up at the rear-view mirror and then
accelerated.

“Something the
matter?” I asked, the world all a bit blurry. He didn’t answer and
I turned my head to look out the back window. I gulped. A black
Merc was close behind us, or so it seemed through the blur.

“Oh no! They
found me!” I gasped, fear choking the air out of my lungs. “Go,
Ronald, go!” I yelled. “As fast as you can, they’re going to kill
us both!” My words felt slow, but they were there.

He seemed
totally convinced as he pushed the little car to its limit. The
engine revved wildly and the speedometer needle was close to the
maximum. Ronald geared up and down, literally flying across traffic
lights and zigzagging to get around cars. I was thrown left and
right. It felt as if we were about to lift off, but it occurred to
me that he was a very competent driver.

But the Merc
stayed close behind.

On top of the
blurring, my eyes were burning, probably because of all the blood I
had lost. I barely managed to make out the writing on the boards
around us. We were headed for the highway and going so fast that I
didn’t actually want to see, so I turned round in my seat. It also
helped to keep an eye on the black Merc.

“Who are these
guys?” he asked. “And what do they want with you?”

I didn’t know
how involved Ronald was, so I lied.

“Don’t know,” I
answered without moving my eyes one inch off the Merc behind us; he
was getting dangerously close.

“Then how do
you know that they want to kill you?”

I didn’t want
Ronald to discover how bad my condition was, so I tried my best to
keep my words light and my speech together. “Long story. It’s a ‘if
I tell you, I’ll have to kill you’ kind-of thing.”

“I’m involved
already, Valerie. Haven’t you noticed? We’re chasing down the
highway, almost at the speed of light. I’m already risking my life
here. So I think you can tell me.”

I wasn’t sure
if I could trust Ronald. I’d never had a very warm feeling about
him. But okay, he was rescuing me, and as he said, he was risking
his life for me.

Then, through
the blur, I noticed the black Merc getting closer. Ronald was a
good driver, but so was Benjamin. Or I thought it was Benjamin
behind the wheel. It was difficult to tell through the darkened
windows and the streetlights didn’t really help.

“He’s getting
closer. Hurry, Ronald, hurry!” I screamed, but my reaction was too
late.

The black Merc
closed in on us and nudged the back bumper. Ronald almost lost
control, but regained it after a close shave with a yellow
Volkswagen Beetle.

“Let’s just say
that Duncan gave me something, and these guys want it. And they
would kill for it.”

“You girls and
your secrecy. It’s so frustrating, you know. Duncan’s girlfriend is
exactly the same.”

“His
girlfriend?” I asked.

“Yeah, he
dumped Jennifer. Now he’s back with his old girlfriend.”

I wanted to ask
who his girlfriend was, but the Merc was closing in on us
again.

“He’s getting
close again, Ronald. He’s going to bump us again!” I yelled.

The black Merc
did bump us again, and this time it was worse. Everything happened
in slow motion, like in the movies. I saw the nudge on the back
bumper, then the gentle sway of the tail of the car. The Merc’s
nose lost contact for a moment and then hit us again just as our
car swayed to the other side.

I didn’t see
what happened in front, but I felt the impact. Then I saw the black
Merc crashing into us. It
was
Benjamin driving.

***

Chapter 11 -
Spurn

I awoke to the
same loud, irritating, repetitive beep. But it was different from
before.

My head was
fine this time. But my leg ached, only a little less than last
night. And something cold and hard pressed against my ankles.

A little clock
radio was beeping on a bed pedestal next to me. According to the
clock it was 15:23. Then I looked up, into Duncan’s eyes. He was
standing close to me, with a smile on his face.

“Oh, Duncan!
I’m so glad to see you! To see that you are safe.”

He reached over
to silence the beep.

“Hi, Valerie.
Sorry about that. I’ll bring you something for the pain just now.
But tell me, why wouldn’t I be safe?” he asked, surprised.

“I thought you
were being held hostage.” Didn’t I feel like the fool?

“By whom?”

“Well, I
thought Bridget had you.”

“I don’t know a
Bridget.”

“Oh.” I looked
around. I wasn’t in hospital. It was an apartment, a fancy one. The
room looked like a girl’s. The closet door was open and showed all
types of clothes, fancy clothes, rows and rows of them. And the
curtains and bed linen were very girly, with different shades of
pink and purple and white and frills everywhere. Not my choice, I
thought.

“Is this your
apartment?”
Had his new girlfriend moved in already?

“Yes.”

“But how did I
get here? The last thing that I can remember is the accident,
Benjamin crashing into Ronald’s mini. How are they?”

“Ronald is very
seriously injured and was taken to hospital. Benjamin died at the
scene of the accident.”

Benjamin had
died?

No
!

I was shocked.
It was probably my fault. Nausea boiled up into my throat. Benjamin
was a traitor, but I didn’t want him dead or anything. And poor
Ronald.

“Oh no.”

Tears hazed the
room around me. Not dead. Not Benjamin.

Duncan sat down
on a chair next to me and waited patiently for me to calm down.

Then I thought
of something else. “How did you know about the accident?” I asked
through the tears.

“Uhh...” he
hesitated. “Ronald phoned me, just before he picked you up. He told
me that you were hurt and that you wanted to see me. Then he phoned
me again, right before the accident. I actually heard it happening
over the phone.”

“Oh.” I didn’t
remember Ronald making any phone calls in the car before the
accident. But I had been in a haze back there. And why Ronald
didn’t tell me that he had talked to Duncan didn’t make sense
either. Something was fishy; my gut told me that Duncan was lying.
Then, the moment that the thought occurred, the gut feeling
disappeared again.

Duncan was in
front of me now, and it was finally my chance to talk to him, to
ask him what had happened to me and to find out if Lisa had told
the truth. I suddenly felt completely calm, so I decided to use the
opportunity. “There’s so much has happened since I saw you that
first day. There were so many times that I wished to see you and
talk to you.”

“I’m here now.
So tell me,” he said, “tell me everything. I’ll listen,” he
encouraged.

I told him
about waking up in hospital, about jumping from the window and the
healing powers of the earth. I told him about the party and the
stuff I saw out the window, about how glad I was to see him on the
date. Then about running in the veldt and the Reds. About what Lisa
had told me, and finally, how I had figured out that they were all
the bad guys.

I felt
terrible, talking to Duncan. The further I got into my story, the
stronger my gut feeling became: in spite of the strong connection
that I felt with him, I felt like a traitor when I had told him
everything. The feeling was so strong that I found myself wanting
to cry all over again. I gulped a few times to get the lump down my
throat.

I had told my
story, but I felt as if I had just betrayed myself.

“Wow, you’ve
been through a lot,” he said, smiling at me. “I think you need some
more rest. I’ll get you something to help you sleep.”

“No, I don’t
like sleeping pills, thanks.”
Didn’t I tell him about that? I
was sure that I had.

“Does your leg
hurt?”

“It is
throbbing, yes. But I’ll be fine.”

There was
movement elsewhere in the apartment. Then the door opened and
Bridget walked into the room. She had the same smirk on her face as
before.

“Valerie, meet
my girlfriend. Or no, you have met before, I believe? This is
Angela.”

“Angela? I
thought... wow, did I think wrong! I thought you drugged me in
hospital and tried to hold me captive! And here you are, Duncan’s
girlfriend. To think that I jumped from the window for nothing.
Silly me,” I gabbled.