Page 120 of Finding Fate

29

Pressure

Tucker heard Izzy scream as Wesley tackled him. His fury flourished. Wesley had already assaulted her once, harassed and frightened her more times than he was willing to count. How dare this ass put Izzy through anything else, frightening her yet again.

He landed against the stairs then, hard, Wesley atop him. A sharp pain stabbed in his back as the edge of a step jabbed into him.

Before Tucker could recover from the initial pierce of pain, Wesley punched him hard in the jaw, knocking his head back against a step. His eyes flashed red with rage. He grabbed onto his foe and flung him violently from his body.

He leaned forward, his eyes searching the step where Izzy would be, wanting to make sure she was okay. He didn’t think he had hit her when Wesley lunged, but something in the back of his mind told him he should have.

When he saw the empty step, the scream that still echoed violently in his ears suddenly sounded much more ominous. His eyes found hers a mere split second later, and he felt fear rush through him when he saw what was happening.

He wanted to reach out to her, to save her from the steep, detrimental fall, but he was too far away. He froze as that thought registered, his body temporarily paralyzed in shock. All he could do was watch in horror as she fell.

Tucker held Izzy’s fearful, shocked eyes with his for the few hour-long seconds before her head slammed into the corner of a metal bench several rows down. Her eyes shut instantly, her body going limp, and Tucker felt his heart cripple in undulating terror as Izzy tumbled down the rest of the stairs, unconscious.

She laid at the bottom of the stands, motionless, her body turned at unnatural angles. He jumped up, finally able to move, and leapt down the stairs, skipping two to three steps at a time. He had to reach her. She had to be okay. He couldn’t take it if she wasn’t.

“Isabel!” he cried at the top of his lungs.

“Tucker, no! Hector, stop him!” Jet yelled out as they raced over after hearing the screams. Someone had to stop him before he reached Izzy. They couldn’t move her, and there was no doubt in his mind that Tucker would if he reached her before the rest of them.

Jet knew blocking his friend would be hard, but Hector was faster and much further ahead. He was busy chasing down Annie, who was screaming her sister’s name at the top of her lungs, determined to reach her twin. They had to stop them, Emma staying close on their heels as they all raced toward their seriously injured friend.

Hector sped up and leapt over Izzy, force and surprise on his side as he knocked his massive friend back only moments before the distraught man could reach his girl. Tucker fought wildly against his friend, punching, kicking, and shoving as hard as he could to break free. But Hector held his ground, taking the blows freely as he pinned the panicked guy against the stairs.

“Get off!” Tucker shouted in frustration. He just wanted to reach Izzy. She needed him. He had to tell her she’d be okay. She had to be. There was no other option for his mind to consider.

“Stop it, man!” Hector yelled back. “You can’t move her! You could make her worse!”

He stopped thrashing then, and his body went limp beneath Hector’s in defeat as the truth of the words sank in. He couldn’t touch her, not if he wanted her to be okay.

Jet was still chasing Annie, though she remained several feet out of arm’s length. He knew he’d never catch her at this rate. She was an incredibly fast runner, and somehow the dress and heels weren’t slowing her down. He yelled for her to stop, knowing she wouldn’t listen, and racked his brain, hastily searching for a way to get her to at least slow so he could grab her. Nothing came to him.

He was becoming desperate. He couldn’t let Annie move her sister. If she made her worse, she would never forgive herself. Jet was just about to leap forward, attempt to catch his frantic girlfriend by the legs if nothing else, anything to get her to pause when the thin heel of her shoe caught in a crack between the slats, and she collapsed only a few short feet from her limp twin.

He pounced on her, seeing that she was already attempting to make her way over those last few feet. He wrapped his arms around her torso, pinning her arms to her sides and sat back, pulling her into his lap.

She screamed for him to let go and struggled against his grip, but he held on tight, ignoring the screams and curses she threw at him. “Sweetheart, you have to calm down. You’re not helping her like this. None of us can help her like this,” he said into her ear with earnest.

When he felt Annie’s thrashing start to subside, he took a second’s pause to tell Emma to call 911 and then returned to whispering in Annie’s ear. She still wasn’t calm enough to let go.

Hector unpinned Tucker from the ground, ready to tackle again if he broke their agreement. He could go to Izzy but not move her.

Tucker crawled down to her side, his breath catching in his chest when he was finally able to see her up close. She looked horrible, pale, and broken. Even her face seemed to be twisted in pain though she wasn’t anywhere close to consciousness.

And the blood on the stairs? Where was it all coming from?

He reached out and felt Hector’s hand pull against his shoulder. He yanked it away. “I won’t move her!”

He wanted so badly to comfort her. To pull her into his arms and hold her. Soothe the pain he knew she had to be feeling. But he couldn’t. Instead, he placed his hand on top of hers and reached up with his other hand to stroke the hair back from her face.

“I’m right here, Isabel,” he whispered into her ear. “You’ll be alright.” He wanted to believe the words so badly, but he heard his voice crack through the whispers.

When his fingers ran through her hair, he felt the sticky wetness and pulled them back to see the red that covered his hand. His mind dulled in a new panic.

He heard Hector groan from behind him, and Emma’s gasp from his side. He wondered somewhere in the back of his mind where Annie and Jet were, but mostly he could only stare at his bloody hand in shock. He had watched her head smack into the bench. Was it just cut and bleeding or worse?

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