CHAPTER 10

The first sunrays were almost touching the earth when an ambulance finally arrived at the abandoned warehouse. There was also a police car along with it and it didn't take them too long to find only one body lying on the dirty floor inside the house.

"Is he alive?" a policeman wanted to know, eyes permanently attentive in every corner around them.

"He's been shot and lost a great quantity of blood, but his heart still beats... He has to be removed immediately!" one of the paramedics said, checking the pulse on Andrew's neck.

"The lady who made the phone call also mentioned the killer was still around..." One of the cops said, "Let's take a look outside, he might not be far!"

The man who was assisting Andrew turned to look at him with worry. "What about this woman?"

"Let's hope and pray she's alright, Nick... and that the maniac who did this hasn't found her..."

Moments later, the paramedics placed Andrew on a stretcher and inside the ambulance. They did their job in a hurry as they knew the blond man's condition was critical. After they had closed the doors of the vehicle and were ready to leave, they heard the shouted voice of one of the policemen who were searching the area. "Wait, there is another!"

Annie's body was lying lifeless in a spot not far from the warehouse, where the grass grew high and no one would have found her. Like Andrew, she too had been shot and the signs of physical aggression were evident.

"She's dying..." the paramedic spoke, feeling immensely sorry at the image right before his eyes. Nicholas was a skilled and experienced professional and was used to witnessing tragedy, but somehow that scene shocked him a lot deeper than any other.

"Do you think she was the woman who called?"

"No... I don't think so, she seems to have been here for hours..." the man replied, he and his colleagues quickly bringing another stretcher. Before they left, the paramedic turned to the policemen who were still searching the area. There was anger in his eyes. "Please, find the bastard..."

x

He moved fast throughout the darkness, as if evil itself had taken a human form. The shadows and horrible forms that would scare anyone who dared to enter the woods at night were ignored by the dangerous criminal. He was already used to the darkness - he had been keeping it deep inside his very soul for a long time. But the night was coming to an end and the sunrays would make his escape twice difficult. In his search for Monica, Phil was too far from the warehouse now, but the complete silence of the area allowed him to hear a siren at a distance.

What if they found Andrew and Monica? What if they found Annie?

Sighing deeply, with his eyes sparkling with hate, he decided to let go of his prey. There could be many others out there. Maybe in another town far from Salt Lake City, where nobody knew him, he would be able to add more victims to his already long list.

Phil soon found the road that crossed the woods and led to the next city. He was breathing hard and straightened his clothes, trying to gain a more decent aspect. With the dawning of the day, a few cars started to pass by and he only had to ask for a ride. With a smile upon his face, soon the rapist managed to make a truck driver stop for him. Much to his disappointment, though, as he preferred an unaware lonely woman heading to work.

"Never mind", he thought, "there would be one eventually."

X

"This is not fair, Michael! Please, give me Will back!"

A little girl's voice echoed throughout the woods along with a young boy's laughter. Hours after the horrible night, the sun was shining and illuminating their way through the trees and bushes, as the blond six-year-old chased an equally blond little boy, not much older than she was.

"You gotta catch it first, Kathy!" he yelled in reply, with a mischievous grin upon his face as he ran along the irregular path on the ground, holding a small teddy bear.

"I'll tell mommy and daddy!" she protested, clearly very upset with her brother.

The two children ran for some more steps and Michael approached a large formation of rocks. Moving slower now, the little boy saw it as a great place to hide from his complaining little sister. He walked around the biggest rock and was ready to hide behind it when a terrifying scene came into his view. Michael stood still for some seconds, in complete shock.

"Michael, I can see you, you can't hide from me!" his little sister caught him a second later and she too let her mouth drop open with what she saw.

On the ground, next to the biggest rock, a beautiful young lady was lying on the ground. Her pale face and the big blood spot on the sand and also soaking her jeans told them she was dead. The little girl let out a frightened cry which startled her brother.

"Come on, Kathy, let's get out of here!" he held her hand firmly in his and the two siblings left the place in a hurry, searching for the comfort of their parents' arms.

Some minutes later, a man and a woman stared at Monica's lifeless body with shock and compassion. Edward and Susan Harris thought that their children's scared cries were nothing but the result of their imagination. Nevertheless, the couple reconsidered checking on Michael and Kathy's far fetched story due to the expression of fear in their angelic faces.

"Oh, dear God!" the woman covered her mouth; her heart was beating wildly.

"God have mercy on her soul..." her husband said, equally horrified with the image before his eyes.

Shedding tears of sorrow and compassion, the woman gave a few steps closer to the body and knelt on the ground right next to Monica. The mark caused by Phil's violent punch and the many tiny cuts on her face made by the branches during her escape were more evident now. Her arms were also stung with many cuts, as she had removed her sweater to tie it up around her leg, and now the garment was soaked with blood as well as her jeans. "Poor young lady... She had a life ahead... Who could have done something so cruel?"

"It seems she's been attacked... maybe even... raped." the man said, he and his wife with profound disgust.

"Oh, God!" She moved her eyes, trying to find an explanation to so much cruelty when something else called her attention. "Edward... look!"

Hidden in between two rocks were the knife and the gun that belonged to Monica and Andrew's aggressor. To protect a vulnerable Andrew, the Irish angel had taken them with her before leaving the abandoned farm house, while the rapist lied unconscious on the ground. It seemed that the two objects were burning her hands as she held them, but she intended to take them away from the criminal's eyes. He would never use them against Andrew again.

"The guns used in the crime?" the woman questioned, frightened by the two objects.

"Hum... Strange... If they were used in the crime, they couldn't be here, next to the victim..." her husband spoke, intrigued with that fact.

Susan reached out and caressed the angel's face and frowned. "She's so cold..."

Edward knelt next to his wife, and touched Monica's neck. And what he felt made his heart skip a beat for the second time. "Oh, my God! She's alive!"

"Alive?" She spoke, in disbelief as she watched her husband move closer to Monica and gather the angel in his arms.

"Yes! Come with me, Sue, we have to find help!" he said, and then turned to look at the objects found on the ground next to Monica, "And get a plastic bag to put those... Something tells me they'll be very useful to find out what happened here..." As carefully as he could, but with an accelerated pace, he left the spot, running against time in order to save a life.

They soon reached their SUV, parked not far from the rocks, and Edward carefully placed the young lady in the back seat, where his wife also stayed. Susan held Monica's head on her lap as her husband took the driver's seat. As much as he knew it was wrong, their children took the passenger's seat and he drove to the nearest hospital.

With tear-filled eyes, Susan looked at Monica's small form, not missing the awful and long cut on her leg. "Please, God, let this young lady live..." the woman whispered.

"Will she be alright, daddy?" the little girl wanted to know, she and her brother still very scared.

"We have to do like your mom is doing, sweetie. Praying for her is the best we can do..."

Those vast woods covered two different cities and during her escape, Monica didn't realize how far she had managed to go. The very spot where she was found was too far from Salt Lake, and therefore she was taken to its neighbor city. When Edward stopped the car in front of the hospital and announced what had happened, the paramedics were quick to remove Monica from the car and place her on a stretcher, carrying her along the long corridor and to the ER.

She would be far from Andrew and treated by different doctors.

During the rest of the day and the following night, two angels in human form and one of their assignments agonized and fought even unconsciously against the serious wounds on their bodies.