"Please!?!? Help us, please? PLEASE HELP HE'S HURT!"

That voice was all too familiar. A resonating alto, usually filled with smooth confidence, but now filled with desperate choked up words. Karmen. I started jogging earnestly through the mostly standing crowd, trying to pinpoint her location. Something was definitely wrong. But that was pretty much how the night was going right now, so it wasn't really anything new.

The crowd was too large, I would have to make them disperse, but not leave. They just had to find a safe place to hide until the cops came, then this could be handled properly. But for now safely was a top priority. Then calling the cops. This made me touch the phone in my back pocket, which was somehow still intact. I pulled it out and looked at it---waiiiit.......nope the screen was shattered.

"Son of a motherless goat," I thought feeling aggravated.

I looked around for Karmen, noticing the people staring at me in earnest, almost asking me what to do through only eye contact.

Putting on an authoritative tone, I started barking orders, while still scanning the crowd for my friend, "I need someone calling the cops, nobody can leave the premises until they get here and arrest these guys. Everybody move over to the guest bleachers, you all can hide in those. Help those in shock gently get to those bleachers, and keep them WARM, the cold won't do anything good for them. If you have time, you can grab all the stuff in those piles and distribute appropriately, now MOVE!"

People started shuffling around, talking and whispering and muttering. Some stared and me in amazement and others in fright. Then there were "those people" that really didn't care about anything except for the fact that they were having a really bad day and that they had to vent to someone about their problems.

"Hmmm...well you could've friggin' DIED, but instead you feel the need to complain about how itchy the grass felt on your legs, or the fact that you're gonna have to cancel your date tomorrow because now you HAVE to go to the spa to relieve all your stress. Yeah, you're priorities are totally NOT messed up," I mused in annoyance at the ungrateful section of humanity.

Most of the people that were left on the ground were those in shock, and those tending to the people in shock. The crowd was clear, and I could see two people huddling around something. I recognized Karmen and Audrie immediately, sprinting towards them milliseconds later.

I stood over them, trying to see what they were seeing. It didn't take long. Purple. White. Numbers. Red. Blood. 42. Jake.

"Oh gosh," I breathed.

Karmen looked up at me, her eyes widening when she took in my face.

"Y-y-ou..." She gasped.

Her eyes were confused, hopeful, but confused. And there was no sparkle of familiarity in her eyes.

She didn't recognize me.

It sent a hurtful volt of pain somewhere in my torso. I knew that my friends couldn't know about this, but I didn't think that I would ever come across them in an alternate form. But I also knew that if I did, it would hurt, emotionally and mentally. Preparing my mind for this scenario couldn't have helped in the slightest. It hurt like an H and an E and two L's in a handbasket. It wasn't nice at all. I had to push through it, though.

"Are here to help," I finished while kneeling next to Jake.

"What's his condition?" I asked.

"Not very good, he has a bullet wound in his lower abdomen, it's been in there for 15 minutes, if he doesn't get medical attention now..." Audrie trailed off.

I looked him over. He definitely wasn't doing very good. A jacket which I assumed was there to stop the bleeding was completely soaked in blood, and his skin was a bluish pale. He was barely conscious, only still so because Audrie was talking to him and soothing him almost constantly.

I put my ear close to his mouth and pressed two fingers to his neck under his jaw. My fingers detected an extremely faint and extremely slow pulse, his chest erratically rose and fell and his breathes sounded ragged and labored. The only reason he was still alive was because of the jacket. But that jacket wasn't going to save him for much longer.

I looked up at Karmen and Audrie and shook my head somberly. Audrie looked distant and dejected, silent tears falling down her face as she placed a hand on his chest. Karmen gasped, her face looking distraught and her puffy red eyes brimming with newfound tears. They looked upon their cousin that they were about to lose before their very eyes in a silence like death.

In one way, I felt like this was a saddening moment between family, and me as a stranger shouldn't butt in. But as their friend, I felt the need to comfort them. That and the annoying voice in the back of my head told me to.

I lifted my good arm up and placed it gently on Jake's chest, on top of Audrie's hand, giving it a quick squeeze. She didn't retract or react. I looked up at her and saw she was completely zoned out. Karmen was sobbing as quietly as she could, but she nonetheless attracted some onlookers. Those onlookers stood in reverent silence.

His last breath was coming on. Up went his chest. But it didn't come down.