For Sale - Chapter 7 (The Last Chapter)

When I wake up, my head is in Eli's lap. He's stroking my forehead lightly, and Elise is grasping my hand tightly. We're huddled in the back of a taxi, speeding after an ambulance. Eli smiles down at me as we pull into the parking lot of a very, VERY big hospital. It looks like it's 5-6 stories tall and one of the largest (in terms of square feet) that I've ever seen.

"Why are we here?" I ask, my voice scratchy.

"Emily's the one in the ambulance. She was standing right next to the blast. Geez. My dad could be anywhere by now." Eli replied.

I could barely hear him talking, and now that I realize it, I couldn't see out of my right eye.

"Don't move your head, Aline, you'll only make it worse." Elise warned.

"Well, what's the matter with me?"

"Your ear's bleeding like mad, and your right eye's swollen shut. Not to mention all the scrapes you've got. Poor Emily is worse off than you are, though." Elise answered

I raised my fingers to my right ear, noticing the scrapes of various sizes on my arm. I felt the warm liquid on my ear and neck, and pulled my hand to my face to examine it. As soon as my brain registered that my fingers were covered in my own blood, everything went black again.
()
"SHE'S WAKING UP!!" a foreign voice yelled from over my head. I'm floating in a sea of purple tulips, ghostily levitating 4 inches off the ground. Aunt Cheri is calling for me in the distance, I can hear her voice. It's smooth as silk, and suddenly the tulips are cupcakes. Carrots are falling from the sky, and turning to apple sauce as they land on the ground, and me. Now I'm shivering, and open my eyes. A group of Indian doctors surround me, and are yelling congratulations to each other that I'm awake.

"Emily Morgan." a voice said over the intercom, "Is waiting in the intensive care unit. If Mr. Eli Carpenter could come see her, it would be greatly appreciated."

"Can we get a wheelchair for her?" Eli asked.
"No, sir. I apologize, but she's got to stay. You can go see Emily and come right back."

He let go of my hand then, and rushed into the hallway. Elise stayed by my side, but only because she was asleep.
()
When Eli came back he was just as disheveled looking as Elise. Before I knew what was going on, we were headed back to Manhattan, my home. Our home; all three of us belonged there.

"What about Emily, guys?" I asked.

"She's dead, Aline." Eli replied.

No one shed a tear, and nothing seemed out of place. I had my best friend back, and for once, I had two friends. We decided not to go after Eli's dad, because with so many clients, one of them would eventually notice that they were never going to make a profit off a man living in the suburbs of new york in a poor man's apartment.

To date, no one's found Eli's dad. The government knows he's a con-man but don't want to alert the public until they've got him. They've decided that talking about con-men that have been on the run for 3 years gives people the wrong idea. It makes people think that getting away with ponzi schemes is easy. Criminals are more often found by federal agents, rather than people calling in tips; because more than 50% of the tips are not helpful at all.

I did find out, though, that Eli's dad probably killed my aunt. She was a main investor in his company, but she stopped feeding him enough money to keep him afloat, so he made her put him in her will for the majority of her life savings. With him in her will, he could cover his basic bills for 2 years. For those two years, he and Eli lived in luxury and he continued to collect more investors.

Eli hasn't made any "moves" on me, and I'm fine with that. Being friends is all that we'll ever be, even if I'm not staying in Manhattan. My family and I are moving to Limoges again, to be with our family and friends. Luckily, no one else in my family invested in Mr. Carpenter's company, so none of lost money except for poor aunt Cheri.

~Thank you for reading!! If you read the whole story, from chapter 1 to now, leave me a comment and tell me what you think!! Vote in the poll, and I hope you guys will like my next story...
-Sami Kincer

**The picture is of Eli, but it's really Callan Mcauliffe, an Australian actor.