Chapter Twenty
I breathed, taking in shallow breaths, letting them out. My breath echoed. My eyes fluttered open, faces blurred above me. In. Out. In. Out. I breathed.
“Is she going to be okay?” A muffled voice asked, distant and low.
“I can’t say for sure.” Another answered.
I drifted away again, letting the angels coax me away on clouds with promises of love and eternity.
“Tide.” A soft voice coated my skin, floating around me in billowy clouds of assurance.
I groaned, trying to shift, frozen in place. I willed my hand to move. Nothing. I let out a whine that felt like razor blades scratching its way up my throat.
“Tide.” They let out a sigh of relief.
I tried to open my eyes, but bright lights overwhelmed me, making me flinch.
“Don’t move.”
I almost wanted to laugh. Wanted to tell this person that I couldn’t move if I tried. Wanted to tell them that my nerves felt like they’d been disconnected, leaving me a broken network of blood and tissue.
“Tide.” They said again. I felt a pressure on my hand and I attempted to look down. I squeezed my eyes shut, and then opened them again, focusing on who was next to me and where I was.
“Your vocabulary has shortened immensely.” I attempted to say. It sounded as if I hadn’t spoken in weeks.
Jonah laughed lightly, he squeezed my hand, feathers against my battered flesh.
I focused on his face and frowned. Jonah turned away, leaving me to stare at ugly bruises, instead of his busted lip or the deep cut that ran down the side of his head behind his ear.
“Are you okay?” I croaked. “Let me see.” Knives clung at my throat.
“Am I okay?” he snorted. He frowned back, his eyes somber. “I’m fine, Tide.” He said softly.
“What’s my damage?” I tried to laugh.
“Stop.” He said hoarsely.
I quieted.
“Please. Don’t be strong right now? Please? I can’t be strong…” he trailed off, burying his head in his hands on the hospital bed. He composed himself before he looked at me squarely. He pressed the buzzer on the side of the bed and a nurse came in almost instantly, a sad smile on her face as she looked down at me.
“Can we get the doctor in here please?” Jonah asked mutely, not even acknowledging the way the smell of her hair wafted over to us, making the air smell like strawberries.
“Absolutely.” She said, leaving as quickly as she had come.
“I look like shit.” I stated. “I feel like shit.”
“You’re beautiful.” He said, his voice ragged.
I attempted to roll my eyes but it felt weird.
A man, who I assumed to be the doctor, walked into the room.
“Good afternoon, Tide.” He said with a forced smile. His eyes were deep, dark, like he was staring death in the face.
“What happened to me.” I croaked bluntly.
He stood there shocked for a moment.
“Don’t sugar coat it at all. I want facts. What’s broken. What’s punctured. That kind of stuff.”
The doctor, who was composed to begin with, straightened up even more, his voice crisp but kind.
“Your radius and ulna in your right forearm are broken along with three ribs. You have two deep contusions on your thigh, and one on your abdomen.” The doctor paused. Stirred by my ability to stay calm, my jaw clenched slightly.
“You have a total of thirty bruises and the same amount of stitches. ” He continued, his eyes meeting mine. There was more that he had yet to tell me.
“The contusions were caused by a blade, at least three inches long.”
“How many Frankenstein parts do I have?” I tried to smile. Jonah shot me a look.
“The stab wound to your abdomen was only centimeters away from numerous vital organs. It sounds strange to say it… but you were extremely lucky.”
Jonah grimaced sourly.
I looked around the room, taking in the sterile scent of hospital gowns and cheap linen. If there had been blood, I didn’t see it now.
“How long have I been here?”
Jonah turned away, his expression wry.
“Five days.”
I continued to look around the room, concentrating on the hand sanitizer next to the door, the hazardous waste disposal bin next to the sink. Tears welled up in my eyes, burning my skin as they poured down my face.
I let my tears fall, too sore to lift my arms to wipe them. I forced a smile. “Don’t mind me.” I choked out, finding an interesting spot on the ceiling and focusing on it with every ounce of concentration.
Jonah placed his hand gently over mine. Our bruises blended together.
“I just… why? I tried so hard…” I sobbed. Pain shot through my chest, my ribs ached. “I tried to protect you.” I wheezed helplessly.
“Can you excuse us?” Jonah said, his voice low. The doctor nodded courteously and exited the room the way he came.
“Don’t you dare.” Jonah’s voice trembled. “Don’t you dare say that. How can you be worried about me and Laynie? Look at you. He wasn’t going to stop at beating you… he was going to really hurt you…”
“You mean more than just stabbing me? How could he have possibly hurt me more?”
Jonah grimaced. “You didn’t see that look on his face…”
Jonah stared into space as he remembered what had happened.
“Laynie and I walked in and heard a whole bunch of noise downstairs. So when we got down there. You were on your back and James was on top of you.” Jonah spoke slowly, his voice low.
“I pulled him off of you. We fought. I’m pretty sure Laynie raked his face a few times. She ripped out his hair trying to get him off of me.” He paused again, trying to gather his words.
“You got up, plowed into him, and then ran up the stairs. Laynie and I tried to hold him back on the stairs. But he kicked me down a few steps and he punched Laynie. She fell down unconscious.” Jonah’s eyes welled with tears.
“I got back up again, and ran up the stairs. But when I got to you… all that was in my mind was his belt on the ground in the dirt. And your shirt pulled up, and his hands… I hauled him off of you. You were just laying there. I could see that you were conscious, but you were gone. And I yelled at him, trying to get him away. Then he pulled the knife.” Jonah paused again, his hands shaking over mine.
“That look on his face… he was smiling. He came at me, tried to catch me when I was off balance. He caught me in the stomach once, and then, on the side of my face.” Jonah’s hands shook uncontrollably as he reached up to touch the long, jagged gash that trailed down the side of his head.
“He took me back on that one, and I was on the ground, trying to focus but blood had gotten into my eyes… that isn’t an excuse. I still should have found my way to you faster. But I stumbled. And by the time the blood cleared a little he was standing right next to you, waiting for me to open my eyes and see what he was doing to you. He stabbed you twice… and then he hurt you more.” Jonah let out one loud sob before gaining composure.
He didn’t have to tell me what had happened, what James had done to me. I felt it in my bones.
I squeezed Jonah’s hand as tightly as I could without it hurting either of us.
“So what have they done to me? What’s left to do?”
“They’ve set your bones, given you blood, let you heal, cleaned you up as best they could. They still have to ask you for permission on a few things.”
“What could they possibly have to ask me permission for?”
Jonah squirmed under my gaze. “A pregnancy test.”
Though it sounds weird to say it, because there was so much pain.