Lean On Me- Merder

From A Whisper To A Scream

Derek
Words were being thrown like daggers across the conference room.

"Why the HELL haven't we found her yet?"

"Have you done anything?"

"Do you know anything?"

I sat at the table, ignorant to all conversation in the room. Instead, I ran my thumb over the polaroid in my hand. It was a new one, it had arrived this morning.

It pictured Meredith, this time I could see more bruises along her bare arm, and a pool of blood had began to form under her head.

In sharpie at the bottom read 2 days.

I began to feel angry. My wife was missing, and we had less than 2 days to find her. Everyone in the conference room was wasting time yelling at each other.

"Enough!" I yelled. A heavy silence fell as I stood up.

"This conversation is getting us nowhere. The detectives are doing their very best. It's us that need to do better. Let's all just quiet down and think.

Everyone nodded, and took a seat around the central table.

"Can anyone think of someone who would want to do this to her?" Alex asked. The detectives shook their heads.

"Let's look at her case record! Maybe the family member of a patient she's lost recently?" April asked peppily.

"Dude, it's like Gary Clark 2.0" Alex chuckled. Bailey kneed him under the table, and he resorted to his previously somber expression.

"She hasn't lost a patient in months, perfect record. It has to be something else." Bailey replied. She tugged on her fingers, clearly worried for her "intern."

"And we're back to square one. What are we missing? Who the hell would do this to a successful, hardworking mother?" Maggie pondered.

I suddenly made a realization, and my jaw dropped.

"Derek, what is it?" Callie asked, taking note of my alarmed expression.

I sifted through my brain, trying to remember a conversation I had with Meredith so long ago, during one of our stupid fights.

"Why can't you trust me, Meredith?" I was drenched, yelling through thick rain in the hospital parking lot.

"It's not you Derek." Her voice was a whisper, barely audible in the storm. She pulled my arm and guided me into her beat up old car.

I pulled the door shut, and brushed wet a strand of hair out of her hair as she turned to face me.

"Paul." She murmured, directing her attention to the windshield and putting the car into reverse.

"My ex-boyfriend. He hurt me. I love you Derek, but part of me doesn't want to risk putting myself through that again."

"Derek!" I snapped my attention back to the present, and found everyone in the room looking at me.

"Her abusive ex-boyfriend, Paul."

Meredith
The cold radiating from all walls of my cellar had began to provide comfort. It dulled the aching hunger in my stomach, and soothed the harsh pain that claimed my limbs.

I couldn't sleep. Couldn't eat. I couldn't even cry.

I thought about Derek. Was he spending every waking hour trying to find me? Or had he gone back to D.C, finally free of his deadweight wife.

Paul still seemed to be practicing medicine. He would come downstairs in scrubs early each morning, punishing me so I was too weak, too scared  to run.

I heard the front door open, and then slam harshly. Soon after came the sound of a beer bottle being opened. He was home.

I pulled my sore legs into my chest, huddling weakly in anticipation of what is to come. He stumbled down the stairs, prematurely drunk.

The look in his eyes made me nauseous. He scanned me, and licked his lips hungrily.

"Take off your pants." I shook my head, eyes focused on the floor.

" I wasn't asking, bitch. Take. Off. Your. Pants." I knew I would regret my actions, but if I was going to die in this hellhole I want to go with some dignity.

"Screw you." I spat back. I launched my foot at his gut, and he flew back, hitting the wall.

I sighed in relief, seeing that he wasn't moving. But I had celebrated too early.

He rose slowly, a deep laughter escaping his throat. He turned towards me, and his eyes were white hot with rage.

He yelled as he approached me, and his words stung.

"Worthless. Slut. Abandoned. Unloved."

They were the last things I heard before he struck me, and everything went black.