Bruises

The first time it happened, Holly just thought she'd run into something she didn't remember running into. It was a fairly large bruise, so it bothered her that she couldn't remember what she'd managed to run into. She wasn't the most coordinated person, but she wasn't super clumsy either.

From time to time, she'd get strange little bruises on her body, but she usually just wrote them off as mystery bruises.

Eventually, she mentioned the bruises to one of her friends at work.

"Jesus, how do I end up with all these bruises? I don't even remember bumping into anything this week!" Holly said.

Holly's coworker swiveled around in her chair and said, "You know, my cousin was telling me something the other day. What was it she said... Oh! Supposedly, there are people in the world who, whenever their soulmate gets hurt, or gets a bruise or a cut, the same bruises show up on their skin as well."

"So you think my mystery bruises are the result of my soulmate getting herself hurt?" Holly asked skeptically.

"It's possible!"

"Yeah, okay," she scoffed, returning to her paperwork.

Several weeks went by without another mystery bruise, and so Holly forgot about her worries.

————

Gail was out of breath, but she couldn't stop now. She watched the suspect round a corner into the alley just ahead and raced after him. From somewhere deep inside herself, she found the ability to push a little harder. She was gaining on him, and he was going down. Lunging forward, she tackled the suspect around the abdomen. Both parties fell to the concrete and skidded into the side of a dumpster. Gail freed her arms from under the suspect and went for her cuffs, but she wasn't fast enough. The man twisted, his elbow connecting with her jaw and sending her sprawling off of him.

Stunned, Gail attempted to find her bearings and stand, but the suspect had already obtained the edge he needed. He was on his feet and by the time Gail made it to her hands and knees. The suspect landed a hard kick against her ribs, knocking Gail down again. She felt the air leave her and struggled to suck oxygen back into her lungs. Gail felt like a fish out of water: gasping for breath but getting nothing. Her ears were ringing, but she heard faint footsteps on the concrete. She felt something come crashing down across her back. The world was going dark around her, but the last thing she heard before passing out was unmistakable: a single gunshot ringing through the alley.

Gail woke up to a frenzy of doctors and nurses buzzing around her. She tried to pull herself upright as she pawed at the oxygen mask on her face, but one of the staff pushed her back against the hospital bed. He replaced the mask she had set askew.

"You have to lay down and keep that mask on; we don't know the extent of your injuries yet," the staff member said. The light was blinding, but Gail could just make out the name on his badge: Tim.

She looked at Tim, who was talking to a paramedic who looked vaguely familiar. Flashes of people swarming around her in the back of an ambulance flooded back to her. She remembered the paramedic's face hovering over her, asking her questions, but she hadn't been able to speak.

She watched the two as they spoke.

"She was found down in the alley. Her partner said she was chasing a suspect and had caught up to the guy, said he could hear them fighting as he came around the corner. Apparently the guy picked up a 2x4 and hit her over the back before her partner intervened and shot the guy. We think he probably punched her, too. She has that nasty bruise forming on the left side of her jaw. She's got a large contusion over her left ribs as well, but no flail segments. The attacker wasn't a huge guy, but I'd guess around 200 pounds. Lung sounds were clear on the right and diminished on the left. We placed an 18 gauge IV in the left AC and we were able to hang fluids, but that's about all we had time for," the paramedic said.