The Bully

Chapter Thirty One

Every day that passed took away another small piece of hope until I was left with none. Tom didn't seem to notice that I barely spoke, barely ate or drank. I no longer prayed for Bret to find me; I prayed for death and hoped to speed it along by not eating or drinking. I didn't sleep and was becoming weaker and weaker. Tom though was oblivious. He mistook my weakness for compliance and I knew that even if he were to walk out and leave all the doors and windows open I wouldn't escape because I wouldn't be strong enough to.

But one day I couldn't move from the bed we now shared every night. The bed where I lay on my back for him, staring at the ceiling while he took his pleasure from me. I didn't feel a thing any more and even when he occasionally slapped at me to try and get a reaction there was nothing there. He'd tried slapping my face, not hard enough to bruise but hard enough to let me know he could if he wanted to. Then he tried his old favourite, slapping my legs but even this brought no reaction from me and so he gave up and just used my body as he wished to.

Tom looked at me a little anxiously as I lay there, unable to rouse myself. He paced up and down and then with a curse I heard him open and then slam a door, the front door. My mind was screaming at me to move, but I couldn't. When I tried to sit up I was too weak to move and so I just lay there until blessed unconsciousness took me. For several days I drifted in and out of consciousness. Tom would hold water bottles to my lips and I would sip at his command. He fed me soup in the same way, trying to build me up. I had no wish to live though and so he did not have my complete cooperation with his endeavours.

But then one day I heard voices. There was a woman's voice, calm and authoritative and then a man's angrily demanding to know what he had done with me. Every effort I had went into pushing myself off the bed and I fell with a loud thud to the floor. The thud was loud enough to draw their attention and suddenly the door flew open.

"Gun!" I managed to whisper and then I heard the noise of a scuffle and a gunshot. My face whitened but the woman wrapped an arm round me, helping me sit up.

"It's ok, Miss Summers. That wasn't his gun. He's been apprehended. You're safe now, you're safe."

There was a blur of activity and suddenly paramedics were in the room taking my vitals and then
moving me onto a gurney to transport me down to the ambulance. We passed the police vehicle where an armed officer was standing in discussion with the woman who had helped me. In the back of the vehicle I saw Tom sitting and turned my face away dully.

***
I drifted a lot at the hospital, where they attached me to drips to try and rehydrate me and give me some much needed vitamins and nutrients intravenously. They checked my bloods and did numerous other checks, telling me I was a little anaemic which was to be expected with how little I'd eaten. Gradually they built my strength up, but I didn't speak to anyone. I was numb with shame at what had happened over the time Tom had held me and couldn't bear to see or speak to a soul. I refused visitors, shaking my head when the nurse told me that there were people come to see me. I heard her tell them I didn't want visitors and turned away feeling nothing but agony. But when it came time for me to be discharged and they asked what they could do to help, I found my voice for long enough to request that someone booked me onto a flight to Edinburgh. I wanted to be with Dotty.

***
Dotty didn't press me to talk. She just picked me up from the airport, her eyes filling with tears when she saw how emaciated I was. But then she swallowed her tears and gave me a hug.

"We'll soon get some meat on those bones of yours, lassie," she said, determinedly. I just nodded weakly, still unable to find my voice, fearing that when I did I would confess things I didn't want to say out loud. "I could kill that bastard for what he's done to you. If he weren't rotting in a cell I'd go after him and kill him with my bare hands!"