Somewhere They Could

★ The Kitchen Table ★

Dulcelina had been lying on the Crawfords dining table for 11 hours, unconscious and occasionally moaning in agony.

Charli and Rose had convinced themselves in those hours that the bloodied beauty before them was not human at all. She had a nose and a scarred bottom lip, a bloodied top lip to match, two eyes, and every other feature that made up human anatomy. The way she cried out was something that used to be human. Something old yet young and the thought of it being awake scared the girls.

Their older sister, Halley simply hushed them when they began spouting their concerns and fears. Halley didn't like to think that way. She preferred to complete the task she was given to the highest possible standard rather than worry over unimportant matters such as fairy tales or anxious thoughts.

Her most recent task was to help her mother with the ghostly girl who had arrived, bloodied and half dead at 3 in the morning. She was so busy with her in fact, that Halley had to skip her weekly sewing lessons that cost her a leg and an arm as well as her reputation to be able to take part in. Halley felt a surge of anger as she cleaned the ghostly girls' bandages, her mind on the missed opportunity. She must've pressed too hard though, as the abrupt groan from the girl made her jump.

"Maybe she is dangerously inhumane" Halley thought to herself.

She shook her head at the thought, deciding to think of nothing until her mother got home.

Halley's mother, Mathel, was in town trying desperately to buy a few pharmaceuticals at the apothecary.

"Please Doctor Row, there must be a way for me to pay this off! It's an emergency!" She cried. The doctor grew concerned at her words.

"Who needs medical attention Mrs Crawford?" He asked.

Mathel stopped at that, hesitating.

"...My daughter, Halley." She lied.

"It will take fifteen minutes but if we hurry I will be able to reach little Hal-"

"Oh there is no need for that! I just need to pay these off-"

"You cannot be serious Mrs Crawford! Your daughter is obviously very very injured! I refuse to let you deal with this by yourself!"

"Uh..." Mathel grasped for an excuse for the doctor to not go.

"...okay?" She agreed without thinking.

"Very good Mrs Crawford. I will collect my things and then leave. To be quick we will take my cart.".

He rushed off before Marthel could refuse properly.

The cart ride to the Crawford residence was a long one as the Crawfords lived on the outskirts of Glaven. In that time Doctor Row had poked and prodded as a doctor would and should.

"What condition is Halley in Mrs Crawford?".

Mathels cheeks grew red at the concept of lying to a man, let alone a doctor.

"She is, erm, unconscious?" She tried.

"Dear lord! What exactly has happened to the poor girl? Flu? Fever?".

"Arrows." Mathel blurted uncontrollably.

The doctor gasped.

"Arrows?!".

Mathel nodded.

"Why didn't you send for me immediately?!" the doctor shrieked.

"It's-It's...".

"Yes, what is it Mrs Crawford?!".

"It's not Halley, doctor!" Mathel cried.

The doctor's eyebrows furrowed.

"Who is it then? Charli? Rose? Thomas?".

"A girl." Mathel had tears streaming down her cheeks at this point in time.

The doctor's face grew white.

"A girl?"

Mathel nodded, sobbing uncontrollably.

"God have mercy on us all.".

Back at the house the girl did not awake. She simply lay there, crying out for something, anything, anyone, to be what she needed to grasp onto.

She was so desperate for a second chance something happened in a place so far from the Crawford's kitchen table that it almost seemed unimaginable. Even I myself drew in a breath. And then, suddenly, she stopped.

And began once again as something forgotten.

The ghostly girl did not wake at the arrival of Doctor Row, nor did she stir. She lay still as stone, a statue that made everyone in the room anxious. Halley held her breath, Mathel heaved as much air in her lungs as she could and the doctor simply grew a pale shade of an almost-green. At the realisation that he should be the one to take action he jumped, placing his case of instruments and simple medicines onto the kitchen counter.

"How long has she been here?" He asked steadily, his hands shaking so hard that he almost dropped a bundle of bandages.

"Since about 3 in the morning doctor." Halley spoke.

She knew her mother needed a moment to collect herself.

The doctor nodded at her words. He was determined to nurse her back to health.

"Why didn't you remove her clothes?" The doctor hissed, annoyance evident in his voice.

"That would be indecent docto-".

Doctor Row answered her words with the sound of ripping fabric. The damaged, bloodied and cut skin lay bare before the party of irrelevant three. Four arrows stood stubbornly in her calf, hip, breast and shoulder, the ends of which were snapped off. Three large cuts, no doubt from a sword, gaped back at the doctor. A knife captured the doctors attention as aside from her other injuries this one obviously cut deep, probably to the bone as the hilt barely emerged from her left thigh.

"God almighty." The doctor whispered.

The doctor had finished removing the arrows and getting Halley and Mathel to clean and bandage the bloodied when he decided it was time to tackle the knife taunting him. He knew once pulled out, she would most likely die. But if he didn't try and remove it he knew she wouldn't live much longer.

"I need you two to be prepared with fresh stitches, a needle and bandages.".

They rushed to meet his demand as he assessed the area anxiously.

A part of me even wondered if she'd die.

A part of me wanted to step in for once.

I ignored that part of me.

The first attempt of removing the knife was going quite smoothly until she finally woke.

She screamed the way she did a long long time ago.

She screamed the way she did when she took her first breath.

By the time she stopped screaming she had wrapped her fingers around the knife in her thigh, yanked it out and placed it in the throat of Doctor Row.

A gurgling sound came from his throat before he fell to the kitchen floor with a thump.