Mickey - The View From Here PART TWO - Gallavich

Muddled

As I opened my eyes, the world exploded with bright, white light. I recoiled, squeezing my eyes closed against the glare. My mind was muddled, my whole being overwhelmed with the feeling something was wrong. The back of my head cycled between a hot sting to absolute agony while it simultaneously spun with dizziness.

I took a slow breath before I tried to touch my head to examine the damage, but I couldn’t. I squinted against the blinding light and discovered that my wrists were bound to the sides of the bed I lay in with thick leather straps.

My heart was suddenly racing with panic. Where the fuck was I? Had I been detained? And where the hell was the six-year-old I had been entrusted with?

Any attempts to calm myself were to no avail as I tugged at my bindings, tensing with each passing second.

Let me go, I pleaded silently as my breath trembled, now trying to rip the straps with a series of large tugs. Hyperventilation wasn’t far behind. I was blind, disoriented, in pain, and trapped.

My hands curled into fists as my ears perked up to movement around me. Someone was next to me and moving in closer.

“Mickey?” Ian said as his hand stroked my forearm. “Calm down. You’re safe.”

Although his voice brought some relief, I continued to pull at my bindings anxiously.

“It’s okay,” he assured me before he played with the straps and freed me. “The nurse said you were lashing around a lot. Had to strap you down so you wouldn’t hurt yourself.”

I tried to open my eyes, but the light was still too bright. “Where the fuck…?”

“Hospital. You’ve been here since last night.”

In shock, I let my eyelids flutter open to meet my husband’s gaze. Big mistake. “Ow, fuck!” I exclaimed as the light burned my retinas. Aggravation overtook my pain and I grit my teeth. “What the fuck happened? Where’s Franny?”

“Franny’s fine, don’t worry,” he promised. “You were attacked.”

“I fuckin’ know that,” I growled.

“They told me you were struck twice with glass bottles. Only one broke, the other one knocked you out,” he paused, holding my hands together in his own. “The cops wanna talk to you, but one of them told me the CCTV footage of it can’t provide a positive ID on the assholes that ran up on you. I think you should file a report, though anyway.”

Peeking out through one eye, it seemed the light had softened some. “No point,” I grumbled. “They’re not gonna catch some random shitheads. Probably just kids being fuckin’ menaces like me and my brothers back in the day.

As my vision slowly adjusted, a hospital room became clear around me. What also became clear was the pensive expression on Ian’s face.

Concerned, I posed the question, “what aren’t you telling me?”

Ian put on a forced smile and shook his head. “What do you mean?”

Before I could drill him into finding out why he looked so anxious, a familiar female voice mock-gasped and said, “Fran, look who’s awake.”

Franny rushed into the room and to the side of my bed. Though she was all smiles now, the whites of here eyes were bloodshot, her eyelids swollen from crying. She wrapped her short arms around my neck and began to sob. “Don’t die.”

I tried to laugh and patted the kid on the back. “I’m not dying.”

Franny pulled away and rubbed her tear-slicked face. “But the man said—”

“Sweetie, I told you that was just a bad dream.”

How had I not noticed her the moment she walked in? “Sandy? The fuck are you doing here?”

She tossed a look of annoyance at my husband. “You didn’t tell him?”

“Well, I thought if he could recover a bit—”

With my skull pounding, I finally snapped. “Tell me what?!”

My cousin and my husband spent a moment staring at one another, debating what they should do. Sandy nodded, encouraging Ian to speak.

In turn, Ian gave his head a shake to oppose her suggestion.

“Fuck it,” Sandy groaned, flicking her hair over her shoulder. To me, she stated bluntly, “we know who jumped you.”