Taken by a Stranger (Meadema)

Chapter 4 - Between Fear and Trust 😨

When she reached the door, she let go of the woman's legs to get her key. Slowly the sky became so dark that it seemed as if day had turned into night, the rain poured down like a shower. The key was slippery, but to her great gratitude, her almost hypothermic hands managed to get the key into the lock. She picked the woman up at her feet again and very carefully laid her down on the floor in the middle of her living room. She sprinted as fast as she could to her bedroom, to grab a load of blankets, one of which she spread out on the guest bed in the room at the other side of her house.

Abruptly, she sprinted back to the living room, to help the woman out of her clothes. She looked at her for a moment, her hair almost frozen against her head, her lips bright purple, her eyes tightly closed and her clothes completely soaked with mud, rain and the smell of vomit. 'Myle, nooo. Just leave the lady alone for a moment, baby. I know you mean well, but go into your basket for a moment. Mommy will take care of her, I promise'. She was so fucking proud of her dog, that she now felt a little guilty about having to send Myle away from the lady, but she knew it was for the better.

It felt horrible to see this woman lying there in the middle of her living room floor, a lump shot up her throat. The stillness in every limb of the woman, the cool skin of the woman, the clothes that wouldn't stop dripping. With the utmost precision she took off her clothes, revealing a completely naked woman, her skin quivering, completely white and wet. Somehow it felt a bit against her normal actions, just undressing this woman without her permission, but she knew there was no other option if she wanted to protect this woman. 

And what set off Viv's alarm bells the most was the silence of this woman's belly, where a baby was clearly growing. Normally, a baby would be quite panicked by the fact that this woman herself was now hypothermic, but there didn't seem to be any rumbling from a baby coming from this woman's belly. Was it too late for the baby?

She immediately stood up again to get some towels, to first wipe off the worst of the wetness. She felt that stillness again, felt as if there was no life left in this woman. The arm she lifted was completely limp, the legs, the fingers, the feet, everything hung limp as soon as it was lifted by Viv. She went to work as quickly as she could. She picked up the woman, who fortunately was no longer so slippery, she took her to the guest bed and tucked her in under three blankets.

Viv sat down next to her on the bed and looked at her. She knew that her living room was a mess, that the floor was covered in water and mud because of her own shoes, Myle and the woman whose clothes were completely dirty. But she couldn't clean up yet, she had to keep an eye on this woman, be with her as soon as she woke up. She was actually 100% sure that this woman would completely panic as soon as she opened her eyes, so she had to be there for her right away.

Very slowly she heard footsteps coming towards her, a brown dog with sad eyes came towards her, who wanted to know how this woman, who was still unknown to them, was doing. Before Viv could even say anything, Myle had already jumped on the bed with her muddy body, which covered the sheets with mud. But she couldn't be angry, and besides, you could smell from the woman that a shower, with the mud and vomit smell radiating from her, was needed, so the sheets had to be washed after all.

She looked at the woman, a kind of mild anger seemed to arise in Viv. How could someone dump this woman, who had such a sweet appearance, in the woods? Leave her there and then find it in his or her heart to walk away while this woman had died, if Viv hadn't found her. How can someone abandon an unborn baby in the woods?

She hoped that this woman would wake up as soon as possible, to reassure her, to do some deeper research on the consequences of what this event has for her. And especially, to see how the baby would do, who was clearly growing in her belly. It only made the anger that rose in her worse. How could someone dump a pregnant woman in the woods like that?