Rachael’s POV
The branches whipped across my cheeks, tearing at the skin, ripping at my arms. The only sound was my heavy breathing and the thump of my feet on the ground. I couldn’t stop running now. I had to keep going, I had to find help, I had to save him. There was nobody around, where did they all go, why did they have to disappear tonight? “HELP!” I screamed as loud as my cracking voice would go. My own terrified cries echoed around, repeating them back to me. Nobody answered. We were alone, and I couldn’t save him by myself. Turning around, I started running back in the direction I had come from, tears and blood mixing before running off my cheeks. I pushed myself harder, concentrating on getting back as fast as I could. On the ground was Zach, pale and small in the moonlight. I threw myself at the ground next to him, praying for him to keep going. Why did it have to be like this? Zach’s shallow breathing was all I could focus on.
’Rach, wake up. RACHAEL’ Bradie’s voice pulled me from my nightmare, back to life. Breathing hard, I sat up, sliding my hand up the back of my shirt and only fully coming back to reality after I felt the black letters on my back. Shaking slightly, I blinked hard and looked around the room. I remembered bradie shaking me awake a few hours ago before he left then nothing. I must have fallen asleep again. Ashley, Imogen, Bella, Aleesha and Shae were all looking at me from the lounge and floor where they were drinking tea and watching some random show.
> I didn’t really feel like talking to any of these people so I got up and went into the bathroom, shutting the door sharply behind me. Looking in the mirror I hated what I saw, I knew I wasn’t exactly beautiful but I wasn’t ugly. What I saw in the mirror was something different, I saw Zach looking back at me. His face that night he told me if I walked away, he would kill himself. Rubbing at the tattoo on my back, I got a rush of hate. This was my fault. But not only my fault, it was his as well. I didn’t want this tattoo. I didnt want his name on me. I picked up the closest thing which unfortunately happened to be one of bradies razor blades, luckily it was pretty blunt. I turned around so I wasn’t facing the mirror, looking over my shoulder and glancing at the letters inked across my back. Frustrated with the flashbacks and nightmares I slashed the blade across my back, cutting into the letters. Having never cut myself purposely, I gasped and let out a muffled scream at the pain and the red that was running down my back. That’s when I stopped noticing stuff, I just went blank.
I was aware of my name being yelled, I was aware of the footsteps thumping across the room towards me, I was aware of the door being slammed behind someone. Ashley. I knew she was there, but I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t cry, I couldn’t talk. Couldn’t move. Instead, I sunk down against the wall as Ashley applied pressure to my back, looping her arms around my neck and leaning into me. I could feel the warmth coming off her, could feel the warmth of her breathing on my neck. I was 19. This was not how I should be acting, I could see I was just being selfish now. I didn’t know anything about Ashley, only that she looked about 16. What I didn’t realise was I was about to find out a whole lot more about her. She pushed up her sleeves, I blinked a few times at the scars. At the nearly healed bruses. At the letters FML. She told me everything that happened to her, not leaving anything out, I listened hard. Realizing that I wasn’t the only one here with secrets in my past besides Bella made me cheer up a bit, I was going to tell her about Zach but the room started spinning and I blacked out.
I woke in the hospital, a small white room, with a drip attached to my arm, Ashley was sitting there looking at me. A doctor came in a few seconds later not looking too impressed at me. My mind was still blank but I did remember one thing, I had Anemia. Seeing as I was in hospital, I must have lost more blood than I realised. I was still so dizzy, blanking out again.
I felt something sharp pierce into my arm, before I was totally out of it. Coming back around later, I had no idea what time it was or anything, the drip had gone from my arm, Ashley had gone but in her place was Bradie. When he noticed I was awake, he jumped up and tried to hug me, pulling me into a sitting position which made my back feel strange. I slumped back down into the bed, screwing my nose up as my back feel strange again. I shut my eyes, and when I opened them, Bradie was gone and Ashley was sitting cross legged on the end of my bed, hands wrapped around a takeaway coffee cup. She noticed I was awake and smiled. ‘What happened?’ I groaned in the loudest voice I could manage without yelling at her, she hesitated for a few seconds before answering me. ‘You tried to cut your tattoo, but you lost a heap of blood, I swear if I knew you were Anemic, I never would have hesitated to call the ambulance. They had to give you a blood transfution and stitch up your back. I’m sorry, Rachael’. In the faint light of outside, I could see that she had been crying, her lashes glistening with tears, black starting to smudge around her eyes. I reached up to grab her hand, trying to to show it as the stitches pulled on my back. Her hands were warm from the cup, but cold as ice as the same time, she wasn’t giving up that easy though. She pushed me until I gave in and told her about Zach, she had come clean to me after all. We were both crying by the end of our sharing session, wiping spiders legs of mascara off our cheeks. Ashley laid up next to me, leaning against me, it sounded creepy but it was obvious we both just needed to be touching someone right now. We needed to feel like we weren’t alone. Her phone was sticking out of her pocket, showing that it was just after 3:15 in the morning, I shut my eyes and let the blackness come again, warm and safe
