Completed Heart

Chapter 31: Awake

Chapter 31: Awake

Running; I was running. The dream always started this way; running. I knew I was running to someone. I knew what was about to happen; I had had this dream before. Even so, I was not able to stop myself from running right off of a cliff. Then, I was falling. I tried to grab the air around me as I saw the jagged rocks on the ground nearing quickly. I hit the rocks, but instead of being rough and fatal, it feels cold and smooth. I open my eyes and see I am on a table, surrounded by bright lights. I quickly realize that I am in surgery. Looking down at my body, I guess it is open heart surgery. I see it there, sitting in my chest. My heart is pulsing. Instead of looking like a heart, as in the organ, it looks like a heart from a Valentine’s Day card. One problem; there is a fourth of my heart missing. The doctor operating on me tells the nurse, unaware that I am awake, that the piece of heart meant to replace the whole will work perfectly. He said that it is now up to me to decide whether or not it will fit.

I heard voices. Harry and Liam were talking in murmurs. I tried to scream to them, to get them to come to me, but no sound came out. I had died. I knew it; Tyler had killed me. I was going to heaven, now. That was why I could hear them; they were in MY heaven. I heard a door open and close. Some people entered.

“It’s all taken care of, mate.” Zayn spoke. He was in my heaven, too. I heard more people talk. They were all there, all five of them. I heard another voice; a voice I’ve never heard before. It was nasally, but kind.

“Her heart rate I picking up and her BP raised. She should be waking up soon.” The new voice said. Who were they talking about? I felt six pairs of eyes bore into me; I felt uncomfortable.

Suddenly it was bright. Too bright. Did heaven look like this? My eyes started to adjust to the light and I noticed that I was in a weird smelling room with impersonal furniture. This was not heaven; this was a hospital. I looked around. There were six people staring at me, six people smiling. Someone in a white lab coat, whom I’d never seen before, came close to me. He shined a small light in my eyes and put to fingers up to my jugular. I looked at him, alarmed. He was a doctor. He was checking my vitals and taking my pulse… That means: Was I the patient? I tried to say something, but my throat was too dry and no sound came out.

The doctor turned to the boys.

“She looks healthy. She may have trouble with her motor skills, but she should heal quickly. If you need anything, just page. I assume you lads want some alone time.” Zayn nodded towards the doctor as Liam sat next to me on the bed. He leaned in, to give me a hug, but decided against it and pulled away. I looked up into his eyes. Happiness and hope were evident emotions, but there was something else there too. I couldn’t pick up on it; pain maybe?

“I love you, Suze.” He whispered to me. I opened my mouth; I was going to force words out.

“I love you, too.” I managed to croak out. My voice sounded different, strained. His smile grew.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again.” He patted my cheek. I nodded and chewed on the inside of my lip.

“Could you, er, tell me what happened?” I asked. My memory was foggy. He furrowed his brow and nodded. He looked back to the other boys and shot them a frantic glance. He tried to hide it from me, but I saw. Louis nodded at him and sat on the other side of the bed. Liam grasped my hand.

“Well,” Louis started, “someone beat you pretty badly. You were able to call for help before knocking out.” I nodded, my memories started to come back. “It was someone you knew,” Louis continued, “you don’t happen to remember by any chance?” I shook my head, even though I remembered who it was clearly. Liam looked at me sternly.

“Are you sure you don’t know who it was? You have a history of covering the truth from us.” Liam said softly, his voice ringing with authority. I shook my head again. I saw Harry and Zayn exchange glances.

“She’s lying,” Harry muttered.

“Am not!” I rebuttled. Niall laughed at this.

“Same old Susie. Hasn’t ever, and will never, take crap from Hazza.” I smiled at this. So did the other boys, but there smiles vanished as they turned back to me.

“Tell us.” Harry pressed. Liam glared up at him.

“Don’t push her. She has a lot to recover from; physically and emotionally. She’ll tell us when she’s ready.”

“She won’t ever tell us.” Niall said seriously.

“If all of your ribs weren’t broken, I would climb on top of you and force the truth out.” Harry threatened. All of my ribs were broken? Hmm, that explains the pain… I shook my head again.

“I don’t remember.” I spat through clenched teeth. Liam looked slightly alarmed, but Harry chuckled.

“Even though she is all beat up and broken, laying in a hospital bed, she still has her fire, her fight. I want to see the guy who did this to her. He probably came out of the fight worse than she did.” He said proudly. Liam smiled; he seemed to like that.

Louis got off of the bed, giving Harry a turn.

“You HAVE to tell me, whatever has been going on has been happening for weeks” Harry leaned in, squeezing my hand. Liam was sending warning glances his way. “We WILL find out eventually; you know that.”

“No you won’t.” I replied, crossing my arms. I uncrossed them quickly and winced; it hurt to do that. I saw Liam wince when I did; it hurt him to see me in pain. I could imagine that he was hurting more than I do.

“Yes we will. We have your phone and we can call up Leah, Sarah and Tyler and they’ll tell us what has been going on.” I winced slightly at Tyler’s name. Harry saw it, unfortunately. He narrowed his eyes, got up and motioned for Louis to follow him. As they left, I saw Harry pull out my phone. My heart stopped, Harry knew Tyler did it. He was going to tell Louis and they were going to call my friends to double check. I had to do something quickly. It isn’t that I was trying to protect Tyler; I was trying to protect the boys.

“No!” I yelled out, scaring the three boys in my room, “THEY CAN’T LEAVE! I need everyone here. Bring them back!” Liam looked at me wide-eyed. He must figure that I was afraid to be alone (which I was not). He quickly motioned to Niall. Niall stepped out and called to the boys. They followed Niall in and leaned against the back wall, watching me. While Louis looked concerned, Harry looked suspicious; he saw right through me. Harry knew me too well.

“How are you doing?” Liam asked me.

“I’m okay.” He looked at me sternly.

“Tell the truth.” He commanded.

“Fine,” I rolled my eyes, “I’m hurting.”

“Where?”

“All over.” He nodded and looked at me guiltily.

“No,” I cupped his face in my hands, “this is NOT your fault. Stop thinking that!”

“It IS my fault. The abuse began just after we left. If I had never left, or if I had forced you to come with me…”

“No.” I looked at him seriously.

“You should sleep, get your strength up.” He told me. I nodded, lay down and shut my eyes. I heard someone shuffle. I shot my eyes open, Louis and Harry were turning to the door.

“Please,” I whispered, trying to sound desperate, “can everyone stay. I need everyone to… to stay.” I was trying to sound scared and lonely. I needed them to stay, it was true, but I also needed them to not find out about Ty. Louis nodded, thoughtfully, while Harry just rolled his eyes, but stayed. I shut my eyes again and tried to sleep.

“You know she’s lying. She knows who did this to 

her and she’s keeping it from us.” Harry stated.

“I know,” Liam sighed, “but you said you think you know who did it, right? You just need to double check.” Before I could hear the rest of the conversation, I fell asleep.