Motel 7 ➳ h.s.

E I G H T

Thank you all so much for supporting this book, I love you all so so much!

I can't actually believe how far I've gotten with this story, and I've got big plans ahead. Your votes and comments literally make my days so much better and I love reading them and answering them, so thank you!

Let's get this chapter to 15 votes, yeah?

-

I'm alone.

I've got no mother.
I've got no father.
I've got no friends.
And now, I've got no brother.
I am completely alone, and to say that I am terrified, would be a very large understatement.

I'm falling behind in school, struggling to pay the rent for my house, now that I don't have my mother's employer paying the bills anymore, and to top it all off, regardless of the fact that the entire school is aware that I have lost my mother, and my brother, the bullying has only continued, if not worsened.

There was only one way of escape that I knew, and I was hesitant, still trying to stay strong, but with my mother now gone, and Asher no longer here for me to protect, I had nothing left to hold on to. Nothing to keep me from my awful habits.

With those thoughts, I slowly picked myself off from Asher's bed, and made my way towards my bathroom, where I removed a box from under the sink, taking out exactly what I knew I had been waiting for all this time.

One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.

The familiar feeling of relief washed over my body, through my veins.

Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.

I focused tentatively on the physical pain as I watched the rivulets of blood oozing from each split of my skin, blocking out each of the emotional hauntings I needed an escape from. However, I had never gone past ten before, never in my life. Ten was my safety number, and I knew I could never push it passed that, but with all the pain still filling my insides, I reached for more and more release.

Eleven.
Twelve.
Thirteen.
Fourteen.
Fifteen.
Sixteen.
Seventeen.
Eighteen...

Soon enough, I began to feel light headed, only slightly aware of the pool of blood slowly growing around my body as I lay on the bathroom floor. I began to count my the new cuts which I had made so far, but before I was able to pass twenty four - although there were many more to still count - the bathroom's dim light was turning black, and the last thing I could remember was sobbing about Asher, my mother and the bullying.

~
I woke with a jolt, feeling the oxygen around me fill my lungs as I took in a large breath, before coughing and opening my eyes.

"She's awake! Get the doctor!" I head a voice yell, excitedly, although I was unable to familiarize myself with the voice.

Where was I?

I opened my eyes further, seeing bright lights, white walls and when I looked down, I realized. I was in a hospital, but why? What had happened to me?

"Hi sweetheart." I heard it again, that gentle voice. I turned my head to the right side of my bed, spotting an elderly woman sitting in a chair beside my hospital bed. "Are you alright?"

"What happened?" I asked, ignoring her previous question and rather answering her with another question of my own.

"I heard a loud crashing sound from next door," she began. Oh, this woman was my neighbor. Poor lady, probably having to hear the constant fighting of my family through the years. "I came over as quickly as I could, and I found the door unlocked, so I allowed myself in. I searched the entire house and I found you in your bathroom..." she suddenly became silent, as if what she found was my corpse. "I-you-you were lying there, there was blood surrounding you and I-I immediately called the ambulance service," she explained, tears now filling her eyes. "Why?" She pressed, concern evident in her features.

"Why what?" I asked, extremely confused.

"Why'd you do it? Why'd you try to kill yourself, you're such a wonderful young lady?"

She thought I had tried to kill myself?
Well, it is not like the thought had never crossed my mind before, but this was definitely no suicide attempt. I pay back down and closed my eyes, trying to remind myself of yesterday's events, and then it clicked. I had gone past ten. I was counting the marks I had made when I had passed out.

"I-I need to leave," I said very quickly, having another realization jolt me wide awake now.

"You can't sweety, the doctors need to ask you a few questions and run some tests," the elderly woman explained.

"No, you don't understand, I can't be here. I cannot afford this place, I'm fine, but I need to get out of here," I panicked.

"No need to fret darling, the financial costs have already been covered by my husband and I. Consider it a favour," she said sweetly, a wink accompanying her words.

We spoke for hours after I thanked her for her kindness, and she stayed by my side in the hospital room, while the doctors ran their test and questioned me. We spoke about her and her husband, about what I had done and why I had done it, about her life in France as a child and her story of meeting her husband and about the trip she had planned with her husband for the coming week. They were going to visit their grandchildren in America. She was a rather sweet, old lady to speak to, but soon night fell and she realized that we had to make our way back home. She offered me a lift back home, and seeing as I had no other way and she was, after all, my neighbor, I took the offer gratefully.

As I opened the cracked door to my home, the eerily cold air hit me and I smelt the scent of metal from the front door. It was an unmistakable smell, the smell of blood. I made my way towards the bathroom to clean up the mess I was removed from yesterday, and began to clean up the stains, and boy were there a lot of them this time. I wish that I could say that regretted what I had done, but with all the pain, and nothing left for myself, I did not exactly have much to root for other than this awful habit I had become addiction to relying on.

I spent the afternoon cleaning the house, eating the last can of baked beans left in the cupboard and catching up on some of the schoolwork I was falling behind on.

There was a knock at the front door, breaking me away from my thoughts about having to go back to school tomorrow and face everybody's bullying. Who could possibly be here, I had nobody left?

As I made my way towards the door, I thought that it could possibly have been the lovely elderly woman from next door, perhaps she had come to check how I was doing, but after unlatching the door, I was shocked to see that the face that stood before me was not that of a friendly old lady.

_
So? Who do you think it was at the door?

Ps. Please don't forget to vote and comment, your feedback makes the book better and makes the updates come faster!