The Stalker

Chapter 34

The following days Sharna got better. The pain in her head had become less and the rest of her body wasn’t hurting as much as it used to. The only thing really hurting was the fact that she has been raped, but like her therapist and all her friends said. That would be something only time could heal and it would be slow and long process.

Her friends and family had visited her at the hospital, several times. Sharna had physically gotten better and she wanted to spend time with her friends. They didn’t come over all at the same time and Sharna loved talking to other people about things other than her injuries. There was only one disadvantage to have them come over at different times, she had to answer the same questions about her condition every time.

Meanwhile she had made progress with Val, it would take some time before they would sleep together, but they did kiss again, without Sharna having a feeling of disgust. And when Sharna was allowed to go home, they would continue further, one step at the time.

While Sharna was thinking about all of this she was lying in bed, it was night and she had just woken up from another nightmare. The nightmares hadn’t become less frequent, but they did become less intense. She still had nightmares and sometimes she woke up crying out loud, at those times Val would come over and comfort her. Other times she woke up, all sweat and tired, but she wasn’t crying or screaming.

Right now she was awake after a silent nightmare. She was looking around the hospital room. Val was sleeping in his own bed, while she was looking at him, she realized how lucky she was with him as her boyfriend. She knew that no matter what he would be there for her and no matter how it would take for her to heal, he would wait for her.

With her boyfriend in her mind, Sharna fell asleep and for the first she didn’t wake up because of a nightmare. This morning she was woken up by Val. He gave her a kiss on her lips and Sharna slowly woke up. Val gave her another kiss, this time on her forehead. Sharna turned towards him and opened her eyes. Val was sitting on the bed, on the side table was her breakfast, bought by nurse earlier.

“Goodmorning beauty, did you sleep well?”
“As a matter of fact, I slept really good. I only woke up once because of a nightmare and after that I slept without waking up.”
“Really, that is amazing.”
Sharna placed her hand on Val’s hand and squeezed it. She lifted his hand and placed it on her thigh.

“I think it was because of you.”
“Because of me?”
“Yeah, after I woke up I was thinking and my mind wondered towards you and I was thinking about you when I fell asleep and I didn’t have any nightmares.”

Val’s hand was still resting on Sharna’s thigh and he squeezed it.
“I think you’re doing amazing and step by step you’ll get better.”
“Just to change the subject, I think I want to try to take a shower again. I know the last time I tried I couldn’t get out of bed, but I feel better now and I just want to try it.”

“Do you want to try it right now, or do you want to wait a little longer?”
“No, I want to try it right now. That way nobody will know if I can’t do it.” The last part of that sentence Sharna almost whispered.

“Hey.” Val took her head between his hands. “Don’t ever feel ashamed, you have made huge improvement and so what if you can’t do it right now. You will be able to do it one day, cause you are the strongest girl I have ever met in my life.”

After Val’s speech Sharna started to cry. Val pulled her close.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to make you cry.”

After Sharna was calmed down she looked Val into his and said: “No, I just realized how lucky I’m with you as my boyfriend and how an amazing human being you are.”
For the first time since she was admitted in the hospital Sharna moved forward and give Val a kiss on his lips. They stayed like that, until Sharna deepened the kiss and Val gladly answered. They kept kissing until they were both out of breath.

“I think that was the best kiss I have ever had in my life,” Val said. Sharna smiled: “Could you help me?”

Val understood what she mend and he got of the bed. He pulled away the blanket and saw her skinny legs covered by a sweat pants. She had lost weight from her abduction and not eating for five days. The doctor had put her on a diet, but Sharna hadn’t gained much weight yet.

Fortunately Sharna only had an infusion for fluid at the moment, that wouldn’t be so much of a challenge like last time.

Sharna moved her legs off the bed and she got up. She winced a little at the pain in her ribs, they were still sensible. The next step for her would be to get off the bed, last time her legs had given out, partly because of the pain, partly because she had no energy. Sharna said to herself this time would be different. Sharna let her legs slide to the ground and when they hit the ground, she felt more stable than last time. Val was there to support and together they walked to the bathroom.

The entire time Sharna had to clutch her side, because of her severely bruised ribs. But she got to the bathroom and sat down on the toilet. Sharna was breathing heavily and for the first time she loved the fact that there was a seat in the shower.

Val wasn’t sure what to do, whether he should help her undress or if she wanted him to leave.
But before he had time to think about it, Sharna asked him: “Could you help me, I don’t think I’ll be able to undress myself.”

Val got up and helped her out of her sweatpants, after that he helped her out of her shirt. He could see she had trouble showing her body to him.
And before he would continue he had to ask: “Sharna, do you want me to let you try it yourself right now? Cause I see you aren’t comfortable.”

Sharna thanked him silently for saying it out loud. She had indeed felt uncomfortable, but like her therapist said, she had to look at it and see if she felt something because of herself, of because of the person doing something to her or in this case being with her. She thought about the possibility of being alone in the bathroom and came to the conclusion she felt the same way.

Her therapist also told her to take obstacles with people she trusted, they would help her and get her over the obstacles. And they wouldn’t judge her if she didn’t complete the obstacle and they would be happy to help her the next time.

In a couple of seconds, thinking about the two things, she came to the conclusion she didn’t want Val to leave, she wanted him to stay had help her climb this obstacle. And she know that he wouldn’t judge her if it turned out she couldn’t do it.

“Val.” He looked up.
“Could you help me undress?”
Val had a looked of surprise on his face, he didn’t think she would be able to do it, but he wanted to do nothing but help her.

When Sharna was completely undressed she moved towards the shower and sat down on the seat. It was strange to sit down while taking a shower, but when the hot water poured down her body, Sharna forget everything. After the shower, Val handed her a towel and she dried herself slowly. She couldn’t look at her own body. She didn’t feel disgusted, but she didn’t like to feel weak and the moment she would look at the bruises, she thought of herself as weak.

Val had brought some clean clothes to the bathroom and helped her dress again. Walking back towards the bed was hard again. The walk towards the bathroom and taking a shower and taken its toll on her energy and she had to hold onto Val and every other object. It had taken them a couple of minutes to reach to doorway. And from there on it would be harder, because Sharna couldn’t hold onto anything but Val.

Sharna was breathing heavily and clearly very tired.
“I have an idea,” Val said. Sharna looked at him when he continued.
“What if I carry you to your bed? You have just conquered several huge obstacles and you’re clearly with little energy left. And like I said before, this is nothing to be ashamed off. You just did something amazing.”

Sharna knew was right, she had barely any energy left to stand on her own two feet, let alone walk towards her bed. She wrapped both of her arms around his neck and nodded. Val easily lifted her in his arms and carried her to her bed. He put her on bed and Sharna laid her head down on the pillow. While she was in the shower, someone had cleaned the sheets and it felt really good. Sharna closed her eyes and drifted off.