Running (On hold)

Chapter Three.

John's small cottage was warm and felt safe, as I walked through the kitchen the sound of my feet on the tile floor made my head throb and the exertion of walking from the woods made the room spin. I was not in a good state, I was fragile and I was hurt. I swayed in the spinning room and John caught my eye.

"are you feeling OK" it didn't seem like he needed to ask, considering he had already began to direct me towards a chair. Once I had sat down the room began to readjust and my brain began to clear a bit. When the fog in my head was thinning I noticed the extreme pain that was running through my left shoulder. The confusion and the fog must have blocked out the pain, but now that I was sat down the pain was sharp and intense. I lifted a shaking hand to the corner of my shirt, I didn't have to look to know that there was blood, my shirt was soaked and thinking about it made my shoulder hurt more. They must have shot me after I blacked out.

John stared at my blood stained shirt obviously knowing even less about what to do than I did, but he didn't ask any questions he could guess who had shot me and there was no more to know than that.

"do I need to go to the hospital?" I asked still with my hand stuck to my damp shirt.

"you would be lucky to find a hospital or a doctors anywhere near here, the council shut them all down when they decided that no one lived in this deserted village."

I groaned as John placed a damp cloth to my shoulder.

"so now your safe, do you mind telling me what happened back there?" I didn't want to answer his questions I didn't want to talk about I just wanted to go to sleep and wake up back with uncle Charlie and for all of this to have never happened.

"if your not going to answer me I can always send you back to the forest to get attacked again." it was a fair point, he had never had to take me in but he did. the least I could do was tell him what had happened.

"my uncle died" the words shook as the exited my lips, "I was at his funeral and then they came after me"

"as good as that little story is it doesn't tell me what I need to know." his sudden change of mood frightened me.

"what do you need to know?" the words were cautious not demanding like John's were.

"why were you even here, who would choose to have their funeral in the middle of no where?"

"the funeral wasn't here. I was on the train on the way back from Charlie's funeral when they came after me."

"You keep saying they came after you and they attacked you, but no one attacks without a motive. what did they want?" his voice was rising he was getting angry, angry and desperate.

"I don't know" I didn't register the words until I had said them, "I don't know why they came after me, I don't know what they wanted." John's face changed again and his voice became louder.

"you must know. how do you not know?" he slumped into the chair next to mine and clasped his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry" I whispered, feeling as though I had let him down, that he had brought me to safety and I couldn't repay him with the information he wanted.

"if your tired you can go and sleep, up the stairs and you can stay in the second room to the left."

"thank you" I pushed myself up and out of the chair and started towards the stairs. from behind me John said "if you wake up and remember anything else please tell me" it was as if he was pleading me now but I didn't object,

"I will."

The stairs made me dizzy again and the damp cloth made my shoulder feel more fragile but I managed to haul myself to the landing before I collapsed. I sat on the murky brown carpet thinking about the conversation I had just had. why had John been so desperate to know about the attack, why did he care. I decided I was too in pain to think about these questions any more and dragged myself towards the second door on my left.

The room was plain with just a small dressing table by the opposite wall, but the small bed with floral sheets looked inviting compared to the stone track in the forest, so I didn't hesitate to climb in. before I could think darkness and fog took over again and I wad launched into a deep dark sleep.