* Warning: This is unedited*
She tried to hide her moans and cries but it was painful just to breathe. Hayes had stricken her body right in the worst of the scars on her stomach. She could feel the skin split and the blood drip from the wounds. A scream erupted and she curled into a ball. A hand ran up and down her back and she felt herself being lifted. Her eyes instantly opened and met dark purple ones.
Hayes made a shushing noise. “Its okay Evan, come on,” he said. Evan only moaned and clutched his neck.
A small crowd had formed to see what the commotion was. Most of the people were young, with only a few people that were around eighteen. Their eyes were filled with terror. Evan looked down and saw why. Blood was soaked through both her shirt and jacket. She felt a wave of cold hit her body and knew they were outside.
“Don’t worry, were going to the hospital,” Hayes said to her in a calm voice.
“No hospital, take me back to my apartment,” Evan replied. Hayes looked incredulous at her words, but managed to nod. He drove her back to the apartment building and carried her to her room. He lay her body on the floor and found the bathroom. In one of the cabinets there was a first aid kit. He grabbed it and walked out. “Get Dalia,” Evan breathed, “next room to the left.”
Hayes ran from the room and knocked on Dalia’s door. A tall dirty blonde girl opened the door. She had light brown eyes and a confused look on her face. “Evan is hurt. She called for you,” Hayes explained.
Dalia’s eyes widened and she burst from her room. The ran through the door to see Evan laying on the floor with bloodstained clothes. She rushed to the girls side and found the source of the blood. “How did they open?” She mumbled while Hayes gave her the first aid kit. An ashamed look took over his eyes, so she didn’t push the subject.
She peeled Evans jacket off and, after noticing the sopping wet tank top, she took it off also. She gasped at the sight of the opened gashes running down the girl’s torso. Hayes looked shocked, “I-I didn’t do that,” he stuttered.
“Of course you didn’t. I know that,” Dalia replied. “Can you get me a wet towel?” She asked. He nodded and got it. She took it and ran it over Evans wounds, making the girl cry out. “Come hold her hand, she keeps grabbing for mine, but I can’t hold it and help her,” she gestured for him to come and hold the shirtless girls hand. Evan squeezed his hand so tightly that he was amazed that he could feel it.
When Dalia was finished, Evan had bandages along her front and was surprisingly still conscious. Most people wouldn’t be with that kind of blood loss. But Evan lay with her eyes open, flicking them between the two people hovering over her. She realized that she was still holding Hayes’ hand and awkwardly removed it. Despite the pills Dalia had given her, her body burned with pain.
“I guess I should get going, its late,” Dalia said to Hayes.
“What about Evan?” Hayes gestured to the girl on the floor.
“Do you mind staying? Her roommate isn’t usually here on weekends and I don’t think she should be left alone,” she looked at Evan with sympathy in her eyes. Hayes wondered why her roommate wasn’t ever there, then remembered the night he met Evan. She said that her roommate was out with her boyfriend. He must have mirrored Dalia’s expression because Evan gave them odd looks even though she was pretty out of it.
“Yeah, she probably shouldn’t,” he agreed. With that Dalia stood up, nodded at Hayes, and walked out of the door. He focused his gaze back upon Evan. He didn’t notice that the marks ran all the way up her chest until now. She looked too exposed and vulnerable, lying on the floor shirtless with her eyes teary. He was afraid it would hurt her if he tried to put her in a shirt so he gently lifted her body and brought her to her bed. While he began to set her down he saw marks on her back that were similar to the ones on her front. His mouth gaped open when he saw them on her arms also.
What happened? Did she do this to herself? Questions rang through his mind. Of course she didn’t, she wouldn’t. Evan was too strong to hurt herself that badly.
Hayes walked away and tried to keep his mind off of her scratches. He managed to come across a large bookshelf with books crammed into every available space. He picked a random one out and read the back description. It was an action book about two kids on the run after their father was murdered. He took it back to Evans couch and began to read it.
“No,” Evan screamed in her sleep.
*Dream (NOT A FLASHBACK)*
“No,” The girl screamed as she ran to her mother. The woman was lying in a pool of blood with claw marks covering every inch of her skin. Blood dyed her light brown hair to a sickening mahogany color. Her eyes flashed at the small girl and she smiled, a sweet yet bitter smile.
Hands gripped the small girls waist and pulled her back. She looked up to see her father.
“Daddy, mommy’s hurt,” she told the tall man. He just shook his head and picked her up.
“We need to get away, Ev. Don’t speak a word to anyone. We’re leaving now,” he told her as they approached his SUV.
Her father stopped dead in his tracks. The girl looked up to see blood running down his face just before he collapsed. She scrabbled to get up from her father and saw a dark figure standing there. Something hit her forehead and she screamed before falling unconscious.
*end*
“Evan, wake up,” a voice yelled, pulling her from her dreams.
