Stolen By Him | ✓

day two

||DAY 2

This time when Lana awoke, she did not have the blessing of a blissful ignorance and so instead of a gentle awakening, she jerked back into reality. A painfully stark and supressing reality.

Adam was... gone?

Her mind still could not compute the idea as though the words 'Adam' and 'dead', when put together, caused an error to run through her mind.

In some ways, she was slightly grateful for the part-denial weighing on her- if at least it let her allow Adam to live a little longer in her mind. But she was also scared, for the moment when it would hit her and she'd disintegrate into dust and ashes from the plethora of emotions she knew she couldn't avoid.

She was scared for the realisation of true reality that was to come.

But honestly, she had no idea what reality was anymore. Was this reality? Or was it all just a tedious dream conjured up by her mind?

"You're awake."

She jumped, as much as her weakened body would allow her, and noticed she was back on the bed with her legs elevated up. The small lamp was still on, but Lana couldn't see him from where she lay.

"Why am I here?" were the words that left her mouth.

Her mind had cleared a little from its wrecked haze to let some of the other pressing issues to come to light. She needed answers.

"I told you, you were in an accident."

"But why am I here and not the hospital?"

"Lana, Lana, hey. Let's not do this now." There was a sudden heat of a calloused hand against her leg.

She wanted to cry.

"Why not?" She rasped through a clogged throat.

"Because you're obviously hurting, in more ways than one. I don't think hearing this right now will help you."

The confusion in Lana's mind was spinning out of control. She had to know.

"Just... tell me."

There was a soft sigh and the bed shifted slightly near her feet. She stiffened.

"It's okay, I'm just sitting down." His voice sounded like it always had- sincere. There was a deep timbre to his voice, one that used to be so calming that it had the power to lull her to sleep.

But now when she heard it, she didn't feel that tranquility that she always had.

She couldn't help but wonder if any of it was real.

"You and Adam were driving up to see me, at the military base I was stationed at. You must remember that, right?"

She did, in fact, remember quite vaguely making those plans. But for some reason, they felt like a lifetime ago.

"And I-I guess something happened with the car on the way. I don't know, I didn't have time to check it, but you were on the phone with me when it happened. I didn't even think about what I did next, didn't even call an ambulance because I knew the nearest hospital wasn't near enough so I just ran, straight out the base, out onto the road and I found you- I... saved you."

There were still things that didn't make sense to her. Things that swirled around in her mind in a chaos of confusion. She couldn't think straight in the whirlwind of emotions and thoughts abusing her mind. It was like there was some kind of sugar-coated glaze covering her consciousness, preventing her from understanding his words.

"W-why didn't you save Adam? Why me and not him, your brother?"

"He was already dead when I found you, Lana. It took me almost an hour to reach you both and I'm so sorry I wasn't fast enough, but I have a feeling that no matter how fast I got there, the outcome wouldn't have been different."

Dead, dead, dead.

"Why didn't you take me to the military base?"

"This place was much closer. I couldn't risk... I couldn't risk losing you too so I took you here." His voice thickened to the consistency of mud.

She tried to stop it, but the pain in his tone left a muddy mess over her heart.

"Where's here?"

"An emergency military safe-house."

"Why didn't you call the ambulance after we got here?"

"I just... I thought it would be better this way. You probably don't want to be surrounded by a bunch of people who don't know you at a time like this."

"But you're not a doctor Matthew. I need a doctor. Look at how messed up I am from the accident." She couldn't understand how irrational he was being in a situation like this. How on earth would being trapped in a dingy, claustrophobic room be better?

"You forget I'm trained in medical aid."

Something began to rise within her- a certain kind of agitation. Although he was answering all her questions, she knew there was still something else.

"That's not the point. And can you open the God-damn curtains? This stupid lamp isn't helping."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why the hell not?"

And then, he was quiet.

"Matthew?"

Did he not have an answer? Was that why he wasn't speaking?

For such a simple question that she shouldn't really have to be asking in the first place, there had to be some sort of answer.

The silence only continued, but the weight behind it was deafening.

A sharp pang resonated within her gut- that innate feeling that has helped mankind survive for years on end. All it was was a hunch, pure intuition, but that's all she needed.

Without him saying another word, any ounce of suspicion and fear and worry she'd previously harboured started to ring true through her bones. The fact that something was wrong with this picture. Something very wrong that she had only hoped was a silly, little, delusional thought conjured up by the cynical part of her mind.

The rope. The words. The silence.

At the start, when she had first awoken, funnily enough her mind had come to the same conclusion, but familiarity and a strong dose of denial led her to convince herself otherwise. Now, however, she had come full circle.

Lana knew that she had no real, practical reason to be here and that could only mean one thing. That Matthew was keeping her here for his own unknown reasons. That he was keeping her in the middle of God knows where for God knows what. But the worst part of it all was that she had a feeling that she was about to learn a lot about Matthew, and the majority of it she wasn't going to like.