Witness Protection

Chapter Two - Hospital

I had only been unconscious for a few hours, long enough for the doctors to stitch the deep gash on my forehead closed.

Sam briefly explained the details of my wounds to me, the wide cut caused by the severe assault of the butt of a gun. X-rays had been performed, and luckily, physically I was in one piece.

It hadn't taken me long to clash with the reality of what had happened. Images came rushing back within minutes of me waking up, haunting me. My emotions burst from the seams, sobs escaping my mouth, my hands shaking at the memories of Tony being shot.

Bravely I asked Sam what had happened to Tony, and despite deep down knowing, I couldn't yet give up hope without hearing it for myself.
The kind young nurse beside my bed dropped her head, her expression almost identical to that of Tony's when we spoke of my deceased father. In that moment, we both knew she didn't need to speak the dreadful words of truth out loud.
Tony was gone.

The pain of my injuries were nothing in comparison to the pain of knowing Tony had been murdered in front of my very eyes. I should have helped him, I could have done something. All I could envision was his eyes, pleading with me to move, to do something.

An hour after, I lay in my hospital bed, my cheeks dried with salty wet tears. My mind was blank, as was my stare on the white wall ahead of me. I couldn't grasp what had happened, I couldn't comprehend the events that had forever etched themselves in my mind.

Tilting my head to the left, I looked out the window of the high rise hospital room. Darkness swallowed the sky, no stars, no moon, all but few lights of the town below illuminating the community nestled comfortably into their beds.

"Is there anyone we can call Jasmine?" Sam asked me

I shook my head "No, no my mother died when I was 10, and I lost my dad a year ago"

"No aunts or uncles, a friend?" She tried again, grasping for support, a safety net I could fall into

The truth was, there were none I could think of. Yes, I had friends, but none that I felt close enough to tell of what had happened. My job, school, that was my life. When my father passed, I had pushed those more important to me away, perhaps in a defence mechanism. If I was not close to them, and they disappeared like my mother and father had, I wouldn't need to deal with the grief all over again.
Instead, it was Tony's family I grieved for. They would at some point have detectives knocking on their door to reveal to them the horror of what had happened.
It made me cringe.

I shook my head again and swallowed hard, forcing back tears.

She gave me a sympathetic smile "Okay"

"When will I be able to go home?" I mumbled, pulling myself upwards

"Hopefully tomorrow, you need a clearance from the doctor first, and.." She trailed off

"And?" I urged her to finish

"A councillor will be stopping by early tomorrow to speak with you"

A councillor. I hadn't seen one since I was 10. I remembered Mrs Lucas like it was yesterday. She always tapped her pen against the back of her hand, chewing the inside of her cheek as she squinted while listening to me. Even at 10 I knew she had demons of her own that hadn't been addressed.

My head began to pound again, tension filling the veins within my brain, attempting to heal both my body and my mind at an overwhelming rate.
Exhaustion settled in the moment Sam left my unit. I hadn't realised just how tired I was, just how sore I was until I was lying there, alone, motionless, the sound of the machine beside me monotonous and dull.