Unfixed

THIRTY FOUR

"A Bigger Bruise"

Genesis lay in the back of the ambulance trying to make sense of everything. Why couldn't she feel her legs? The nurse above her was speaking to her but the rushing noise from the night before blocked out all noise. She saw flashes of the wall coming towards her but the impact was alike to the stick. Her face stung as her hearing focused once again and her eyes found a smiling face beside her.

"Hello. Do you mind telling me what your name is?" Genesis looks up at the nurse, her dark hair tied back in a tight ponytail.

"It hurts." She croaks out. The nurse purses her lips and reaches out to pat her hand.

"I know. I know it does. If you can tell me your name we can make the pain go away for a while." Her smile was kind and genuine, yet it was one that felt ingenuine also. Genesis blinked and she could've sworn the nurse was a little girl for a split second.

"Genesis." She croaked out. "Genesis Magnussen." The nurse nods and writes down her name before looking up to her colleagues. "Alright Genesis, can you tell me what hurts?" A tear trickled down her cheek.

"My back, my neck. I can't feel my legs. Why can't I feel my legs?" The nurse shushes her softly and runs her thumb over her hand.

"It's okay, you'll be okay soon." A plastic cup is placed over Genesis' mouth and nose, the anaesthesia sending her to sleep faster than she had been able to in a while.

▪~○••○~▪

When she woke up she was in a bed. More specifically, a hospital bed. There was a throbbing in her back but she could feel her legs and that was important. When she tried, she found she couldn't move and began to panic. She wasn't fond of restrictions, she felt unsafe and helpless... and alone.

As the monitor beside her began to beep faster than normal two nurses rushed into the room to calm her down. One of them was the nurse from the ambulance and the other she didn't recognise. Genesis watched them out of the corner of her eye and the female nurse gave her a kind smile. Taking a seat beside the bed, she leant forward so Genesis could see her.

"Hello again, Genesis. You may be wondering why you can't move." She stands slowly, looking at her partner. "That will be to do with your burst fractures." Something about the woman put Genesis on edge, she narrowed her eyes up at the woman, she wanted to say something but her throat was so dry she doubted her voice would work. "Don't worry." The nurse said and turns around. "They're stable- for now. You're supposed to be fitted with a brace tomorrow." She drops the file over her shoulder and walks up to the side of the bed again. "But plans can be altered."

Her words struck horror in Genesis and the male nurse ripped the drip from her arm and switched the monitor off at the wall. The female nurse hushed her as she struggled to call out or fight back.

A cloth is held over her face and for the second time that day she found herself rendered unconscious.

▪~○••○~▪

She woke up on a hard surface. The ceiling above her had spotlights and seemed to look like concrete. The walls were stained red and the colour seeped into the floor and seemed to reach out to her.

A crackle came over the speakers, startling her.

"For so long you, Genesis Magnussen, have been wondering what on earth you were doing to get that scar on your face. Well, let me take you back to a time where clear skin was a burden and we could run for hours without losing our breath." The voice was unfamiliar but it was clearly recorded so she listened. "All I ever wanted was to be friends. To join in every now and then. To. Play. Pirates. You were alright, I guess. You actually included me if you almost stood on me so I couldn't get rid of you. That would hardly be fair." Genesis had no idea where she was an as she registered she was in a cell she began to panic. As her breaths became heavier and faster, every couple breath accompanied with a wheeze. "Victor Trevor was easy. He more or less climbed down that well himself." Her breath hitched. "You found him. I watched you for a bit. You threw your disco boot down to him, yelled a bit and then ran for help. I watched as you ran from the forest, you bled a lot." By this point she was hyperventilating. Her back screamed with every quiver of her body. "Come on, Redbeard!" She mimicked over the recording.