Rebecca
Everything was dark. Memories flash through my mind like still life portraits. I'm not awake but I'm not asleep. I feel lost somewhere trapped between consciousness and everything else. I hear a familiar voice that draws me out and suddenly I am awake. I gasp. I reach up drawing my fingers over the swollen bruises and sutras stitching my face together. I can tell it's bad. Everything hurts.
I feel a hand tighten around mine.
"I was expecting to be dead," I say.
"I'm glad you're not," she says.
I raise my head, turning my eyes to the sound and am stunned, silent.
"Samantha?" I say.
"I heard what happened, I've been watching the kids the last few days. They've needed a familiar face. Lucy especially," she says.
It hits me like a slap and the pain shreds every fragile heart piece left. I cry. Lucy saw everything. It happened in front of her. She saw her father die. I try to form the semblance of sentences but can only spew out word fragments. Samantha picks up on most of it.
"She's doing better. She doesn't understand what happened. And she is pretty scared," Samantha says.
I can't keep it together for longer than a moment and it seems like every thought pushes me past the breaking point and more tears fall from my eyes.
Samantha tries to comfort me. She shows me photos on her cell of her and the kids at the park.
"See, they're happy," she says.
They do look happy. As happy as can be I guess. But one passing photo grabs my attention.
"Wait, go back," I say.
Samantha scrolls back. Bobby is in the foreground hanging off the monkey bars. He is smiling and happy. But in the background, Lucy sits in a swing. Her head hangs low. It destroys me.
"Rebecca, you did the right thing," she says, "don't regret anything you did. He was probably gonna kill you. I knew he was that way, I saw it." We lock eyes. "I mean, I know he's violent, that's what I'm trying to say."
"I feel so bad," I say through a face of tears.
"It's okay," Samantha says, "he is never gonna hurt you again."
"Where are they?" I say.
Samantha turns in her seat.
"What?" I say.
"The kids are upstairs in ICU, they're with Andrew," she says.
I can't breathe. I feel my throat close.
"What?" I say.
"Don't worry-" she says but I cut her off.
"He's dead, isn't he?" I say but Samantha doesn't answer. My weak heart starts to race and I can feel my body weaken.
The Nurse rushes into my room. She quickly squeezes something into my IV and my body relaxes.
"It's okay. Everything is just fine." The Nurse says, "Doctor Conor will be right in."
Samantha steps back as Doctor Conor walks through the door.
"How are you feeling?" Doctor Conor says.
"I don't understand, he's still alive?" I say.
"Can you slow your breathing down for me? We need to keep you in good condition," Conor says.
I try as best I can.
"We are still waiting for a heart, and I need you to take as good care of the one you have now because we need it to keep working," Conor says.
YOU ARE READING
The Babysitter
Fiksi Remaja"Falling in love with a married man wasn't what I wanted but it happened." - Samantha "Finding love again was all I wanted with him, but I had to find myself first." - Rebecca Love and lies collide in this riveting tale of adultery, as two women fig...
