you're the only thing that's keeping me alive

chapter 3

The next time I wake up, I'm back in the comfortable bed. My feet are throbbing still so I know I'm not dreaming. I'm so cold and scared. I make my way to the bedroom door by walking on my heels. It's the balls of my feet that hurt. I open the door and make my way to the bathroom that Danielle had showed me the day before. I hear her voice coming up the stairs and she sees me hobbling towards the bathroom.

"Do you want to have a bath?" she asks. I nod my head slightly.

"I have nothing to wear after though" I say. "Do you know where my clothes are?"

"I washed them because they were wet. Do you want me to get them?"

I look at what she's wearing and realise I will look strange next to her.

"Would I be able to borrow something off you? I hate to ask and I don't want to be in the way" I whisper.

"That's fine" she says, smiling. "Come with me." I follow her to another room a little further down the hall.

I see a massive collection of clothes - more than I've ever seen before. Danielle pulls out a pretty dress - somewhat shorter than my other one but I like it. I nod and she passes it to me, along with an unopened package of under garments. They're a bit smaller than my usual ones. I follow her back to the bathroom and she shows me how to run the bath and which of the pretty bottles are for cleaning my hair. I thank her as she passes me a huge fluffy towel and when the bath has enough hot, bubbly water I carefully climb in, wincing as my tender feet touch the hot water. After a few seconds the pain subsides a bit so I get on with cleaning myself up.

I wrap the towel around my body after I climb out and find a hairbrush next to the sink. I brush my hair and dress before hobbling back to the bedroom. Danielle is waiting for me, to dress my feet again. I can't believe how kind she is being to a complete stranger.

"Thank you" I whisper, shyly smiling at her.

"My pleasure darling. Now, do you want to go and see if we can find anything out at the hotel." I nod.