Weathered Love

AFTERMATH

"She's not a killer!" I heard someone yell. I sucked in a sharp breath as though re-surfacing from underwater after holding my breath for a moment too long.

"Ivy?" I heard a panicked voice call out. I tried to open my eyes, but my eyelids felt too heavy, too sore, too swollen to open up. "Ivy, it's Kris," I heard Kristoff state.

"Kris?" I called out, my throat feeling like sandpaper with that single syllable.

"Yeah, we're all here," he informed me. I tried harder to pry my eyes open. A slit of light burned my corneas, but I willed what window of vision I had to come into focus as quickly as possible. I could see the silhouettes of Kristoff, Ivan, Maria, Catrin, and even Ella and my parents. I had to have been hallucinating. Ella and my parents were in New York.

"Who's here?" I finally questioned, unable to reason why I was imagining my family's presence.

"Me, Ivan, Maria, Cat, and your family," Kristoff confirmed.

"What happened?" I continued to question through the desert air in my throat. "Where am I?" I felt the panic arise within me.

"You're in the hospital," Ella stated. "You blacked out after you beat the crap out of that scumbag that broke into your house," she continued. I could hear the poison-laced tone she used while mentioning Nolan.

I reached out for her and felt a metal bracelet around my wrist, restraining my hand. Was I in handcuffs? I started to feel my heart race as a panic arose within me. Why was I handcuffed? Were they doing something to me that was horrifically painful and required me to be restrained?

"It's OK," Ivan tried to soothe. "That moron said you attacked him out of nowhere, so they need to cuff you until they can sort out the story," he explained.

His version of events was only a minor comfort. I was being restrained because I was under arrest? Would I have a record? What bearing would this have on my future? Would I even have a future, now that I had a record?

"Miss, we'll need to ask you a few questions," I heard an unfamiliar voice state. I assumed it was a police officer.

"OK," I agreed. I had nothing to hide.

"I'll need to speak to her in private," I heard to officer continue, no doubt trying to make everyone else leave.

"We're her parents," I heard my father assertively state.

"She's not a minor, and therefore doesn't need a parent present while we question her," the officer responded.

"But I want them here," I insisted, trying to appear more fearful than I felt so as to bolster my father's argument that they needed to be there.

"This is a private questioning," the officer continued. I heard many pairs of feet shuffle out the door and the click as the door nestled into its frame. It was just me and the officer now. I tried even harder to fully open my eyes at this point. I refused to be at a disadvantage.

"Ivy Fulton," he started.

"Yes," I confirmed.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" he questioned.

"Well, Nolan was trying to break in-"

"So you know the man you attacked?" the officer accused.

"I didn't attack him. He tried to break in," I responded. "Maybe let me finish my story before making an assumption?"

"You almost killed him. I'm not quite so sympathetic, no matter how beat up you are from the altercation," the officer firmly responded.

"Should I have been sympathetic to someone who's been beating my friend and tried to literally break down my door to try and force her to go with him, to God knows where?" I spat back.