Nomad'er What

Chapter 4: Shock, denial, pain

Aileen’s POV

He watched me leave, I watched him hold back tears. He gave me a smile, I blinked at him. He gave me his heart and I left him with an empty depression beneath his ribs.

“It’s nice to have you back Miss Excoilion,” Bo our family driver said from the front seat.

“You can drop me off at an adoption centre Bo,” I told him.

He gave me a hardy chuckle, “I missed your humour.” We both sat in silences for the rest of the drive as I debated between suicide and homicide. How can I ever be happy again?

+   +   +

Pierce’s POV

I can’t believe it, this can’t have happened. I punched the brick wall of the side lane, I watched her go, but it couldn’t be real. None of this is real it’s just a dream, just a stupid dream.  It started to pour but I barely felt it, I was in a dream no moment could have been more depressing.  I had to have dreamt this all up. Soon enough I’ll wake in my sleeping bag under the bridge with Ail next to me smiling.

I walked on the road, no cars were around, I could barely see in front of me from the thick sludge of water pouring from my dream skies. My hoodie was drenched and my shoes lost their grip on the pavement. I saw headlights up ahead, but my attempt to get out of the vehicles way resulted in face-planting on the cracked cement road. I felt a jolt of impact and sudden pain shoot through my body, I lost all the feeling in my torso and limbs, all I tasted was blood and all I could think about was my brain screaming at me ‘this hurts!’. If this is just a dream then why does it feel so real and why can’t I wake up yet?

+   +   +

 I woke and was assaulted by whiteness; literally everything around me was totally white, that clean sterilised tone made my injured body stand out. I realised I had lots of medical equipment attached to myself including an IV in my arm. I heard a machine next to me beep and it increased as I felt a spike of adrenaline from the shock.

“Ah you’re up I’ll go get the doctor,” said a man I assumed was the nurse.

He came back a little later with a glass of water and a straw, he placed them in front of me, I noticed the tattoos on his hands, he was one of them. I heard the machine freak out in sync with my blood pressure.

“Hey are you ok? Calm down are you in pain? Are you in pain? What’s wrong?” he asked me, but soon I couldn’t hear his words I only saw his lips moving and his hand gently on my arm.

“Tell drew he can’t have me…” I choked out, before I gave into the darkness.

+   +   +

 I could faintly hear the beeping of machines, I knew this was reality, but it sure didn’t feel like it.  I am only on the world not in it anymore.

+   +   +

“You are lucky you got away without any fractured bones, you do have major tissue wounds and a deep gash over your left Pecs, it luckily didn’t protrude enough to seriously damage your heart, but it did cause serious blood loss. And on top of it all you suffer malnutrition.” The doctor told me matter-of-factly obviously impatient with my behaviour, “So I would suggest you stay in the hospital for at least another couple of days. In fact I would recommend weeks.”

“I am not staying here.” I stated. They had to take me to a city hospital, because the tiny one in town didn’t have the right accommodation, or at least that’s the bull sh*t I was told. Now that I was awake and could feel all of my body parts I wanted out of the city ASAP.

“I would highly suggest that you do, now I’m going to need you to fill out your personal information and insurance forms, then you can discuss your discharge with Mathew,” he nodded to the male nurse who’d helped me before and left the room.

“Now Mr..” Matt, as he told me to call him started.

“I don’t have a last name,” I told him, “I don’t have insurance and I’m know you can’t give me a discharge so don’t bother trying to bribe me.”

“Pierce, it’s Pierce isn’t it?” he said, I just stared at him; he was one of them, one of those rats, one in this city’s very own hospital, helping patients. I felt like asking the patients, telling them, ‘do you know you’re being looked after by a man who is part of 'the highest crime-rate gang in the city? Do you know what you have to do to become a member? Do you know your nurse is a murderer?

Of course I didn’t and I wouldn’t, the number one policy to staying alive is ‘keep your mouth shut’, ‘keep your nose out of it’ was a close second.

Matt closed the door, and I got a spike of adrenaline. The patient sharing a room with me had been let out early that morning, so we were all alone. I was all alone with a murderer, in a hospital.

“When you first woke up you said some stuff,” He began.

My mouth went dry and my hands were sweaty and I began to work out the easiest way to get out of this sterilised hell. “What level are we on?” I asked ignoring him.

“Shut up!” he said stepping towards me.

I pulled out my IV and tried not to wince, he didn’t seem to notice. He squeezed the IV bag, I played it out so he’d think he was hurting me.

“Where did you hear that name?” he whispered close to my ear.

I gave him a smile and shook my head. “Nup Matt, Matty can I call you that?” I said, “The way this works is you get one question at a time.” Then as quick as I could I surprised him by jumping from my bed and tackling him to the floor, I wrapped the IV cord around his neck tightly, but not enough to kill him.

“I know who you are, I know where you’re from and I know what you’ve done,” I spat at him, “My last name?!  De Raps, and don’t ever forget it,” I said as he passed out.