Bitter Sweet

~chapter three~

The flashback was brutal. All of a sudden I was back in the ditch, I could even feel the blinding pain rippling through my body in flashes. I couldn't feel my fingers anymore, part of me knew I was dieing. From the cold, or blood loss I wasn't sure anymore. I could feel the blood slowly seeping through my clothes like lava, and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't even move. I was paralyzed. In the distance I could hear cold laughter coming from the road. It was the scariest thing I'd ever heard in my life. It was low and evil, the sound made me want to cry out. But I was too weak to do even that. The laughter stopped and I heard tires screeching as a vehicle sped off. I don't know how long I was crumpled in the ditch for, but it felt like hours. I was drifting in and out of consciousness, death wasn't too far. I heard shouting, but I couldn't understand what the person was saying. To be honest, I was scared that the man with the laugh had come back. I drearily looked up to see a handsome boy frantically on the phone while trying to drape a jacket over me. He looked terrified. Then my vision went black. I gained consciousness briefly again in time to see the flashing lights of an ambulance. That was the last thing I saw before i completely passed out.

I opened my eyes to see Cindy's house surrounding me once again. I was on my knees clutching my head in my hands with endless streams of tears running down my face. I was shaking uncontrollably. I had just relived the entire night, and I wish I could forget it again.

"Mommy, why was she screamin' like that?" I heard Josh quietly ask. I took my head out of my hands to see everyone staring at me worriedly. I avoided eye contact with Dylan at all costs. No one seemed to know what to do. Cindy rushed up to me, knelt down and gathered me in her arms.

"Honey... are you alright? What happened?" I looked at her through my tears.

"I... I.." I was literally speechless. Everyone looked scared of me. I started staring at the cracks between the hardwood foors, I couldn't stand that look on their faces. I inhaled shakily and untangled myself from Cindy's arms. I slowly stood up and continued to look down at the floor. "Um...." I paused, briefly looking up. "Is there anywhere I could sleep? I think I just need some rest.." Cindy got up in a hurry.

"Of course sweetie, right this way." She led me upstairs and down the hall to the very last door. "We'll have to give to a tour of the house some other time." I nodded and thanked her before turning and walking inside the room. I closed the door and went straight for the bed. I felt emotionally and physically exhausted. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

But that flashback haunted my dreams endlessly.

I woke up in a cold sweat and sat straight up. I wrapped my arms around myself to stop the shaking that was consuming my body at the moment. It felt like I was holding myself together. I reached up to wipe away the tears that had leaked during my sleep. I lifted the shirt slowly to look at the stitches draped across my stomach. I ran my finger along the rough stitching, it was slowly healing. I only remembered the night i got rescued and it rattled me to the core. What about all the other things that happened to me? What will happen when I actually remember everything..? Suddenly my future looked almost as scary as my past.

I looked toward the window. It was pitch black, I won't be sleeping for a while. I stretched gently, and winced when it pulled on my stitches. I walked out of the room and straight into a wall. Wait.. scratch that, it has arms. I slowly looked upwards to meet the most beautiful boy I'd ever seen... I think. I can't remember actually. His chocolate brown eyes met my dark blue ones. His hair was perfect, and it made me want to run my fingers through it and...

I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts. He seemed to notice my discomfort, and awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

"So listen... I just want to apologize for yesterday.. Something happened after you saw me, and I'm sorry if I caused it in any way. I can honestly say I didn't mean to." I smiled softly at him.

"It's not your fault, don't worry about it." He looked doubtful.

"I'm Dylan by the way. And you are.. Samantha?"

"Yeah, but please just call me Sam. Its nice to meet you Dylan.." I looked around noticing the dark hallway around us. "Uh.. What time is it?

"2am." I sighed knowing that I probably wouldn't be sleeping anytime soon. It was going to be a long night.

"Can't sleep?"  I nodded while studying the floors once again.

"You probably know my reason for not sleeping, but what is yours? Its a little late you know." It was his turn to avoid eye contact.

"I uh.. just don't sleep much." He answered vaguely.

"Oh okay. If you'll excuse me, I'm just going to head downstairs for some water." He moved aside to let me pass him, and I swiftly stepped by him and headed for the stairs. I found the kitchen pretty easily and started looking around. Now... where would the cups be? This kitchen had a freakish amount of cupboards. I shrugged and started checking them one by one. I opened the third cupboard and was attacked by rogue Tupperware containers. I squeaked and threw my hands out trying to catch some of them. It definitely didn't work and I was engulfed by an avalanche of containers. I frowned and looked down at the mess, and I heard a deep voice from behind me.

"It was the cupboard next to the fridge." I jumped and snapped my head to see Dylan casually leaning against the counter opposite of me. He had a smirk on his face after obviously witnessing the tupperware attack. I could feel my cheeks heating up as I looked down at the pile on the floor. He chuckled lowly and walked over to help clean up the mess.

"Sorry.." He looked over at me and smirked.

"No worries.  I probably could've warned you." Wait...

"You knew that was going to happen?!"  He stopped picking up containers for a moment and shrugged.

"Well, I could've made a fair prediction." I looked over at him and scowled. "To be fair though, you never asked."

"How was I supposed to know that I would get assaulted by Tupperware?! That's not exactly something you think about while opening a cupboard."

"Well it should be then. Can't blame anyone but yourself for this."

"False. I can blame you." He smirked again.

"Maybe a little."

"Or a lot! Would it have hurt to say a simple  'Hey you might get attacked by plastic lids and containers, so watch out!'?" I did my best imitation of his deep voice. He froze and looked at me,

"I don't sound like that."

"Could've fooled me, Bud." He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Really? Last time I checked, I didn't sound like an old man." Oops.. maybe I had spent a little too much time with Leonard.

"Wow, you should check more often then." I smirked and crossed my arms over my chest. He looked up and studied my face for a moment before turning back to the Tupperware. I heard him muttering something under his breath, but I ignored it. I did a quick mental happy dance for winning and then started helping him pick up the rest of the plastic and shoving it back into the cupboard. I mumbled a quick thanks and found a cup to fill with water.

"I'm just going to go back up to the room, so goodnight."

"Goodnight Sam."

I quickly left the room and made my way up stairs. Once the door to the room I had slept in was shut, I took a sip from the cup and sighed. All that for a glass of water.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

 Okay so I didn't like how I wrote this chapter previously so I re-wrote most of it. Hope you like it! :) And don't forget to comment if you can! I'll try and update again soon

~Rachel