One Foot In & One Foot Out

Chapter 23.2

The Silent Chapter pt.2

Beep, beep, beep.

When Jael finally awoke, she was still in her hospital bed, but it adorned new and clean sheets. Thankfully, the overhead lights were absent and could not contribute to the pounding drums sounding off in her skull. The room still smelled just as nauseously sterile and was now silent save for the beeping of her monitor, the hum of a side table lamp, and what sounded like light breathing coming from one side of the room.

The rest of the Carter family were in the room either sleeping or on their phones. The top half of Jael's body had been wrapped in bandages, an IV was stabbed in her left arm vein, and an oxygen tube stuck in her nose pumping much needed clean air.

Even though she was now awake, her brain was still a little fuzzy. All she could currently remember was the immense pain Damien had caused her and how much she wanted to claw out his illusive eyes for laying his hands on her.

Attempting to reach over to the movable side table to grab at her cell phone, a stab of pain hit her gut causing her to recoil and wince.

"Shit!" She gasped out quietly. By now she was still moderately drugged by pain meds, but she could feel them in the stages of wearing off.

"Jay!" Someone spoke from the side of the room when they realized she was awake.

Jael glanced over and saw both of her siblings coming towards her.

Both Genesis and Ezra gently hugged their sister and tentively sat by her waiting for her to say something.

She opened her mouth to utter words but all that came out were quiet sobs. She didn't understand why she was so emotional. She was beyond thankful and blessed that she was able to stop the heinous acts Rosewood and Brian had planned before they could start but she was still affected by the "pregame" they started. Being drugged and attacked, being helpless and paralyzed as he touched her and himself. Not being able to help her best friend in her time of need tortured her. Becoming another statistic.

Jael couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if she wasn't able to get up. If she wasn't able to rise and defend them. She would surely be in a much worse state than she is currently and so would Lucia. She couldn't help but think of all the women and girls, and even boys and men, that are not as lucky to be able to get away, and that made her cry even harder. But she had to force herself to stop because of the pain in her chest that she was beginning to feel that caused her even more pain with each sobbing heave she made.

"Thank you for being here," Jael managed to whisper to her siblings once the tears simmered down.

"Baby sis, of course we're here. Those guys will pay for what they did," Gen says stroking her little sister's arm.

"Yeah sis, we've got you. Lucia is okay by the way. Last we heard she had a concussion and a few stiches, but no internal damage. The cops are supposed to be coming by later to try and talk with you about what happened and there is an in house therapist who you can utilize too if you want," Ezra explains. Even though she already knew the state of her best friend, it was nice to be reminded that she was doing ok.

"I'm sure you don't want to relive the moments of tonight, and you don't have to if you don't want to. I made sure to get the detective's card so you can call him at a later day when you're feeling up to it," Gen replied comfortingly.

Jael looked from Gen to Ez and couldn't believe how blessed she was to have such caring, loving, and protective siblings. They wanted to shield her from any further hurt she may experience but she knew she had to talk to those cops immediately. She needed to speak and tell her truth while it was still fresh on her mind. She just wanted this all to be over with and no matter how much it pained her to relive it, she wanted it taken care of as quick as possible. For those two disgusting excuses for human men to be taken care of in every possible painful way.