Ahead of the Darkness Page 21

  How long have I been out for? My brain is a jumbled mess. I can’t place any of the images running through my mind Almost all of them are of Drew.

  Think.

  The last thing I can remember is ... a car. I was driving. I was driving? I was in Anne’s car. Oh, Anne. Does that mean she isn’t real, either? I remember her so vividly. Her warm face and greying hair, she looked so sad as I left. I can’t have made that up. Surely.

  I drove off in Anne’s car, the feeling of desperation present. I was running from my father, but then how did I end up here? Think!

  The soft croon of Adele’s voice drifts through my thoughts, and lyric becoming clear and clear. Something about having ...

  It all.

  Oh God. That was it. I had come back for Drew. I’d turned the car around and come back for Drew, but then what happened?

  I’m completely blank. I take another few shaky breaths as I adjust myself a little, wincing at the pain of stretching out my legs.

  I look down at myself, and my eyes widen. My hand already swollen, looking close to double its size. My arms and legs are covered in lacerations, with dried blood and dirt everywhere.

  I am wearing some sort of cloth, which is also covered in grime and slashes of blood. I tentatively lift my good hand to my face and wince when I make contact. I can feel the swell of my cheek, and the remnant of what I presume is my own dried blood.

  The door abruptly opens, slamming against the wall, and I quickly close my eyes. My father’s steps are sharp against the concrete, and I try not to cower when they come closer and closer. Something like the sound of wet rope being pulled along the floor gets my attention, but I dare not move.

  “Look at you. You’re filthy, lying in your own disgusting filth for days. I can’t stand the smell.”

  Days? I still don’t move, but I have a feeling I knew what is coming next. The unmistakeable sound of a hose being turned on has my eyes snapping open in horror seconds before the blasting cold spray hits me in the chest.

  I scream when the spray comes in contact with my hand and ribs, and I try to shield it, failing miserably with the manacle’s limited range. I stagger to my feet, trying not to slip. I hear a faint crashing sound in the distance, but pay it no mind.

  “You’re just like your mother, a filthy whore. No one could love you. Your own father didn’t want you.”

  “What?”

  “That’s right. I took your mother in when she was pregnant, and made you my own. And what thanks did I get? Ten fucking years in prison, that’s what I got. For your mother breaking her own useless neck.”

  “You killed her. I saw it!”

  “Shut your filthy mouth.”

  The spray comes up, pushing my head against the wall, and I hear a muffled crack as my skull makes contact.

  “Mia!”

  The spray stops suddenly. My head is spinning and I can feel blood running down my face.

  “How the fuck?”

  The sound of flesh hitting flesh rings out through the room, and a loud thud follows.

  “Oh God, Mia.”

  I hear splashing, and feel hands on my face. I jerk, and gasp at the sudden pain to my cheek, and pounding of my head.

  “Mia, love, it’s me.”

  My heart stops. Drew. Drew is here? He’s real?

  “Drew?”

  “I’ve got ye.”

  He’s real.

  The tears break free at hearing those three words. “You’re real.” I sobbed.

  The sound of the chains coming loose from the wall startles me, and I stagger painfully forward into the lamp that had been blinding me before and struggle to hold on to it. Drew rushes to me and I see his face twisted in a grimace.

  “Mia ...” The pain is thick in his voice, but before I can respond my father has staggered to his feet. My eyes widen in panic, and I scream for Drew. He spins out of the way, the blade missing him by a hair’s breadth as my father lunges forward. I don’t think. I grip the lamp tight, and swing. The head of the lamp shatters as it comes in contact with my father’s head.

  “Mia!” Drew screams as my father buries the blade into me before he staggers back, clutching the shard of glass in his neck.

  My hands fly to the blade protruding from my side, and my legs wobble beneath me. Drew catches me before I can hit the concrete.

  “Mia! Oh God, Mia. That should have been me!”

  “You’re here? You’re real.”

  “Shh love, hold on. Ye going to be okay. I’ve got ye.”

  The last thought I have as Drew lifts my limp body in his arms is, Thank God, he’s real.

  Epilogue

  “I need a doctor, now.”

  I run through the emergency waiting room with Mia’s limp body in my hands, her gasping breaths the only sign she is still alive.

  “Don’t ye die on me, ye hear me? Don’t ye leave me again.”

  “What? Oh, God.”

  The nurse on-duty took one look at Mia’s mangled body and ran off in the other direction, returning with a gurney a moment later.

  “Here, put her on this.”

  I lay her down as gently as I can, desperate not to knock the blade still protruding from under her ribs...

  “I’m sorry, sir, you need to stay here. We need to get the blade out and stop the bleeding immediately. She’ll be in good hands.”

  I took her hand, gripping it tightly in mine. “I’m nae leaving her.”

  “You must.”

  She pries my shaking hands from Mia’s, and pushes the gurney through the double doors. I stand there, staring after her. She cannae leave me; not again.

  “Sir?”

  I turn behind me and frown at the woman behind the reception desk. “What?”

  “We need you to fill in some paperwork for the victim.”

  “Her name is Mia.”

  She smiles sympathetically at me while pushing the clip-folder and form across the desk towards me and my eyes narrow.

  “And no, I’m afraid it won’t wait. It will give you something to do while you wait. You can take a seat over there, if you like.”

  I look to where she’d pointing at the spars waiting area. I take the form, muttering to myself as I take a seat on the far side, away from the other sorry saps waiting for their fates and fill in her damn paperwork. I dinnae know half the things, but make them up as best I can. Barely aware of what I wrote on the blasted thing, I thrust the paperwork back at the nurse and stalk off back to my chair.

  I sat for hours with no sign of news, berating myself for not getting there sooner and, for that matter, for letting her out of my sight in the first place. I got up and began to pace. Dinnae she trust me to keep her safe? I would have kept her safe from the devil himself if I had to. I should have kept her safe.

  Finally, a doctor emerges, breaking my anguished thoughts. Removing his mask, and I stalk to towards him.

  “Doc, ye best be having good news to tell me?” I cannae bare anything else.

  “You would be the young chap who brought the victim in?”

  “Mia. Aye.”

  “It’s against protocol to be telling you anything—”

  I cut the doctor off. “Ye best be telling me, or I’ll—”

  “But.” He cuts me off. “... cases such as this, where there seems to be no immediate family, I will. She’s suffered substantial damage to her body. She has a fractured skull, and we had to put her in an induced coma to allow for swelling to diminish.”

  “That dinnae sound good.”

  “She also has two broken ribs, and her left hand has multiple fractures and will need further surgery to repair. We won’t know until she wakes the exact extent of the damage. The flesh wound was repairable, but will need monitoring, but that is of least concern. For now, she is stable, but still in a critical condition.”

  “Can, I see her? Please?” I add on as an afterthought. My voice cracks on the last word.

  “She’s still in intensive care, post-surgery, but as so
on as she’s moved I will have a nurse come and fetch you. You will only have five minutes with her I’m afraid.”

  “Thank ye.”

  The doctor nods once and walks off. I begin to pace again. Each second feels like an agonising hour waiting till I can finally be with her, even if it is only for a few minutes. I need to see her.

  “Sir?” My head snaps up to the double doors. “You can see her now.”

  I follow the nurse through the double doors; my heart racing at the thought of wait awaited me. I dinnae know how I will handle seeing Mia with tubes coming out of her.

  The nurse directs me through the door of Mia’s room and I gasp. It is as brutal as I’d feared.

  Her head is wrapped in thick white bandages, tubes coming out of her arms, and a heart monitor is beating slowly in the corner, one for every six of mine.

  “You can have twenty minutes with her.” I look at the nurse confused and she smiles sadly at me. “I won’t be back to check on her until then. Okay?” Ah.

  I nod with a weak smile too chocked up to thank her and pull a chair up to her bed. I sit, gingerly take her good hand.

  It looks so weak and fragile in mine.

  “Mia, can ye hear me?” My voice cracking.

  What if she cannae recover from this? A weight crushes my chest at the thought. She has to; I cannae live without her. I hold on to her hand a little tighter.

  “I’ve got ye, love ... I’ll pull ye out of the darkness.”