Acts of Desperation(46)

Ugh, can’t they see I’m sleeping? It’s so irritating. They might think they’re being quiet, but they’re not. Wait. Why are they in my bedroom?

I felt the warmth of someone holding my hand, and I squeezed. They were cupping my hand in theirs while someone smoothed my hair. Then the memories flooded my brain—everything that had happened: The old house reeking of cigarettes, the drug filled hazes, and my run through the woods.

But where the hell am I? A hospital? I have to be in a hospital. That crazy guy wouldn’t be holding my hand… the beeping, my dad’s voice—everyone’s voices. All good signs, at least I’m not dead…but God my head hurts…what happened to me? How did I get here...Ugh, I need to sleep…I’m so tired.

I shut the voices off and drifted, escaping into my dreams. I couldn’t deal with reality yet, whatever it was.

****

I felt like I’d been asleep for a week, but my body still craved more. I was sore and stiff when I reached up and felt the bandage on my head. That was definitely sore underneath, and I was relieved that there was something covering the wound. Judging by the way it felt, I bet it looked awful. The scratches on my arms were already scabbed over and fading slightly.

I looked over to the various machines I was attached to, all monitoring my vital organs no doubt, and they droned on with their incessant beeping. Several wires were attached to my chest under my fashionable blue hospital gown and one lone line was taped to my arm. I followed the line all the way up to two separate bags filled with clear fluids and watched them slowly dripping and feeding into my vein.

I looked around the room and saw Jax sleeping in one corner and my dad in another. My dad’s salt and pepper hair was plastered to his head. He looked like he needed a shower, but he was peacefully snoring away and probably catching up on at least a week’s worth of sleep. Jax was leaning back in a chair covered up with a thin white hospital blanket. His nose was bandaged and his eyes were black and blue. He had his head tilted back, but I could tell from his breathing that he wasn’t asleep.

“So what kind of show are they running here? I can’t even get a private room,” I said quietly and cracked a tired smile.

Jax shot out of his seat. “Sember? Oh my God, you’re awake,” he said quietly. He hurried over and leaned down to give me a soft kiss then sat in the chair next to my bed. “Do you need anything?”

“No, I’m fine.” I lifted my hand up to the bandage on my head and asked, “What happened?”

“You tripped and hit your head on a rock. When they brought you in you had a concussion. They weren’t sure how severe it was so they kept you sedated in the ICU for a couple of days. It turns out it wasn’t as severe as they initially thought…thank God. They just brought you down here last night.”

“Oh, that’s good.” I laughed uneasily. “You look terrible. What happened to your face?”

“I took a pretty hard hit, but I can’t really blame you,” he said, patting the bandage on the bridge of his nose.

“I did that?” I asked.

“You don’t remember, do you? I can only imagine what you were thinking. I knew you were terrified, but I was just trying to get you back.”

“He was chasing me in the woods. He kept calling for me, but I just ran faster. Then I thought he had me when I tripped. I saw him. I mean I-I thought I saw him. But now…” I stammered, “I guess I’m not so sure.” I shook my head trying to make sense of the chaos in my brain.

“He wasn’t chasing you, that was me,” he said.

“That was you?” I asked.

“Yeah, I was trying to get you to stop. The police were about to move in then you came rushing out the back of the house. They busted in the front door, and I ran after you. Caught some shit for that too. My buddy Kevin had to pull all kinds of strings for them to even let me come along. He was pissed, but a thousand men couldn’t have held me back when I saw you. I’d just caught up to you then you elbowed me in the nose. And it was a hell of a hit, too.”

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I broke it, didn’t I?” I cringed.

“I don’t care, I hear chicks dig scars—it’ll add character.” He smiled. “I’m glad you’re ok. I can’t even think what I would have done if he…I’m just so glad that I got you back.” He put his head to my hand and exhaled over a week’s worth of stress in one breath.

“How did you find me? We looked like we were out in the middle of nowhere. He said he had an app that scrambled the signal on his phone. I thought it was hopeless after he said that.”

“He did,” he said, lifting his head. “It made him harder to find, but they were tracing pings and using triangulation on the signal and finally narrowed in on it. I didn’t really understand what they were talking about half the time, but they were working on it twenty-four-seven. I wasn’t going to stop until I found you though. I even contacted Grace’s parents. They’d actually been trying to find Dylan for a few weeks.”

“Dylan,” I repeated. “He wouldn’t tell me his name.”

“’I’m sorry, I assumed he told you who he was.”

“No, he didn’t. He wouldn’t. But it didn’t take me long to figure it out. I actually recognized him. I’d seen him a couple of times before when we were out.”