by D L Blade
I looked up, confused, but in an instant, he was gone.
My head was pounding so hard, I was forced to close my eyes and lie all the way down on the ground. My mind went black again and into the darkness of my dreams.
I was relieved to not feel pain from my leg and ankle anymore, but everything around me felt suffocating. I tried to take a few breaths, but my lungs were restricted.
I walked a few feet till I entered a clearing where a woman with a rope wrapped around her neck was standing on a ladder below a large tree. The rope was secured to a thick branch above her. There was no escape for her; only certain death. When I looked more closely at this girl, I noticed that her face was the same as mine, but she had long red hair and she was wearing clothes no one would wear today. An angry crowd surrounded the girl, hoisting up flaming torches.
“Witch!” they chanted in unison.
“Hang her now!” a man bellowed.
The girl closed her eyes, as the ladder was kicked out under her. Her feet dropped and her body went limp. The shock of her death made me scream, closing my eyes tightly, no longer able to tolerate the sight of watching someone die. When I opened my eyes again, all I saw was a white-painted ceiling above me.
“Oh thank goodness, Mercy,” Lily whispered. “Shannon, please go tell the nurse she’s awake.”
I was lying in a hospital bed, wearing nothing but a flimsy hospital gown and a plastic band around my wrist.
Lily grabbed my hand and I flinched. She must have noticed it this time because her face looked wary. “You’re safe in the hospital. It’s me, Lily.”
I felt achy, but the pain I felt wasn’t nearly as painful as it had been in the car.
They must have me on some pretty strong painkillers.
I looked down at my leg and noticed my ankle wasn’t in a cast, either. I placed my fingertips on my forehead, gliding them across the skin ever so gently, but felt nothing.
What the hell?
I looked up at Lily, “What happened?”
“Someone saw your car from their house across the street and called 911. Before the ambulance reached you, they saw you walking into the woods and then collapse about twenty feet from your car. You must have passed out,” she explained.
“I was walking?” I shook my head. “No, I remember. I broke my ankle.”
I tried to recall what had happened, but my mind wasn’t making sense of it.
Lily and Riley looked at each other and then back to me. I glanced down at my foot, moving my ankle from side to side. “Or, I thought I did.”
“From what the nurses have said, you didn’t break anything,” Riley added. “Kind of surprised though, your car was a wreck. Your door had been completely ripped off in the crash.”
Ah ha! I didn’t imagine this. My door was indeed ripped off by someone. Ugh, but could a man actually do that?
“Where’s Cami?” I asked Lily.
“She’s here, somewhere. She was in the waiting room the last time I saw her, talking to her mom on the phone.”
Before Lily opened her mouth again, Shannon walked in with the nurse who checked my monitors.
“Your doctor will be right in,” the nurse assured me.
I shifted my body toward Riley. “Hey, you,” I said to him, who was within arm’s reach. I shot him a weak smile and he reciprocated.
“I was worried about you,” he admitted, placing his hand by my arm, but not touching me.
“I needed you here. Thank you.” I moved my hand over to his and lightly touched his fingers.
After a few seconds, I removed my fingers from his and looked over at my aunt. “Lily, I’m so sorry about the car. I may need to borrow your beater truck for a while.” I laughed at my joke.
“Ha, it’s not that bad. I need someone to drive it every now and then anyway.” She laughed with me and leaned back against her chair. “What do you remember from the accident?”
“An animal ran across the street. I didn’t have time to avoid it, so I swerved off the road and into the forest. Then this man came and pulled me from the car.”
I thought about how he’d appeared and disappeared so quickly.
How could he have just left me alone like that? He was right there, holding me, comforting me. And then he was gone. But he had said something to me first. What was it again?
“There wasn’t a man, Mercy. They found you there alone,” Lily explained.
As I tried to make sense of everything … tried to figure out what was real and what wasn’t … a doctor entered the room.
“Glad to see you’re awake,” the doctor said as he walked in. “I’m Doctor Reid. How are you feeling?” he asked.
I looked down at my ankle again. “No broken ankle or large wound on my leg?”
“I examined you myself. There’s a small wound on your calf and your forehead, but aside from that, you’re fine,” he explained.
This isn’t possible.
“Please check my ankle.” I looked at him nervously.
Was I losing my mind?
Doctor Reid pulled a chair to the end of the bed and lifted the blanket. He placed his hands on my ankle gently and moved it slightly right.
“Does that hurt?” he asked.
I shook my head.
He turned it to the left. “How about that?”
I shook my head again. There was no pain, not even a little bit.
“Is it possible, when you were passed out, that you dreamed you broke it?” he asked.
“It’s possible,” I replied, thinking about his theory. It made more sense than a broken ankle healing itself within an hour.
“The only real concern I have is that you did pass out at the scene, so I’d like to keep you here for twenty-four hours, just to monitor you. After you head home tomorrow, just take it easy. If you pass out again or get headaches, call my office and I’ll refer you to a neurologist,” he instructed.
“Maybe you fell asleep at the wheel?” Shannon, who had been sitting quietly in the back of the room, finally joined in.
Her theory made sense too. I remembered zoning out and feeling so tired. Maybe there hadn’t been an animal. Maybe instead I simply fell asleep, crashed my car, and dreamed everything after that.
“Mercy, I’ll stay here as long as you need. I can keep the café closed for the rest of the day,” she told me.
I shook my head. “No, please don’t do that. Like the doctor said, I’m fine. It’s just routine monitoring.” I looked up at Shannon and Riley. “Thanks for coming, guys.”
Shannon opened her mouth to say something, right as Cami barged through the door. “Oh my God, Mercy!”
I rolled my eyes and giggled. “It’s not serious, Cami. I’m fine. They just want to keep me here overnight.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound like you’re fine,” she huffed.
“How’s your mom?” I asked, changing the focus away from me.
She frowned and shook her head. “I should probably get back to her. She’s having a bad day.”
“You guys are amazing for being here.” I turned to Riley. “I’ll text you later.”
A few hours after everyone had left the hospital, I was getting restless. Once I climbed out of the bed, the sudden urge to pee took over.
After relieving myself, I washed my hands and looked up at the mirror. I brought my hands to my forehead and pulled the bandage back to reveal … nothing.
What?
My heart raced. There wasn’t a cut on my forehead, only a light pink smudge from the blood soaked on the Band-Aid. I looked down at my leg where the piece of plastic from the car had been lodged, pulled the bandage off, and there was no gash there, either. When I grabbed my pants from the hospital bag, I noticed a two-inch hole right where the plastic had been. Turning my pants inside out, I saw what the nurses must not have noticed.
Blood. A lot of blood.
No, I didn’t dream this. The amount of blood on my pants was something that could only come from a deep laceration. So
mething was happening to me, something strange.
Me: I’m going crazy in this hospital bed.
Shannon: You’re home tomorrow. You feeling okay?
Me: I feel fine and they still won’t let me leave.
Shannon: I’m pretty sure you’re not a prisoner.
Me: You’re no fun. BUST ME OUT!
Shannon: LOL, I always told you I’d have your back if you got in a jam.
Riley: Ladies, I’m trying to sleep. Send each other a separate text, please.
Cami: Hi guys, I need to sleep, too. It’s almost midnight.
Me: All right. All right. Call you guys tomorrow.
I closed my phone and rolled over. I shut my eyes but couldn’t fall asleep. Hospital beds were awful. I turned back around and sat up. When I pressed the bed controls to sit upright, there was a noise coming from the door.
Click. It was a soft rattle from the doorknob.
The handle turned to the left and then stopped. I sat there waiting for the on-call nurse to come in, but she didn’t. I stood up from my bed and waited again.
I gulped.
You’re just being paranoid, Mercy. You are safe in a hospital. A nurse just changed their mind on coming in.
Even though that was the rational explanation, my heartbeat picked up.
To put my nerves at ease, I walked to the door and opened it. I looked down the hall and the only hospital employee was a female nurse sitting at the desk from a distance, looking at a computer monitor.
“Excuse me,” I said as I approached her.
“Hi, Mercy. How can I help you?”
“Yes … um … did you just try and come inside my room?”
She looked slightly concerned. “No. I’ve been sitting here for at least thirty minutes.”
“Oh … well, okay. Goodnight,” I said but I didn’t move. “Is there any other nurse working right now on this floor?”
She shook her head. “Just me.” She stood up and walked on the other side of the desk. “I’ll walk you back to your room.”
She escorted me back. Climbing into my bed, she helped my legs up, even though I didn’t need help. “If you need anything, please let me know.”
“Okay, thank you.” I rolled back over, while listening to the sound of the door closing.
Once I heard her footsteps continue down the hall, my pulse picked up again. No one else was in the room, but a sense of foreboding washed over me.
It was eleven when I finished my shower and grabbed my belongings. Lily would be here any minute to pick me up. I grabbed my phone and found Riley’s name.
Me: Finally getting out of here. Did you guys end up going somewhere after you left?
Riley: Shannon and Cami went home and I went down to Ted’s Bar and Grill to play a few rounds of pool with Jeff.
Me: Sounds more fun than my night. I don’t think I can spend any more time indoors. Want to meet up later?
Riley: Yeah, I’m down, let’s go to Goddard Park. I’ll grab Taco Bell on the way.
Me: Perfect, let’s meet around two. I’ll wait till Lily goes back to the café. There’s no way she’d let me go anywhere after just getting back from the hospital.
Riley: Sounds like a plan, see you soon.
We lived about ten minutes from Goddard Park. Lily dropped me off at the house, and after she left to go back to the café, I grabbed the keys to her truck and drove to meet Riley.
When I arrived at the marina, Riley was already sitting on a bench facing the rippling waves from the water in the cove.
Goddard Park was one of my favorite places near East Greenwich. The park stretched across four hundred acres along the Greenwich Cove. There were beautiful trails, canoeing, places to picnic, and most of the time my friends and I just came here to look out over the water and talk. It was peaceful, and it allowed us to escape a little bit from the chaos in our lives.
“I love this place,” I stated as I approached.
“It’s gorgeous,” he replied. He turned around and held out his hand. “Two plain bean burritos for you. Extra packets of mild sauce.”
I sat down next to him. “Thank you. That hospital food was awful.”
After we finished our lunch, I looked at Riley, whose face turned grim.
“Are you doing okay, Riley?” I asked.
He glanced at me and then back to the water. “Life is really hard for me right now, Mercy,” he confessed. “How do we go every day without breaking down?” He ran his hand through his hair. “Remember how my dad and I used to come out here when my mom was still alive and fish on our little paddle boat?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I remember. Your dad was so excited when you caught your first fish, he cooked it up that night. He didn’t realize my mom and I didn’t eat fish, but he tried to serve us what you guys caught that day, anyway.” We both giggled at the memory.
His laughter slowly faded and he looked back out at the water. “I just come out here now by myself. I was on my way to fish yesterday morning before I got the call about your accident. I was coming here … to fish alone.”
He pointed to a group of trees on our left that were farther into the water than the rest. I saw a few wooden paddle boats from a distance tied to a tree that reached over the water.
“There isn’t an official dock on this side, so people just keep their boats tied to the trees. I’m pretty sure strangers have taken ours out before.” He laughed, but I couldn’t join his laughter. I hurt for him.
Riley had been alone for so many years; there was so much sadness in his eyes, and I didn’t see it until now. I had been his girlfriend and never noticed the pain he felt from the absence of his father’s love. He must have felt me pulling away from him this past year, way before what happened with my mom. I saw that now. He hadn’t had a father to give him affection, he’d had me, and now I had taken that from him.
We sat on the bench, looking over the water for what felt like an hour or so, staring at the waves and sharing some of the good times from this past year at school. I looked at my phone. It was nearly four and I knew I needed to head home soon before Lily got back.
“I should get home. Lily usually gets back around five.” I turned to him and held out my hand. “Will you hold my hand?” He looked down at my hand, hesitated, and then placed his fingers in mine. My stomach was in knots and I drew in a deep breath. “I don’t know why this is so hard. You didn’t hurt me.” I closed my eyes and tears spilled over my cheeks. “But don’t let go.”
He gripped my hand tighter and I finally relaxed.
He held my hand a few minutes longer and then I let go, releasing our touch. “Okay,” I said as I stood up. “We should go.”
When we were both in our cars, I waved at him and turned the key. Lily’s truck stood still. “Oh, you crappy beater truck, don’t do this.” I tried again, and nothing happened. I opened the door to flag Riley down, but he was already driving off. Waving my hands in the air frantically, I had hoped he’d see me in his rearview mirror, but he didn’t. He turned the corner and was gone. I ran to the car to grab my phone, hoping I could get him to come back for me, but didn’t see it anywhere. I looked in my purse and under the seat.
“Dammit,” I swore out loud.
Back at the bench where we had been sitting, I looked for where I would have put my phone or dropped it.
Ugh, where are you, phone?
I looked around and no one else was at the park. If I could just flag someone down who was going for a walk, I could maybe use theirs to call Riley.
Seriously, where is my phone? I just had it.
“Are you looking for this?” A low voice asked from behind me. It startled me and I yelped, turning around and taking a few steps back.
It was a guy. A really hot guy!
Despite his good looks, his appearance didn’t settle my nerves one bit. He was a stranger that had come out of nowhere. His dark, wavy brown hair reached the center of his neck, messy but perfect at the same time. His five o’clock shadow was
just the right amount of scruff to complement his perfectly high cheekbones and strong jawline. The feature that stood out the most were his amber eyes. They were breathtaking. I had never seen anyone with amber eyes before. For a brief moment, as his eyes looked into mine, a sense of familiarity hit me.
Do I know him? No. I would have recognized that face.
“Yes … thank you,” I answered with shaky breath. I looked around the park to see if anyone else was around. We were alone.
“Here.” He held out my phone. I stretched out my hand and grabbed it, putting it in my back pocket. The stranger was wearing dark jeans and a brown T-shirt with a maroon hoodie zipped halfway up. The hoodie was snug against his arms, and I imagined for a brief moment what he looked like under his shirt. I tried to clear my thoughts, so I could focus.
He’s a stranger, Mercy, and you’re alone. Please don’t murder me.
“Do you have a name?” he asked.
Do not give him your real name.
“Angie …”
“Caleb Blackwell. Nice to meet you, Angie.” He stepped closer to me and held out his hand.
I shook his hand. He held on, probably feeling the sweat of my palms and slight tremble that was picking up the longer he held it.
Why is he not letting go?
“You’re shaking,” he said with a sideways grin on his face. He finally let go of my hand.
“I need to go. Thanks for finding my phone.” I stepped quickly to the side to walk by him, but he moved into my path, blocking me from going any further.
“Mercy, relax. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Everything around me froze in place and my heart stopped in its tracks.
He knows me. How did he know my real name?