REPRESENTED

by K'Anne Meinel

  “I think I’m going to stop down in Nashville for a few days and hang out” Cassie told her instead, she just wanted to escape from the hustle and bustle for a few days, it had been particularly hectic. She had received several offers as news leaked out that she was leaving Kreske. They were interesting to say the least, none of them tempted her. Not now.

  “I’ll be there in a couple of days” Cassie assured her knowing they could at least have the weekend together.

  “You’ll want Don Dreamcatcher to start the rumors about the announcement of who you are engaged to before the People magazine article comes out” Karin advised. She didn’t know if she liked Cassie’s new agent, his name alone sounded phony but she had checked him out and he was legitimate, his mother was a Cherokee native and his name authentic. He also knew Country music and its foibles. He had been leery of Karin but shown her great respect. He was relieved when he realized she wasn’t going to interfere with his work.

  Cassie hadn’t been thrilled with that interview but the proofs of the pictures they had shared for the article and the healthy check she had received for her charity had been nice. The publicity was going to be outrageous and Don had geared up his teams just for Cassie and the band. “I’ll see you in a couple days baby.”

  Cassie looked around in horror at the mess inside her once comfortable home. Everything was torn off the walls and if not broken from the fall then ripped or torn to shreds, obvious knife marks made it apparent this was a definite ploy to destroy, not to steal. “Karin?” she called in concern but there was no answer. Her Pathfinder was in the driveway, keyed and the tires slashed.

  “What the hell?” the voice behind her made her jump as her luggage was dropped.

  Cassie turned to look at Chet with concern “I’ve got to find Karin” she said desperately.

  “Wait, you don’t want to disturb anything, let me call 911” he advised as he grabbed her arm and kept her from continuing on into the house.

  “I’ve got to find Karin” she repeated almost desperately as she looked around at the destruction.

  Chet was already pulling out his cell phone and punching in 911.

  “Karin! Karin?” Cassie called into the house as she looked as far in as Chet would allow by the length of her arm.

  “mmmph” she heard or thought she heard.

  “Let me go” she snarled at Chet as she wrenched her arm out of his grasp.

  Stepping over debris and going through to the kitchen she stopped at the sight of Karin leaning up against the wall, her hand on her forehead with blood streaming down through her fingers and her other hand holding her up to the wall, her mouth was covered in pink duct tape held on by one side but it was obvious it had been across her lips and her wrists must have been held together with it as well as they showed obvious remains on both wrists. She looked at Cassie through the blood and closed her eyes as she started to slump forward. Cassie caught her before she fell to the ground.

  “Oh my GOD! Chet ask them for an ambulance” she screamed behind her. Karin’s weight was marginal but she turned her over onto her back and looked in dismay at the beautiful face that was badly beaten.

  Her life ended that day as the bat hit her head over and over again. She didn’t quite lose complete consciousness and for that she still was not sure wasn’t a mixed blessing. Even after she went down from the blows they continued to rain on her head and body, she could feel the breaks, each one crunching painfully under the blow of the bat as it came down again and again on her head, her body, anywhere they could reach. She could also hear the sound of the bat hitting the flesh, a gushy, sticky, smacky sound. The taste of smoky blood in her mouth. She rolled herself into a ball to make a smaller target. All of her senses could hear, feel, and work except for one, herself, she was down for the count wondering how or if this would ever end, would it only end with her death? She thought it must have because she didn’t remember it ending really, just her; she was no longer herself at some point as her head caved in under the pressure…

  She could see lights, lots of little lights around her head as she watched through the slits that were her eyes. She had waited a long time for these lights as she waited for someone to come, someone to find her, someone to help her. It seemed like days, might have been hours, or even minutes but she had no sense of time anymore, she barely knew…herself.

  She felt the tape on her lips, it made it hard to breathe with the broken nose she was sure she had, her nostrils were filled with blood and even though she tried to blow through them to clear the passages she could still taste blood dripping from and through them as some trickled down her throat.

  She felt her broken arms tied to each other, or at least she thought they were broken. They felt awkward, painful, and sluggish. Her legs were free but she was certain they were broken too. She felt rather than heard them leave.

  “This is only a warning” she heard them say clearly. That was all she remembered for a while. She had no sense of time. She was vaguely aware of darkness, she wasn’t sure if it was from her badly swollen eyes or was it night? She brought her hands up to her face to push her hair out of it; it was sticking to the blood that was trying to congeal there. It was then she realized that the tape across her mouth wasn’t quite sticking and she was able to pull in more air as it mixed with the blood and saliva in her mouth and slowly unattached from the skin around her mouth. Somewhere she remembered reading that duct tape and moisture, water, saliva weren’t compatible. The deep breath she tried hurt, she suspected her ribs were cracked if not broken and wondered if she had internal injuries. Vaguely she wondered if it was Thursday or Friday. People magazine was due out then and the article announcing Cassie Summers engagement to executive Karin Myers with a full photo spread of their home in Nashville. She kept her mind on other things to avoid thinking about her injuries, breathing, the trickling blood. She could hear the ticking of a clock somewhere in the house, there was more of an absence of sound that she could hear through the ringing in her head, the dripping of blood on the floor…

  She began to worry at the tape around her wrists as she realized that wetting it with saliva had loosened the one on her mouth. It was hard to make saliva when her body was losing moisture with the blood loss. She kept at it though; she had nothing but time…and death.

  Vaguely through the haze of pain she realized her hands were free, they lay limply on either side of the chair she was sitting in and bleeding in. She didn’t remember finishing the gnawing at her bindings. Through the slits she realized she had ruined the Laze-E-Boy recliner with the blood staining it. It didn’t look pretty but then she didn’t either, she tried to keep coherent thoughts in her head but it was difficult, her mind kept wandering to random things.

  They could use this, this horrible attack to make a million bucks or more in publicity. She had to remember to tell someone that. Not many thought like she did. Her tongue was swollen. She realized it was because the jagged teeth still left in her jaw had cut it horribly. She was able to spit a few of them out as she fished them out of the nooks and crannies of her mouth hearing them ping on the wooden floor, the dripping of blood sounded…quieter now, was she running out?

  Were they coming back? She vaguely heard the front door open. She wasn’t going to take this sitting down and she painfully got to her unsteady feet, her legs refused to straighten at first, her arms hung uselessly on either side of her but then she found she had another problem. The blood dripping across her forehead was making it hard to see, the salt from the blood dripping into swollen eyes, a new kind of unnecessary pain. She raised her arm painfully and found the source covering it with the palm of her hand as she forced her legs to work out of sheer determination and started to get out of the chair and onto her wobbly feet. She bounced painfully off the door jamb as she readied herself for the final blows she was sure would come. They would mercifully kill her this time, she wondered if there was pain in the hereafter.

  “Karin?” she heard an angelic voice cal
l her. Head for the light, she had always heard people say that you should do that. She headed for the light, the voice that she vaguely recognized. Her left leg wasn’t cooperating with the right and she kept smearing something on the walls. Absently she realized someone had made a hell of a mess that was going to take forever to clean up, nothing had been unscarred as she looked at the debris and painfully made her way down the hall to the kitchen.

  “What the hell?” she heard a voice she didn’t recognize, couldn’t place, oh gawd no they were after the angel? The thought made her move. She couldn’t stay here and let them do to the angel what had been done to her.

  “I’ve got to find Karin” she heard the angel say, she had to get to the angel, white light, white light…

  “Wait, you don’t want to disturb anything, let me call 911” she heard the unfamiliar voice, no, no, don’t hurt the angel!

  “I’ve got to find Karin” the angel spoke as she left a trail of blood along the wall and tried to step over debris scattered down the hall. Her left leg caused her to lurch into the walls from left to right; it was taking forever to walk the short distance from the room she had been in down the hall to the kitchen.

  “Karin! Karin?”

  “mmmph” she heard or thought she heard herself say, more of gurgle as she found another piece of tooth to spit out accompanied by something brown, was that blood? Blood was red wasn’t it? She couldn’t think, find the angel…

  “Let me go” she heard the angel screech, did angels screech she absentmindedly thought as she tried to see the light, see the angel, see something through the slits that were sticking painfully together. Her hand was getting tired of being held up as the blood drained down her arm.

  She saw something move in front of her. An angel? She wasn’t sure, it was someone though, something nagged at her mind as she started to fall, no more wall to hold her up, and she felt herself fall forward, it was going to hurt when she hit the floor was her last thought as something caught her and helped her to the floor.

  Vaguely she heard another screech from the angel “Oh my GOD! Chet ask them for an ambulance” before she allowed herself to sink into the darkness finally, it must be night time.

  “Don’t move her” someone cautioned. She wondered who that was, she didn’t recognize the voice. She wondered where the bat was at that moment, why should she care about the bat? It was important for some reason.

  “Holy Christ” another voice exclaimed. That was an interesting choice of words; she wondered what she looked like from their perspective.

  “You should use a crowbar”

  “A baseball bat is better”

  “But a crowbar is harder”

  “But with a baseball bat I can get a better grip and it won’t break my nails”

  The peals of laughter made her day as she appreciated their dark humor.

  “Karin Myers fiancée of Country singer Cassie Summers has been hospitalized after being found in the couple’s ransacked home in Nashville. A victim of a home invasion robbery she was severely beaten. She remains in critical condition in County General at this time.” The newscaster went on to explain what little they knew, making it up as they went.

  “You look like a chump, and you lose contracts. I can turn this into millions of dollars of free publicity, advertising…” Don told her as he tried to reason with her.

  “Don’t you dare!” Cassie nearly shouted into his face as she got up and stalked to get right in front of him. “That woman is my partner, my fiancée, and the best thing that has EVER happened to me, don’t you DARE turn it into a circus about making me money!” she spit as she yelled at him.

  “Nooooo” they both heard from the bed where a heavily bandaged Karin was laying with machines and tubes all over. She was barely visible through all the bandages that covered her, hiding the multitude of bruises, abrasions, and breaks. A feeding tube had been removed when she fought the medication; the tubes in her arms had been pulled out a couple of times before they got the hint that she wasn’t going to voluntarily be sedated. The days they had induced a coma had ticked by as her body decided whether it was going to give up or fight. She had fought too hard to let the beating kill her, the doctors didn’t know why she wasn’t dead, the injuries should have killed her, that she stayed conscious through the beating, through the ride to the hospital, even into the ER had startled them.

  “Karin?” Cassie said desperately wanting to talk to her to see her beautiful jade eyes look at her again. The grotesque swelling around her eyes from her broken nose and cheekbones distorted her horribly.

  “P P Pommote” she slurred trying to work up some saliva.

  Cassie frowned trying to understand her.

  Don frowned not certain he had heard her right but if she was conscious and she was mentally intact, something that was in doubt from what the doctors had told Cassie trying not to raise her hopes after the severity of the beating Karin had endured, then she might want exactly what he was trying to sell Cassie on. Already People magazine had contacted him about the sold out copy that had been released last week after news of the beating and the facts of who exactly Cassie’s fiancée was had been released.

  “Dawn” she slurred trying to get her tongue, now less swollen but strangely uncooperative to work. Having lost a lot of her teeth and it’s healing of the cuts from those teeth as well as the medications that were causing it to swell made it hard to talk at all.

  “Karin? What are you saying baby? It’s me, it’s Cassie” she looked tenderly at the battered woman wanting to take her in her arms and comfort her. She had never been so frightened as she got a look at the amount of blood that had been spattered throughout the house as well as the amount that she had bleed on Cassie as she lay there waiting for the ambulance.

  “Daaaawn” she mouthed trying to put emphasis on the words. “Pommote” she tried to get across but the effort was too much. It hurt too much to think, to function, to speak. She wanted to go back into the blackness that wanted to welcome her back into its velvety forgetfulness.

  “What’s that baby, you want Don?” Cassie was confused. She would have thought Karin’s first words would be for her and she was strangely hurt.

  Karin tried to move her head but it was held fast with the tapes that kept her pinned to the bed immobilizing her badly fractured body.

  Cassie got the impression of a nod. She glanced at Don who was coming closer to the bed. She looked at him beseechingly.

  “You want to see me?” Don drawled uncomfortably as he looked at the horribly beaten woman. He hated hospitals but he knew they could really promote the hell out of this.

  Again an impression of a nod before her tongue made a slight appearance on her chapped and cut lips that were also swollen, bruised, and an angry black gray color. They both could see her trying to swallow. “oooaadah” she said breathily.

  “You want some water baby?” Cassie asked hoping she was hearing correctly. That she could do as she reached over for a cup of ice chips. Gently she took one in her fingers and rubbed it on Karin’s lips. The tongue reached out to it. She could barely see the green eyes through the slit but another impression of a nod.

  “P P Pommote” she lisped. It exhausted her but she wanted to get the point across.

  “You want us to promote the situation?” Don grasped at the word.

  Again the impression of a nod. The tapes stretched tautly under chin to the bar over her head holding her immobile.

  Don glanced at a horrified Cassie “we can do this tastefully but we would be foolish not to continue with what she put into place and capitalize on it from there. I can have anonymous sources and all that get it out on the wires.”

  Cassie looked at Karin, her broken and battered body looking so helpless in the bed. Some of the bandages were colored underneath the surface from where blood had continued to leak out. They were frequently changed but this was one hurt woman. She was concerned about Cassie and the publicity though? That was insane. Was the rea
l Karin even in there? The doctor’s had some doubts about if she would ever be normal again. They were pretty certain she shouldn’t retain any hope against brain damage much less what she would look like as she healed from this horrible beating. The green eye opened wider for a fraction of an instant, if Cassie hadn’t been right there at that moment she would have missed it. It winked as best it could through the swelling. Again, a faint nod causing the tape to move slightly.

  “You want us to promote this, this…” she hated to say accident, it wasn’t an accident, it was a horrible beating, an attack, she had been sickened by the dried blood she saw all over the room where they had found the Laze-e-boy chair bloodstained, the smell had been horrible as well, would she ever get it out of her head? Whoever had done this had been thorough. A baseball bat held skin and bone matter in its splintered wood. The plates in Karin’s head would keep her swollen and brilliant brain when they were ready to puzzle piece it back together.

  Again a wink and a faint nod. “Goooooo” she slurred through the swollen tongue, swollen lips, and missing teeth. They had to pull many of the fractured pieces in order to keep her from swallowing them and causing more damage or cutting her lips, cheeks, and tongue on the jagged edges.

  Cassie turned to Don and nodded, he looked relieved. He knew it was a grotesque part of the business but this was what had to be done to keep up the press, to capitalize on it, in the long run they could take this horrible publicity and generate a lot of sympathy for Cassie and Karin. He had a camera phone and took one picture of a recognizable Cassie looking over the bandaged and immobile Karin. He had his sources and would release both ‘official’ and unofficial statements. Already somebody had beaten him to it on several fronts; someone in the know had implied that Karin had been beaten because Cassie hadn’t signed with certain PR firms in New York.