Viscious

Familiar Eyes.

"Yeah. Yeah. I will call you when I have updates. I promise, I am fine. She will be too. I'll call you again later. Yeah. I swear, alright? Love you too, bye. " The voice breaks me from my slumber, and I bolt up only to lose my vision. Something is in my arm. Im tied still! I feel stinging on my arm as I go back down, and alarms beep. It's Dallas. That's his voice. He can't be here, Kellan will kill him!

"You...you have to...leave. Leave...he'll..."

"Hey! Shhh...shhhhhh. He'll do nothing. You aren't there anymore." I can feel tightness in my chest, and my breath quivers. I want to open my eye, but I'm scared. I'm afraid of what I might see. Feet rush into the room, and this finally is enough to make me look.

Nurses. Nurses? An IV is hooked, barely, into my arm. The crappy hospital lighting is harsh and I groan as I blink away 'film' over my eyes to try to correct my vision. My eyes adjust and I glance over to see Dallas sitting on a futon several feet away. His face has taken a beating. He notices I'm awake, and lurches to his feet. Where's Kellan? Dallas inches closer, sole and with his hands out as if he us dealing with a frightened animal.

"Alina..." He addresses me, and tries to chose words. He seems smaller, and awkward. Unsure of what to do.

"Dallas? Why...why am I here?"

"You don't remember?" I grit my teeth.

"If I did, I wouldn't...ask..." My throat is gravely and I hesitantly reach for the water tumbler with a lid. I'm not certain it is mine, but I'd drink toilet water at the moment.

My memory isn't lost, I do not have amnesia. I am just startled, and under what I'm believing is likely immense pain medications. I just don't understand how I am here, and without Kellan. He would have killed us before he left me behind. Wouldn't he? It was what he had always preached. I should be ecstatic, but I'm too leery to celebrate, as in my mind I can almost feel Kellan lurking. Any minute he could pop in and finish me or take me away from my refuge here. It feels illegal for Dallas to be so close.

"You fell out of a window. We are unsure why, but we had ambushed Kellan and were prepared to enter. I had been communicating with him, and he hung up on me. Officials were hiding out downstairs and outside, but we couldn't risk coming up because he had threatened to shoot you. Then men on the ground below seen you fall through the window. We assumed Kellan had thrown you after catching on to us."

Kellan's gun. Creature. Creature was there! Bits and pieces of conversation come back to me, and I recall Kellan standing across the room as he prepared to end me. I jumped, willingly. It was my last hope. He shot at me as I fell? Or did he?

"I jumped. I had to jump." I clarify, absent mindedly. I sift through the details in my head. The nurses approach me and check my IV, and silence alarms. I watch them with unabashed suspicion. Rude, but I trust not a single soul right now. Dallas nervously sits at the side of my bed, and I can't help but feel uncomfortable at his proximity.

He pulls me into his chest, and I struggle at first before I sit limply. I know my actions bother him, but I can't help myself. I don't understand why, I just don't want to be bothered or touched. I no longer feel safe, despite knowing that he tried so hard to help me and could possibly be injured himself. I don't know. Guilt makes me lean my head on him, and I can feel his heart thumping wildly and his shoulders shake.

I tuck my face into his shoulder and I know Dallas well enough to know he doesn't want me to mention his crying, so I rub his back timidly until he pulls it together. He has had quite a time too I imagine. It had to be taxing to try to piece hints together and to assist in coordinating help for me. My 'friends' and 'family' outside of mom weren't going to do it. Yet this man persisted even after our separating abd after having me blatantly tell him I no longer wanted him.