I Needed You

11

“Shit shit shit,” Alex came storming into the room, walking over to the montior hooked up to me and pressing buttons.

“Hey,” I called out, noticing how much effort it’s been taking for me to speak lately, “No bad words,”

“Oh shut up, you pathetic piece of shit,” She looked at me with disgust, turning up the nob that I recognized was hooked up to my medicine drip.

“I don’t need that,” I let my eyes fall shut, focusing on the sounds of her moving.  My heart ached, “Look, my leg is almost better,” 

I wiggled it to the best of my ability, showing that it now only had a thin wrap covering it compared to the bandages that were once lazily tossed onto them.

“You’re gonna need it in a second.  Oh, and one last thing?” She used a tone that practically begged for me to open my eyes.

I gasped, seeing her holding a lit match in her hand, “Do you like the smell of flesh medium rare or well done? Cause you’re gonna be both in a second here,”

To my surprise, she dropped the match on the table that now had a blanket laid on top of it.  I used it when I sleeped at night, and during the day I did my best to lay it underneath myself and on the table as best as possible.

I realized I could just get up off the table and leave, but then I remembered how Alex handcuffed both my hands to the poles lining the table.

“Wait, no,” I couldn’t fight the exhaustion that was taking over my brain, making everything cloudy.

I coudln’t sit up to keep myself awake.  But I was managing.

Alex was now gone, going who knows where.  But I was left with this orange glowing thing that was eating away at my blanket.

“Stay, stay,” I warned slowly, pushing my legs together to get away from the fire.

The flame crawled further up the blnekt and got closer to my legs and chest.

I tried blowing it away, but after two or three breaths I was tired.  

“No, no stay.  Go away.  It’s too hot,” I breathed out as I felt beads of sweat above my top lip.  

I didn’t know why Alex would do this to me.  Maybe Colby told her to do it.

She didn’t look too happy when she came into the room.  Instead, she appeared to be worried, with her face pale.  I didn’t understand what I did wrong, because she was really meant to me.

She’s never mean to me.  She never has done anything wrong to me ever, only told me it was Colby’s fault.

It was Colby’s fault for cheating on me too.  Alex explained that to me.  I got it all wrong, what Angelina and I thought at first.

Colby was taking advantage of Alex when she was drunk, cornering her and forcing her to do things or else he’d hurt me.  I never want to see him again.

If it wasn’t for the handcuffs I would have ripped the necklace off.  

“Ow,” I hissed as the fire began to tickle at my legs.  Due to my extended period of being here, I haven’t showered which means I haven’t shaved.  The fire took care of that problem.

It quickly singed my legs hair off, going to the skin on my calf.  I cried out in frustration when I realized that I couldn’t move my legs anywhere but closer to my body, being the flame went the entire length of the table, and it was only getting closer.

With all the strength I had, I brought my legs closer to my chest.  I didn’t know how long I could keep them in such a position, but I was hoping some magical miracal would happen so that it wouldn’t be that long.

I was wrong.  I was alone.

I began crying out of pure fear, my heart beating quickly according to the monitor that was beeping like it was off its rocker.  My head felt swamped, the pressure increasing behind my eyeballs.

“Stop it, stop it please!” I thought I heard voices outside of the room, so I shouted out, “Alex? Alex is that you? ALEX!” I screamed when the door busted open.

I went to take a breath in to scream when I didn’t recognize the men entering the room, but the smoke from the flame got sucked in through my nostrils and burned my lungs, causing me to cough and fall into silence instead.

“Holy shit!” One of them shouted, covering his mouth with a cloth in his hand.  The two other men did the same, one of them stepping forward and ripping the blanket out from underneath me.

I was relieved that the heat was now away from my body, but nobody thought to put it out.  It was still burning, and that’s all I could focus on as they cut the handcuffs off.

“Caddel, this is your case. Take the girl,” One of them, probably the one in charge, shouted before running out of the room, “WE GOT HER GUYS! IN HERE, HURRY IT’S ON FIRE!”

The officer, probably Caddel, what a weird name, grabbed the bag with my leg medicine.  “What is this?” He asked gently, looking at me, “Do you know?”

“M-my medicine,” I nodded down to my leg, the untouched one with the bandage, “He hurt my leg and she was trying to fix it,”

“Who hurt your leg?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at me. Caddel picked me up bridal style, setting the drip bag onto my stomach and quickly exiting the room with the other officer following.

“Colby.  Colby did,” I felt like a little kid ratting out a bully, with the way my voice sounded.

“Oh,” He shook his head in disappointment, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth.  

I realized the hallway we were in was familiar to me, with doors lining the walls and the kitchen in the front of the building, and the front door looking old and broken.

For the first time in God knows how long, I was in the sunlight.  I instantly covered my eyes as they were not adjusted from being in the dark for so long.  Alex shut off my light a while ago, claiming that it would help me heal faster.

“Let’s get out of here, boys.  She needs some serious medical attention.  Where’s our nurse?” He asked, though he didn’t stop walking.

“Over here!” A female voice called, “What’s this bag?” I felt her poke at the tube in my arm.

“He said that his buddy said she was hooked up to a morphine drip.  I didn’t want to injure her by taking it out,” Caddel said, his chest seeming to vibrate as he spoke.

“This is a bag that you’d buy some hard shit in.  Like LSD,” The woman sighed, “We have to get this out of her, now,”

“Does anyone realize the building is on fire?” A third voice, a new voice, one I recognized as Brent from so long ago, asked with worry, “That’s the bunkhouse, the only good place people like to stay,”

“I guess they’re going to sleep on the charred remains of the foundation, then.  Let it burn,” Caddel instructed, “Get this out of her so we can leave,”

I felt a tug in my arm, and slight pain shot through the upper half of my arm.

“Perfect!” Caddel said with satisfaction, “Now, let’s leave, yeah?”