Her Heroes

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Blood dripped down my stomach as voices bickered in the background. I brought a clubbed hand to my stomach, watching as the once-white bandage began to turn red. Tears stung my eyes as I realized what this meant... I had lost the battle. The one thing I had left to live for was going to be taken from me.

My arms snaked around my midsection and I let out a small cry.

Hands forced my tapped fists away from my body. Another strangled noise left my lips as they began to carefully unwrap them. I had tapped them for a reason; they were tapped so I wouldn't risk further injury to myself... or Neil.

A towel was pressed to the cuts on my stomach. Trying to get away, I scrambled into the back of the chair. Someone pulled me back to them and my fingers began to tap. They were going to take him. They were going to take my boy just like they had promised.

I tried to fight against the hands but another set joined in on the futile battle.

"Nadia." Neil was here, he was coming. My breathing became labored as pain racked my stomach.

"Nadia." I felt the cloth covering my stomach move.

"Shit." I felt the knife pierce my abdomen.

"Is that what I think it is?" I felt them remove him. My fingers tapped as I cried helplessly.

Rough hands ran over the bumpy scar. Something hit a wall and I cried out, the sound ricocheting in my eardrums.

"She was... we were..." The voices blended together as it all became too much. The alcohol hadn't done its job, or at least it hadn't done it well enough. The past and present seemed to merge into one as my mind played dizzying games on me.

The familiar cries resonated from somewhere deep within my mind and I screamed, crying out to the boy who had been murdered.

My eyes fluttered shut and I whimpered as I watched the scene over and over.

Neil's friend had performed the C-Section with shaky hands. He had said he was experienced, he said that I wouldn't feel a thing. What he didn't say though was that I would feel everything else. He said I wouldn't feel the pain, but what about the pain I felt when he ripped out my heart and crushed it between his hands? The pain I felt when they took away my reason to live? When I watched and learned the limits of the human neck?

Another scream burned through my throat and I cried out for him again. He was supposed to live a full life. He wasn't supposed to die. I thought that I would be able to save him. He had saved me so why couldn't I save him?!

"What's happening to her??"

"Something that isn't good. We need to get ahold of her therapist now. She'll be exhausted as soon as she comes down from whatever is going through her head; someone will need to take her to her room."

"What do we do till then?"

There was a long pause, just like the long pause when my baby had yet to breathe. It would have just been easier if he had been stillborn. Wouldn't it? No, it would have been worse. If he was stillborn, Neil would have won sooner.

"We just try to make sure she knows were here and that she doesn't hurt herself."

"Shouldn't we try to snap her out of this? Like, shake her shoulders or something?"

"If we do anything to startle her or try to 'snap her out' she could lash out against us or we could even harm her. There's something in her mind that won't let her go, we just need to let it run its course and be there to comfort her when it's over."

I felt something soft touch my cheek and I leaned into it, desperate for comfort. A set of hands gently picked me up before settling me into a different position.