The Race Car that was Tyler Scott

Chapter One

"Loyalty and devotion lead to bravery. Bravery leads to the spirit of self-sacrifice. The spirit of self-sacrifice creates trust in the power of love"
- Morihei Ueshiba

"Amelia...Amelia!!...AMELIA!!" I turned around, "Yeah", Clara tugged at my hand dragging back through the crowd. I'd managed to lose myself in all the people. She tugged me straight through two middle aged women, who'd joined a queue, the length of twenty double-decker buses, to get autographs done on their tits. They pushed on past me, shoving me into a notice board as they went.
He grabbed me. Everything happened so quickly. I lost Clara and Anna within seconds. And suddenly there he was staring down at my face, breathing hard. Confused, I said "Are you okay?" he looked a bit lost too. "Who are you", he scrutinised my face. "Urr...okay man, I'm 'gonna' go now". He kept staring at me though, not saying anything. He was taller than I was probably by a few inches. His height was intimidating as was the silence. I stared back at him, his music dancing in my head. His stare had somehow locked me in place, I couldn't move. I took a step back before heading back into the crowd. I walked back from behind the barrier. People were glaring at me. Hundreds of them, all though I couldn't see all of them it was so busy and Anna pulled me away too quickly. "Wait -", I heard him shout, which turned a hundred heads my way, I turned back but the masses blocked my view.
"Oh my God did Tyler Scott just-" "Nothing happened Clara, don't get too jealous", I could see by her face she wasn't but she was intrigued and wanted to know every detail. I knew that look. "WELL SPILL" "Jeez, okay". Why they wanted to throw themselves at some famous man's feet...I had no idea.
We made our way back to their hotel. The street was empty and quiet. Silent in fact. I felt uncomfortable. Scared almost. I wasn't staying with them. So I walked back to the hostel by myself. I knew a short cut. There was a small alleyway between two very expensive houses.
It was dark. One of the houses usually had a downstairs light on. Not tonight. I tripped on a bin bag and scared myself shitless, "F***ing hell...ugh" I picked myself up. I saw a silhouette at the end of the passage. I kept going. Towards it. Hidden away in the shadows. Except I knew it could see me. A man, he was big, butch and walked as though he knew he was big. Yes he walked. Towards me. I stopped. I turned and started to walk the other way. The footsteps sped up behind me, they grew heavier. He was running. His steps echoed as mine did as we both ran down the alley. I got to the road at the other end. But then I was on the ground against the wall. He had tugged down hard on my hair. My worst nightmare. He undid his belt. I didn't know where to look. It was dark and there was no one on the road. I opened my mouth to scream. He'd already accounted for that. My mouth was covered, firmly. I tried and struggled to wriggle myself free of his tight grip. The man struck me. I couldn't move my arms. He had a bottle in his hand. He smashed it against the side of a brick drain. The glistening glass with sharp edges like a thousand tiny knives, "Move and I'll kill you, got it!?" The thought had already entered my mind that I probably will be dead in a minute anyway.
All those times I'd tried to end my life, finally someone was doing it for me, I got my wish - but I didn't want it anymore. I didn't want to die.
I nodded at him, showing I understood. A car pulled up suddenly. My mind was so distracted I'd forgotten I needed to get help and yet somehow it was here. The car was smart, new. A limo, two men got out. "OI! GET 'OFFA' HER!"The voices were a mix between Scouse and American one of them was holding a gun. I was even more scared than before. My attacker still had his greasy, strong hand over my mouth. And the bottle in the other. He stabbed me with it. He shoved it into my side. I felt it, the gravity of the entire planet on top of me. The world started to spin, slowly. I felt the main body of the shattered glass bottle inside me and the smaller fragments surrounding it. It hurt. It was so painful but then I wondered whether I could feel the pain whether it was real, whether this was all real. The more I thought the more the world span. The strange man was gone and there were people talking around me, I was lifted up. Higher, higher, higher. Car doors shut around me. The world went black.
The voices were muffled. I tried to lift up my head. It was too heavy. I was too heavy. Someone was pressing some kind of cloth against my side. I couldn't feel anything. I was possibly in shock. I could see things. I could see them clearly - I just didn't know what I was seeing and hence I was confused. I fell back again, not that I had ever gotten up, but mentally I was at ease again. I was now conscious that my head was resting on someone's lap. A man's lap. My limited strength didn't allow me to open my eyes to see if I'd recognise the face above me, looking down at me. Staring at me. I could feel it. His stare was touching my face.
I woke up. This time the light was more offensive, bright white and glaring at me, piercing my eyes.
There was a nurse. "Hello, I'm Trudie, I'll be taking care of you. You're safe now." "Where am I?" "Hospital my dear, University Hospital" she wasn't from around here I could tell by her accent she wasn't Liverpudlian, which was reassuring, I wasn't either. "You're a smart girl, he found your phone and we managed to find an emergency contact you had written in", yes I remembered - I had put Toni down as my ICE contact. Which meant she probably wouldn't be coming. She never answers. She'd be high instead. But Trudie reassured me a girl was coming and that she'd be right here in an hour or two. Surprising I thought.
The nurse was gone.
In that moment of silence I winced at the slight memoir of pain I had in my side. I felt sick. I was sick. Trudie came back.
"I-I'm sorry...shit, ugh", "sweetie you're in a hospital don't apologise, there's a lady down there having triplets! You chucking it up is almost bliss in comparison" she smiled and then I started to cry. I couldn't stop. It was all too overwhelming.
"Come here, come on. You need a lot of rest, you're going to be fine, we've got you now", I didn't even know her but her voice was so familiar. Like my friend Toni's grandmother, Trudie was well spoken and logical. She was old but well preserved. Her face reminded me of Mrs Hudson from Sherlock. She left me be.
I could hear voices outside in the corridor. An American voice and my nurse. He spoke with worry and concern in his voice. "Please ma'am I need to see her, just for a short while, I need to see her" "I'm sorry sir but she needs her rest, she's just been attacked for God's sake leave her be".
The American walked into my room. "What the...we really need to stop meeting like this", I said and he chuckled softly. His laugh was beautiful. It was such a quiet laugh but his eyes smiled with it under the harsh lights. I smiled. "How um...how are you feeling?", he asked, avoiding my eyes, "Well I just got stabbed with a glass bottle by some weird man on the street, not bad I'd say", he smiled again. This time he looked up at me but kept his face directed towards the floor. His eyes were blue. His skin like ivory and his hair dyed beach blonde, I could see his dark brown roots coming through. It was weird though. There he was looking at me again. I liked his stare though, it made me feel uneasy, it was unpredictable and suddenly I wasn't bored.
We talked a bit. He came to sit next to me in my bed. And felt my forehead. Then he traced my hand up and down whilst we spoke. We spoke for an hour or so about anything and everything.
Tyler Scott was an American singer, he told me he was from Georgia, originally he was from Somerset, just a few hours south from where I lived in Shropshire. But he was born in Georgia. His father was the British connection.
His songs were mostly devised of heartbreak and his fantasies of finding love in the future. With meaning to each. You could tell by his voice in his work that he meant every last word, it was inspiring. I had been dragged by my friends Clara and Anna to go and see him play live. I wasn't one for parties and loud music. I liked his music though, he was a good writer. Clara and Anna were obsessed with him though - I couldn't see why, I mean...he was just a human like the rest of us.
As soon as Toni arrived at the hospital, Tyler left my room. He knew his presence would make Toni feel confused and uncomfortable so he got out of the way before she came in.
She smiled at me, not knowing what to say or how to react. "Are umm you okay?", she didn't have any concern in her voice she could see I was fine and being well cared for.
Toni sat next to the bed. I felt utterly useless, lying there like a lump of jelly. Too weak to move my head and arms. It hurt to laugh even.
She looked around the room avoiding my eyes. "Toni what's up?" "Why, I mean how - how did this happen" "I was attacked" the tone in her voice was of frustration and now I was confused again.
I hated not understanding things, it made me feel like less than everyone else. "Yeah but why Mimi, why were you there I-" "Dude I didn't do this on purpose-", I could feel myself starting to well up, I felt totally overwhelmed with too many situations happening simultaneously and I didn't know how to respond to Toni, my best friend. "-I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, I get it's my fault, I shouldn't have been there by myself", she got up suddenly and looked down at me using her hands to express her agitation, "Amelia listen to me it's not your fault, I know that, I know. It's just...ugh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just can't lose anyone at the moment. You told me that I don't only have my drugs to fall back on...that I have you guys as well, what if I don't have you, what if...". Toni was tearing up too, I could see in her eyes she was genuinely disturbed.
She used to be so tough and never cried. She once fell off of the 6 meter high climbing frame in junior school and broke both wrists, she didn't cry then, in fact she loved her bandages so much and the fact she didn't have to do sport drove her to keep herself black and blue. But now she was fragile. Hardly the shell of the girl we knew in school. She had had five expulsions and each time she had to leave behind her friends. Each new school made it harder on her, they couldn't trust her unpredictability.
She was taking her A levels at a sixth form college. The students arrived in the morning, didn't speak in lessons, went into town in their breaks and went home at the end of last period, making no friends along their way. Toni is a socialite she can't do isolation and this is exactly the treatment she was getting. I felt so terrible for her, but I knew there was absolutely nothing I could do for her. All I could do now was not leave her. I was always there at the end of a phone if she needed me.
She was delicate now. She needed to be cared for. Not by her family or rehab but by us, her friends. Or else she would resort back to her drugs, naturally.
"Toni, stop. I'm not going anywhere...okay?", she laughed it off "I know, you nob" she smiled, her smile always restored faith in me that the girl from prep school was still there somewhere. "Oh yeah, who found you, how did you manage to get yourself in here?", she was curious. "Umm..." I decided to tell her that my rescuer was Mr Pop Star whose head I could see outside in the corridor. The nineteen year old was sitting rigidly upright. Obviously not knowing how he should be handling the situation he'd landed himself in.
Toni turned her head to follow the direction of my finger through the window. Tyler turned around. He stood up and came back into the ward. "Wait so you found her" said Toni almost laughing and pointing at both of us. "Yeah" Tyler said softly. I smiled at him. He smiled back.
Toni looked at one of us then at the other and back again. "Um I should probably get going, I - uh - hope you feel better soon and I'll - um - see you around", he smiled and walked out. Toni came back to sit next to me, "um explain that please!?", I laughed and then the pain came back to my side. I took off the lame excuse of a duvet and looked at the mound of dressing on the right side of my stomach.
I undid the weird 'aprony night gowny thingy' from behind and unwrapped myself to see my wound. I couldn't see it. Obviously the bandages were in the way.
There he was again. The lights were gone, where was Toni? What was happening? He pierced my eyes with his, "Move and I'll kill you", he said, I was trying to squirm away but he stabbed me with the bottle again and again and again. "Stop! STOP!!!" I screamed over and over but no cars came, no one came.
The lights came back but I kept screaming. Toni was there again and so was Trudie, my nurse running to my beeping machine and still I screamed. "Get off of me! Get off me! Get off!", they were holding me down. More and more arms and hands. Holding me. Pushing me. Forcing me. "Let go!" I squirmed under them like a man in fire. I felt the damp on my cheeks from my screaming and the heat inside me, like burning. As angry as boiling water. It was rage. Their talking and commanding and ordering around confused me. There I was in the depths of a mystery concerning only me. I hated it.
I had always been alone. No parents, no siblings that I could remember. They told me once that I had an older brother. I never believed them, the other kids told me "never believe what they tell you, it's all lies" from then on I trusted no one. They sent me to a prep school. Where my behaviour influenced their next choice of school for me. "A boarding school far from here should straighten her out" I had heard them say. And that's where I went. A boarding school in the south of England.
"Mimi...? Meem?" Toni's voice, raspy and hoarse from smoking, was right there next to me. I grunted. "Heyy...you scared me shitless, how are you feeling?", she was quiet, "huh? What happened?", I said feebly "You don't remember?", I shook my head, my eyes half closed. "You looked at your bandage and passed out. I went to sit outside for a bit and then went to get a glass of water but when I came back you were screaming and having fits'', "I was?", she nodded "then all the doctors came running from the corridor to hold you down whilst they gave you something to calm you. They told me to wait outside but I couldn't - it's too busy out there, there was nowhere to sit", I looked outside, there was no one in the corridor. She spoke quickly to avert my attention, almost trying to mask the fact that she actually cared and was worried, "So what happened?", she asked. "He was here, the man, I feel like he's following me. I know it sounds weird but it's like he's here even now, he won't go away" "Do you remember what he looks like 'coz your 'gonna need to speak to the police when they come", this startled me. "What!? I'm sorry I'm not doing that...I can't", "Amelia you have to, that weirdo's only ever 'gonna do it again to someone else, he has to be stopped", "I guess, okay. But what do I say, what are they going to ask me", "Chill, it's not your life story they're after. Wait maybe they can tell you about your family", she was excited, "You expect me to trust a bunch of coppers?" I said sardonically, "Dude you need to get over yourself, start trusting people, not completely - but have a little faith, you know?" "No you can't trust people Toni, this world is evil - even good people have bad in them. I'll tell them about the attacker but I'm not asking them anything. It's pointless. Plus what if..." I stopped, she looked at me expectantly, "What if...?" "What if they're dead? I don't want to know that, I'm happier not knowing anything about them", "Whatever, it's your choice, but this could be your-" "Toni...it's fine, I don't want to know".

🍄 Crazy hectic first chapter! What did you think? Let me know in the comments! 🍄 xxx