Marked

Chapter Thirty-Three

I needed coffee.

I took the stairs down to the garage. To get to the stairs, you had to go through a door—metal, one small window. The stairs were concrete and unforgiving. My phone was in my back pocket. The edge of the stairs was painted yellow, a way of saying that the edge was there.

I felt a little dizzy walking to the next set of stairs on the fourth floor. I took one step and tumbled... and tumbled...

And tumbled.

I fell down a few sets of stairs. Each one harder and worse than the last.

When I finally landed, my lip was bleeding and there was blood coming out of my nose. Both my hips were bruised and my head hurt like hell—no, my leg. My leg hurt like hell. I used the rail to help get up—no use. As soon as I put the slightest ounce of pressure on my right leg, it gave out beneath me.

I couldn't get up and I couldn't move.

I reached for my phone. It fell out of my pocket and was just barely out of arm's length. I stretched for it. When I stretched, my leg felt like it was on fire. Like someone had set hot coals—still on fire—on my leg. I tried stretching again, this time able to reach my phone without the pain throbbing too much.

My screen was cracked in the left corner with one slit that went to the middle right side, then down the middle. I hoped that it would turn on and—thankfully—it did. My leg burned more with each passing second and I felt like screaming.

Chase picked up on the second ring, sounding tried. "Scar?"

"Chase," my voice was shaking and I felt like sobbing. "I—I fell, I need help... my leg..." I tried wiggling my toes but it felt like someone stabbed my ankle. "I need help,"

"Scarlett, stay right there, don't move,"

I laughed. "Wouldn't dream of it,"

The line went dead and I tried to get my head to stop spinning. The pain was taking over my focus, the blood coming out of my nose made me feel like I was dying, the copper taste escaping into my mouth from my lip didn't help.

A minute passed when Chase came to my rescue. He tried moving me, picking me up, but I cried out in agony. "Hold on, I'm calling 911."

"Please do," I was laying on my stomach and I felt like throwing up. The pain in my leg was being a tease, going away then coming back, worse pain that lasted longer. "Damn it!"

"You need life support."

"Shut. The. Hell. Up." I tried to roll over on my back. I could barely make it to my side without screaming from the pain. Gravity took effect and I made it to my back, only letting out a whimper.

The ambulance came within five minutes and I was in the hospital within ten. They put me in a cast and were going to keep me over night to make sure I didn't have a concussion, also so I could go through one session of physical therapy and go from there.

I gained many fears from my nightmares.

Surrounded by concrete walls, heights, theme parks, jails, scientists, getting lost, water, graveyards and hospitals. After visiting hours, Chase had to go home. Leaving me alone. In a dark and creepy hospital.

Did I mention I was scared of hospitals?

. . .

The beeping of my heart monitor woke me up. The room was dark. Something deep inside me told me to get up, to explore, but my sensible side told me I was wrong. But hell, when was the last time I listened to sense? It's been awhile.