my tears ricochet

Part 116

Someone was talking over her head. She turned and pressed one ear harder into the pillow, willfully trying to smother the sound. "... she's coming around. Check if she's responsive."

"You're gonna wake up now," someone told her and her pillow was lightly jostled like she needed the physical command to pair with the verbal. She grimaced, turning her face slightly as she tried to dive back deeper into the darkness. "You're safe. Everything is over now, okay?"

More light jostling commenced. The voice was faint but the demand was clear.

Ivy wearily tried to take inventory. Her body hurt faintly and the back of her left hand itched. She tried to scratch at it but someone stopped her, keeping her from her mission. "Not done yet," she mumbled, eyes squinting open as she peered up at the white light pouring in from the windows. "M'sleepy."

A shadow shifted and squeezed her hand. "Take a break for a minute, yeah? Look at me."

"You don't... take a break from sleeping," Ivy protested, roused by the feeling of fingers combing through her loose hair. "That's just being awake. I'm tired."

She tried moving to scratch her hand again but was restrained pointedly. "Can't do that, sweetheart. There's an IV. You don't wanna knock it out of place."

"My name's Ivy."

"Yeah, I got that."

"No," she frowned. "My name's Ivy. Not the hand thing."

The shadow huffed a soft laugh. "There's a needle," he amended. "Bob put you under for surgery. Right now you gotta keep it where it is."

That caught her attention. Someone had cut her open. Her eyes flew open and she tried pulling free to inspect the damage. "Where is it?" Her fingers twitched trying to escape the grip that didn't budge. "Where's my blood?"

She was in clean clothes. Clean clothes meant someone changed her when she was unconscious. And the medical wing meant something bad happened. The combination of facts made her skull ache. Daryl leaned forward, coming into her blurry vision. "You back with me?"

"Am I dying?"

"No. You just got hurt a bit. And now you're okay."

"Are you dead?"

He touched her forehead gently like he was checking for a fever. "We're both okay," he clarified. "Beth, also. She's been around."

Someone had taken a wet rag to her fingernails and cleaned the dirt and blood from beneath her nails. Being clean and safe was such a foreign concept. But the missing pieces from her memory began snapping in place and adrenaline surged up through the haze of drugs. "I can't be here— he's going to come back, dad. I can't... it isn't safe, I have to be out where he is— please," Ivy twisted. He was leaning over her trying to keep her from kicking the bedsheets off and scrambling up. "I'm gonna die."

He touched the back of her neck very lightly like he was holding her together. "Nothing is coming for you. Simon's dead. Do you remember? You were in the room. Think, Ivy. Tell me what you're remembering."

"He's gonna kill us," Ivy nodded jerkily as she tried processing. "I need... we need to run."

"You can't go running, sweetheart. Bob spent a lot of time stitching you up and you don't want to go through round two of that. Try and slow it down."

There was a house. Ivy had seen that house at different times, wandering the exterior of the yard and street. She had seen it in the daylight and when the sky split open and rain came down, and she had seen it at her worst. "I went looking for you," Ivy made herself say out loud, voice shaking. Someone bashed in that front door helpfully for her. Climbing free from the window had hurt. She didn't think she could force a second window open. "And Simon was there... I had to stop him."