Heartdriven: Too Driven To Drive

3. Migraine

It was Wednesday, when Fernando received a phone call from Alice. He had no intentions of picking it up, as they had not left on the best of terms, after he had cancelled her involvement in tomorrow's karting event. But perhaps he owed her an apology, at the very least. "Alice... hello?"
"Fernando... I need your help," her voice was very low and rough.
He had rarely heard her voice like that, but the memory of it gave him the strangest feeling, "What is the matter?"
"Can you come?"
"Alice, I am in Spain. I have the karting event tomorrow." He couldn't just drop everything, but hearing her explicitly ask for his help in that tone, made him want to.
Her voice was shaking, "Okay. I'm sorry. Please, just forget it. Bye."
"No, Alice, wait! What is wrong?"
She was still very quiet, not exactly whispering but rather strained, "William came by again."
"Are you okay? ... Alice? Alice?", his concern skyrocketed, knowing what that bastard had done to her before. 
Her voice cracked as it sounded like she was holding back tears, "I don't know..."
"Where is Sebastian?"
It sounded like she had to push every word out of her throat, "Milton Keynes..."
"Alice. I will be there as fast as I can."

A few of hours later, Fernando arrived at her front door. In a rush, he didn't bother knocking but just grabbed the handle of an unlocked door and walked straight in. Continuing his rush, his eyes searched through each room until he found her on the floor of the bedroom, covered in blood. Her eyes were closed but she was not passed out as they went open the second his hand touched her and she jumped, but her eyes were still distant.
"Alice. Alice, what happened?", he rapidly examined her body, "Are you injured? Where did he hurt you?", looking to stop the blood.
"It's not my blood."
"What?"
"It's not my blood," her head fell to the side and his eyes followed her direction, finally noticing a body lying across the room.
He saw the little knife in her hand, her knuckles were white from the tightness of her grip, and he grabbed a shirt from the drawer on the floor, wrapping her hand in it to tangle the knife free of her fingers, until he could pulls it loose. Hiding behind the knife was a rather large cut in her palm, so not all the blood was indeed his. He grabbed another shirt and tied it around her hand.
"Alice, come," he tried pulling at her arms to get her off the floor, but she was sat still as a rock and instead lifted her up in his arms, "Let's get you cleaned up."
He went with her to the bathroom and put her in the bathtub, turning on the warm water for her, as is turned pink by the blood on her shirt. "I need your shirt, it's covered in blood. I need to burn it." She didn't react. "Alice, please," he gave a cheek a slight smack but she was completely checked out, her eyes didn't even react. He went to the cabinet and grabbed a scissor, sat down on the edge of the bathtub and pulled at her shirt, "Alice, I'm sorry, I have to get your shirt off, it's drenched in his blood."
Just as he was about to cut the fabric off her, she grabbed the scissor and tried to wrestle it from his hand, "I'm going to cut his dick off!", trying to leave the bathtub with the scissor.
"No, stop!", he pressed her back down by her shoulders, "There isn't time for that! You need to wash, we need to clean this mess up before anyone finds out!"
She let go of the scissor and sat back down, pulling the shirt over her head and handed it to him, sitting naked in the bathtub with her knees covering her chest.
"Where are your underwear?" She had been at least half-naked this whole time.
She began rubbing the hot water slowly over her arms, seemingly more calm and returned, "In the living room."

Going for the search of her underwear in the living room, he found them near the kitchen, lying near a smear of blood. Not just on the floor, there was blood on the kitchen table as well. He found some cleaning supplies in the kitchen counter and did his best to clean it up, just as the front door went open and a police officer walked through.
"Who are you?", the police officer commanded.
"A friend. Is there a problem, officer?"
The police officer walked up to him and noticed the blood he had attempted to clean up, "Hands where I can see them. Turn around." A few seconds later, Fernando found himself handcuffed and unable to think of a reasonable explanation to get out of the situation, but mostly he was concerned about what was coming next for the police officer to see in the bedroom.
"Alice? Alice? What did you do to her?", he forcefully grabbed Fernando by the arm.
"Do you know her?"
"I am a friend," pulling Fernando with him through the house, "Where is she?"
"In the bathroom."
The police officer knew the way, dragging Fernando with him and didn't let go until they reached the bathroom, just walking straight through it and not noticing the body lying face down in the bedroom. And then he saw Alice sat in the bathtub, quietly washing herself in the pink water.
"What happened to her?"
The police officer was going to find out eventually, so Fernando suggested out to the bedroom, and he turned to see his colleague on the floor. He put his palm to his forehead, stroking his eyebrows for a moment before uncuffing Fernando.
"Alright. You are going to tell me what happened," pointing at the bed for Fernando to sit down.
Thinking for a moment where to start, he realised he didn't know where it began, "Truth is; I don't know what happened. I came to find the place like this. I know Alice, so I can guess what happened. If you know her and your friend over there, maybe you can guess too."
"A neighbour called in about a possible disturbance. I just came here from talking to the lady. She didn't have much information to offer, but her worries were enough for me to be suspicious about the scum still not leaving Alice alone... after everything he put her through, he still couldn't leave her alone," shaking his head.
There was a hint of being apologetic, but it wasn't enough for Fernando, "You knew and you didn't do anything?"
"I'm going to now."
He went back to the bathroom with Fernando right at his heels, and as Alice saw him, she covered herself up, "Liam?!", looking back and forth between the police officer... this 'Liam', and Fernando. She was seemingly shaken by his presence.
"Alice, you need to leave!", his voice was slightly raised and she was startled, making Fernando cut in between.
"Hey, easy!", sitting himself by the bathtub, putting his hand on her cheek, "Alice, is there a place you can stay while we take care of things?"
Her eyes went around her head a bit before a thought appeared, "Betty. My neighbour."