Heart of Glass

Chapter 11

The sound of laughter echoed in through the front window above Ariel's head. Keeping low, she shifted to the other side of the bushes so she wasn't visible from the window.

It had been almost a week since the incident. Her bruises had started to yellow and the pain in her back had faded. Yesterday the Doc had done some more tests on her heart and sat her down to explain what he was learning.

"I'm sure you've probably figured much of this out yourself," he started. "Besides what we already knew, we now know that your emotions and bodily reactions are blunted."

"Blunted?"

"Yes, for example when you ran on the treadmill. You felt tired, but it wasn't excessive, am I correct?" She nodded and he continued. "After you touched your heart however, you collapsed. It was the same after your fall. Your body was processing the damage, but it was slow. Once you touched your heart it all caught up and your body started to process what had happened."

"So does that mean I need to touch my heart every now and then so my body can process stuff?"

He nodded. "I believe you would only have to do it if you put your body under any strenuous activity or you were injured."

"What about like mental stuff? Does it affect that too?"

He appeared thoughtful. "I'm not sure. It is possible. Have you noticed a change in your emotions when you are touching your heart?"

"No, not at all."

She had been lying. She had noticed a difference. The day Lucas and her had 'apologised' she had opened the chest, wanting to feel her pulse. Wanting the comfort. Instead, it had been painful. Guilt and sadness had overwhelmed her. It had been suffocating, the pressure in her chest becoming unbearable until she had to let her heart go.

She hadn't touched it since.

There was something wrong with her. Apart from the whole heart issue. Since coming to Sherwood she had cried more times than she had in her whole time at high school. She had never been one to get emotional. She learned to keep it bottled up and only let it out in short bursts if it became too much – usually in the form of anger.

This week it was as if a dam had broken inside of her. All the sadness, loneliness and regret that had been building up over the last few years was steadily trickling out. The walls were cracked and it didn't matter how hard she tried to patch them up, the cracks continued to get larger.

Her phone binged and she glanced at the screen – another message from Lainie. That was the third one in four days. Ariel had tried to avoid reading them at first, but with nothing else to do and no one to talk to, she found herself reading them anyway.

The first one had been simple. Why did you call me?

The second was one just as short. Fine. Ignore me as always.

Picking up her phone, she unlocked the screen and slowly clicked on the message. I rang your house and Paige said you were in England getting treatment. What the hell? Are you okay?

"Goddamit Paige!" She threw the phone away, hearing it land somewhere in the grass to her right. Curling into a ball, she rested her head on her knees. Why the hell would she tell Lainie that she was getting treatment? They had told everyone she was on holidays.

"Should have known she'd try to screw my life up more," she muttered.

"Who is screwing up your life?"

Her head shot up. Autumn stood beside her, Ariel's phone resting gently in her palm.

"No one," Ariel murmured. "Forget it."