Chapter 27: C-Can You Help Me?

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Keeping this one in Lacey's POV, just so you can understand what was running through the mind of a victim and not a witness to the aftermath. Thanks for reading, you beautiful people ❤️

"Here, lean against me, let's move you over to the couch." Aria instructed, sliding her arm under my good side as she surprisingly lifted me with ease.

"T-Thank you." I whispered hoarsely, limping towards her coach while she carefully laid me down. I hissed in pain, feeling my broken ribs shift again.

"Okay, I'm going to need to take off this hoodie to assess the damage. Are you okay with that?" She asked gently, waiting patiently for my reply. I gave her a stiff nod.

Her hands grabbed the edge of the sweater before lifting up. She carefully slid my good hand through the sleeve before pulling it up over my head. Then, she slid the remaining fabric off through my bad arm, eliminating any unnecessary movements towards it. She moved as if she knew where every injury in my body was. All I could do was watch her as she walked around to the side table and grabbed a pair of scissors to cut my tight, long sleeve shirt open. As soon as she did, we both glanced down and saw just how bad it actually was.

My entire left side was completely bruised and swollen, with dark purple patches cast all around my fair skin. Blood had soaked through my shirt from the open scrapes I had when I hit the wall. Scrapes were all over my arms and legs. She then carefully slit open the long sleeve area of my bad arm, and saw the visible hand print bruise. As she traveled further up to completely take off the shirt, her hands froze.

"Jesus." She whispered, examining my neck that I could only guess, looked the worst.

"How bad?" I groaned.

"Literal handprints." She replied, as she finished cutting up the shirt. "I'm going to go grab the first aid kit, I'll be right back."

I nodded slightly. My eyes drifted closed as I continuously replayed the events these past few months.

I hated myself.

I hated myself for staying.

For settling.

I hated the fact that somewhere, deep down, I felt no sympathy for me. Everything that happened tonight was the escalation of my actions and I should have been brave enough to put an end to it all earlier.

Aria returned seconds later, with a large kit in hand. "I won't lie to you, Lacey, this will hurt. I'm going to disinfect all the cuts and place some bandages on your side. First, we'll handle the most painful thing, that's going to be your rib cage." She spoke, pulling out some ointment and gauze, along with alcohol and a wrap.

"Shit, no hydrogen peroxide?" I asked, already prepping my body for the amount of pain I was about to be feeling.

"Only rubbing alcohol. I know, this will hurt. A lot." She opened up some gauze packages and poured the alcohol over them, before gently starting to clean the cuts on my side. Instantly, I felt the sharp stinging pain as she disinfected the area. "Try not to talk too much, I'm not sure if he bruised your windpipe or not, but it looks like he did."

My eyes widened at her suddenly as my arm went out to stop her from what she was doing. "How did you know it was Steve?" I croaked out. She smiled, her demeanor changing slightly.

"I've become familiar with the signs." She spoke, her face unreadable as she continued to clean the cuts. After she was done, she applied this cooling sensation ointment to my ribs that felt extremely good. "This will help with the swelling before I wrap it." She explained, as she she got a few more pieces of gauze and a bondage wrap out. I nodded silently at her.

She placed the gauze down, then held it in place along with the start of the wrap. She slid it over my stomach and under my back, but when she approached my ribs again, I wasn't prepared for the amount of pain I felt when she pulled tight. I screamed out, biting on my good arm in attempts to silence the sound as she continued. It got immensely worse as she went on. I could feel the pressure of my side but I tried not to squirm too much for her.

After what seemed like hours, she finally sucked the wrap into itself. I had broke sweat from the amount of pain I was feeling. Visible, deep teeth marks were on my arm from where I bit a little too deep and broken skin.

"You've gotten through the worst of it." She commemorated. "Now, let me take a look at that face." She nodded, moving closer to me as she gently held my chin. "I cannot put the ointment anywhere near your eye so we'll have to, instead, ice this area. First, I'll clean up the cuts, then I'll make some ice packs for you. Here, take these. They are pain killers and will help with the pain from your ribs." She nodded, ripping open some packages and handing me a few pills. "Let me grab you some water." She added, standing up quickly and heading towards the kitchen.

As she went to fill it up, I finally took in the interior of her home for the first time. The inside looks so much better from what it was. The walls were a nice pale grey that complimented the wood furnishing. She had done a great job with the place, but it was a large home for only one person.

She returned again shortly after and handed me a glass of water. I slipped the two pills into my swollen mouth and rushed it down with some water. I quickly started choking, spitting up the water as the pills not so gracefully, traveled down my throat. Aria moved to my side and lifted my heads carefully, as I finally stomached everything down. "Your throat has started to swell. I'm going to fix up these injuries, but I think it's time you really think about going to the emergency room, Lacey." She spoke. It had only dawned on me that she never even asked to take me to the ER before now.

"Why didn't you take me straight there when I came here?" I asked, my eyebrow s scrunching up in confusion.

"Because you came here. If taking you to the hospital was an option, you would've gone already. I'll do everything I can tonight, but I must recommend professional help." She claimed, pouring more alcohol onto new gauze pads."this'll hurt." She added, before wiping off the blood and wound from my mouth and cheek. I did everything in my power to stay still for her as that stinging sensation took over.

~

This torture went on for another 15 minutes before Aria finished and started to clean up the mess of bloodied Gauze pads. She came back down with a large t- shirt as she carefully slid it over my head. "I would offer you my bed, but I rather not move you just to be safe. I'm locking all the doors, and leaving this baseball bat I fount in a room, here. If you need anything, you call, okay?" She nodded, setting the baseball bat down beside me before heading over to the front door and triple checking all the locks.

"Aria?" I called, before she could make it to the staircase.

She glanced back at me.

"Thank you." I nodded, holding her eye contact as she smiled slightly.

"Don't mention it." She nodded, before heading upstairs.

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