Hide (Sequel to RUN)

Chapter 20

They released me from the hospital after giving me a generous dose of painkillers. The first dose hadn’t been meant to take away all the pain, but to keep me lucid enough to be interrogated. That had worn off just before they’d released me, then they gave me the heavy dose. Lansing took me home in his truck, which remained silent the whole way to wherever the crap we were going.
It didn’t really help that the pain-killers from the hospital had me disoriented. Last thing I remember, I was staring at a car door from my wheelchair. Next thing I knew, we’re pulled up in front of my house. It took a full minute of staring at it to remember what had happened in my room that morning.
“I can’t go in there,” I slurred. Even in my drug-induced state I could feel fear creeping into my stomach.
“I’m just here to check something out.” Lansing placed a hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me back into the seat. “You stay in here.” I snuggled back into my seat obediently, watching loosely as Lansing glitched his way to the house. I stared at the house some more, finally noticing the figures in black glitching along with Lansing.
Then the yellow police tape.
I stared and stared at it, wondering for a while if it would morph into a snake or something of the like. When it didn’t, I got the sudden urge to laugh. Giggles began escaping. They were spastic at first, but after a few tries it kept a steady pace. I sounded full blown psychotic. Which, at the time, I probably was.
Then I was just silent. Staring at the swaying yellow tape.
After a while, my gaze shifted from the tape to the house. Something was off about it.
I stared at the house for what seemed like a long time. There was something I needed to see in there. It was important; I could tell. It was as if something was pulling me towards the house. I didn’t want to move. It was comfortable in the seat. If I curled up tight enough, I felt safe and warm.
But the string continued to tug at me. And tug. And tug. And tug.
I moved my legs, disgruntled that I even had to move. Maybe the string would stop tugging if I made it think I was moving. It didn’t stop tugging. Curious but still grumpy, I opened the car door.
Tug. Tug. Tug.
I was out of the car, moving towards the house.
Tug. Tug. Tug.
My hands gripped a drainpipe, reaching up to climb higher.
Tug. Tug. Tug.
I was climbing through a window, sitting on the sill.
Tug. Tug. Tug.
Then I was sitting in front of my door. Something was wrong with it. I lifted my finger, tracing the hole in my door with it. That hole wasn’t supposed to be there. It was wrong. It wasn’t supposed to be there.
Voices pounded on the surface of my little bubble, threatening to puncture it and ruin my thinking with their cacophonous ways. Hands grabbed at me as well, but I got all of them off. Somehow.
The next time I raised my finger, I noticed tiny smears of blood on my finger tips. I lifted them up to the light, wondering if they had been there before.
“Lekia.” Lansing’s voice popped my bubble abruptly and cruelly. I tilted my head from side to side, aggravated. If I tuned him out long enough then he might go away.
“I thought I told you to stay in the car.” His voice pierced my hastily-made bubble once more, and I flinched. I finally pulled my gaze away from the hole in the door to glare at Lansing.
“There’s something wrong with the door,” I explained. My voice echoed in my own head. It would have made it difficult to speak if I was in my right mind.
“Yeah. There’s a gaping hole in it,” Lansing responded. I stared at the door more intensely, knowing that there was something more than just the hole in it.
“There’s something wrong with the door.” Lansing sighed behind me, then someone grabbed me around the waist and threw me over the shoulder.
I twisted and screamed, clawed and spit. The iron grip just pulled me tighter.
It didn’t understand! I had to figure out the mystery of the door.
“Look!” I pleaded, trying to look behind me. “Look at it!” When I looked forward again, the hole morphed into a gaping mouth.
I screamed louder. It jumped out of the door, gnashing shark-like teeth before following us.
I whimpered, scuttling up the back of the person holding me and onto their other shoulder.
“Lekia…” The sigh was born of frustration, but I just curled around the neck tighter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My eyelids stuck together, refusing to fully open. It took several attempts to get them cooperating.
The room was filled with soft light. It was warm. Am I in heaven? I thought to myself. Relief swept over me with the thought. Why had I ever been so scared to die if this was what was waiting for me? I could finally relax.
Then I noticed the soreness in my muscles. The tension under my skin. Memories flooded back into the empty cracks, making me relive the experiences. Maki’s and Dad’s faces stuck in my mind long after the rest of the memories had settled into place.
A sense of betrayal settled in my stomach. It felt as if my mind had been beaten as much as my body. If I couldn’t trust my boyfriend--if I couldn’t trust my own father--then who could I trust? With that cheerful thought, I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed.
My body screamed in protest, making me wonder if I wasn’t supposed to get up. I got up anyway. I would have to get up at some point. There was no time like the present. Groaning softly, I placed my feet on the soft carpet. I moved to the door slowly, taking in the room. My first impression had been heaven, but it was actually my room at Lansing’s. My little motor was still partially disassembled on one of the tables. I stared at it for several seconds, wondering. What was it like to get a good night sleep? I had almost forgotten.
I tore my gaze away from it, going for the door. There would be a time for me to rest. It just wasn’t now.
As I descended the stairs, Lansing appeared at the bottom of them. I stopped, clutching the railing.
“How are you feeling?” he asked quietly.
“Like I got hit by a truck going ninety,” I answered truthfully, attempting a slight smile. Lansing didn’t smile back. Instead he came up the stairs to meet me.
“You’re lucky it wasn’t worse,” he commented, picking me up off the stairs like I was a rag doll. I protested meekly, secretly glad as he carried me down the stairs. My legs had taken a good amount of beating. The doctors had been surprised only my arm was broken.
“Have you been thinking about it?” I asked as we reached the bottom of the stairs and he set me down.
“Thinking about what?”
“Don’t play stupid,” I grumbled, pushing off his arm and heading into the kitchen. He followed behind me like I was a hurst.
“You shouldn’t be walking.” He sounded like he was about to have an anxiety attack. Remembering our little chat earlier, I stopped and allowed him to slip my arm around his shoulders.
“So?” The word came out in a gasp as my skin stretched and shifted over my ribs. Without warning, Lansing scooped me up once more and took me to the couch.
“What do you want from the kitchen?” he asked, rearranging my legs into a comfortable position. “You’ll need some water for your meds, but do you want anything else?” I stared into space, letting my thoughts take me for a few moments.
“Who do you think did it?” I asked, still kinda out of it.
“Did what?”
“Stop. Just...I know you’ve thought about it. Can you just tell me?” My voice sounded resigned, distant. Lansing sighed, sitting himself by my feet.
“I have,” he admitted. “And I don’t know, Lekia. My first instinct is your father...but…”
“There’s a ‘but’?”
“Maki has a history with girls.”
“Just because he’s a player doesn’t mean he’d beat me.”
“No. But he would get drunk. When he got drunk he would beat his current girlfriend.”
“Current?”
“He beat three different girls, Lekia.” I brought the heels of my palms to my eyes, trying to calm my suddenly scrambling brain.
“Nothing’s ever easy, huh?” I chuckled darkly.
“I don’t want to think he would be able to hurt you. I know your father would.” I remained resigned, not knowing what to think anymore. Both of them had been in that room with me. Either one of them could have been Aaron.
I could’ve tackled the wrong one. I could’ve tackled the right one.
My brain was playing tricks on me. I wanted to scream so loud the vibrations shook the foundation of the house. What would it take for me to finally calm the monsters inside my head?
“That didn’t make it any better,” Lansing stated, somewhat deflated.
“No. No it didn’t.” We were silent for a long time.
“The evidence will point to who did it, Sweetheart,” Lansing tried comforting me after a while. He patted my foot for good measure before rising off the couch and heading into the kitchen.
“What do you want to eat?” he called.
“I’m not hungry,” I called back. Simply thinking of food made my stomach want to churn.
“You’re eating!” he yelled back. “What do you want?”
“Nothing...much,” I relented. “Whatever you’re having.” I stared at the ceiling, trying to think logically through everything that was going on. Granted, it wasn’t going too well. It’s hard to think logically through something when you can’t remember what actually happened. Basically, I was in the same position as the detectives and even they were spinning in circles.
I brought the heel of my hands up to my eyes, sighing softly. My head hurt. My body hurt. Everything hurt. I was begging my consciousness to release me, but at the same time I was clinging to it. I knew what was lying in wait for me as soon as I fell into unconsciousness. I couldn’t tell which one was worse.
A crash sounded in the kitchen, closely followed by raised voices. I jerked upright, my mind finally clearing as my instincts took over. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to use my adrenaline. I recognized the voice in the kitchen: Palika. The aches in my body returned as I realized I wasn’t in any immediate danger.
“I heard what happened. Is she okay?” Palika’s voice came in short gasps, as if he’d run five miles at top speed. Lansing’s voice was a soft murmur compared to Palika’s, and I honestly didn’t care enough to strain my ears. As I leaned back into the couch, Palika’s voice seemed to explode from the kitchen.
“I’ll kill him!” Palika didn’t usually curse, but then he cursed both loudly and profusely. This time, Lansing had to shout to be heard over him.
“We don’t know it was him! It could’ve been either.” The kitchen was silent for a minute. When the voices did start up again, they were quiet once more.
I was too tired to strain my ears, so I tried thinking logically again. It was difficult. Every time I wandered deeper into my thoughts, I was pulled out again by slight jerks of pain coming from my left forearm.
“Ow,” I muttered, finally looking to the source. One of my cut’s stitches was popping open, rubbing against my open flesh painfully. “What the…?” Blood began to seep out of the wound as it continued to open, and it burned. I pinched the cut shut, wondering how I would be able to sew it up if Lansing wouldn’t let me off the couch. Turns out, that was the wrong move. Another cut began to open, burning just as much as the first. More opened all over my body, making me tense involuntarily. Fire swept through my blood vessels, charring everything in its path. It swallowed me like I was breakfast.
I couldn’t breathe.
Every stitch snapped, igniting another course of fire. It engulfed the room around me, licking at my skin. The combination of smoke and blood choked me. I retched violently, unable to control myself.
Then the tsunami hit. If I had thought the stitches were bad, it was nothing compared to what came. My arm snapped audibly inside my cast. At first there was nothing. It was as if a flash flood had come and doused all the flames. In that moment, everything was silent and still. Then it all came rushing back, knocking me further into the couch. Every cell in me quivered. It was like nothing I had ever felt before. I clenched my eyes together, determined to get through this somehow.
“Lekia!” Lansing appeared in the kitchen doorway, disappeared again, then reappeared with something in his hands. I couldn’t tell exactly what. My vision went blurry suddenly. I was going to pass out.
Lansing’s blur dashed to my side, raising something to my lips.
“Drink, but don’t swallow,” he murmured. I obeyed.
“Pills.” Again, he brought his hand to my mouth. I opened, and then swallowed quickly.
“Fifteen minutes, Sweetheart. Just fifteen minutes.” I closed my eyes, fighting the nausea and fire. It was going to be a long fifteen minutes.
“You know, I was thinking we should get a puppy,” Lansing said, grabbing my hand. I squeezed it tightly, grinning through the pain.
“A puppy needs training,” I replied, my voice sounding strangled.
“You needed training. I took you in, didn’t I?” I couldn’t help but laugh, but I regretted it immediately. My one broken rib shifted under my skin, killing my laugh instantaneously.
“Okay, no jokes. Lesson learned.” I smiled again, taking care not to laugh. It went on like that, the pain slowly fading. I opened my eyes and watched as the wounds along my body sewed themselves shut again. It wasn’t near as painful sewing them up as it had been opening them up. Lansing murmured seemingly nonsense words to me, effectively keeping my mind off of the pain. Finally, the pain was calmed and my body numb. Every cut was sewn tightly shut.
“Are you still hungry?” Lansing asked as my fists unclenched and my body relaxed.
“I wasn’t hungry in the first place,” I scoffed, trying to sit up again. Lansing shoved me back down gently.
“Rest,” he commanded, pointing accusingly at me. I settled back into the couch, wondering how much longer I wouldn’t be able to move. Those days in the hospital when I wasn’t going through withdrawals or allowed to walk were probably some of my angrier days. It wasn’t that I had just wanted to move; I had needed to move. Every part of me had itched, just like it itched now.
But this time I had Palika to manipulate.
I waited until Lansing had completely left the room before motioning to him.
“Help me up,” I groaned, starting to sit up once more. He rushed over, allowing me to grab onto his arm.
“You’re supposed to stay laying down,” he scolded, trying to force me to do so. I hung on his arm tightly, not giving up quite yet.
“Come on, Palika. Just a quick lap around the room.”
“No.”
“I can always just get up when you’re not looking. You might as well help so I don’t hurt myself.”
“You want to get up that badly?” He tried forcing me back down again, but I clung to his arm.
“I need to get up that badly,” I corrected, pleading with my eyes. “I’ve been cooped up and I’m sore.”
“Of course you’re sore; you were beaten.”
“Moving always helps.” He hung his head, thinking deeply.
“You’re just going to get up anyways, aren’t you.” He might as well have waved a white flag.
“I already told you so,” I stated, effectively hiding my pleasure.
“Fine,” he groaned after a moment of silence. “Only one lap, though.”
“One lap,” I agreed, pulling myself to the edge of the couch. Palika threaded my arm around his shoulder, helped me stand, and walked with me to the edge of the room. As soon as we started, pain broke through the medication in my right leg. I tried to hide it, but I was limping as we went along.
“You good?” Palika asked, stopping about halfway through the lap.
“Just dandy,” I grimaced, taking a step forward. He reluctantly stepped with me and finished the lap. By that time, my limp was prominent.
He led me back to the couch, looking pointedly at my leg.
“What’s going on there?” he asked, nodding at it as he helped me lay back down.
“The pain meds are taking care of it. It’s fine.”
“Obviously not if you’re limping. Did the doctors warn you about that leg at all?”
“No. So there’s nothing to worry about.” I settled into the couch again, my mind drifting back to my default thoughts at the moment. Dad or Maki?
“Doctors can be wrong,” he muttered, hovering over my leg. “They can miss things.”
“My goodness, Palika!” I yelled, frustrated. “I’ll have them look at it! Happy?” His attention turned to my face quickly. His eyes met mine, and guilt boiled in my stomach.
“Not particularly,” he muttered, sitting on the edge of the couch. He never took his eyes off me.
“I’m sorry,” I breathed, letting the guilt dictate my words. “It’s been a long couple days.”
“I can imagine.” He brushed his hand across my elbow, then quickly withdrew it. “Just promise me you’ll ask the doctors about that leg.”
I nodded ruefully, attempting a smile. It broke with a snap, taking my emotional state with it.
Tears suddenly ran down my cheeks, breaking from my eyes like racehorses out of the gate. It was pathetic; I knew that. I just couldn’t do anything to stop it. All the confusion and betrayal and trauma was boiling over, and now that I’d given it a taste of freedom it wasn’t going to stop.
“Hey,” Palika cupped my chin in his hand, trying to look me in the eyes. I avoided his, too ashamed of myself.
“What’s going on?” he asked softly. A door opened and closed in the kitchen.
Lansing had gone outside.
I pulled away from Palika. His touch was like fire against my skin.
“I was almost beaten to death by either Maki or my father. What do you think?” I muttered angrily, wiping the tears away.
“It’s gonna be okay,” Palika whispered. He rubbed his thumb across my cheek, knocking my hands out of the way gently. “Do you hear me?”
I nodded shakily, dropping my hands to my lap. He kept stroking my cheek, and it felt so good. It felt so good to be caressed and cared for. I leaned into his hand, yearning for its heat now.
He looked at me, a new light in his eyes that I knew all too well. I read it like an open book. This light was gentler than what I usually saw. He was going to kiss me. It was going to be gentle and light and there wasn’t going to be a tongue shoved down my throat. His hand on my cheek alone filled me with warmth.
His thumb stopped moving, and the look in his eyes intensified. I didn’t move. He was leaning closer and closer. His breath was hot on my face as he hesitated for short second. In that time, my paralysis broke and I met his lips with mine.
I had been right. The kiss was gentle, soft. His hand cupped the back of my neck, pulling me closer into him.
The hole where my heart had once been ached inside my chest. It needed to be filled, it needed to be whole again. But this kiss wasn’t filling it.
I brought myself ever closer to Palika, intertwining the fingers of my good hand into his ragged hair. I quickened the kiss, thinking maybe then my heart would magically mend itself. When it didn’t, I ran my tongue across his lips. I was desperate.
He let me in gladly, intertwining our tongues with an expertise worthy of Maki.
At the thought of Maki, my paralysis took me again. What was I doing?
I shook it off as quickly as it had come. Maki wasn’t here. Maki had likely beaten me. He wasn’t coming back. I began to move with Palika again. His hand was creeping up the back of my shirt, and I let it rest on the small of my back.
That stupid hole needed to be filled. It created a deep pain that I had never experienced before; I had no idea how to deal with it. Maybe if I took it up another level…
I rejected the thought and kept on with my current method. Palika was a good kisser, and it didn’t take him long to entrap my senses. With my desperation out of the picture, the kiss slowed again. I was like putty in Palika’s hands, and he knew exactly how he wanted to mold me.
He laid me slowly back onto the couch, his lips never leaving mine. I clung to him, my heart rate increasing. My head was light and fuzzy from lack of oxygen, which was exactly what I needed. I remained hyper-aware as he dragged his hand from the back of my neck up to my cheek. His body pressed closer to mine; he was practically on top of me.
And then he pulled away.
I lay there panting as he hovered above me, his eyes bright and sparkling. I extracted my hand from his hair and placed it on his cheek. He looked nice like this. It was as if he was glowing.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time,” he muttered, smiling. He leaned down again and kissed my forehead. I closed my eyes, trying hard to focus on forming words.
“How long?” I asked, suddenly aware that his hand still rested in the small of my back. He looked up, pretending to think about it.
“Well...I think it was when I first saw you knock my archnemesis out in the ring,” he laughed. I smiled, remembering how good it had felt to knock that guy out.
“Ol’ Jerkface,” I laughed with him, rubbing my thumb along his cheekbone. If I kissed him again, would this feeling last longer? I pulled his face closer to mine. Once he realized what I was doing, he came to meet me. Just as his lips were about to meet mine once more, though, the door slammed in the kitchen.
Palika and I broke apart, Palika more scared than me. It was easy to tell, because his fingernails broke the skin of my back as his hand flew back to his side. He was up and seated on the other couch within seconds, while I was left to deal with the pain he’d left.
“Hamburgers for all!” Lansing exclaimed, walking into the living room. I grimaced, searching for the scratches on my back. When I brought my hand back, there was blood coating my fingertips. Palika must’ve opened one of my stitches.
I quickly put my fingers in my mouth as Lansing turned to me. The blood on them coated my tongue, filling my mouth with the tang of copper. Lansing presented me a fork with one-eighth of a hamburger on it.
“Eat.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was being bad.
The hospital had sent a wheelchair home with me, given the condition of my legs. I had convinced Lansing to help me into said-wheelchair and roll me out into the driveway. Still not sure how I managed to persuade him to give me a clear path to freedom.
But I had done it. Now I was rolling myself down the sidewalk; screw the pain. I stopped on a corner, making a decisive turn to the right. I didn’t know what I was doing or where I was going. I just knew that I needed some air.
“You’re stupid, you know that?” I muttered to myself. “Palika?! Really?” I had to stop my rolling in the middle of the sidewalk to put my head in my hands.
“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” I sat back up, pushing my hair out of my face.
That’s when my world went dark.