Teach Me To Love

Chapter 9

Much welcomed silence surrounded Suzanne and she was appreciative of it. She went on in the mild bliss for a brief period before sound slowly started to seep through the stillness around her. "What did you do to her?" a voice demanded.

"I told you, I did nothing to her," came the curt reply.

"Then why is she like this?" another voice inquired. "You are the one she went out with, you should be able to answer."

"You should ask her when she is up again. I am sure you won't believe whatever I say to you," the second voice responded once more.

Suzanne stirred slightly at the disturbance and opened her eyes slowly. She was greeted with Allison's angry face and Kate's voice. "What did he do to you? I swear, I will kill him!" she cried out.

Suzanne turned her head in the opposite direction, not ready to deal with her friends who just needed a flick of her finger as confirmation to blow up the area.  Lenard stood on the other side of the room and her eyes connected with his, neither of them looked away. He silently studied her, then asked, "Who was he?"

"I don't know," Suzanne answered honestly.

"Who was who?" Allison interjected.

"When we were about to leave a man approached Suzanne. He asked her by her name if she remembered him and when she didn't answer he drove away. He seemed pretty dangerous to me and looked happy she didn't remember him," Lenard related.

His words sent Suzanne back in time to the dark face standing before of her with menacing grey eyes, daring her to say she knew who he was. His face was very familiar and she knew that it was not the first time she had seen him.

"Hello, Suzanne," she had heard smoothly in the same voice before.

She should recognise it. She should know him, but she couldn't remember and that was where the huge problem began. He was the only person who gave such a large trigger to her memory, yet she had no idea who he was. Nevertheless, her brain still tried to pry up information about him.

Behind her closed lids she saw him, the mysterious young man, smiling at her in what looked like the inside of a library. His face was friendly, open. One of his hands stood in plain sight above the table holding what looked like a pen, the other was almost concealed from view clasped around a--

As Susanne tried to focus harder, her head began to throb. She squeezed her eyes tighter to figure out what it was before the image faded.

She was too late.

Everything she saw only a few moments before was replaced with colorful dots. The pain in her head increased and her brain decided it had done enough already. The enormity of the situation she found herself in was swiftly driving her to the edge of sanity. As everything in her head started to take confusing turns again, Suzanne didn't think she could take much more.

A large warm hand rested on her arm then. For a while it just stayed there and she focused on the strength it possessed. Shortly after it slowly began moving in a constant motion on her arm.

Up. Down. Circle. Up. Down. Circle.

It crept down her forearm into her hand. Holding it. Squeezing gently. Drawing mindless patterns behind. Grounding her. Letting her know she wasn't alone, someone was with her. Someone holding her, someone keeping her safe.