Fate

Warmth Of Blood

Chapter 1- Meg
     I'm running in the woods as fast as I can, but he's too fast. I feel like I've been running for miles and I'm becoming exhausted, but I can't give up. Even though I've been running this hard, I'm still freezing from the cold air. After running about another mile, I see cars passing by, I'm so close. I look behind me and he is nowhere in sight, perfect. I'm just shy of reaching the road when I'm tackled by this giant creature.
     It's so dark I can barely see, the only light is coming from the cars passing by, unaware of what is happening. I'm flat on my back, pinned down by this thing, and a sharp rock stabbing my lower back. I try to scream, but nothing comes out. All I see are its cold, glowing eyes staring right back at mine. One car pulled off to the side because of a flat tire. I turn my head and try to scream to catch their attention, but it gets lodged in my throat from the sudden pain. Whatever this thing is just sliced my lower stomach, I'm not sure with what though. I feel sudden warmth as my blood pools out of me—
     I wake up to my roommate shaking me with urgency.
     "Dear God Meg, please wake up."
     "What's wrong?" I ask groggily and confused. She turned the lamp on beside my bed, but not the over headlight. I try to sit up, but the pain from my dream feels real right now, and I honestly don't know if I'm really awake or not. I stay lying down in the fetal position and wipe my eyes as I try to adjust to the light. My eyes are soaked with tears, and my bed feels like it's soaked with sweat.
     "You were moaning in pain and crying, what hurts?"
     It honestly comes in handy to have a nursing student as a roommate. Sarah is the same age as me, and my best friend. When we were freshman I wanted to be a nurse but halfway through the year, I realized that was a big mistake so I dropped that. We became really close and didn't want to get new roommates for sophomore year, so now I live in a building where most people are in the medical field.
      "I don't care what time it is, I need to shower. Just cramps I think." I suck up the pain and pull my covers off of myself, and she takes a step back to give me space.
I begin to slowly move my legs to the ground because my cramps are making it difficult to move when I hear her gasp         "Oh my God.
    "What?" I ask, concern filled in my voice.
    "Oh honey," she says. I don't know what's wrong, only that I'm drenched in sweat, but her face is as white as a sheet. She rushes over to me, helping me sit up. "Hold on," she tells me.
    She goes to my dresser which sits in front of my bed and grabs my underwear, spandex, and an oversized t-shirt that I still have from my ex-boyfriend because it is very long and comfy. I'm completely over him, though it did take some time.
    "Just wait a minute," she says while quickly leaving the room. I'm still in severe pain, and finally, gain enough courage to look down at my legs. There's blood everywhere.
    "Oh my God!" I squeal, and I begin to hyperventilate. Sarah rushes back into our dorm with a bunch of paper towels, wet and dry.
    "It's okay, you're fine, I just need to clean you up." She looks completely calm, though I can see her hands trembling slightly as she wipes my legs, though that might be from me shaking so hard.
    I'm breathing hard trying not to freak out and cry, but she's handling this perfectly. "Okay so here's the plan, we are going to quickly walk to the bathroom and put you in the shower to rinse you off—"
    "I don't think I can stand," I tell her, trying to mask the panic in my voice.
    "That's okay, I'm going to be holding you up as we make our way to the bathroom. I have a shower mat you can sit on and rinse off while I clean your bed, and then I can come help get you out and dressed."
    "I—I don't want people to be staring at me looking like this," I manage to say.
    "It's two in the morning. The nursing students are either studying in their rooms or sleeping. Anyways, it's not like they haven't seen anything like this before. Now come on, lets go."
    I put my arm around her shoulders as she puts one arm behind my back. She uses her other arm to carefully move my legs to the ground. Once my feet hit the ground she releases my legs and stretches her arm that was around my back to my stomach and lifts me up. With her free hand, she grabs her bath mat and we begin to head out. I'm a tiny human, so she has to hunch her shoulders to keep me balanced.
    We slowly make our way to the bathroom down the hall, and I can feel more blood run down my leg, making me want to walk faster but the pain is stopping me. I normally get bad period cramps, but never this bad.
    Finally, after what feels like an eternity, we reach the bathroom. We walk in and it's completely empty, so Sarah walks me to one of the showers, and I let go of her so she can put the mat down. I'm leaning against the wall for support while catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Pathetic.
    My eyes are bloodshot red and my face is almost the same color. My cheeks are streaked with my tears, my hair is a complete mess, and my shorts are destroyed.
    "Okay, it's all set. Come here," Sarah says.
    She turns on the water to let it warm up, and as I try to pull off my shirt, I hunch down in pain. Sarah looks at me with sadness in her eyes and says "We're gonna do this one arm at a time, okay?" She helps me get out of my shirt slowly so I don't have to pull my arms up high. Then she helps me into the shower and I sit down. "Imma let you take off those and let the water hit them, could possibly be saved," she says gesturing towards my pants. There's no chance they'll make it.
    She tells me she'll be back in a few and I should just try to relax as if it's even possible to do at this point. I sit there letting the warm watering hit my face and I close my eyes. It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay.
    When I open my eyes Sarah has her hand in the curtain with red bathing suit bottoms in them. "Here, put these on," she tells me. I do and a second later she has a bikini top. I also grab that and put it on and tell her I'm covered.
    She opens the curtain and kneels beside me, washcloth in hand. She begins to rub the dried up blood off of my thigh, avoiding the bloody water that comes her way. When I'm finally clean she helps me stand up and shuts off the water. She steps out the shower and closes the curtain behind her, handing me clean underwear, spandex, and my ex's t-shirt. Once I am dressed I open the curtain, but I'm still clutching onto my stomach. The pain has gone down a little so I don't feel the need to cry, but it still hurts like hell.
    "Come on, let's get you back to bed," she says to me.
    "Thank you so much for helping me and just being so amazing about this. You really are an amazing friend."
    "Wow, is your brain working okay? You're never sappy like this," she says with a chuckle.
    "Shut up and help me back to my bed," I say with a smile, reaching out to her for support.
    "Ah, there's the Meg I know and love," she says smiling back and hunching down so I can put my arm around her shoulders.

*Thank you so much for reading! I'm going to bring Jake into the next chapter right in the beginning. This chapter was just to give a little background knowledge of Meg and Sarah and what's going on!*