Any Other Name

Chapter 14

She could hear the piano when she held her breath. It was calm, soothing. She wanted to watch whomever it was playing it. It was hard to hear it clearly over the wet sound of her inhale or the grunting sound of her exhale. She had dreamed of the music, heard it while she was still on the ground on the living room floor. Now it filtered into the bedroom where she had to work to breathe.

Marshall was already gone for work, a new book for Eliza to read left on his pillow. Her eyes couldn't even focus on the title.

The tree—a vague shape outside her window. She could just barely make it out. There used to be a nest in that tree; was it still there? Was it still built on the scraps of plastic and fabric stolen from the street and park below? Was the egg still there or had it already hatched?

She woke up again when the light was shining in her face, a reflection off the buildings across the street. She usually kept the curtains closed for that very reason, in case this ever happened again. She rolled over slowly, first her knees and then her arms, followed by her hips and chest.

It hurt, God this hurt. She held her arm out in front of her, trying to make the pillow comfortable. Her arm was mottled and rippled with odd colors. Something in her told her something was broken, but she couldn't tell what, even now. She fell back asleep to escape the pain.

Marshall was there when she opened her eyes again. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, in the curve of her stomach and legs, his hand rubbing gently over her temple. She couldn't see his face clearly in the dying light but she could tell that it was kind. She smiled at him, placed her hand on top of his, and shut her eyes.

She dreamed of Francis. He was a friend she had met around the time that she started to date Marshall. Six months into their relationship Marshall suddenly started to question her friendship with him.

She dreamed of the day that Marshall snapped, that he locked her in a room inside her own apartment and left her there for hours. It was the second time, and when he came back he was wild and giddy. He smiled as he hurt her, as he told her where Francis was, what had happened to him. She didn't get a chance to warn him, not like she did Tesey. She should have known better.

She awoke knowing something was wrong. She was going to die if she stayed in that bed. She felt capsized by the pain, so bad that she couldn't tell where it came from. Everything hurt, everything burned. She might have puked had she eaten anything the day before. Instead, she rolled herself out of bed, landing painfully on the floor. River was suddenly in front of her, whimpering and licking Eliza's face and nuzzling her wet nose into Eliza's neck. She tried to smile but it just made River cry into her more.

"Help me," she said, voice rough and wispy. "Phone. Help me. River."

She didn't seem to understand but let Eliza wrap her arms around her neck and put her weight onto her back. She didn't know where her phone was or how she was going to call for help, but River could help her get down the stairs and she could figure it out from there.

River half dragged her slowly to the top of the stairs, every bump and pressure on Eliza's wounds eliciting gasps out of her. She squeezed her eyes shut at the top, vertigo shaking the walls and banister back and forth in front of her eyes. She buried her face into River's fur and groaned.

It took a while for the pain in her head to fade, but slowly she took her weight off of River. She rolled onto her stomach despite the pain and slowly shimmied her way down the steps. She tried to hold herself up so the edges of the steps wouldn't press into her stomach but she couldn't manage it for more than two steps. She fell, slipped another two steps, and laid there crying until she could move again.