Nothing At All

7.2

With him gone, I turned back to the task at hand. I took off one of the plain pillowcases and dunked it into the water. Scrubbing down the woman was my first task. The blood was already dried onto her skin in a thick layer. It took some serious rubbing to get it off.

When I was done, I went to Mircalla. She was as bloody as the woman, but most of it was on her clothes. I cleaned off the few areas of exposed skin. As I held her face to clean it, I felt her head purposefully lean into my grasp. Her cut lips moved slightly, but her words were indistinguishable from the rustling of the curtains.

Finally, I cleaned myself up. Of all the nights to have done fucking trauma surgery, it just had to be when I was wearing my favorite hoodie. There was no way this was going to be wearable again unless Mircalla did some magic. I could have gone back to my room to change, but I was a little scared to leave the woman alone.

I sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled my poetry book out. During the chaos, it had gotten a little bloody. Since I didn't think my less-bloody copy of Fart Jokes for the Ages would be very appropriate, I opened the poetry book and started reading aloud. I knew she couldn't hear me, but I hoped my voice would bring her some peace.

At some point in the early morning hours, I drifted off. I tossed and turned for who knows how long, but woke up just as the sky was turning a light shade of orange. I walked over to the window and shut the shudders before any stray sun beams could kill Mircalla.

The room was plunged into darkness. I had no means of relighting the candle, which had long since blown out, so I settled back down on the bed.

I was in that half-asleep, half-awake stage for a while when the woman kicked me. At first, I thought I was hallucinating, but then it happened again. I looked up and saw her head rolling back and forth and her hands twitching.

Yawning, I stood up and took her hand. I stroked it while I waited for her to come to.

She eventually opened her eyes. Her grip on my hand tightened as she looked around. No words were coming from her mouth, only confused grunts. The faint light in the room cast deep shadows across her gaunt features.

"You're safe," I whispered kneeling at the side of the bed.

I strained to hear her hoarse response. "Where am I?"

"You're in the castle. Mircalla saved you last night. You were bleeding a lot, but we stitched you up. Just take breathe."

She listened to me without putting up a fight. Her eyes closed and she slumped into the pillows as she inhaled deeply. Her limp hand tugged mine closer to her body. Every raspy breath reached my ear; she sounded like something was stuck in her throat.

"Is my baby safe?" she mumbled after a minute.

I lifted her hand onto her swollen stomach. "Yes. You and the baby are perfectly safe."

She sighed and looked at me with a smile. Her delicate lips parted to reveal a missing tooth. "If the baby's safe, then I'm fine."

I patted her hand and gave her an encouraging smile. My elbow sank into the plush mattress, and the thick comforter fabric scratched my skin. Her warm brown eyes, ringed with bruises, made me feel safe, like I was back home.

"Is she awake?"

I jumped, startled by the voice, and looked over my shoulder. Mircalla was still propped against the wall, but she was awake and rubbing her temples. Her black clothes blended in with the wall, leaving only a pale oval face staring back at me.

"Yeah. Come say hello."

I didn't move as Mircalla crawled on hands and knees across the floor to us. She too slumped against the bed, her knee pressed into my thigh and her elbow dangerously close to mine. The bags under her eyes appeared darker than normal, if that was even possible.

"You look terrible," the woman mumbled.

I chuckled. "She normally looks like that."

Mircalla elbowed me, but focused intently on the woman. "What is your name? I need you to tell me what you were doing in the forest and what you remember."

"Luminita," she whispered. She placed a palm against her forehead and closed her eyes. "It's so foggy. I left the house after Marius was asleep and took the old trade road into the woods. I think- I don't know. All I can remember is hearing a noise and then nothing but a lot of pain. How long have I been out?"

"It's only the next morning, Luminita," I assured her. Her name fit weird in my mouth and stirred at some distant memory in the back of my mind that I couldn't quite place a finger on.

Mircalla nodded grimly. "You should not have gone into the woods. You know how dangerous they are. You would have been killed if it were not for Iulia and I. What were you thinking?"

"I had to leave him," Luminita whimpered. Her hands trembled as she brought them to her stomach. "I would die before I let that man meet my child." Tears welled in her eyes.

I saw the frustration in Mircalla's eyes, and knew I needed to step in. I reached out to the woman. "You will never have to go back to him. I saw how he hit you yesterday. You and your baby are safe her."

Mircalla tensed up, but I placed a calming hand on her knee. Don't, said my glance. She didn't say anything.

Luminita started to cry even harder, but now she was smiling. Teardrops trailed down her swollen cheeks and dripped onto her collarbone. Her sunken cheeks glowed a rosy red. "God is good!"

I held her down when she tried to sit up. "You've got to rest. You went through a lot last night. When you're more alert, we'll talk about what went down."

She patted my hand and leaned back into the mountain of pillows. "May I at least have food?"

"I suppose we can do that," Mircalla said, nodding. She looked at me. "I need your help getting to my feet. I am still drained of strength."

"Same." I let her put her hand on my shoulder and use it to push up. My hand instinctively went to her thigh as she swayed.

"Do you want help also?"

For the first time, I became aware of how cold the tile was against my bare skin. "Yes, please."

I wasn't quite as stable as Mircalla was. My knees wobbled the longer I stood, so I sat down on the bed. Luminita scooted over so I could fit.

"I shall get Andrei to bring us food. Do you have any allergies?"

She shook her head. "No, but could you please fluff my pillow? I don't think I can lift my arms."

"We got you, girl."

Mircalla helped her lean forward while I leaned over and gave the pillow a few good slaps. When I was done, she was lowered back into the pillow. As she settled in, her hair moved and, for the first time, revealed her ears.

As soon as I saw the missing earlobe, everything clicked into place. I knew why her name sounded so familiar and why I recognized her face. With a sharp gasp, I scrambled to my back pack and dug through it. My wallet, the floral pattern hidden by a splatter of blood, had fallen to the bottom.

My hands shook violently as I undid the clasp and dug through all the receipts and business cards. I kept my photos in the very back, each one with a distinct memory tied to it. I bypassed the photos of my first cat, of Mom and I at Disney World, and of Alex sitting on my bed. It was the torn, faded photo of my grandmother as a baby that I pulled.

Only it wasn't my grandmother that I focused on. It was the woman holding her on her lap, the woman with a gaunt face and a missing earlobe. I held it up next to Luminita and cried out as I realized what I was looking at.