“I’ll show up at the hospital with everyone else as soon as they call your sister. I promise.”
He was gone then, and once more I was alone with Big Phil. The only thing that comforted me was this time, the piece of scum wasn’t breathing. I sat up and stared at his body, mainly at his chest, just to make sure he was faking it. I wanted to make sure he was really dead. I didn’t have to think twice about whether he was really gone or not when I saw the fast growing pool of blood gather around him. It was impossible to tell what colour his shirt originally was because it was soaked with dark red blood.
When I couldn’t sit up any longer, I lay back on the sofa for so long that I felt myself begin to relax to the point where I could go asleep if I wanted to, the adrenaline I was feeling earlier now completely gone. I closed my eyes and when I opened them next it was because I heard a loud bang then an awful crunching sound.
“Oh, shite,” I heard a male voice hiss. “It wasn’t a prank call. Radio it in and get an ambulance here ASAP. Possible suspect is down, and the victim looks to be in bad shape.”
“Copy that.” Another male voice replied then moved away as he spoke using weird code words.
I flinched when I felt a hand on my forehead.
“You’re goin’ to be okay,” the first man said. “An ambulance is on the way, ma’am.”
I lifted one of my eyelids open, and for a moment everything was blurry, then my vision focused, and a handsome man was leaning over me. The first thing I noticed about him was his eyes—they were bright blue. The second thing was the uniform he had on.
“Garda?” I whispered.
The man nodded. “Yeah, I’m a Garda, sweetheart. You’re safe, I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
I didn’t think I had enough energy to even feel relief, but I did and it slammed into me at that moment.
“He stabbed me, and tried to kill me,” I whispered, my eyes becoming blurry once more as tears filled them. They spilled over the brims, and slid down my temples and into my hair. “I stabbed him in the chest… I had no choice… he was goin’ to kill me. He said so.”
I felt a hand press against my shoulder, and I cried out in pain.
“I’m so sorry,” the Garda said, “I need to slow the bleedin’ until the paramedics get here.”
That fucking hot poker didn’t do its job.
“Am I goin’ to die?” I asked.
“No,” came the man’s instant response. “You aren’t goin’ to die. Look at me, you aren’t goin’ to die.”
I didn’t know whether to believe him or not, because I felt like I was dying.
“I killed ‘im,” I whispered. “I really killed ‘im.”
“You had no choice, darlin’. It was your life or his, and I’m glad it was his.”
I nodded. “Who is he?”
“No idea yet, did say why he abducted you?”
I forced more tears out. “He said he wanted to… to rape me, and keep me, but I fought back and he hurt me.”
“Son of bitch,” the Garda hissed.
He was lapping my story up like a starved dog.
“Don’t let ‘im get me,” I mumbled and closed my eyes when they suddenly became too heavy. I wanted to continue with my act, but I couldn’t, everything became too draining to keep up.
“Ms Murphy?” the man’s voice shouted as I felt my body being shaken. “Branna? Fuck! Mikey, where is that ambulance?”
“On the way!”
I felt myself being pulled away from everything, and damn if it didn’t feel good not to feel anything.
“Stay with me, Branna. Be strong.”
Be strong.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
That’s what woke me up. Not a loud piercing sound, just a steady beeping that would more than likely grate on my nerves if I had to endure listening to it for a long period of time.
What the hell was beeping?
It wasn’t my phone alarm, I knew that much. I mentally groaned when I realised I was going to have to get up and go find the source of the unholy noise so I could put a stop to it. I quickly found that idea was out the window when I adjusted my body slightly, and tenderness caused me to whimper.
“Branna?” a familiar voice said at the same time a hand clasped mine. “It’s Damien. I’m here, and you’re okay.”
Why is Damien in my bedroom?
I squeezed his hand, but the action was weakly executed. When I opened my eyes, it took a couple of blinks for anything to come into focus, but when I could see clearly, my little brother’s face was leaning over me.
“Hey,” he breathed, and if I didn’t know any better, I would think he had tears in his eyes.
Why does he have tears in his eyes? I wondered. Did I forget to make him breakfast again?
“Dame—” I cut myself off when a pain in my throat caused my voice to sound raspy, and feel like sandpaper.
“Open up,” Damien urged. “I have water.”
I opened my mouth and gulped down the water offered to me. It felt like liquid heaven sliding down my throat. It hurt a little swallowing, but the ache wasn’t as bad as before.
“Thanks,” I said and cleared my throat.
I focused on Damien once more, and when I flicked my eyes beyond him, I took in my surroundings that were most definitely not my bedroom.