Bitch: Puncture (book 2)

Finally alone with my thoughts I had a wave of terror as I realized that we were almost caught. Ok, so we didn’t get caught. But the coincidence was just too much. How did they know I wondered? How did they know which truck we were in just a few minutes before? How had they managed to stay on our tail, time after time? How did they keep showing up?

I came to the inescapable conclusion that one or both of us had some sort of tracking device still inside of us. Something that was telling them where we were.

I knew Apoc had numerous modifications from the conversation with Stella the vet and Professor Tryon at the University Lab. And I knew they could have hidden it anywhere inside of me. I knew from my scars that even early on I’d been cut open in more places than I could remember. I’d been covered in bandages and kept in a twilight haze of drugs during the many surgeries.

I hadn’t known at first what was happening to me.

I had thought that I was in the hospital. But then later realized that I was in the lab and no longer in the town where I stopped.

I knew I’d been hit by a car.

I’d seen it coming for me that night. I remembered a wall of pain and I remembered a strange sound in my throat. There were bits of something and voices, colors. Shapes. Bright lights. Fragments of memories.

And then I remembered waking up in a hospital, I thought, with the feeling that fire ants were crawling under my skin and it felt like they were trying to eat their way out to the surface. My skin literally felt like it was moving. I had a tube down my throat and was gagging. I was suspended in some sort of webbing.

Then I saw Dr. Shen. And I felt surprise.

Dr. Shen, the vet? What was he doing here? Why was he checking my chart and making notes like a regular doctor? Was he helping to treat me? I gurgled around the tube, but he didn’t even look up at me. I tried to look around, but it was hard with my head strapped down. It didn’t look like the vet’s clinic. It was a very high tech looking place. Bright shiny surfaces hurt my eyes. I started to feel afraid and it was getting hard to breathe. Dr. Shen talked to someone, I tried to see who, but I couldn’t understand what he said. He yelled and waved his arm. Suddenly I felt ice in my veins and everything got quiet again. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I felt so tired.

I remembered waking up again.

I was standing next to the falls the cool mist dousing the hot tear tracks on my cheeks. I could hear Chris was talking. I couldn’t remember what he was saying to me.

We were walking when the car hit us. What had we been talking about? Why couldn’t I remember?

I remembered calling him that night after sitting in my car and crying for a few hours. There was a bar at the hotel he’d recommended. He was underage but no one seemed to care. We sat outside on the patio, I sipped a beer. There was a fire pit and the warmth of it made my face feel stretched tight where my tears had run. I knew I was in no condition to drive. I had a couple days before classes were to start so no biggie. I hadn’t checked in with my parents yet. Wasn’t sure I could trust my voice to tell them what had happened.

Chris was nice. He told me about his dog and how it always wanted to chase cars. Until one day when one of the cars finally caught him. He told me he hadn’t gotten another one, he’d thought about it, but thought he’d wait until he was done with college. Maybe wait till he had a son to take care of it.

I remember telling him Blossom’s story from start to finish, and to his credit he listened without interruption. He asked me if I wanted to see the falls. I said sure, the bar was empty anyway. We drove his old pickup truck up there, he said my car would never make it. And it’s a good thing too because I remember the road was like a washboard, I thought my teeth were going to rattle out of my head. I remembered the cool night air coming in the triangle windows of the truck. I got the feeling that he could have driven the road there with his eyes closed.

And then we were there. It was so quiet and dark... well at least no sounds or lights of the city. The falls were beautiful sounding, the roar matching empty rushing sound in my heart. I blinked at the fresh tears as I thought again about the hole in my heart. I looked up and sucked in a breath in shock. The moon hadn’t risen over the mountains on either side of the valley, but a billion stars were shining above me. The first time I could remember the milky way actually looking milky... so many stars they just blended together in a ribbon of sparkling cream.

Chris came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me as I looked. He was warm on my back and his leather jacket wrapped over my chest. I was cradled between the rushing falls and the starry sky.

“Beautiful isn’t it.”

“Breathtaking.”

“Yes you are.”

I giggled. “Are you trying to sweet talk me?”

“I am if it’s working.” His teeth twinkled in the dark.

“So where are the falls? I can hear them but I’m thinking we’re not going to see much of them in the pitch dark.”

“Yes, that’s true. But the moon should be up shortly and then you’ll be able to see them, a bit. C’mon let’s watch the moon come up at the notch.”

“Lead on.”

Chris threw a blanket over his shoulder and handed me a bottle of water. And he turned on his cellphone screen and grabbed my hand to lead me on the invisible trail.

“What?!? No champagne?” I teased.

“Are you suggesting alcohol to an impressionable underage minor? Isn’t that some sort of crime?”

“Nobody seemed to mind at the bar.”

“Well that’s a small town for you. I’ve known Mo since grade school. We used to go drinking together when it was still illegal for him. Everybody knows everybody else, and there isn’t much going on, so the worst they can do is to talk about other people to make their own lives seem more interesting. Most of the people out here are just stupid farmers, they look at the cows in the field and think people have to be just like that. If there’s a bull amongst the cows there’s gonna be calves. They think men and women can’t be friends that kinda thing.”

“You mean they’re going to talk about me? I thought people around here would be pretty religious.”

“They are, good salt of the earth Christians. The way Mo is probably already telling it, we are currently having sex in a multitude of graphic and very precarious positions. The karma sutra is not what it’s cracked up to be.”

“Well, I’m not really a ‘one night stand’ kind of girl.”

“I hope not. And neither am I. A one night stand kind of guy I mean, not a girl. You know what I mean... I was thinking maybe a kiss at the end of the night if you’re good and don’t get too hands-y with me.”

“Hands-y? With you? You’re the one who’s holding my hand.”

“Don’t try to pretend you didn’t want to... you’re still holding it. It’s just so obvious that you have this crazy attraction for me. Is it the varsity jacket? That works with a lot of girls. You hook up with a lot of younger men, cradle-robber?”

“Ha ha. You’re not that much younger, bub... Doesn’t it bother you? That they’re going to talk about you. And me.”

“Nope. I figure anybody who traffics in gossip is a loser and needs to get a life... which is just about everybody in this little town. So back to, nope. From where I stand we can be friends or anything else. And it’s nobody else’s business.”

“Good answer.”

“Yes, I thought so.”

“Just doesn’t seem very Christian to me, the gossip I mean.”

I remembered the moonrise. It was striking. The falls glittered like diamonds. He sat up against a rock and I sat in front of him and leaned back on him with the blanket wrapped around us. It wasn’t cold, but it made me feel safe. We talked more about life and dreams. We talked about where he was going to college this year and where he would go after the first two years at the JC, unless he was able to get a football scholarship. The town was so small they hadn’t been able to get a scout out to see any of the players.

And too soon, he’d let me know it was late and I needed to get back to my room at the hotel. My butt was cold and had somehow fallen asleep. I didn’t want to start walking right away and turned to him. True to his word he’d gave me one amazing ten minute kiss there on the top of that rock that made my toes curl and lit me up like a Christmas tree. My whole body was tingling. I remembered that feeling. I felt drunk. Tipsy. I had this crazy thought that I was honoring Blossom somehow by celebrating life.

I was in such a happy daze, I didn’t notice anything on the way back down. I don’t remember what he was saying.

Just the headlights, that popped on at the last second.

The crunch.

I could see Chris, his head was turned at a funny angle. And his eyes were dark. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t breathing. And then he slid away and I couldn’t see him any longer. I couldn’t move. There were lights and voices. I remember black boots. I must have passed out.

The lights flicked on right before the car hit us. Then I realized that the car had been headed for us in the dark. It’s true intentions hidden until it was too late for us to even run.

I thought I’d been in the hospital to heal.

To repair the damage done by that car and driver. It took me months to realize that there were new aches and pains every time I woke. My body didn’t seem to be getting better. My spine felt wrong, warped somehow. Things seemed to be moving and reshaping when I woke up.

I thought I was in a hospital.

I was wrong.

I realized with horror that I was someone’s private Frankenstein. A living breathing cadaver, brought back to life, but changed and mutilated in the process.

I didn’t want to think anymore.