I'm petrified and consumed with fear. Each inhalation of my lungs is getting shallower as my body screams for oxygen. I'm starting to feel lightheaded as I open my eyes again. I see Trent with the gun, standing behind Frank. A thousand different emotions are all over his face. My vision begins to tunnel as my ears are filled with ringing.
"GET THE FUCK OFF OF HER!" Frank stills and turns to see Trent pointing the gun at his face. He speedily stands up off of my weak, helpless body and tries to lunge at Trent.
BANG!
My body jerks from the startling, ear-splitting sound of a gunshot.
The intense, all-encompassing sound echoes deafeningly throughout my apartment.
The sensation of blood spurting across my face and chest instantly causes my stomach to recoil. Frank's body falls to the ground in a crashing tumble.
His lifeless body bleeds onto the hardwood floor of my kitchen.
Trent drops the gun to the floor and immediately collapses to his knees, draping himself over me. “Ellie, I got you baby. I got you baby. Hold on for me…”
That's the last thing I remember before my world goes completely black.
Chapter Thirty-One
“When life gives you dilemma, you should fight. Fight for every breath, every beat of your heart, and every chance to live another day.”
Ellen...Ellie... Open your eyes, baby. Please open your eyes.
Someone is grasping my hand tightly, lifting it up, and I can feel soft, warm lips touch it tenderly.
You're going to be okay, Ellie. I can promise you that.
Muffled voices are around me, and a faint beep beep beep is insistent in the background. I try like hell to open my eyes, but the pounding in my skull is refusing to stop. Constant aching and pounding and aching and pounding... Where am I? My body doesn't feel like my body. I feel as if I'm having an actual out-of-body experience. My mind searches for some sort of memory, something to pull me out of this nightmare.
Search...
Find something...
Come on, Ellen. Remember what happened...
Then a vision of Frank straddling my thighs fills my brain and I remember. I remember everything—every crushing blow I received underneath his cold hands, every fear that overwhelmed me, the fear of never walking away from him alive. Adrenaline starts to rush through my veins, my breathing is fast, and my heart is nearly pounding out of my chest. Beep beep beep beep... That insistent beeping in the background has gotten louder, quicker.
Ellie, calm down baby. Someone get her physician and nurse in here.
Warm hands touch my cheeks, softly caressing them, attempting to calm me down, but it's too late. I'm stuck in the nightmare that is Frank. The memories are flooding in like a hurricane and I'm scared. Terrified. Cold fluid is pushed into my vein and my brain is getting foggy... Frank is drifting away into a dark abyss. Far from me, far enough that he can't touch me, hurt me...rape me...kill me. That's what he was going to do. He was going to violate me in the worst possible way and then leave me for dead. I squeeze my eyes tighter, fearful that if I open them he will be there. Standing. Waiting. Watching. Ready to hurt me.
Beep…beep…beep.
The beeping is slowing, and I feel my body relaxing into nothingness. It's a safe place where my mind and body will be protected and I don't have to think about anything… especially him.
***
I flex my hand and relish in the ability to actually move parts of my body again. I don't feel like I'm disconnected from myself anymore. I just feel tired and pain—I definitely feel pain. My chest hurts and my head is still throbbing.
Throbbing incessantly.
I flutter my eyelids open and my vision in blurred. I strive to focus, attempting to figure out where in the hell I am. The blurriness is replaced by the gray stark walls of a hospital room—an ICU room actually.
I'm in the ICU? Oh my god.
I'm lying in a hospital bed, in the ICU. I make out a Regency Hospital logo on a frame hanging from the wall and turn my head slightly to the side to see Trent next to me. He is sitting in a chair, his head leaned back, his eyes closed. He looks tired, disheveled. Stress lines his face. I reach my hand towards his—its currently resting on the stiff white sheets of my hospital bed. God, just moving my hand alone feels like I'm using enough energy to move a Mack Truck.
How long have I been lying here?
How long have I been unconscious?
“Trent,” my voice croaks out in a whisper. My throat is sore and drier than cotton balls. I lightly touch his fingers with my hand. His eyes blink a few times and then there they are, gazing back at me, those beautiful blue eyes. They wrap me up and I feel safe for the first time since he stepped into my apartment.
“Ellie! Oh, baby...”
Trent kneels next to my bed, grasping my weak hand in both of his palms, his warm, comforting hands. He leans his forehead down, touching my fingers to his face.