Page 98 of Dark Endures

“There’s glass all over her backside and lower back.” She picks one up off the gurney. “It looks like a beer bottle.”

“I dropped the bottle. I’m sorry.”

The woman gets in front of me. “And did you punch yourself in the face?”

“No. He was drunk, and I thought I could handle it.”

“Do you want me to contact the police? They will want to collect evidence for a restraining order.”

“NO!” I can’t lose my job.

“It’s your choice, but think about it.” She turns back to the man. “We’re going to need to put her on her stomach. And someone call me in reinforcements. I’m going to need help getting all this glass out of her.”

“On it.” Someone says in the background.

“Can you set her on her side? Then we’ll shift her onto her stomach.”

The pain wins, and everything goes black.

***

The light wakes me up.

Why am I lying on my stomach?

The pain… It isn’t gone, but it’s bearable.

“There you are, back with us. How’s your pain?” the same woman from before asks.

“Better. How is that possible?” Everything hurt so bad before.

“We got an IV in with some pain meds.”

Drugs rock.

“We didn’t notice any medical alert cards or bracelets. Are you allergic to anything? Have any medical conditions?”

Does an allergy to family count? “No. I’m generally very healthy.”

“That should make the recovery a little easier. But you’re not going to be moving around much for a week or more. The good news is your ribs aren’t broken.”

He hit me that hard?

“But they’re very bruised. You’re going to need to take it easy for three to six weeks.” She moves away from my face. “We should be done in a few minutes. I’m Delia, and the doctor on the other side is Barb.”

A few minutes? The sun is up! “What time is it?”

“Almost seven,” Delia answers. “Why?”

“I need to call in sick to work.”

“Well, at least you weren’t going to try to convince us you can go to work,” Barb says.

Other than the fact that I feel loopy as all get out and can’t seem to feel much down my back. Speech is important for my job. And though I’m happy I can talk, I don’t really sound like a human being. “Even I’m not that stupid.”

Barb steps over so that I can see her. “It’s not stupid to trust the wrong person. Though it is not to file a police report. Just saying.” She slides back.

They’re pulling glass out of my body. But if I pretend hard enough, it could be a new massage that Greer keeps insisting on trying. The massages she picks always end up hurting.

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