Dream Catch Me (Student/Teacher)

Dream Catch me - Chapter Fifty Two

I had felt woozy as I blearily opened my eyes, but Joe had insisted it was the drugs nfrom where he sat at my side. I looked down as I woke up more and looked down towards our hands clasped together. "Jane," Joe spoke and looked up at me, his eyes burning into mine. He had a tear in his eye and I felt the urge to reach across my bruised and beaten body and wipe it away. "If I don't say it now, I never will." He spoke in almost a whisper. Joe took a deep breath and exhaled shakily. He looked deep into my eyes and his green eyes seemed to wrap around mine as if giving me a comforting embrace. "I love you." 

I was shocked and I felt my heart rate go up. The beeping from the machine attached to my finger was beeping wildly, but I blocked it out. The only important thing in that hospital room at that moment was Joe and I. I took my hand away from his, and watched the pained and devastated look in his eye. But before he thought I was leaving him, I took my free hand and pulled the back of his neck towards me. He stood up as I pulled him close and I kissed him with the passion and if not more, that I knew he had for me.

The beeping from my monitor was forgotten and I kissed Joe passionately. I eventually pulled back becoming breathless. "I love you too." I muttered as I had leant against his forehead. A cough from behind us hadn't deterred out actions until the doctor had come right around and looked me in the eye.

"I'm glad you're awake. He's been hanging around like a lost puppy." I reached down and grasped his hand tightly, catching his embarrassed gaze as he sat back down on the hospital chair next to the bed. The doctor fiddled around with some tubes before he left, insisting he gave us more time. "I'm never letting you go now." I told him truthfully. He had smiled down at me with such a passion of love that caused the beeping of the monitor to start again as he leaned towards me again.

I was so distracted by Joe, that the pain I would've felt if he weren't there was forgotten. It was only as he insisted to go get me some food to eat that he left me in the room alone, almost having to wench himself from my grip. "I'll be right back!" He insisted. I had sighed in disappointment, wanting to never let him go, afraid of what would happen if I did. 

When he left I let myself assess how badly hurt I was. I moved slowly from side to side, testing the pain. It was only as I looked down to my wrist did I noticed it was bandaged up in a thick white cast from the base of my elbow all the way down to my wrist. I was wearing a hospital gown, and I tentatively lifted it and saw my whole midriff covered in bandages. Small spots of red had shown through and I knew it was from the belting I had gotten. I felt my eyes fill with tears as I became overwhelmed at remembering what had happened. It was when I noticed the large scar from my chest travelling up my neck did I feel the tears spill over and run down my cheeks. 

I felt disgusting, knowing the dirt and grime there was in the basement and what had happened as I was passing out. My memory was hazy as I struggled to recall what had really happened; did Lewis do it? Did he succeed in using me for his own pleasure? I heard the heart monitor go up as my breathing started to become shallow and panicked. My mind began to reel in circles and flashes of my memory haunted me. I grabbed my head and pulled me hair, hoping that if I pulled it hard enough the images would leave my head.

It wasn't until I felt a warm hand on my back did I realise I had been screaming. "...Jane..." I could faintly hear someone's calming voice and I tried to focus on it as the images flashed over and over again through my mind like a musical montage for a horror movie. "Jane. It's okay." The person assured me and used their hand to spin calming circles on my back. I realised my breathing had slowed and the images were slowing down.

The images of the blood seeping out of my body, the mattress soaked in my blood and the past victim's blood, the sight of Lewis standing over me with his belt raised above his head with a crazed look on his face. They began to fade until I could hear the heart rate monitor slow down and I could release my hair from where it was tangled in my fingers. I refused to open my eyes until I was sure I wasn't back in the basement.

I found my hands to be shaking as the person continued to rub circles on my back. "It's okay Jane. I'm here. I'll never leave." I opened my eyes at the sound of the voice and a blurry Joe stared right back at me with his eyes filled with concern and adoring love. I wiped the tears from my cheeks but didn't stop shaking. Joe moved closer to me and got up on the hospital bed. He tried not to move the bed to cause me less pain, but little did he know that around him I couldn't feel pain.

He wrapped his arms around my frail body and held me together. He soothed me until the shaking had stopped. "It'll be okay," he assured and at that point after my meltdown, I'd hoped it would be. But I knew it would be if he were by my side

-

I was bombarded with visitors all at once, Alex, Ellie, Jaz, Fletch and Joe all crowded into the small room and stood awkwardly while looking down at my battered body. Even I couldn't look at it, so it must've been hard for them to see me like I was. I was gifted a selection of flowers and get well soon cards, but no one mentioned anything about what Mr Lewis and where he had gone.

I was getting furious with everyone as they stepped around the subject and joked around like nothing had happened. Like I wasn't scarred and possibly insane. I had had only three more panic anxiety attacks since my first one on my first day in the hospital. Each time Joe would be by my side and pull me close to him and tell me everything was okay.

After one particularly bad one, I became raging and demanded Joe to tell me what had happened to Lewis. He refused to tell me and insisted it was for my own good. I eventually got it out of him, and I knew straight afterwards that Joe was right; I didn't want to know. Lewis was being charged with kidnapping, attempted rape, and assault with intent to harm. But worst of all murder. It turned out that the blood on the mattress in his basement matched the DNA of some girl he had picked up. She was found at the bottom of a cliff at a suspected suicide, but the results of the mattress showed different. 

Finding this out only sent me into another anxiety attack, what if it had been me? What if I turned out like that girl, thrown off a cliff with everyone thinking I committed suicide? It didn't last long, as Joe was right by my side again and calmed me down. It had gotten to a point when he knew I was going to have an attack and I was grateful that he was stanidng by my side. 

The doctors were concerned about my mental health and ordered me to seek psychiatric help. I did, but found it was absolutely no use. I didn't want to remember what had happened, I just wanted to focus on getting out of the hospital. The counsellor had suggested a variety of solutions, medication, yoga and even a support group. Although the most appealing one was moving city, it would've been difficult. I still had to finish school and I didn't want to leave Joe nor Alex.

I was sent home with hoards of medication for my nerves and infections. But I didn't go home. Joe took me to his house where he waited on me hand and foot. Alex had said it was okay, he seemed to have dropped the thought of keep us apart and insisted we stayed together. I had been getting dressed when I overheard Alex talking to Joe, "I know you'll take care of her." My heart had swelled with love for my brother and made me reluctant to leave him for Joe's house.  

"Let's go home," Joe had said if it were the most natural thing in the world. I was wheeled out of the hospital from hospital policy where Joe then lead me to his car waiting directly out front. He started to drive in silence but I couldn't stand it, having it remind me of the basement. "I love you." I told him again, as I had too many times over the past few days. His grin was wide and as he looked over to me I had to remind him to watch the road. "I love you too Jane." He reached across the console of the car and caught my hand in his, giving it a squeeze. 

As he brought me in his front door, I knew it would be a long slog until I would recover. But having Joe by my side would ensure I got better. As long as he was next to me, helping me through it I didn't care how long it took, having Joe would be enough and I knew it always would be, forever.