Free as a bird

Chapter 13

I screamed and doubled back onto the ground beneath. I stared at him, I could see his legs, and no body...

As the crowd moved back, I realised that Zach only had a little bit of leg left, he yelled so loudly that my throat burned. He saw me and tried to move his  bloody hand towards me. I screamed. He sank back down and cried.

"Don't try to move much my love okay?" A lady whispered, stroking his forehead. She was  old and her hand shook but Zach stayed still and did as he was told.

He was in tears now, muttering to himself about how stupid he was, how foolish he was. I cried too but no-one seemed to look my way except his gaze. He turned away, ashamed, burying his head into his shirt and moaning.

Hours later, I found myself sitting on the chair in a  waiting room of a local hospice, I slumped back and pretended that my legs were dangling off a steep hill, but then I thought about Zach, his body and his wonderful smile, suddenly morphing into one of a disfigured monster, blood seeping through his cuts and then I stopped, took deep breaths and stopped pretending.

The holiday was over, the romance was gone, I was a women before Zach came and I better be afterwards. I couldn't believe that I had lost all sense of Independence, just because of him...

A few minutes later, a bulky women came from behind the door, her hair was full of clips and pins and one very chewed up pencil, she saw me and beckoned me into the room.

" Right dearie, 'ere he is." There, right in front of me, was a limp and rather pale Zach, his eyes were closed and his arms were full of scars.

All I could here was the faint sound of beeps and feet scurrying down the hall. The bulky women placed a hand on my shoulder and took a hard grip, I shuddered but let her keep it there.

 " Don't fret me love... Well..." Then she walked towards Zach and stroked his head slowly. His eyes suddenly opened and he shook off the blanket.

" LOOK AT ME!!" He screamed. " WILL SOMEONE FREAKIN' LOOK AT ME!!"

I jumped back and almost gagged. He had no legs... It was true... He screamed and screamed until he finally threw up and sanked back, with no might left.

I came up to him slowly n

 and kissed him gently on the forehead. He stared hard into my eyes. "Summer... I-I... I'm so fu-"

"Please, don't swear.." I whispered, holding my breath as the smell of blood seeped through my nose. " Y-You'll be... Alright, You've got to be alright!" Then I threw my hands onto the blanket and cried harder than I ever had before.

 I wanted to make him truly believe it would all work out but, in my heart I could feel doubt sinking through. A doctor peered from the side f the door.

"Everything alright? Ahh, Zach! You're awake, and how are you feeling?"

Zach's head twitched slightly and he had a fit, pushing cups onto the floor and screaming again. I put my hands to my ears and closed my eyes until all there was, was darkness.

" Zach! Calm down! Zach!-" The do0ctor paused and left the room. A few minutes later, he came back with a syringe. I moved back. Zach stopped screaming again and backed away, with no prevail.

"No way in hell is that going into my arm! No!" He yelled putting his hands in front of him and shaking his head.

The doctor paid no attention, and raised his hand with syringe towards Zach's left arm, almost immediately, Zach came with his right arm to protect his left one and that's when the doctor smirked.

In less than a minute, the syringe was plunged into the skin of the right arm, which couldn't have been protected. I had never been so amazed by how cunning doctor's could be.

Zach let out a yelp and then put  the blankets over himself, it wasn't too long before all his screams died down, and the faint footsteps of hurrying doctors and people, took to the stage again.

Drowned in sorrows, I staggered home that night, the moon was covered in a mist of clouds and lamposts flickered as I walked.  I wanted Zach to be next to me so badly, I wanted us to be back in that car, on our way back to our homes, him to pay the taxi driver and say something funny. His arm slung around me as we go back to my home like crazy teenagers. Him to kiss me on the cheek as I'm at the door and us to say our final goodbyes before we go to sleep, and dream about what will happen next...

And then one day... Maybe, He would get on one knee and...

That's when I was zapped back into reality, My head hurt and I wasn't in the streets anymore, in fact, I was in a place all too familiar, not my home, not my mum's not Zach's...

But Dominic's....