Fragile

21. Late night walk

Second opinion was to ask someone to help me to the hotel, pretend to sprain my ankle there and I'd get in no trouble. But the thing was, I did not speak German.

My third opinion was to slowly walk back and hope that my leg got magically better.

"Kannst du laufen?" The woman asks me, interrupting my hard time thinking.

"I don't speak German." I say to her, shaking my head in annoyance. I was in a deep shit.

"No German?" She asks sounding confused.

"I need to get to my hotel." I say trying to articulate every word so she'd understand.

The woman does not understand, instead she takes her hand out of her mitten and presses my ankle with her fist, making me yell in pain.

"What the fuck?!" I cry out.

"Not broke. Nicht kaputt." She smiles at me.

"The bone is not broken?" I ask, not exactly sure what she said.

"Ja." The woman says and shows me a thumbs up. "Spran." She then says.

"Just a sprain?" I ask and she nods. "How do you know?"

"Doctor." The woman tells me and points to herself, that explained a lot, except for the language barrier. How was a doctor that bad at languages?

"Great." I mutter ironically. How the fuck was I supposed to get back to my hotel now? I hadn't really come far, only about a mile but it was enough for me to lose my sanity.

"Möchten Sie, dass ich Hilfe für Sie besorge?" The woman asks me and I look her wide-eyed.

"No." I just say, in case she was about to kidnap me or something.

"Bist du sicher?" She continues and I get more angry.

"No!" I yelp out, was she a creep?

"Okay." The woman says sounding a bit confused for my response. She then gets up from the ground and starts to walk away, leaving me on my own.

"Fuck!" I yell out in frustration. The clock on my phone pointed at 10:45 p.m. which was not great, and who knows what kind of creeps were here?

A true fear was enough for me to rise up, holding a tree for my support. And to my surprise, my ankle didn't feel too bad anymore. It hurt like crazy, making me want to lie back down and cry, but not that bad that I wouldn't be able to walk.

I cry out in pain more than once, and tears swell up in my eyes but I refuse to call anyone. No one had to know, and no one will.

Finally limping back to the main street is an accomplishment. It had taken me a good thirty minutes to get a five minute jog, but now wasn't a good time to be complaining. At least I could walk, groggily but still.

"Dear, are you alright?" I flinch as someone rushes towards me.

"Yeah." I mutter to an unknown woman who had a Chanel bag with expensive looking clothes. Based on her face, she looked about thirty years old.

"Why are you here all alone?" She asks and scans me up and down, worry in her eyes. "Are you hurt?" Her strong accent makes her voice somehow sound softer, probably English mixed with German.

To think of it, I probably looked terrible. Messy and dusty hair, dirt and sweat covered face with tear stains and smushed makeup weren't the finest looking. Also my limping, and mud covered clothes were probably giving off drug dealer vibe.

"I'm just getting back to my hotel." I sigh out from exhaustion and embarrassment.

"I can call help if you let me." The lady whispers but I just shake my head, not wanting this whole situation to get worse.