Destroyed

Chapter 1

     When I think back to that day, the first thing I remember is her face. She was beautiful.

     I remember thinking how gorgeous she was when I saw her walking towards me. She had long strawberry-blond hair which would probably fall below her chest in waves had it not been for the high ponytail. Her eyes, set perfectly apart, were radiant. They were the color of melted silver and had an almost invisible touch of blue in them. She had a little bit of eyeliner on and her eyelashes were blackened by mascara. Her nose was a little crooked and painted with freckles that stretched across her cheeks as well. She had high cheekbones which made her look older than she probably was. Her upper lip was thinner than the full lower lip but they complimented each other. I remember she had a pointy chin. That's the only thing we had in common.

     She could have been a supermodel with that body of hers. I remember my envy when my dull green eyes registered her full chest, tiny waist and long slim legs. I wanted to be angry at her for being so gorgeous. But I couldn't bring myself to have even a single bad thought about that beautiful creature. She was perfect. In my head, I named her Aphrodite.

     Her name was not Aphrodite, though and she was far from being perfect. Her real name was Jessica Reed and my bubble of perfection popped when she got to me and I could take a really close look at her. Up close, I could see the fading color on the top of her head, revealing the true color of her hair - plain blond. The ponytail was messy and the eyes that seemed radiant before, were surrounded by wrinkles. There were dark purple bags under them, making her look like she hadn't slept for weeks. Her lips were dry and I noticed a dark spot on her bottom lip where she had bitten off the skin. Her facial expression could have been described as sad and worried.
She had a white mask tied around her neck and there was blood on her blue shirt. There was blood on the trousers that were the same color as her shirt. There was blood on her white sneakers, the contrast making it stand out too much.

     The beautiful creature wasn't that beautiful anymore. In fact, she was the ugliest person I had ever seen. And then she moved her lips and my ears could hear the words but my brain was still trying to process the fact that she's not my Aphrodite. She put her hand on my right shoulder and it felt like my skin caught fire but at least her words finally reached my brain.

"I'm really sorry," she said.

     I watched her back as she walked down the corridor. He shoulders were hunched over and they looked tense. I couldn't quite understand what happened. How could she just walk away? I didn't know what to do. The big doors slammed shut behind her and I was left alone, surrounded by white walls.

     I don't know how long I stood there but the first tears felt too hot on my cheeks when they started falling. I touched my face and it was like touching ice. I remember brushing my face with my hands to get rid of the tears but they just kept falling. It was a never-ending waterfall. I remember feeling angry because I couldn't stop them. I wasn't crying, I wasn't sobbing, my eyes were just producing too much water and so the water kept spilling. It was annoying and I rubbed my face with the hems of my sweatshirt so much it hurt.

     But the tears didn't stop. They didn't stop when a nurse came to lead me away. And they didn't stop when she tried to comfort me, rubbing my back and talking with a hushed calm voice. And they didn't stop when I pushed her away, when I screamed at her to go to hell. They didn't stop when the security guy tried to hold me because I was screaming at everyone and throwing everything that came under my hand at a wall. They only stopped when another doctor put a needle into my arm, inserting whatever drug he could find to calm me down.

     I remember the hatred I felt toward the doctor. My eyes fell shut and the last thing I heard before giving into the sleep was him apologizing.

     When I finally came through, I was in a hospital bed surrounded by the constant beeping of a heart monitor beside my bed. I had restraints on both hands and an IV in my left arm. My eyes felt heavy but I fought the urge to fall asleep again and kept them open. I'm not sure how much time passed before the nurse came in to check on me but it might as well been a few hours. She had dark skin and she smiled when she saw I was awake.

"How are you feeling, darling?" She asked with a sweet voice and that was enough to annoy me.

"What the hell did you give me? Let me go!" I tried to pull on the restraints but they didn't budge and she didn't either. I watched her come closer like she had all the time in the world. She picked up the chart that was at the end of the bed and looked at it.

"Just a little bit of sedatives and morphine for the pain," she pointed to my face while saying the word  'pain' and when she saw I didn't understand what that meant, she explained. "You were pretty harsh on your face, darling. You scratched it and rubbed it raw in some places. You might have a little scar on the right cheek, that scratch was the worst."

     I wanted to touch my face but my hand was, once again, stopped by the stupid restraints.

"When can I go home? I want to go home. Please!" There was no way in hell I was staying there longer than necessary and if being nice to her meant getting out sooner, then I was going to be nice. She looked at me as if she saw right through me and frowned.

"I'll just check your IV and then I'll call the doctor. You can talk to him," her hands worked quickly when she checked the fluid and the needle in my arm. It seemed like everything is well so she turned around and walk to the door. "I'll be right back, darling."

     I tried to count the seconds and minutes it took her to find the doctor but my head was still a little foggy. I lost count after reaching two minutes. When she got back, I was beginning to think that she forgot about me. The doctor she brought along couldn't have been older that thirty years. He had short dark hair and a dark stubble. It felt like his eyes were smiling just like his lips when he looked at me. I tried to smile back but it felt unnatural and I'm sure I made a terrible grimace trying to do that.

"Miss Anderson! Nice to see you again. I hope this meeting will go better than the one in the hallway. I'm Dr. Matthews." He didn't stop smiling, not even for a second.

"What is it with this hospital? Is everyone always so happy and cheerful?" My mouth babbled before I could stop it. But then I remembered Dr. Reed and her sad face and I got the answer to my question. No, not everyone is happy all the time. Before they could answer me and before my head got overrun by the memories, I shut down my feelings and looked at the two people in the room. "I want to go home. Please, let me go home."

"I don't see why we should hold you in here any longer. Let's just wait an hour or two so that you can rest a little bit more and they I'll discharge you, okay?" Maybe he isn't so bad. He was the one who stabbed me with the needle before but my opinion of him change a lot after hearing those words.

"An hour. Not two." I said with a slight demand in my voice.

     Dr. Matthews just smiled, nodded with his head and walked away. The nurse stepped closer to me again and started working on my arm. I tried to move away but couldn't.

"I'm just gonna fix you up, darling. No more drugs." With a smile on her face, she removed the IV and the heart-rate monitor from my finger.

     It took the damned doctor two hours to discharge me. He was smirking when I shot him the angriest look I could manage to pull off. But he did discharge me so I guess I don't really have the right to be mad. When I changed back into my clothes and got my personal things back, the thought of going home suddenly didn't seem that appealing.

     I walked out of the hospital, dodging the people in the atrium. When I got to my car, I fumbled with the keys and finally opened the door at the third try. I sat in the seat, put the keys into the ignition and started the engine. I drove a few miles and then took my phone out of my jeans. I looked at it for a brief moment, rolled down the car window and threw it out of the car. Out of my life. I let out a big heavy sigh and kept driving.