Eucatastrophe ~ h.s.

✗ three ✗

SHAY

The Present ~ 22 April

Shay you have to open your eyes. I don't care how much pain you are in right now; you just need to try.

My eyelids feel like rocks, unable to move up and down to see what's going on around me. It isn't that I don't want to open my eyes and look around; it's just that I can't. My entire body aches and there's this sickening feeling that comes from my stomach, to the point where I just want to turn over and vomit the contents out onto the streets. There's this taste on my tongue that I can't quite point my finger on, like old cigarettes and filth, and this numb, painful feeling coming from my lower half.

I force myself to stay completely still for a moment, listening to the things around me just in case I'm not alone. But I hear nothing but the wind and my own breathing coming out in ragged pants. I am completely alone.

I'm met with darkness when I open my eyes, with a bit of light coming from the end of the alleyway. Oh no. It takes everything in me to move my body when I begin hearing things around me clank and clatter, though the sounds are only coming from my head; I just know it. I sit up against the pain and look down.

My body has been dragged over to the edge of one of the brick buildings and behind a dumpster so that it can't be so easily seen. My expensive dress is torn in various places, blood covering some of the material that still hangs on my body. I gasp at the sight, tears welling in my eyes and blurring my vision.

No. No. Oh God no!

That had actually happened. That man dragging me into this alleyway was no nightmare or hallucination, it is completely and utterly reality. As I sit frozen against the cold wall the thought sinks in and more tears pile up. I burst into the salty tears when I see my legs and what is pooled at my feet.

Looking around I search for my bag, which contains my phone and everything else I need in a moment like this. I need to go home and that's the only way it's going to happen if I have my phone and Id. But it's not around me, in fact beside me in the alley is just garbage. The man has taken it from me like he has taken my innocence.

You need to get out of here and get home, my brain screams though I know I need help. I really want nothing more than to curl up in a ball and take a nice, long, hot shower to wash away what feels like the dirtiest skin I have ever worn than to face anyone or anything around me. But my home is too far away.

If you can't get home, go to a friend. Go to someone who can help you. You have to know someone around here. Or maybe just stumble into the city and get help.

As much as I want to stay away from anyone that can judge me and how I look right now, I know I have to in fear that the man will come back or worse I will die here alone.