all time low
When Bea started to regain conscious, she didn't know what had happened. She felt the wet leaves under her, but she could not see. She tried to blink but even that was hard.
She tried to place herself to remember what had happened right before she was left unconscious. But for the first few minutes there was only darkness and her own breathing.
Then her vision slowly started to come back, as well as her memories. The Billy Boys. Jimmy. Bonnie bleeding.
Bea tries to speak, but all it comes out is a grunt of pain. Sharp pain at the side of her head.
She couldn't see far, from issues with her own vision and also because it was completely dark now.
The Billy Boys were gone, that was certain, as the silence was total.
Bea moves slightly and realizes that the wet leaves where not wet because of rain or humidity but because she had a two big cuts bleeding at the side of her head. Slowly raising her hand, she softly touches where it hurts the most, when the gun connects with her head the second time and she feels her broken skin. Immediately, not having stomach to even imagine the state of her head she drops her hand.
Two deep breaths in and out and she forces herself up, with the help of her arms. She comes to her knees and hands and closes her eyes for a minute again, feeling sick.
Finally looking up she can see that Aberama is also gone. There, only she remains. She and Bonnie. Crucified. Dead.
"Bonnie?" she asks, as if he would answer her and tell everything that went on when she was unconscious.
But Bonnie didn't answer or move at all.
"Dad?" Bea shouts out as loud as she can.
Usually, she called him out by 'Aberama', but how could she now, with what she was seeing. It was as if she was a defenseless kid who needed her father for protecting.
"Bonnie..." she whispers as she looks down again.
Her eyes were feeling with tears, even if she continued to try and convince herself that what she was seeing wasn't real.
"Bonnie, help me," she says with her head down. "Bonnie?" she calls out uncertain as she raises her head again.
She pushes herself back and stays only on her knees. Closing her eyes, she takes a deep breath and then tears start flowing down her cheeks.
"Bonnie!" she shouts. "Bonnie, oh..." she says as she sobs. "Oh, Bonnie..."
Her whole body was shaking with sobs as she leans forward, crying harder than ever. She puts her hands down again and grabs a fist full of leaves, trying to hold on to anything she could, before letting out a painful scream.
Still crying she crawled to the cross, unable to walk due to her head and due to the heartbreak.
"Oh, Bonnie..." she says as she puts a hand on the cross and lets her head down.
Be whimpers as she finally stands up. She grabs Bonnie legs, as if touching him will make him come back to life. It doesn't.
With tear filled eyes, Bea tries to gather all the strength she can, mixed with rage, to bring the cross down. She tries to hold it with her shoulders and back so that it doesn't just fall quickly with Bonnie on it.
The cross was finally on the ground, and she moves to get Bonnie's wrists free. After they're free she stops and looks at his bloody face. How many times had he been hit, she could only imagine. The pain that must have caused him certainly could not be compared to anything he'd suffered while on a boxing ring. His face was broken, bloody, but also peaceful.
No, not peaceful. Lifeless.
It was all too much for Bea. She quickly crawled away from Bonnie to empty her stomach. On her knees, she put a hand on the ground and another on a tree as her body convulsed as she threw up.
When she's still sick but had nothing more on her stomach, she gets up, using the tree as support and leaned against it for a while before slowly walking back to the cross.
She lowers herself and grabs Bonnie by under his armpits, to pull him away so that he isn't in the cross. Weak with everything that happened, Bea drags Bonnie not too far before she falls on her back, Bonnie falling on top of her.
Bea can't help but weep again, as Bonnie's blood dripped to her collarbone and chest. Getting from under him, she makes sure to carefully place his head on the ground and she lays next to him, looking up at the sky.
Aberama had left them. But she wouldn't leave Bonnie.
Tears were silently falling from her eyes before she let out a wail that left her out of breath and with her head pounding even more than it already was.
For what looked like an eternity, she laid there, until her tears dried, and she had no more.
"My brother..." she whispers, "I'm sure you can hear me. Did we not promise to go together? Why am I still here?"
The only noise there was, was the wind.
"Why?" she pauses. "Maybe I'm meant to avenge you. And then I'll greet you again, in Paradise. Is that it, Bonnie? My brother... I am breaking our promise to die together... I will make sure to make up for it. I won't let anyone that witnessed your death have a good life. I will haunt them before I kill them. I promise you that, even though I am weak. I will become stronger, for you."
Then, Bea silently began to pray.
It was a while after when, still laying looking at the stars, Bea started seeing a bright light.
"Bonnie!" she says with a smile. "Perhaps God has changed his mind. He's coming to get me," she says as the light gets even brighter. "I will meet you soon in Heaven. We will go to the next world together after all."
The light got brighter but then nothing happened and then Bea started hearing a noise that had been there for a while now. A car engine. The lights didn't go off as a door of the car opened.
She didn't mover or look at whoever showed up, but the smile of hope, that she wouldn't have to live in pain, vanished.
There were slow steps towards her, unsure steps, as if someone didn't want to get closer to her and Bonnie. A shadow formed by the person who had gotten there and the headlights' beams fell upon her.
Bea moves her eyes to the person no lingering near her.
"Bea!"
The person lets out a sigh of relief. Isaiah kneels next to Bea and his hands were hovering over her blood-filled face. He was unsure on whether he could touch her of if she was too injured under all the blood.
She smiles at Isaiah and closes her eyes.
"Let me help you sit up," Isaiah says. "We need to get you to the hospital."
Isaiah carefully sits her up and Bea opens her eyes again. She looks at Bonnie.
"Wait," she says as Isaiah tries to get her up. "Help Bonnie."
"Bea..." Isaiah says after looking for a few seconds at Bonnie. "Bonnie is dead."
Looking up she stared at Isaiah with angry eyes.
"So be fucking careful and take him to the car," she commands harshly.
"Of course," he says quickly, moving to nearer Bonnie and getting him up.
Putting one arm around Bonnie's waist, and grabbing one of his arms around the shoulders, Isaiah took Bonnie to the car.
"How did you find us?" Bea asks standing up slowly.
"Johnny Dogs. Aberama beat him up and took him to Tommy's house. Johnny Dogs explained the way to me. It took me a few rounds to get here."
"Johnny Dogs..." Bea whispers as Isaiah finally gets to her and helps her walk to the car. "He was the only one who knew... He told the Billy Boys..."
"He didn't. He promised Tommy that he didn't," Isaiah assures. "Let me look at you... You lost a lot of blood."
Isaiah moves to the back of the car, where Bonnie lays lifeless and gets a piece of fabric.
"We need to get you to the hospital," he affirms as he carefully cleans some of the blood that is covering half of her face.
"I got hit on the side of the head. Twice."
"I can see that. You have a big gash... I think the bleeding has stopped but better not touch it until we get to the hospital. Can you see me well?"
"Fine," she replies woeful.
"Your eye has blood, around the iris... Let's get a doctor to look at you."
"Where is Aberama?"
"He went to get his arm treated."
"He didn't even try to see if I was alright."
"He thought you were dead, Bea. He told us they had smashed your head with a shotgun and shot Bonnie in a cross."
"So, he left us? Me on the cold ground and Bonnie crucified," Bea says hoarsely. "For the crows to feats on Bonnie and the bugs on me...
"Bea... He was distraught. He just wanted to get revenge."
Even though just an hour before she felt like she had no more tears to cry, now they poured again as she sat with her legs out of the car. Isaiah quickly wrapped her in his arms as she rested her chin on his shoulder.
"You're going to be all right, Bea."
"But Bonnie isn't."
"I know. I know," he says pained by her sorrow as he rubbed her back.
Isaiah, knowing that she should be looked at, broke their hug and made sure she got in fully in the car. He also made sure he could close the back door without damaging Bonnie's body any further as he laid.
When they got to the hospital, Bea was separated from Bonnie, as he was going to the morgue. She looked back as they put Bonnie on a stretcher. Bea wanted to fight and go with Bonnie, but she was too weak, and the nurses were getting her to a room to be treated.
The doctor made her questions that Bea didn't even listen to. Bea stayed sitting very still as he and a nurse attended to her head. Thankfully her skull wasn't fractured,so all they needed to attend to were the cuts. She refused to lay down or change her clothes, so they just let her stay sitting and with the same bloodied clothes she came in with.
One of the cuts, the smaller one, the one that resulted from the first impact that had left her stunned, didn't need stitches. But the second one, the one that knocked her out, did need a few stitches. Without Bea even noticing, or maybe just not caring at all, the doctor cut a line of her hair over the gash so that he could stitch it up properly.
Not flinching one, Bea was stitched up and then a big bandage was put over both cuts.
The kind nurse, who saw very well that she was in shock and filled with sadness, put some of Bea's hair covering a bit of the bandage, that was very much clearly still in her head.
"You'll have hair to cover it when the stitches are gone," the nurse comments, trying to reassure Bea.
Bea looks at her with teary eyes and a blank expression, before looking at the doctor who wanted to check her eyes.
She did what the doctor asked of her to do without saying a word.
The doctor left first, and the nurse stayed.
"You have clean clothes here," the nurse said handing her what looked like a pyjama and a robe. "You should rest for a bit."
Bea didn't speak at all and the nurse left her alone in the room.
Laying down on her bed, Bea started at the white ceiling but didn't cry, didn't move, and didn't sleep.