Mr. Quinn jumps forward and reaches for Rylan. She squirms and tries to evade his grasp but Mr. Quinn fists the fabric above her shoulders and throws Rylan against the wall of the stall. Rylan cries out as the sharp edge of the miniature trash cubby digs into the small of her back painfully. She struggles to get her footing as Mr. Quinn's hand closes around her windpipe and lifts her so that her toes can't reach the floor.
"You couldn't just let it go! You couldn't just keep your mouth shut, could you?! Well, who's listening now?" He taunts.
Rylan chokes and gasps for air. She throws her arms out in front of her and pushes against Mr. Quinn's chest. At least she can tell herself that she didn't let him kill her; she fought back.
"You broke my fucking nose!" Mr. Quinn yells.
He hits Rylan's arms away, then lifts his arm and backhands her across the face. The action forces him to drop Rylan and loosen his grip around her neck.
"How does it feel?!" He shouts, then continues hitting her.
Rylan attempts to block the blows that jab every inch of her face and torso. She screams. A rush of adrenaline allows her to jolt forward and slam Mr. Quinn against the other wall of the stall. Then she trips out the door, clutching her side where a particularly painful blow had hit. Mr. Quinn recovers quickly and exits the stall close on her heels. He grabs her hair and sends her sprawling down to the floor with a strong shove.
The tile rushes up to meet Rylan faster than she can prepare herself. She tastes blood when her face plants against the floor and her teeth bite into her cheek. Rylan uses her hands to sloppily push herself up even though it makes her head spin. She turns to look at Mr. Quinn just as he takes a step toward her.
"Wait, please! Don't do this! I won't tell anyone else, I swear! We can both walk away right now." Rylan pleads.
"I think we're past the point of no return, don't you?" Mr. Quinn remarks. "There will be too many questions and I don't trust you. If I get rid of you, the problem goes away. It's kind of nice how that works, isn't it?"
"They'll know it was you." Rylan whispers, terrified that this statement will mean nothing to him. It's the only threat she has left.
"How? Is your friend outside going to tell someone? Please." He scoffs. "No one even knows I'm here. If your friend really cares, why hasn't he come looking for you?"
"If I disappear, they'll still investigate you. My friends know everything. You hurt Dani too. It doesn't matter if you silence me. Others will speak up."
Mr. Quinn laughs. The sounds startles Rylan.
"You still think you know me. What do they have? Words? The police deal in evidence. Even if they investigate me, they won't find anything." He outstretches his arms. "I'm a standup guy."
"You're a psychopath."
Rylan scrambles backward on her hands and butt. Mr. Quinn grabs her ankle and drags her back toward him. Rylan flips over onto her stomach and kicks at Mr. Quinn while slapping her hands onto the tile in an effort to crawl away. Mr. Quinn doesn't give up so easily and forces her legs down into an immobile position and grabs her hair roughly.
Rylan screams and hopes someone, anyone will hear. Her head slams down onto the tile once and then again. The action feels like her skull is splitting in half. Rylan goes silent as her head cracks against the ground a third time. Her vision swims blurrily in front of her eyes and her eyelids flutter crazily as she tries to keep them open.
Mr. Quinn lets go of Rylan and stands. Although Rylan's ears are mainly hearing white noise, she can still hear her teacher speaking.
"I can't have you telling on me, Rylan." Mr. Quinn steps over to the row of sinks, blocks the drain, and turns the cold water on its highest setting.
"The stress of moving was too much for you. Your new friends weren't enough. So you decided to take your own life." He shuts the faucet off once the sink is full. "Drowning isn't the most ideal form of suicide, but we don't have much to work with at a school.
Rylan whimpers as she inches her body toward the door.
Mr. Quinn saunters over to Rylan and yanks her up by her elbow. He fists her hair and plunges Rylan face first into the sink. A wide cut splits Rylan's forehead as it makes contact with the faucet. Blood muddies the water and stings Rylan's eyes which are wide with panic.
She can't breathe. Rylan struggles against the hand holding her under the water. In her panic, she chokes and water fills up her lungs. Rylan pushes up on the edges of the sink. Water sloshes over her hands and onto the floor. She is going to die; Mr. Quinn is drowning her. Rylan thrashes. She feels herself slipping into unconsciousness. If she does, she will die.
I can't die this way! Don't give in! Rylan begs herself.
Her arms flop limply at her sides and darkness tugs at her vision. Rylan tries to hold on. Mr. Quinn slowly loosens his hold and lets go of her. Her head floats up and Rylan takes the chance to thrust herself up with what little strength she has left. The sudden action surprises her teacher and actually sends her head back into his broken nose.
Mr. Quinn screams in pain.
"Fuck!" He cries and grabs his nose.
Rylan coughs and tries to clear her lungs. Blood drips thickly down the middle of her face. She slips on the water covering the bathroom floor, but manages to get back up. She barely makes it out the bathroom door before Mr. Quinn is on her again. He shoves her into the wall. Rylan can't slow her momentum and a few of her ribs snap as her body makes contact with the plaster.
She screams and collapses. Air rushes from her lungs and the consequent contracting of her chest sends waves of pain throughout her body.
The light from the bathroom shines on her figure for a few seconds, then the door closes and traps her in darkness. The sudden loss of light leaves Rylan momentarily blind. She attempts to crawl away despite her immobilizing agony and the close proximity of Mr. Quinn. He kicks her in the stomach. Rylan groans and watches as blood drips from her head wound onto the gray floor, staining it dark red.
"Help." She can only get the word out as a whisper into the darkness.
"I'm going to take pleasure in killing you." He says, grunting as he lifts his leg and squashes it down on Rylan's ankle.
Rylan screams even before she hears and feels the sickening snap; her screams turn louder when she finally does. She no longer cares how much it hurts her chest to scream. It's the only thing she can still do. He kicks her again and punches the side of her face.
"I have to change my story now. Maybe you ran away..." He punches her again. "Or some pedophile kidnapped you just outside the school."
Rylan chokes on her blood and coughs. Mr. Quinn turns her onto her back and grabs the front of her shirt in his fist. He yanks her face close to his. Rylan doesn't have the energy to look away.
"Who knows. No one will really care. In a few months, you'll be nothing but a faded memory. The girl who went missing. Except you'll actually be dead."
Tears flow uncontrollably down her face.
"I hope you learned something today, Rylan." Mr. Quinn says. "Because it will be the last thing you ever learn."
Rylan prepares herself for death.
Knocking and a door opening and closing echoes through the hall. Mr. Quinn looks up and searches the dark hall.
"Rylan! Rylan, where are you?!" Voices call.
The lights turn on. Rylan squeezes her eyes shut and tries to block out the painful brightness. Mr. Quinn sneers and narrows his eyes at Rylan. Reluctantly he drops her and disappears. Rylan can't bring herself to care where he has gone or what he may be doing. She's still alive. She slips in and out of consciousness and lies there dazed and staring at the ceiling.
"Rylan!? Rylan?!"
"Oh my god! She's over here!"
"You found her?"
The flurry of noise makes Rylan's head throb. Her eyes roll back into her head following a spasm of pain through her head.
"Call an ambulance! Now!"
"Rylan, Rylan wake up!"
Rylan's eyelids refuse to open. She convinces herself that the voices are familiar and safe. Safe. It seems like such a foreign word, yet it lets Rylan drift off despite the protests of the voices around her.
"Rylan, what are you doing here?" Dani demands.
Rylan finds the question strange since she can't remember where 'here' is. She surveys the area around her. She's sitting on one of the swings in the park where she had escaped while skipping class and avoiding Blake.
"I—I don't know. How did I get here?" Rylan asks, looking at Dani again.
Dani smiles silently into the distance, but Rylan notices that it doesn't reach her eyes.
"Do you want to die, Rylan?" She asks.
Rylan thinks about it a moment. "Why would you ask me that?"
"Because you're going to die."
"I don't understand. I feel fine."
"No, Rylan, you need to go back." Dani says.
Rylan knotts her brow in confusion. "Go back? Back where?"
"Wake up. You need to wake up, Rylan." Dani explains.
"But I am awake."
"Wake up. Wake up now." Dani demands.
"Dani you're scaring me."
Dani turns away almost angrily and when she turns back, her face has morphed into Rylan's. Blood seeps from the wound on her forehead and bruises cover the rest of her face.
"Wake up!" She screams at Rylan.
Rylan screams, but the pain that reverberates through her chest turns the scream into a terrible cough. Blood comes up and out her esophagus into her hand. Rylan freaks out when she sees it.
"Calm down sweetheart. You're going to be fine."
Rylan's eyes snap up to the EMT who spoke. He has light brown, curly hair.
It is then that she realizes she is on a gurney being loaded into an ambulance. The technicians words hadn't done much to calm her and Rylan's breathing continues to sharpen and wheeze.
"I--I can't... I--can't... breathe..." She gasps.
"She's having an attack! Get her some air now!" The technician orders.
The other EMTs finish loading her into the ambulance and place a mask over her mouth.
"Take deep breaths." The tech encourages.
When the fresh air enters Rylan's lungs, she does as the tech suggests. She panics again as the other techs strap her to the gurney, but the one who with curly hair clasps his fingers through hers and tells her to look at him and just keep breathing deeply.
"It's alright."
Rylan ignores everything else and stare into the tech's bright blue eyes. She finds herself lost in them and trusting him as he continues to tell her that everything will be okay. Rylan barely registers the other techs that connect her to an IV and tend to what they can of her wounds.
"Don't go to sleep. You might have a concussion." The tech explains, squeezing Rylan's hand comfortingly.
.......................................................................
When they reach the hospital, a doctor takes x-rays of Rylan then begins tending to all the damage. Mr. Winchester arrives a half hour later and out of his mind with worry.
He meets Cas and his dad in the waiting room.
"Where is she—is she okay? What happened?" The words tumble out.
"The doctors are taking care of her." Mr. Amsden replies.
"Well, have they said anything?"
Mr. Amsden starts to shake his head when a doctor in green scrubs appears.
"Excuse me, sir. Are you Miss Winchester's father?" He inquires.
Mr. Winchester nods his head and replies anxiously, "Yes. I am."
The doctor beckons him aside. "Your daughter is fine; she's in stable condition."
"Oh, thank God." Mr. Winchester rubs his hand across his face in relief.
"She has a few split ribs, a minor skull fracture and a deep gash on her forehead, and a broken ankle. Other than that, there are just a few scrapes and bruises, but nothing that won't heal. We're going to monitor her overnight to make sure she doesn't have a concussion, but everything else appears to be a clean break."
Mr. Winchester does his best to keep himself together, but the doctor's confidence does not make him worry any less.
"When can I see her?"
"You're free to go in now if you'd like." The doctor offers.
"Thank you." Mr. Winchester says and follows the doctor to Rylan's room.
"She's on a lot of pain medication at the moment, so she'll seem a bit out of it, but feel free to talk to her."
It is almost too much, seeing his daughter lying there on the hospital bed. Her left ankle lies propped up in a harness and covered in a cast that reaches down to encase her foot; there is a brace tightened around her chest to hold the ribs in place so they can heal. But the worst part is what's visible on the outside. The gash on her forehead reaches from the right side just below her hairline to just above the eyebrow on the left side of her face. There are also a smattering of bruises along her skin, forming around his daughter's neck, on her arms and face, and along her jaw and chin.
The last time they'd both been in a hospital was when Rylan had her Chicken Pox vaccine. Mr. Winchester never imagined being in a hospital under these circumstances. He approaches the bedside slowly as his eyes tear up at the sight before him. He can't imagine why anyone would do such a thing to a child... to his child.
Mr. Winchester drags a chair over and sits next to the bed. He pulls Rylan's hand into his and clutches it tightly. It takes a moment, but her eyes flutter open.
"Hey baby." He whispers and kisses Rylan's hand.
Rylan smiles tiredly underneath the breathing mask. "Hi daddy."
"How you feeling?" He asks.
"Better now. The doctors gave me something for the pain, but they won't let me sleep. They say I might have a concussion." Rylan replies. She has to pause a few times because of the pressure on her ribs.
Mr. Winchester smiles lightly as he catches the smallest hint of annoyance in Rylan's tone.
"They just want to make sure you don't slip into a coma."
Rylan blinks slowly, tired. He chokes and his eyes tear up.
"Don't cry dad. I'm alright." She lies.
She just wants to make him feel better. Rylan knows people will start asking questions soon enough and she'll have to answer them. But, for now, all she wants is to rest.
A few tears slip down Mr. Winchester's face. "I know. You just scared me."
"I'm sorry." Rylan breathes quietly. Her eyes close a second, but she forces them open again.
"No. No. No. Don't be sorry. It's not anything you did." He wipes away his tears.
"No." She shakes her head groggily. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."
Mr. Winchester doesn't know how to respond. He doesn't know what she's talking about or even if she knows.
He simply says, "You just work towards getting better, okay?"
Rylan nods. "Okay."
"Get some rest before those doctors come back in here and wake you up." He urges.
Half of her mouth pulls into a smile before relaxing again as she drifts off.