THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW
Blood trickles down the side of the patient girl's (known as Red) head, dripping onto the white tile floor. She cries out distressfully, from the pain in her head, and the pain in her throat. The pain in her throat being the reason she refrains from speaking almost altogether.
A handful of her malnourished hair is gripped in a firm palm, causing her to be forced up in the air. The grown man sends her slamming into the wall one last time. She releases a pitiful sob, wishing more than anything for this to be over with.
"If you dare speak a single word of this or anything else, I can guarantee your life will be over. Do you understand me?" The voice growls evilly in her ear.
The blood gushing from the side of her head is pooling in her ear, making it slightly harder to hear, but Red nods her head nonetheless.
The next thing that is heard is the shower running and before she knows it, she is being shoved into it with her clothes still on, the hot water pelting all over her weak body. Her hair is being weighed down now from the water absorption stinging the fresh wound on her head.
"If anyone finds out about anything, you will die. And I will make it look like an accident."
DR. ALEX STORM
I shook out some pain pills into the palm of my hand and retrieved a small bottle of apple juice. I headed over to the bed where Red was laying and bent down next to her.
"How are you feeling?" I ask softly.
Her depressed eyes flicker up to mine and the tears squeeze out once more. She has been crying all day since the incident yesterday when she fell and hit her head.
"Oh, sweetie."
I reach over and pull her into my warm embrace. I didn't know whether my hugs made her feel better or not, but I did it anyways.
"Take these, you won't hurt anymore," I state, revealing my hand with the pills in it.
This causes her to let out a sob and I can literally feel the spread of pain into my chest and my stomach. When Red starts to hyperventilate, I am set into panic mode. I quickly sit her up in the bed and rush to get a cool, damp rag to place over her forehead.
"Shhh. Shhh, I know. You're okay."
This is the most I've seen Red cry before and the sobs she lets out are scratchy and painful. She is beyond upset and at this point I didn't know what to do to make her feel better anymore. I glance at the IV needle still in her arm, the one she's been trying to remove behind my back all day. I knew how much she wanted it out.
"Hey, sweetheart, how about I take this out for you now, okay? It's almost done anyways, look."
I stretch out her lower arm and as quick as a flash, I rip the medical tape off. She cries out and I hush her, trying to reassure her that that was the worst part and it's almost done. I take the needle and pull it out gently before placing a cotton swab over the puncture hole along with more medical tape.
"See? All done. Feel a little better?"
Her face crinkles and she lets out another sob, still not showing any signs of calming down. So I do what I never thought I'd ever do.
I push Red over towards the other side of the bed to make room for myself so I can scooch in next to her. The tears continue streaming down her cheeks but I keep shushing her, telling her everything is alright. I wrap my arms around her and pull her into my chest. At the same time I gently run my hand over her head comfortingly, over and over.
This seems to do the trick because her sobs become lesser and quieter. I close my eyes and continue stroking her head as I listen to the sound of her heartbeat and breathing return to normal.
When I reopen my eyes, I see that hers are now shut, and her breathing becomes heavier and heavier until I can see her falling asleep. I let out a sigh and lean my head back against the pillow next to hers. I stare at her stilled face, she looked so innocent yet so sad. I didn't want her to be sad anymore. But before I knew it, I sunk into a slumber myself.
I awaken in a startle. I find that Red is not in my arms anymore and I realized I just fell asleep on the job. My God, if anyone were to have seen this, I would be fired faster than I could blink my eyes.
I look around in alarm, searching for the petite girl and I don't like what I see next. She's sitting in a ball in the corner of the room, her body trembling fiercely. Her back is facing me so I can't tell what she is up to.
"Red...?" I call.
She doesn't react to my voice so I get up slowly and quietly and walk over to her. I try to use slow, non-threatening movements.
"Are you okay?"
Then as quick as lightning, she turns to me and I let out a frightened gasp at what I see.
"Make it stop," she croaks.
There are scratch marks carved into the wall from her fingernails, and her fingertips are leaking blood. What is even more concerning are the scratch marks she dug into her own cheeks. I bolt over to her and grab her into my arms.
"What did you do?!"
The cry that comes from her sounds inhuman when I pick her up. I rush over to the bed and when I turn my back to grab alcohol and gauze wipes, she jumps off the bed erratically.
"Red, stop it!"
I wrap my arms around hers and force her back over to the bed. I don't want to, but this time I have to secure the cuffs onto her arms and ankles so that she doesn't run off and hurt herself any further.
After gathering the supplies I needed, I started wiping her face with the gauze.
"Please," she squeaks out, "please."
"Please what, Red? What do you need? Tell me!"
The scratches on her face are minor and shouldn't take too long to heal. They don't even need bandages but the sight of the scratch marks on her face are enough to frighten anybody. However, the scratches carved into the wall in the corner will need new plaster and paint for sure.
My heart cracks in half at the pitiful sight of my patient. She made it so hard for me to know what was wrong. I hated witnessing her squirming around but there was nothing else I could do.
When I finished cleaning her face, I demanded, "tell me what's wrong, please. Talk to me, Red."
She chokes out the word, "I," but doesn't finish.
"You what? Baby, what's wrong?"
Her voice is scratchy and I assume it's from all the crying and screaming. I would have been overjoyed for the amount of words she's giving me if it weren't for this certain situation.
"Can't," she croaks out.
I swallow desperately, "can't what? I need you to tell me, baby girl so I can help you."
She shakes her head, her eyes squeezed shut but tears still manage to leak out.
"He hurt," she hiccups, "me."
Ironically, at that exact moment, maybe from the loud noises coming from this room, Dr. Wells storms through the door. At the sight of him, Red goes insane.
She's screaming and thrashing and I literally have to hold her down. I reach for a syringe out of my pocket and stick it into her arm, she screams again, making my stomach grind with guilt. I had to so she wouldn't give herself a fucking heart attack. She's instantly relaxed from the sedative as her body flops down onto the mattress.
I whip myself around and look at Dr. Wells. I didn't even think twice before I ran straight towards him, "you bastard!"
He's clearly caught off guard because I manage to tackle him and due to the open door, other nurses head and witness what is going on. I feel myself being ripped away from Dr. Wells and he is taken into someone's arms as well.
"You sick fuck!"
My rage overcomes all of my senses and I black out. I cannot control anything I do as I am held back from ripping the putrid man to shreds.
The next thing I hear is, "911, we have an emergency."