Chapter 17

• The following days I spent in bed, living on pain pills that I swallowed dry because I didn't have enough strength to get up and go to the kitchen to get water. Every movement was excruciatingly painful, and the cut on my abdomen would open with each movement, causing me to bleed too much. I decided to stay in bed, not caring about anything else. I had decided not to call Allie because if she saw me like this, she would first yell at me and then go get Alexander. I knew she was the one sending messages to my phone, but I didn't even want to pick it up. I couldn't sleep either, as paranoia was creeping in, causing me to have small anxiety attacks that left me exhausted.
• On Wednesday morning, I still felt the tingling pain in every part of my bruised body. Slowly and decisively, I picked up the phone and sent a short message to Mike reporting myself as sick and asking to be contacted by email for anything. I also sent another message to Allie asking her to come, even though I knew how she would react when she saw me. But I didn't care much at that moment, I really needed someone to help me.
• After leaving the phone back on the nightstand, I started to remember the horror I had experienced. It was as if the memory didn't want to leave, and I kept seeing his angry face. I struggled to sit on the edge of the bed, stifling the groans of pain, and looked at my left arm where the bruises and his finger marks were. But the worst part was under the blouse, which was stained with blood from the past few days. As I grabbed the fabric, I noticed it was stuck to my skin because of the dried blood. I pulled it off, stifling the scream of pain that wanted to escape.