SCARRED - Part 5 (7 page)

“I’ve been hurt and now he’s hurting the people I care about. I just can’t run and hide anymore Jake.”

“Please Chloe; don’t do anything to put yourself in danger.”

“I won’t.”

“I’m serious. Imagine me having to tell my brother when he wakes up that something happened to you. Please don’t make me do that.”

“I won’t.” She was already trying to figure out in her head how to get enough time alone to lure him in.

This needed to end.

*******

T
hey finished their business on the boat but they did it together, Jake didn’t leave her side. Then they walked down the dock until they got to the pier. They walked out almost to the end of it and they ordered a clam chowder bowl from one of the little food stands. They took them and sat on one of the benches about halfway out. Chloe was picking her bread bowl apart, tossing pieces out to the seagulls that gathered around them. After she hadn’t taken a single bite in fifteen minutes Jake said,

“You know, if you starve yourself your body starts burning muscle and all that work you’ve been doing will have been for nothing.”

She rolled her eyes at him and took a bite.

He laughed.

“What are you laughing at?” Chloe asked arching an eyebrow.

“You’re going to give my brother a run for his money.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re just something else,” he said, still being vague.

“Clarify,” she said.

“Let’s see...in the couple of weeks that I’ve known you I have found you to be stubborn, obstinate, easily aggravated, overly...”

“Thanks, I think I get it.” She stopped him bluntly by putting the palm of her hand up towards his face.

He laughed again. “For the record, I can also see what my brother sees in you. I meant what I said before, I’m proud to count you as family.”

Chloe chuckled. “Thanks.”

“Don’t let the psychopath rule your life, okay?”

“I don’t intend to,” she said.

Before Jake could say anything else they heard the voice.

“Well I’ll be damned! Is that Jake Stark?”

The voice came out of nowhere and Chloe jumped up off the bench like a shot. It was the first time she’d heard that taunting voice in over two years...but there was no doubt, it was Jesse.

Jake recognized it as well...either that, or Chloe’s face said it all. “Where are you, you cowardly little fuck?” Jake was looking down off the side of the pier. The beach was crowded and they were eight or nine feet off the ground.

“Is that any way to talk to an old friend?”

“He’s underneath us!” Chloe could see him standing underneath the pier smiling up at her. She wanted to jump up on the bench where he couldn’t see her. It freaked her out for him to be right below her. She didn’t want him to know she was scared though.

“Hey Jake, I’m real sorry to hear about your brother. That was a bad deal. I heard he was a vegetable?”

“You’re dead you little fuck!” Jake looked at Chloe.

She was already on her phone calling 911. He took off running towards the end of the pier. Chloe looked down as the voice on the line said, “911 operator, what is your emergency?”

“My ex-boyfriend is wanted for the assault and attempted murder of my best friend. He’s here on the beach.”

“What’s your name ma’am?”

“Chloe Green.”

“I have to run Kelly! It was good seeing you. I’ll see you again real soon okay, babe?”

“Fuck you!”

“Ma’am? Are you safe ma’am?”

By the time Jake got down to the sand, Jesse had disappeared into the crowd on the beach. He was just gone, without a trace. Chloe told the operator she was fine and that Jesse took off on foot. Jake gave chase for a while but ultimately, he completely vanished. They waited around and gave a statement to two seemingly disinterested policemen. The attack on Chantelle was in New York. The police in Rhode Island would rather not get involved if they didn’t have to.

When they finished up with the police, they both realized they’d lost their appetites. They left and headed home. By the time they got back to New York, Chloe felt like her sanity was hanging by a thread. She collapsed into Derek’s bed, curled into a fetal position and cried a torrent of angry, frustrated tears. She vowed that this would be the last time. After they wake Derek up tomorrow and she knows that he’s going to be okay, she’s going back to Rhode Island and one way or the other she was going to finish this thing once and for all. She’d cried too many tears for him. She wasn’t his victim any longer.

––––––––

D
erek was dreaming...or maybe it was a nightmare. Yes, it was definitely a nightmare. Jesse Donovan was there and he had his arm wrapped around Chloe’s neck. What does he want with her? Chloe’s eyes were glazed over and Derek could tell that she was about to pass out...but he couldn’t get to her. He could feel real terror in his chest. Jesse was holding her just a few feet away from him but his legs wouldn’t move.
Why won’t my legs move?
Jesse was laughing as Chloe lost consciousness. Derek was screaming for someone to help...but no sound was coming out of his throat. He felt like he was choking when he tried to talk.
Move damn it! You have to help her!

He concentrated on his legs...they wouldn’t move no matter how hard he tried. Suddenly he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He tried to stick his hand in and pull it out, but there was no pocket there.
What the hell is going on?
Jesse smiled and put the knife to Chloe’s throat...Derek screamed again, silently...
Jesse wants to kill her. I have to stop him. I love her.

“His hand moved! Derek? Baby, open your eyes.”

Chloe? Is that you? Are you okay?

“It’s okay to open your eyes baby. Open your eyes. Please. I need to see them. I saw you move. Come on honey, let me see those baby blues.”

I need to see you, Chloe. I need to hold you. I need to keep you safe. Can you hear me? Why can’t I hear myself talk?

“I think he moved his hand,” Chloe said, in an excited tone, this time to someone else.

“Sometimes they make involuntary movements.” That voice was unfamiliar.
Who is she talking to?
“That’s not to say he didn’t move. We took him off of all the sedatives yesterday and his brain activity is more active today.”

“What about the breathing tube?”

Breathing tube? Why do I have a breathing tube? Brain activity? Am I a vegetable? Do they think I’m unresponsive but I can still process what’s going on? Chloe! What’s going on? Talk to me again. Please talk to me. I’m suffocating in this nightmare.

“We’re going to ex-tubate him after he’s been off the sedatives for forty-eight hours...so tomorrow sometime.”

Ex-tubate? I have a tube breathing for me and now they’re going to take it out? What if I can’t breathe without it?  Chloe! Please talk to me.

“If you need anything have the nurse call me. I have to go make rounds now and I’ll check back in on him later this morning.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

Derek felt Chloe’s warm hand in his. He tried to squeeze it but his hand wasn’t being any more cooperative than his legs.
What the hell happened?

“Wake up, baby,” Chloe told him again. “Wake up and give me one of those killer smiles of yours. I want to see your sexy dimples.”

Derek tried to pull open his eyes. He wanted to see her too. He tried to smile, but his face wouldn’t cooperate. He wanted to know what was going on. He tried to ask, but no words would come out...no sound at all. His eyelids were so heavy. It felt to him like they were glued shut.

“Maybe that’s too much,” she said. “Maybe just squeeze my hand, baby. Can you do that? Squeeze it for me.”

Derek concentrated hard that time. He couldn’t squeeze, but he thought maybe his pinky finger moved. “That’s it!” Chloe said in an excited voice. “That’s it! One finger at a time, Derek! Try it again.” He put everything he had into that hand...this time his pinky and his ring finger moved.

“Yes! You can hear me! You’re awesome, baby!”

He was proud that he made her so happy. He didn’t know why moving his fingers was something to be proud of all of a sudden. He felt Chloe touch her lips to his forehead. Her lips were so soft and warm, but her cheeks were wet.
She was crying. Damn it!
He had to open his eyes and find out what was going on.

He let his focus go from his hand and back up to his eyelids.
Come on, pull them open. Just a crack so that she knows you’re here...
He struggled with them, they were so damn heavy and so dry.

“Your eyes are moving! That’s it, baby. Open those gorgeous blue eyes for me.”

He struggled harder until at last a sliver of light assaulted his right eye. It burned and he closed it as quickly as he’d opened it up. “Yes! You’re doing awesome, baby. Take your time. I know it’s hard...I want to see your eyes so bad!”

Derek struggled to open them again. It was giving him a headache, but he wasn’t going to give up. He wrestled with the lids that felt like they weighed a thousand pounds...finally they were both open just a slit. He couldn’t see anything except for lights and shadows. He tried to focus them. He needed to see Chloe.

“Yes Derek! Hi! Can you see me?”

No! All I see are shadows. Is that shadow you, Chloe? I wish I could talk to you. My voice won’t work.

“I’m going to get the nurse, okay?”

Derek told his hand to grip hers tighter...it did! He didn’t want her to go. Chloe squealed. “You don’t want me to go? I won’t go honey, I won’t leave you. Here, I’ll press the call light.” Chloe reached across him.

He felt the warmth radiating off her body and smelled the light tropical scent of the lotion she wore. His eyes hurt because they were so dry and holding them open made them hurt worse. He was afraid to close them though.
What if I can’t get them back open? What if they don’t work anymore and I never get to see her again?

“Did you need something?” This time Derek heard a female voice he didn’t recognize.

“Yes! Look, he’s opening his eyes. He squeezed my hand too!”

Derek felt a presence on the other side of the bed.

“Well, look at that. Hi there, Mr. Stark. I’m going to shine a little light in your eyes, okay?”

Derek wasn’t completely sure what was going on, but he somehow knew that he was at her mercy. He felt his eye lid being drawn open by a finger. The light got stronger and the shadows deeper, but still no color and nothing solid...A light was shone directly into that eye and then she did the same with the other. The stranger slipped her hand into his on the opposite side of the bed from Chloe.

“Mr. Stark, can you hear me? If you can, squeeze my hand.”

Derek could hear her. He tried to squeeze her hand...he tried hard. He couldn’t do it.

“It’s okay, take your time.”

He tried again. His head was pounding...Damn it! His eyes were closed again. When did that happen? His fingers started to curl and although he could feel that it was weak, he wrapped them around the small hand of the stranger.

“He did it!” Chloe was so excited that he wanted to do it again, just to please her. “That’s a good sign, right? He can follow instructions?”

“Yes, it’s a good sign,” the stranger said. “I’ll let the doctor know.”

“Thank you!”

Derek felt Chloe’s lips on his forehead again. He was happy that he’d made her happy, but now he was tired. He had to sleep for a while and then he would try it again. He would squeeze harder after he had a nap...

Derek wasn’t sure how long he slept, but this time when he woke up the first thing he did was concentrate on pulling open his eyes. He had them open just enough to once again see the bright light. He couldn’t see anything else.

“Hey!  Derek? It’s Jake, buddy! Can you hear me?”

Jake is here? Where did Chloe go?
He concentrated on pulling his eyes open a little more and trying to focus them.
The light is so bright.
He blinked a few times and this time moisture actually accumulated in the corners of them. They weren’t dry any longer, that’s good...right? That will make it easier to keep them open anyways.

“You’re in the hospital, Derek. There was an accident. Can you hear me buddy? If you can, squeeze my hand.”

Derek’s head felt better from his nap. He concentrated hard again like he’d done with Chloe and let his fingers grip his brother’s hand. “That’s it, buddy! You’re doing it! I’m so glad! Can you see me, Derek?”

Derek could see a large shadow. His vision was blurry and it looked like nothing had any real mass. There was a big, dark shadow in front of him. He assumed that was his brother even though he couldn’t make out his features.
I was in an accident? When? With who? Sarah? No, Sarah died in our accident. Chloe was here...

“Can you see me?” The large mass moved slightly to the right. Derek had to concentrate hard to do it, but eventually he moved his eyes and followed it.

“Hey! You can see me!”

Not really, unless you’re the shadow man,
Derek thought.
I do see something though.
He pulled his eyes open just a little bit further...it was still blurry, but now Jake had shape to him.

“There you go, buddy.”

Jake hadn’t called him buddy since he was twelve. He must be in really bad shape, he thought. His brother was reverting to his childhood nickname. That couldn’t be good.

“There you go. You’re doing great! I’m so proud of you!”

Derek blinked a few times. Jake’s face was beginning to take shape. He tried to say something, but nothing would come out still. His throat felt raw.
It hurt like a son of a bitch too.

“You’re going to be okay, Derek! We’re all pulling for you. We all love you and have faith in you!”

Jake wasn’t usually one for sappy, flowery words.
This must be really bad.
Derek thought again. He tried to move his legs again. He thought he felt a twitch in the right one, but the left one wouldn’t move at all. His eyes were starting to burn and dry out again. He closed them and again, he slept. The next time he woke up it was even easier to open them. It took him another few minutes to get his focus.