Twelve Days - The Beginning (35 page)

The next time Elise woke up it was dark in the room and she was aware of a gaggle of noise coming from outside. Chattering – it was people chattering but they were too far away for her to make any sense of it.

This time the army had definitely gone home and her head felt a lot clearer, so much so that she chanced turning her head from side to side, relieved to realise that much of the sharp pain had now gone and she only had a dull ache to contend with.

She lifted both her hands and rubbed her eyes, stopping when her palms came into contact with her face, which was alarmingly sore and stinging. Her left arm had a bandage on just above the wrist and she vaguely remembered noticing that, the first time she had awoken.

She tried to move her legs, only to realise that they felt raw and tender against the softness of the quilt and she once again tried to piece things together. She was definitely not in her house or any house that she knew, and she had never been in a situation where she had drunk so much that she had ended up with a complete stranger.

The fact that her whole body felt like it had been through a blender also wasn’t right; she couldn’t begin to imagine how she had sustained such injuries just by having a heavy night out and, in any case, her and Dale were spending Christmas Day at home. That’s right...they’d gone for a nice walk and Dale had cooked. How on earth had she gone from that to – this? And speaking of which, where was Dale?

She vaguely remembered Cole and bizarrely Vaughn’s voice from when she woke up the first time but now as she looked around the room, she realised that she was completely alone. Alone, and in agony, and in some strange bedroom. Perhaps she had died and was now living in a parallel universe? She remembered reading about those places existing once. Although if she was in a parallel universe, she would have rather ended up somewhere with better wallpaper – this was seriously ghastly. On the wall facing the bed was black patterned wallpaper that led around the room and blended into ghostly grey shades of paint. One of the other walls had a deep red contrasting paper and on the basis that Elise already felt queasy, she was fairly certain that this decor was going to finish her off.

The chattering was still coming from outside the door and now that she was fully conscious she could make out certain words.

“Memory loss........amnesia.......nerve damage.......concussion.”

It all sounded very medical and Elise wondered if she had been re-born into a private hospital ward – would they decorate their rooms in such a ghastly style? The lack of medical equipment in the room though seemed to suggest that this wasn’t the case so she was still none the wiser.

Fed up of lying here and wondering, Elise decided to try to get up and find the source of the chattering – perhaps whoever was out there would be able to tell her exactly what was going on. She sat up and immediately experienced the ripping pain in her chest again and her head began to throb. Not good. She lay back down and kept still for a moment, letting everything settle back down, immensely grateful that the army had not made a re-appearance.

Her options limited, she tried to call out in the hope that perhaps they would hear her and come to her aid.

At first she could only manage a tiny croak and she realised that her throat was ridiculously dry. It would take more than that to get anyone’s attention so she tried again, drawing in a deep breath and steadfastly ignoring the searing pain in her chest.

“Hello.....?” This time it was louder and Elise could hear it resounding around the room.

Abruptly the chattering stopped and then all of a sudden there was a whirlwind of activity as the door was brutally swung open and several people all came crashing through it at the same time.

Vaughn was the first to reach her bedside and sub-consciously she registered that she hadn’t been dreaming him – he was really here.

“Shit, Elise – I’m so sorry, baby.” He said, “I only stepped outside for a second to talk to the doctor. How are you feeling? Christ, angel – we’ve all been so worried.” She could tell that was true from the expression on his face. She still had no idea why though.

She turned her head and encountered Cole on her right hand side, an equally worried expression on his face. What the hell was going on?

At the foot of the bed stood Celeste and Roger. Celeste and Roger? Now she was really freaked out. And then standing just behind Vaughn was an older man that she didn’t recognise. He seemed to be the medical person as he had a stethoscope hung around his neck. This wasn’t a parallel universe if all of these people were here - unless there had been some major catastrophe and they had all died at the same time – so what the hell was going on and where was Dale? She needed to know.

“What’s going on?” she croaked, “Where’s Dale?”

“Fuck.” said Vaughn almost under his breath and then he turned to the doctor-type person. “She doesn’t remember.”

The man moved forward and gently pushed Vaughn to the side so that he could get closer to Elise. To her right, Cole had reached for her hand and was rubbing his thumb up and down the back of her hand in a soothing kind of gesture.

The stranger put his hand gently on Elise’s shoulder.

“Elise,” he said, “I am Doctor Edwards. Can you tell me...do you know where you are?”

Elise shook her head and then realising that it hurt she opened her mouth and spoke instead.

“No.” her voice was barely a whisper now.

“Cole,” Dr Edwards said, “Pass me that water would you?”

Cole obliged, reaching for a cup that she hadn’t previously noticed sitting on the bedside table.

The doctor put his hand behind her head and lifted it upwards slightly, supporting her whilst he put the cup to her lips and she drank the cool liquid gratefully. Vaughn reached forward as soon as she was done and took the cup out of the doctor’s hand, all the while regarding her with an expression of worry and concern.

“Elise,” Dr Edwards addressed her again, “Can you tell me what day it is today?”

“Yes,” she replied, relieved that her voice sounded much more normal now. “It’s Christmas Day.”

Cole and Vaughn exchanged a look across the bed and then they both glanced at Celeste who had let out a small gasp and was now covering her mouth with her hand. Roger had moved and put his arm around her in a consoling kind of way and Elise was beginning to find this whole situation really strange.

“Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” she said, “Where the hell am I and where is Dale?”

All three of them glanced nervously at each other and then Vaughn turned to Dr Edwards, as if asking for some kind of permission. The doctor nodded at him and Vaughn moved forward again, taking up the position that the doctor had vacated and placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Elise,” he said, “You are at Celeste’s flat. You turned up on the doorstep two days ago and collapsed. You’ve been pretty much out of it ever since. It’s not Christmas Day, baby; it’s the day after Boxing Day.” He paused and glanced at the doctor again as if checking whether or not he should continue. Again the doctor nodded.

“We don’t know where Dale is,” Vaughn continued hesitantly, “although we presume that he is at home. To be perfectly honest, none of us cares much right now where he is.” His voice broke suddenly as emotion began to take over and he looked to Cole an almost pleading expression on his face.

“Cole? Can you..?” he said.

Cole nodded and then tugged lightly on Elise’s right hand to make her look across at him.

“Elise, baby. We don’t know for sure where Dale is because we don’t give a shit. We all hope that he’s rotting in hell somewhere.” Cole swallowed. “It’s not Christmas Day anymore, baby, and we know that you don’t remember but the thing is..... Dale did this to you, baby.

Just before you lost consciousness completely you told Celeste that, although it wouldn’t have taken a genius to work it out anyway. He beat you up baby – hell, he nearly killed you, and now you have to just rest and get better and soon, when you’re ready, you’ll be able to remember and we’ll all be here to help you deal with it.” The last words were said with such emotion and sincerity that Elise felt her eyes begin to fill with tears. She didn’t remember, she didn’t have a clue if what they were saying was true. All she knew was that her best friend and the man that she was in love with were here with her now, and if that’s what they said had happened then she had to believe them.

When he had finished speaking, Cole lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss into her palm and she watched as she saw tears begin to fall silently down his face. She looked across to the other side of the bed where Vaughn was standing and as their eyes met and she felt the familiar pull, she was completely and utterly shocked to realise that he was crying too.

Chapter Thirty-Four

The next few days passed in a blur and Elise remained at Celeste’s flat, recovering. She had not been left alone for five minutes since she had come round and she had got used to the rota that Celeste, Cole and Vaughn had worked out between them, beginning to know when to expect each one of them to come in and sit with her.

The worst part though was when she needed to go into the adjoining bathroom and it happened to be on either Cole or Vaughn’s shift. They both insisted that they come in with her but there were just some things that a girl needed to do on her own. Reluctantly, they had both finally agreed to wait outside the door, providing that she took no longer than five minutes. Initially that had been an issue when she had wanted to take a bath but she had worked out that she could do that on Celeste’s shift as the other girl would come into the bathroom with her and Elise found that she didn’t mind.

Dr Edwards visited daily and usually stayed for about an hour. He was a private doctor - a friend of Vaughn’s parent’s - and Vaughn had called him the second he had heard about Elise’s injuries. On the one occasion, Dr Edwards brought a young woman called Rachel with him, who was a physiotherapist and she had begun to work on the nerve damage that Elise had sustained to her left wrist. Rachel had arrived during one of Cole’s shifts and Elise had not missed the look of appreciation that he gave when she walked in. His eyes had been pretty much glued to her during the whole of Elise’s treatment and she was amazed that the girl had managed to keep her cool and continue with the programme whilst under such intense scrutiny.

Elise had teased Cole about it afterwards but he had denied it all, merely saying that it made a change to see another female other than her and Celeste. She had just smiled and filed the information away, ready for another day.

Vaughn’s visits were the best and she looked forward to those the most. He had made sure that he had all of the night shifts and after the first night, when he had slept on the airbed on the floor, she had insisted that he sleep in the bed beside her. At first he was reluctant as he didn’t want to make her any more sore or uncomfortable but they arranged the duvet in such a way as to provide her with a protective cocoon and still allow him to be near enough to cuddle her carefully. He also visited numerous times during the day and Elise began to wonder how on earth he, or either of the others for that matter, were getting any work done.

To begin with, none of them spoke about Dale and what had happened but over the coming days, Elise’s memory started to return in bits and so it was inevitable that the subject should be raised.

She had questioned Dr Edwards initially as she still couldn’t remember how she had come to be in Celeste’s flat. The doctor had explained that they had found her car parked downstairs so had assumed that she must have driven here herself although how on earth she had managed that, given the extent of her injuries, seemed to be in question. He had concluded that she had been functioning purely on adrenalin and was amazed that she had not passed out before she did. It was ridiculously fortunate that she had made it safely to her friend’s house and not passed out whilst she was driving. He didn’t know any other details though and so she knew that she was eventually going to have to speak to Cole or Vaughn.

By Saturday she was feeling a lot better and persuaded Celeste to let her go into the lounge and watch some television. She didn’t need to sleep anywhere near as much now and she was getting bored with looking at the same awful wallpaper. On that subject, when Elise had taken it up with her, Celeste had vigorously defended her decorating choice, which had lead to a very spirited debate between the two girls. It was totally beyond Elise how her friend could consider the look of the bedroom to be anything other than terrible but in the end they had had to agree to disagree and Elise realised that she would probably never completely understand this girl with her unusual tastes.

As she exited the bedroom accompanied by Celeste, Elise immediately noticed the large man standing just outside the door dressed in a security type uniform. He was a typical butch bodybuilder type with a shaved head and a big bulky body. He was tall as well - well over six feet.

“Hi Sean,” Celeste said as they walked past, “I’ll be putting the kettle on in a minute if you fancy one?”

“Oh thank you Miss Brown – that would be great.” ‘Sean’ replied, “Do you need any help there, Miss?”

“Oh, no thanks, we’re fine.” Celeste replied as she continued to help Elise wobble on slightly unsteady legs towards the lounge and onto the sofa.

‘Sean’ immediately moved from his position outside of the bedroom and took up a post on a chair that was adjacent to the front door thereby allowing him to still see into the lounge.

“OK, Celeste – who the hell is that?” Elise hissed, keeping her voice low in case ‘Sean’ heard her.

“Oh – that’s Sean.” replied Celeste. “There’s Stan as well but he usually does the night shift. If you’re still out of bed later on then you’ll meet him as well.” Celeste imparted the information as if it was perfectly normal for her to have two security-type people in her house. Perhaps it was.

“That’s not exactly helpful, Celeste. I kind of got that he was ‘Sean’; what I meant was what is he doing here dressed up like some kind of security guy?”

“You mean Vaughn didn’t tell you?” Celeste asked and then added almost to herself, “I can probably imagine why though.”

“What?” Elise asked impatiently, “What didn’t Vaughn tell me?”

Celeste sighed. “Sean and Stan are security men,
private
security men, paid for and employed by Vaughn to watch over you at all times and keep you safe. After the beating that your so-called husband gave you, he didn’t want to take any chances with yours or any of our safety so he got them here that first night. One or the other of them has been here ever since.”

“And you don’t mind?” asked Elise, amazed that her friend seemed so calm about having her flat invaded by all of these people.

Celeste gave her a withering look. “Seriously? You are seriously asking if I mind having two beefy men in my house twenty-four hours a day? Christ, Elise, that knock to your head did more damage than any of us thought!”

Elise laughed and then immediately regretted it as the pain started to shoot through her chest again. All of her injuries were healing well but according to Dr Edwards, it was still going to be a good few days before she was up and about properly. The only area of concern was her wrist which was still a little numb but Rachel had been back a couple of times since and they had managed to get some of the feeling back. She had all of the feeling in her hand and fingers; it was just a small section of her wrist that was damaged. Rachel and Dr Edwards were confident that it would heal itself eventually.

“Doesn’t Roger mind though?” Elise asked, referring again to the presence of Sean and the as yet-unmet Stan.

“Mind?” screeched Celeste, “He’s as mad as hell! It’s made for the best sex of my life over the past few days – maybe you could get beaten up more often!”

Despite herself, Elise laughed - only Celeste could put such a positive spin on a situation that was otherwise fairly grim.

“Not funny, ‘Leste.” replied Elise still laughing as much as her injured body would allow. She was really pleased that her friend and Roger were still going strong - even if it was being rather bizarrely fired up by a large man with a bald head wearing a security uniform.

Celeste left her to go and sort out the drinks and, for the first time, Elise thought about what had happened and began to consider how she felt about it all. The fact that Vaughn had employed security guards seemed a little over the top as she felt sure that Dale had no idea where she was and even if he did, he’d have trouble getting to her as she was never on her own. She appreciated that maybe Dale didn’t want her to talk and perhaps he was worried that she might press charges against him but as far as she knew, no one had heard from him at all so maybe he was just lying low until they could sort this out amicably.

Elise recognised that she would need to contact him at some point though, and that thought filled her with absolute dread. She would need to tell him that they were officially over and that she wanted to divorce him because until she did that, there would be no way forward for either of them. Hopefully his behaviour on Christmas day would have frightened him and Elise really wanted to think that maybe he too had recognised that their relationship was now toxic. On that fateful day, she had finally come to realise that he enjoyed both pain and inflicting pain on others and there was no way she was ever going to be the woman to accommodate that side of his personality. They both needed to make a clean break and get on with their lives separately.

Celeste returned with the drinks and she passed Elise the remote control as she headed off to the front door to give Sean his cup of coffee. When they had first come out here, Elise had wanted to watch television. She had wanted to be distracted, to watch some mindless junk that would make her forget but now she realised that she didn’t want that at all. She wanted to know everything and now was as good a time as any to fill in the blanks.

“You not watching anything?” Celeste said as she came back into the room.

“No,” Elise paused, “if it’s OK with you, I’d like to talk for a while.”

“Sure,” said Celeste and curled up on the sofa next to Elise, a steaming cup of coffee in her hands. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Christmas Day.” said Elise and she watched as her friend stilled and then very carefully placed her cup down on the coffee table.

“What about Christmas Day?” asked Celeste cautiously.

“I want to know it all, Celeste. Everything that happened – everything that you know happened.”

Celeste shuddered and blew out a long breath, “Are you sure you’re up to this?”

Elise nodded. “I need to know.”

There was a short pause, the minutes ticking through the silence as Elise waited for her friend to respond.

“Okay then,” Celeste said finally and after taking a deep breath, she began speaking at length.

“You turned up here at about 5pm on Christmas Day and when I opened the door I couldn’t believe it – you were in a bad way, a really bad way. You passed out in my arms but I managed to get you to tell me who had done this to you before you lost consciousness completely; that’s how we knew that it was Dale.”

“My first instinct was to call an ambulance but Roger stopped me as he said that that would be the first place that Dale would look for you and I realised that he was right. I panicked then as I didn’t know what to do, so once we had got you to the bed I called Cole, hoping that he would know what we should do. He came blazing in here a few minutes later and you should have seen him Elise - it was like he was completely broken when he saw you. You needed a doctor but it was Christmas, and we had no idea where we could find someone who would come out and see you.” Her friend paused, reaching down to take a sip of her drink.

“Whilst Cole and I were debating what to do, Roger phoned Vaughn and I could hear him roaring down the phone. He was seriously mad. He immediately arranged for Dr Edwards to come over and shortly afterwards, the doctor arrived and we all began to relax a little. Less than an hour later, Vaughn came tearing through the door and I do not want to know how fast he must have driven to get here. I remember thinking it was weird that neither he nor Cole had had a drink, especially since it was Christmas day. It was almost like they both knew you were going to need them.” Celeste’s gaze became wistful as she seemed to consider the romance and beauty of that idea.

“Anyway,” she continued, “Dr Edwards tried to take care of you but Vaughn wouldn’t leave your side so he ended up having to ask him to leave the room whilst he examined you. Vaughn kept going on and on about that ‘bastard’ and how he should have known that this would happen and he kept blaming himself for not being here. He was saying he never should have gone to his sister’s. Cole was also doing a pretty good job of guilt-tripping himself so in the end, Roger sat them both down and threatened to knock their heads together if they didn’t give it a rest. I don’t know exactly what he said but whatever it was it worked and they both calmed down and focused on what was important – you.”

Celeste stopped for a moment and took another sip of her drink. “I don’t know how much else you want to know, Elise.” she said and Elise could hear the hesitancy in her voice. There was clearly something else.

“Please Celeste,” she said, “Just tell me everything.”

“Okay...” her friend said almost reluctantly, “If you’re sure you want to hear this?”

Elise nodded and then watched as Celeste drank some more before finally placing the cup back on the table and reaching out to hold Elise’s hand.

“Dr Edwards needed to examine you and so he asked if I would help him, me being the only female present I guess. He started by looking at your head injuries and he could tell from checking your eyes that you were concussed although he said he didn’t think it was anything more serious than that. The fact that you had passed out was likely a combination of all of the injuries plus the stress that you had been under and so he was happy for us to just monitor you for 48 hours. Your wrist was in a pretty bad way and had swollen up, so he applied a cold compress bandage, which we had to keep changing so that it gave your wrist the best chance of healing. He knew that it wasn’t broken but he was almost certain there would be some nerve damage which is why you still have a little bit of numbness there.” She paused, absently rubbing Elise’s wrist.