Page 15 of Fragmented Illusions

I whirl around to find Natalie stepping into the room, a coffee in her hand. Her fingers are curled tight around the cardboard cup and when we make eye contact, it falls from her hand, tumbling to the floor.

The liquid spills out across the white speckled floor, splattering it with brown, sticky coffee. The way it spills out instantly reminds me of the splatters of blood I saw last night.

Blood.

A body.

Adeadbody.

“Oh!” I yelp, and Natalie breaks out of her stupor and hurries to my side.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay? You shouldn’t be out of bed right now. Come on, let’s lay you back down.” She spits all of the words out in a jumble, speaking so fast I can barely make out what she’s saying.

Lay down? What? No. No. Do they not know what happened last night?

“Nat,” I say but she ignores me and continues to push me onto the lumpy, rock hard hospital bed mattress. The type of mattress I have spent way too much time on before.

“Nat!” I try again, but to no avail. I yank my arm away from her and the IV machine that was knocked to the floor from when I freaked out gets kicked to the side as I pull myself away from her.

“Fucking stop!” I scream, and she startles. She steps back and stares at me, her eyes wide with shock and her mouth agape.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I didn’t mean to yell, but you aren’t listening to me,” I say softly, but also add a bite to my words, so she knows even though I feel bad, I’m still serious.

Stupid, Fallon.

You fucked up.

Not so perfect now, are you?

“I’m sorry, Fal. I’m just so worried about you. When Trenton found you last night, you were in bad shape. You have been out ever since then, and we didn’t know when you were going to wake up.” Her eyes well up and the tears fall steadily down her face. Her makeup from the night before is gone, though black smudges still remain around her eyes and lashes—almost as if she cried it all off with the way her lashes are clumped together.

“Trent—” My voice cracks, and my hands begin to shake all over again. I clench them into fists by my side and close my eyes briefly.

One.

Trenton didn’t touch you.

Two.

You escaped him.

Three.

But you didn’t escapethem…

“What happened?” I ask Nat. I know she will tell me the truth.

“You don’t remember?” she asks as she sniffles. She wipes her nose with the collar of her faded gray, holey T-shirt. She glances at me before turning away and shuffling towards the door. “Let me get someone to clean this up real quick. Then we’ll talk.”

“I don’t know what happened before Trenton found you. All I know is he came barreling into the house with you in his arms. You were unconscious and your head was bleeding. Ian called an ambulance and cleared the house out relatively quickly.

“After that was pretty much a blur. All of us were trying to help stop the bleeding and then the paramedics showed up and started helping you. They brought you here and then we all met up here to wait for you to wake up.

“The girls are in the waiting room, sleeping. We have all been up all night, worried sick. And Trenton is out there too…” she trails off. I stiffen at her mention of Trenton but try to let it roll off of my back. He’s not my main concern right now. Those masked men are.

“No one knows what happened?” I ask, and she shakes her head no. My brows pinch together as I strain to remember what exactly happened between the woods and Trenton apparently finding me.

I remember them catching me in the woods.