me die Will, even if you have to change me to be like you. Please don’t wait until it’s too late. Please. I never want to be without you.”
“Corrine, I will do it. It’s against the rules but I will do it if I must. I promise you.” He kissed my lips softly and I relaxed, trusting him to do what he had to do. I felt no pain as I suddenly heard people all around me. The paramedics were barking out orders to each other. I could hear William answering their questions. I could also hear police cars outside. They grilled Will with questions as he stood there, with my blood all over his hands and shirt.
I wanted to tell them I was okay and that William had not done this to me. I wanted to take Will away from all the cops asking questions. I wanted to scream to them that Todd had done this. He was out there somewhere free, and they had to find him. It was all pointless. I couldn’t speak. I had lost all control of my body; it didn’t even feel like my own now.
Chapter 17
Wounded
It was an odd thing to be present among people you know and love, hearing them speak to you and talking to each other. The odd thing being you cannot talk or move only hear, like being stuck in a bubble or cocoon. I could hear every word said, but my body was like a vault and I was locked inside. I was unable to communicate with any of them. I so desperately wanted to break out and open my eyes, but it was impossible.
Pain in waves seeped into my little bubble. I then most often after that felt a warm rush in my arm. I assumed it was an intravenous line of some sort. It helped erase the pain quickly. It was drugs, I assumed. The flow of visitors was constant from what I could hear. People held my hand and talked to me. They urged me to fight and to live and begged me to come back.
William was always there. I could feel his very presence in the room somehow. He gave off a calming effect. I could feel him slide in next to me late at night when everybody had gone home. I felt his arms around me as he talked to me softly, pleading with me to come back to him. I tried desperately to squeeze his hand when he asked me to. I longed to touch him. He would kiss my lips but I could not kiss him back, it was like a nightmare. I feared this was going to be it. I would never wake up and I would be trapped inside myself until I died an old woman. My body had become my own personal prison.
I hated when Will left. I knew he had to maintain a regular life, or at least appear to, so people would not think him different or unusual. The times nobody was in the room were the worst. I often wondered if I might have died and just did not know it because of the silence. After all, I hadn’t ever been dead before so who knew what happened?
The routine was the same with my parents. My father came to visit every morning before he went to work. Sara stopped by the last five minutes of his visit to appear as if she actually gave a crap about me. I had heard every conversation they had every day. Dad was concerned; the doctors had expected me to be responding to treatments by now. The term “questionable recovery” came up and Sara had brought up the fact I may need to live in an assisted living home. I wanted to reach up and smack her. I was not going to be impaired by this. I could think just fine my stupid body just refused to cooperate.
“This is getting ridiculous John, what do Doctor Mott and Parker say about it?” Sara complained one rainy afternoon. I only knew it was raining, because I heard it hitting the windows. I knew she meant me when she said “it.” I cringed as they started to discuss me. This was my fifth morning in the hospital. I could hear my dad sigh as he sat down. I felt him take my hand and kiss the top of it.
“We have to wait. They did a brain scan early this morning, and they