Chapter 33

  2009.08.14. 12:18

Chapter 33

 

Strangely Nat didn’t feel anything after she let her pupils down – she was too tired to do so as she was walking to Yuri’s room a few nights later. She knew that Katja will be there too again, Yuri told it. So she needed to prepare herself not to puke onto her. She hated to touch her or Yuri, but still didn’t have a choice. Her face was so much harder – like another woman’s face. A bitter woman’s face, who had nothing to do with the old Natasha.

She chose the route she usually did and knocked and entered the room.

 

“Ahh…our little whore is here again just in time for a little fun, huh?” Yuri grinned at her and pinched Nat’s pale face “Open your coat and take off your clothes!” he ordered “Tonight we have a gift for you…” he laughed.

 

“What kind of gift?” Nat asked in a bald tone.

 

“More enthusiasm, honeeey!” he waved and Nat could tell that he was drunk again. She smelled the hated scent of whiskey. “We have a new toy for ya, you’ll love it!”

 

Katja’s annoying laugh came from the bed as she stood up and took off her robe, just to reveal a strap-on dick.

 

“I’ll fuck you with this tonight, Natty… Isn’t it great?” she stroked the toy.

 

“No!” Nat broke out.

 

“What did you say?” she heard Yuri’s cold tone immediately.

 

“No, you won’t torture me with this! With your sick games!” she didn’t know why she was doing this. Maybe this was the last weak yell, the last try to get rid off these monsters.

 

„Anything but this... I won't let you ..." and her eyes betrayed her, showing disgust, fright, revulsion - all the things she knew would send Yuri into a rage ... but she didn't care - as she formed the thought that maybe Yuri would tire of her and beat her to death, he actually strode over to her and slapped her hard.

 

The blow sent her flying across the room, into the wall, her shoulder making painful contact with the grimy, peeling wallpaper. Nat didn't move - she was resigned to her fate... either he would come and hit her again or he would hold her down so Katja could play her new game ... She was right the first time: Yuri took a handful of her hair and dragged her across the room before throwing her into the bathroom. This time, Nat lost her balance, and as she fell to the floor, her head struck the edge of the washbasin, causing her to yelp with pain. She curled up into a ball on the bathroom floor, and would have given anything to die right there and then - before they or anyone else hurt her anymore ... she felt as if she was losing consciousness - her vision went blurry, and as she turned her head, all she could see was pink and black shapes....

 

These were the forms of Yuri and Katja, who peered in through the bathroom door for a minute, assessing the damage to Nat. Nat could even hear their voices, vaguely....

 

"Looks like blood.”

 

“Where?”

 

“Behind her - flowing across the tiles - oh shit now look what you have done - you really are a brute.”

 

“Shut up you stupid cunt!”

 

“Come here and say that again ..."

 

Then there was a high pitched scream, which brought Nat out of her fuzzy little world ... but for now, she pretended she was still spaced out from the knock to her head.

 

Nat heard Yuri grunting now, and Katja moaning.... if she wasn't mistaken Yuri had taken Katja to satisfy himself tonight ... so she allowed herself to breathe a contented sigh - anything that gained her time and saved her suffering was welcome! She didn't feel at all awkward, lying there listening to these two sick people fucking like animals, she just breathed through the stabs of pain coming from her head wound, and prayed that she wasn't losing too much blood. She didn't even dare move to try and hold the wound closed ... or raise her head to see just how much blood she had lost ... she could feel a pulsing sensation somewhere near the wound and  knew that it was an artery spilling her blood onto this filthy bathroom floor...

She fought the nausea that built inside her, not at the groaning and screaming from the next room, but at her own sad plight... would she die here after all?

 

Suddenly there was a load roar of triumph, several minutes of laboured breathing and laughing followed by footsteps coming in the direction of the bathroom. Yuri had undoubtedly managed to come tonight and seemed pleased with himself, judging by the excitement in his voice as he spoke to Nat...

 

"Well this evening you got off lightly - I decided to have Katja instead. She was pretty fucking hot, and took more pleasure in it than you ever do!" His sneering voice was accompanied by a prod from his shoe. He kicked her foot, hoping for a reaction, but Nat had decided to pretend she was out cold ... just in case they decided to use her for any other games. This put an end to Yuri's good humour and he ran some cold water into the washbasin to splash over Nat... She eventually decided to sit up, as she was starting to shiver, something unconscious people wouldn't do.....

 

“You go away now! I don’t need you to bleed all over the place!” he barked at her “If someone asks, you fell off some stairs, understood?”

 

“Yeah…” she uttered out quieter than a whisper.

 

“Off you go! I have plans with my dear Katja…” he laughed and left the little bathroom.

 

Luckily Nat was still wearing her clothes and coat, so she just needed to find the way which can lead her out of this tainted room. Her head hurt and after she got out of the dark room, she searched for some napkins in her purse. She carefully cleared off the majority of the blood, standing in front of a mirror. She looked awful and she had nausea. Maybe she had a slight concussion? She didn’t know, but never planned to go to a hospital – she didn’t need awkward questions about her bruises.

 

She finally found the exit, turning away from the receptionist guy and started to walk next to the wall of the hotel to be sure not to fall again. After a few meters she heard a loud sound next to her.

 

“Oh my God, Nat!! What happened to you??!! Are you bleeding??!!”

 

“Dave… what the…what are you doing…here?” she whispered, flinching from the pain and the loud questions. She was confused - she was to have no contact with Dave and yet he was there with her - touching her - which felt so good, even though her perception was fuzzy ... it was tempting just to collapse into his arms and sob through her story to him ... but she knew that it would be too dangerous. Having held out all this time, she had to be strong, and push him away again now. So instead of yielding to his gentle embrace, and following his worried eyes as they took in all that was wrong with her - her torn clothes, her bleeding gash on her head, her nervousness verging on panic, she wriggled out of his arms and narrowed her eyes.

 

"I thought it was clear the last time we spoke - that I don't want you in my life any more!" her heart was pounding as she prepared the next lie "You are even more stupid and pathetic than I thought - can't you find some other poor girl to stalk? This is what it's become, every time I turn around there you are!" The crueler the better, she thought - as she watched the effect of her words on him, she drew strength from the thought that Dave would be safe like this - far from her.

 

But Dave just renewed his hold on her, and it was firm this time - gripping her upper arms, he started to march her towards the sidewalk edge ... he dared to let go of her with one hand to call for a taxi, and as soon as one showed signs of stopping he pulled her into him tightly with both arms, announcing his plans with a determined voice...

 

"You, miss Natasha, are coming to hospital with me. That cut needs stitching, and I want them to check you over for other injuries. If he can do this to you, God knows ..." and here he began to choke up, and would have cried into Nat's hair if he hadn't been scared of hurting her head. Instead he lifted his head skywards and let out an exasperated cry of anguish...

 

Nat's eyes flicked from face to face in the crowds of people who were passing them by ... any of them could turn into Yuri's or Katja's face as they got closer, as their blurry contours cleared. It was disturbing to have such unreliable vision - and part of her realised that she probably wouldn't have made it home alone, and would have had to go back into the building to call for a taxi.

 

As if Dave's presence calmed her, or as another wave of concussion swept over her, she found that she was nestling into his body despite herself.... and she also noticed one of his hands rubbing her back comfortingly. Her eyes began to close - maybe her nightmare had ended - maybe it had all been a dream - maybe Dave was taking her home to meet his parents, and then they would go out to the cinema, or to the skating rink, with all her friends - she was dying to show him off to them - especially as half her high school class were there today.....she would ask him later, but first she wanted to ask Dave something.

 

"Davey - do you know which films are showing tonight? It could be fun to go to see something with my school crowd ... huh?" as she spoke, Dave realised that Nat definitely had concussion ... and looking into her eyes, seeing her dilated pupils, he was even more worried...

 

He searched the lines of traffic for a taxi, and in the next minute their wait was over - he carefully helped a semi-conscious Nat into the backseat, after assuring the driver that she was no longer bleeding from her head wound, and  then he asked that they be taken as fast as possible to an emergency unit.

 

As the taxi pulled up outside the hospital, Dave roused Nat as gently as he could.... she was so beautiful even here, with her matted hair, her bloodstained skin and her deathly pale skin...

 

“Nat, my love - please, come on - I want you to get help, ok?” Dave took her hands in his, and raised them to his face to kiss...

 

Just before he managed to kiss her, Nat awoke and suddenly ripped her hands out of his grasp "No" she whispered "not you."

 

Dave tried to take her hands again and Nat recoiled, shifting away from him on the backseat of the taxi "Leave me alone - you shouldn't be here" she was still whispering - confused at finding herself in a taxi ... it was evident from the way her wild eyes were flashing all over the inside of the car in disbelief.

 

The taxi driver turned round "You two lovebirds wanna take your problems elsewhere, maybe? I wanna get moving again if it's OK with you ..."

 

Dave apologized and tried again to reason with Nat. "Please, Nat, come with me. You need stitches. We'll leave it there if you like - we won't tell them about ....." and here he realised that what he nearly said wasn't for the taxi-driver's ears ... so he just continued to try and coax Nat from the car.

 

Behind her back, Nat felt the door handle, and while she was staring into Dave's eyes and saying that she had no intention of going into the hospital with him, she managed to push down on the handle ... carefully choosing her moment, she opened the door and turned to step out of the taxi .... The fact that she had been asleep didn't help her to stand and run as fast as she was hoping, but she still tried to get away from the taxi, from Dave, by crossing the road as best she could.

 

Dave was out of the taxi and across the road in a few seconds, and caught up with Nat easily. She thought it best not to scream, as they were already attracting a lot of attention, and the unpaid taxi driver was hooting his horn and then started yelling at them: "Hey you crazy people wanna come back here and pay me first?"

 

Nat was unable to run anymore - she didn't feel stable enough on her legs - her head was stinging and her stomach was retching ... and as Dave finally grabbed her, she was about to double over and vomit into the roadside.

 

He held her and felt her body's spasms - Nat had nothing to regurgitate, but it was the inevitable effect of her concussion. By the time the spasms ceased, she was crying quietly, and as she stood upright again, Dave turned her around and hugged her close to him... 

"Come with me now, you silly girl - you need help.”

 

And now Nat didn’t protest, she just let her aching head rest on his shoulder while he escorted her slowly back to the cab to pay for the ride. Dave apologized, but didn’t pay too much attention on the driver’s cursing. He took Nat to the hospital’s reception and asked for a doctor. The nurse didn’t seem surprised, she saw such injuries nearly every day.

 

The nurse started to fill in some papers, asking Nat her personal details first, then coming to the story behind her injury afterwards... Nat was so evasive about it, and her eyes kept shifting from the nurse to Dave and back, that the nurse started by asking Dave to leave - to see if it would make Nat less nervous... but Nat didn't want that, and reached out for Dave’s arm, before he got too far away from her. It was touching to see, but for some reason the nurse still seemed suspicious.

 

Finally Nat launched her version of how her head got its four centimeter gash ... she decided to stay pretty close to the truth, and talked about the slippery bathroom floor and the washbasin edge... but the nurse challenged her, suggesting that she wouldn't have hit her head THAT hard... and then Nat said she had been running into the bathroom to be sick... so she had been moving fast. The nurse now wanted to know why she had felt sick... and that was where Dave started to lose his patience...

 

"Is anyone going to stitch this wound, and examine my girlfriend, please? She could tell you the whole story later..."

 

"Well" the nurse seemed uneasy "that's not how we do things - when an injury looks like it might have been caused by violence then we do the report first and ..."

 

"What do you mean?" Nat and Dave asked almost in unison "I never said he hit me..." Nat blurted out... and immediately regretted saying this. Her eyes flew to Dave, who didn't look at all bothered by what she had said, so she tried to keep acting as normal as possible...

 

"I was alone in my flat, I'd eaten something that tasted funny, some leftover meat, as I was hungry and too lazy to cook, and then I lay down to sleep, only getting up and rushing to the bathroom when I had the urge to vomit."

 

"Yes, I see" said the nurse "so you called your boyfriend, to help you get to hospital?"

 

"No - he was already on his way to see me. I think I must have passed out, because when I woke up there was lots of dried blood." Nat was hoping she would remember all the things she was saying now... she wished she could have a few minutes alone with Dave to get their stories straight...

 

But the nurse hadn't finished. "So you - er Mr ...?" she looked at Dave, expecting him to provide her with his name, of course, which he did reluctantly.... "thank you, Mr. Gahan - so you didn't think it necessary to call for an ambulance when you arrived and found that your girlfriend was this badly hurt?"

 

"No - er -" Dave was trying to think of the best thing to say - it was bad enough to come in a taxi? So why not an ambulance...? The only way was to play up Nat's concussion ... "I tricked Nat into thinking we were going to see some friends, as we had planned to do... she didn't want to come to hospital at all, and I thought it would work, well it nearly did - to trick her into a taxi and get her here under false pretences. She was confused and a little aggressive with her concussion…" He watched the nurse carefully to see what she would make of his answer. She turned around and went towards the door...

 

"I'll be back in a moment, I need to talk to my supervisor. Please just wait here" and with that she eyed them both up and down one last time, and left.

 

Dave glanced into the corridor, before the door swung shut, and saw the taxi driver who had brought them here, talking in an animated fashion to the receptionist, further down the corridor. "And now there's blood all over the backseat of my cab, and I want to get those people to contribute to the cleaning bill! If she had got out instead of having her hysterics, there wouldn't be so much blood all over the back seat! All over the door too - I can't take any more passengers today - Christ knows how much I'm gonna lose in fares..."

 

At that moment, Nat's nurse approached the reception desk and seemed to find what the taxi driver was saying very interesting. As Dave watched cautiously through an inch gap between the door and the wall, he saw the nurse taking notes as the taxi driver told his version of his time with his last passengers. Dave had a bad feeling about this.

 

"Nat my love - I think I 'm going to have to leave you here."

 

Nat looked suddenly surprised "What's happening?" Dave explained, and Nat agreed that the best thing was for Dave to slip away now... because the taxi driver had got to the "no - leave me alone" part... which didn't tie in with what Dave had said...

 

“Okay, Dave… just go! I…I don’t want you to be in trouble because of me…” she gulped hard, because this sentence was so very true in another meaning too…

 

“Nat… I go… but you must know that I know things…”

 

“No! You shouldn’t…”

 

“I don’t care Nat!” he took her pale face into one hand “It doesn’t matter how hard it will be, but I will not give up! I’ll find the way to help you!”

 

“No, please, Dave, just forget me and live your own life. I’ll be fine” she lied, but Dave shook his head “Please, David, go and don’t come near to me! Ever! I’m grateful for your help tonight, but I don’t want anything from you. Please just go and leave me alone…” she whispered, fighting with her tears.

 

“Nat…”

 

“Go, go! Now you can sneak away!” she whispered and pushed him away by the arm.

 

Dave saw that it was better to hurry now, cuz the taxi driver pointed at them and the nurse seemed to call for someone. He searched for another exit and left Nat there by the counter. His heart nearly broke, but if they caught him now then he couldn’t help for Nat. And God knows if they believe Nat’s words or not…

Súgó Még nincs hozzászólás.