HER WEAKNESS

16.

Ingrid screamed as she yanked the knife out of the man only two feet away from where I lay, too frozen in fear to move. They were all dead. Ingrid had killed every single one of them her hands drenched in their blood. She crouched down beside me.

‘Amy are you ok?’

Her hands came out to touch me, covered in blood. I backed away without even thinking about it. Trying to scramble away from the blood and I regretted it the minute I saw the hurt in Ingrid’s eyes.

She thinks i’m scared of her.

‘No, Ingrid. I’m sorry.’ I tried desperately to call out but it was too late she was already walking away. A couple of minutes later and her men were all coming up from the bottom. It was Dougie who helped me to my feet and led me outside. I tried turning around and finding Ingrid but she was nowhere in sight.

I didn’t mean to flinch away from her.

She was covered in blood. I was scared of the blood, not her and I had to make her understand that. I couldn't bear the thought of her thinking that i was scared of her.

‘Are you sure you’re ok?’ Dougie asked me as he put the ice pack up to my red cheek.

I nodded, never taking my eyes off the door; afraid that i’d miss Ingrid as she came back in. I couldn’t think of anything else but apologising but Ingrid wasn’t coming back and I was starting to get really worried.

I helped Linda to treat some of the other men who got injured; a couple of hours passed when Cameron finally stormed in and looked around until his eyes met mine. ‘I need your help.’

He was walking away before I could stop him. I raced after him to catch up and followed him up to Ingrid’s room where I had been staying. Before he opened the door he looked back at me. ‘She won’t let me or anyone else treat her wounds. You need to help her ok. I’ve never seen her as drunk as this.’

Cameron was genuinely worried and it broke my heart to know that i had a large part to play in his boss’s heartache.

‘I’ll take care of her.’ I reassured him.

He opened the door and it took everything in me to not gasp at the sight of a drunken Ingrid, clumped in her chair, her face all bruised and bloody. There was an open first aid kit on the table but most of it’s contents laid on the floor no doubt where Ingrid had batted them away.

I approached Ingrid carefully not wanting to scare her as her eyes were closed tight. I knelt down beside her and kissed her cheek in the only part that was void of any cut or bruise.

‘Ingrid. Ingrid.’

She groaned.

‘Let me bandage you up ok?’ i asked softly.

She opened her eyes and looked at me and i smiled down at her. ‘I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t flinch at you. I got startled by the blood that’s all. Trust me Ingrid, it doesn’t matter what you did I think you’ve got my heart trapped now.”

Ingrid smiled and I kissed her lips tentatively.

‘How about when you’re feeling better, we get out of here. Go away just the two of us?’

Ingrid took my hand and kissed my knuckles.

‘I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”