Stitches and Scars

Chapter 4

Carla's POV:

"Dammit! I'm coming hold your horses." Whoever the f**k it is knocking at this time at night better have a damn good excuse for waking me up. But still I wonder who it could be.

As I opened the door I was shocked to see what was before me. "Alina! What happened to you?" She didn't respond, all she did was groan. She was in really bad shape. I needed to get her to hospital. f**k! If I did that hospital staff would most likely alert the police. They'd want to file a report on how she sustained her injuries and we couldn't  have them sticking their nose into this, it would raise too many suspicions. So now what was I supposed to do?

 I made my way to Alina's side, she was slumped against the wall. Gently wrapping her arm over my shoulder I tried lifting her up only to hear her mewl in pain so I stopped. As I began to inspect her body I noticed her torn garments . She had been clutching onto them to avoid exposure. I also took heed of the bruising around her abdominal area. God Alina who did this to you? I needed to get her inside, but she was too heavy for me to move without causing her more pain. I needed Miguel's help, but before I did that I had to cover her exposed body. God please don't let it be what I think it is. "I'll be right back baby girl."

I quickly ran into my room rummaging through my clothes until I found one of my oversized  shirts. I ran back to Alina and kneeled beside her. "Hey babygirl I'm back, your going to hate me for this, but I'm going to have to move you a little bit, I know it's going to hurt, but I have to put this shirt on you before I can bring Miguel out. I know you wouldn't want him to see you like this."

She didn't respond so I took that as my cue to continue. Slowly I slipped the t-shirt over her head and put her arms into the arm holes and pulled it down until she was fully covered. I ran back to my bedroom and shook Miguel attempting to wake him up.

"Baby it's late can't we do it in the morning?" said Miguel in a groggy voice.

I swear all men think about is s*x!

"Miguel, its Alina she's been hurt," and just like that he got up, worry now on his expression.

He followed me, his expression much like my own when he laid eyes on our friend. She was passed out, her hair was a disheveled mess, her face was swollen and bruised to a pulp, and covered in heaps of blood. Miguel carefully picked her up and laid her on the couch, once again she groaned in pain.

Alina POV:

I blinked several times trying to adjust my eyes to the sunlight entering the brightly lit room. Rayos! Todo me duele. Que me paso? Donde diablos estoy? (Dang! Everything hurts. What happened to me? Where the heck am I?) I attempted to sit up. 

"If I were you I wouldn't do that."

The voice was right I instantly regretted it once I felt the immense pain in my abdominal area. I turned to look at the stranger, she was sitting in the far left corner of the room. She was a middle aged lady with dirty blond hair, she sat there in scrubs looking exhausted.

"W-w-ho are you and where am I?"

"My name is Addie Wilson, I believe we are neighbors, well sort of I live two apartments over from here. And well to answer your other question your in my humble abode"

"What am I even doing here?"

"Your friends brought you here."

"Why?"

"Well you sustained several injuries that I helped patch up: 5 broken ribs, a broken nose, a fractured jaw, two broken eye sockets, a concussion, four lacerations to your lip, and a ruptured spleen. "

"Dang. You said I had a ruptured spleen right?"

"That's correct."

"How were you able to fix it?"

"I had perform an emergency surgery on you last night due to extensive internal bleeding."

"But how? Are you some type of doctor or something? "

"I'm an er physician. I work at UT hospital."

"Okay, but why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Help me."

"Well at first I declined to help you due to me being tired as hell and because they could've easily just taken you to the hospital, but I knew something was up the moment they said they couldn't. They begged me, offered to do anything, and even tried bribing me and I guess finally caved."

"So what did you pick?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on you couldn't have possibly done it for free, no one ever does."

"How do you know I didn't?"

"Call it a hunch."

"Okay if you must know I asked Miguel and Carla to babysit."

"Awe, you have kids? What are their names?"

"Yeah just one and his name is Mr. Periwinkle."

I couldn't contain my laughter so I busted out laughing, but boy do I regret doing that.

"Man it hurts!"

"That's what you get for laughing."

"I'm sorry, but who in their right mind would name their child Mr. Periwinkle?"

"Rude much?"

"Maybe a little, but still didn't it cross your mind that now your kid is going to be bullied for life because of your name choice?"

"God you can't be serious?"

"Well it's true."

"Fine if you must know I don't have any kids, never have never will."

"Then who is Mr. Periwinkle?"

"My pet pig."

"Seriously!"

"What he's my baby."

I playfully rolled my eyes at her, but then the thought of having to explain things popped into my head turning the atmosphere to all seriousness. "So that's it, your not going to drill me with questions?" 

" Nope." 

"I could be criminal for all you know." 

"Still its none of my business kid. I mean I will admit I'm a tad bit curious, but unless you decide to tell me I won't ask." 

I felt myself sigh in relief . "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For everything. For helping me and not bombarding me with questions. I'm a stranger yet you chose to help me without anything in return. So thank you."

Our conversation was suddenly interrupted with knocking coming from the door.

"That's probably your friends coming to check up on you."

She left briefly to let them in. ¿Cómo diablos les voy a explicar esto? (How the heck am I ever going to explain this to them?) I hadn't really had the chance to process everything that had happened. As I remembered everything from last night's event my body began to tremble uncontrollably and the tears started falling.

Carla POV:

Addie quickly let Miguel and I in informing us that Alina was finally awake and that she was doing better, but I wouldn't believe it until I saw her with my own two eyes. Addie sat on her livingroom couch turning on the TV, I'm assuming to give us some privacy. As we entered the room I saw Alina weeping. I was shocked to say the least because Alina never cries. I ran over to her side and gently hugged her.

"Baby girl why are you crying?"

She wouldn't answer her cries became more frantic and uncontrollable, so I just let her cry.

"Shhhh... it's ok your safe now."

When she finally stopped her eyes were blood shot red.

"Are you ok?"

She nodded yes and took a deep breath. I released her from my hugg and started gently playing with her hair to try and soothe her while Miguel just stood by the door pondering. Then there was an awkward silence between us. Not me nor Miguel knew how to ask her what had happened. Or maybe we were scared because we already knew the answer.

"Aren't you going to ask?"

"Baby girl if your not ready to talk about it we won't ask."

But I guess Miguel didn't quite agree, he started bombarding her with questions I don't think she was quite ready to answer.

"What happened Alina? Who did this to you?"

"Miguel let her be! When she's ready to talk about it she'll tell us."

"Tell me!"

"Miguel!"

But before I could say anything else Alina hesitantly whispered in a scared voice, "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

Alina couldn't even look at us she was staring at the floor, "I'm saying I dont know, he was a stranger."

"Why would a stranger do this to you?" asked Miguel.

"I don't know."

"You have to give us a little more than that Alina. Was he following you?" asked Miguel.

"No."

"Then how did he manage to do this to you?" said Miguel.

"I was walking down an ally last night when he saw me."

"Really an alley? What the f**k where you doing in an alley so late at night?" yelled Miguel.

"I was coming home from training and decided to take a short cut."

"How could you be so f*****g stupid!"

"Miguel! You need to calm down!" I said. "I know your worried about her, but now is not the time nor place to discuss this."

Miguel completely ignored my comment.

"What was the f*****g point in you training so much if you couldn't even defend yourself against a complete stranger!"

"Enough Miguel! You went too far! I think its best you leave."

Before anything else could be said I heard Alina grunting in pain as she got up.

"Alina please you shouldn't be getting up."

She ignored me, and walked straight up to Miguel and stared him down. Which was slightly amusing despite the circumstances because she was only 4 '11' and was anything but intimidating. I could see Miguel squirming under her intense gaze. But any hint of amusement quickly dissipated after what she said next.

"Your right Miguel it was stupid to walk down that ally so late at night. Your also right about my training what made me think I could defend myself against HIM when I couldn't even defend myself against an ordinary stranger. He r***d me and all I did was freeze in fear! I deserved it!"

Oh God no! I rushed to Alina's side to comfort her. I couldn't help but squeeze her tightly despite her injuries. I wanted her to know she was safe, but apart of me felt like I had failed her because I once told her she was safe and that no one would ever hurt her again and yet here we are. She stiffened at my touch. I was right though after all that would explain why I found her garments torn. Addie had also mentioned it might be a possibility due to her being bruised around her inner thighs and having found blood in her vaginal area. I felt sick to my stomach just thinking about what that sick bastard did to my friend.

She stared at Miguel with a heap of tears pouring down her eyes and said, "I deserved it! Every minute of it!"

Miguel's face was pale from the news and in the reflection of his eyes I saw pain. He felt horrible for saying those shitty things to her and apart of me knew he didn't mean it he was just worried like I was.

"Dont ever say that Alina! Dont you dare f*****g say that! None of this is your fault. I'm such a f*****g d**k for ever making you think that. I'm so sorry for what I said enana (midget).

"But its true!"

"No! Don't ever think that. The only one at fault here is that f*****g bastard!"

Alina kept nodding her head no refusing to believe any of it, she truly did blame herself.

"Look at me Alina."

She refused to look at him opting to stare at the floor instead.

"Enana (midget) look at me please."

She raised her head up in shame. Her eyes now glossy from crying

"I'll say this over and over again until you believe it none of this was your fault."

Miguel stepped forward and hugged her both us now caging her in an embrace. "Your not alone baby girl we're gonna get through this together. I promise you," I said.

She didn't respond all that was heard was her sniffling as she continued to cry. So there we remained hoping to give her at least some type of comfort. But I knew once we let her go her walls would go back up, the mask would come back on and she would  stuff her feelings down and put on the facade. The one where she pretends to be okay, but deep inside she's broken. 

I've known her long enough to learn to tell the difference between the lies and the truth. To be honest it's rare to see her without the mask, but I catch glimpses of it every now and then like when she talks about a patient or when her eyes light up when she's reading a good book, but majority of the time I notice that once the facade comes on even though she's smiling I can see an endless abyss of sadness in her eyes. 

Like I said it's rare when I see the real Alina, a happy Alina because it is things like this and people like HIM who've hurt her over and over again until there's nothing left to break.