Beneath the Burking name

Watch where you’re going, you drunk head!” The man said, his voice echoing through the silent night like shattered pieces of glass. My heart immediately skipped a beat, and I froze for a while. My vision was blurred, and I kept blinking continuously against the harsh lights of the parking lot. My head felt heavy, as if it had been replaced with metal, and the air around me thickened with the smell of rain showers and gasoline. Everything around me looked different, and for a moment, I thought I was in a different dimension. I later realized that I had come with my car and had to find it. I looked around, squinting my eyes, hoping to get a clearer view. “Where is my car? Where is it ?” I said as I strolled through the parking lot. “There it is, I said to myself while walking towards my car. My words came out in a mumble, almost lost in the cold air. The rows of cars looked like endless mirrors of the same shape. My shoes scraped the gravel, each step unsteady as the world tilted beneath me. My palms brushed cold metal until finally one door handle felt familiar enough to trust. Without thinking twice, I slid into the first seat, relief almost washing over me, and immediately I heard a scream that tore through my sheet of relief. “Hey, Sorry! Sorry!” I stammered as I jerked upright. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” I said as I realized I hadn’t even tried opening the door with my car key. I lifted my head and realized that the car wasn’t even mine. But the voice, her scream, and the lights around me all melted away slowly as darkness loomed through the showers of rain over us. There was absolute silence for a moment, and just then her voice broke through the silence. It was soft and calm, almost as if I had encountered the voice of an angel. “ Hey, hey, can you hear me? She asked. But her words just sounded like a mumble in my head, my head was spinning nonstop, and everything just blurred out as I fell slowly to the ground. She started screaming for help, but sadly, it was 1 am and no one seemed to be around. “ Oh my God, are you okay? Are you fine? What’s wrong with you? Should I call an ambulance? “ she kept asking in panic. “I’m fine, just that I think I drink too much,” I answered. She placed her hand on my forehead to check my temperature. “What’s wrong now? Where were you going before you sat in my car? “ she asked again. At that point, everything was fading away before my eyes; it was as if I was slowly slipping away into a different reality. “Hello, hello, can you hear me?” she asked again. Tapping on my cheeks slowly. My vision began to clear a bit in fragments. I started to see her face re-take shape. She was a pretty lady with a round face and wide doe eyes. She kept looking into my eyes and asking me what she could do to help. “Maybe a phone call? Do you remember anything? She asked, but I was still lost in my thoughts. Alright, then, "she said." I guess you can’t stay here for long. We gotta get you somewhere safe, I don’t know what you are up to, but I hope you aren’t trying to kill yourself “ she said while trying to lift me from the ground . “ arhm, a little help here, try standing up too so I can lift you properly “ she said. I gathered all the strength I had and stood up swiftly. She held me up and opened the back door strategically. It was quite a struggle getting me into the car, but we managed to do it. As I lay in the back seat, I couldn’t help but keep wondering where she was taking me and why a woman like her would be willing to help a total stranger like me. I tried saying something, my lips parted, but nothing came out, not even a whisper; my body felt lightweight, as if I had been emptied of all my entrails. She turned around briefly, sighed, and said, “Try to stay awake, you’ll get better soon, it’s just alcohol, I know what to do. She said, as she drove past the streetlights which blinked in and out of focus like stars. I caught a sharp glance of her passenger seat; he held the steering wheel as if her life depended on it. I didn’t know who she was, yet somehow her voice calmed the storm in my head. When We got to a hotel, she got down, went to the receptionist and asked for help . “ you need to take him to a hospital, “one of the attendants said . “ well, I don’t have the money for that and besides it’s just alcohol, I know what to do, I couldn’t just leave him on the streets just like that “ she said. All this while, I was still lost somewhere, somewhere I didn’t know. But I felt safe, safe in her hands and safe in her presence. “Thank you, I’ll let you know when I need something,” she said as she closed the door. She guided me to the couch, left me there, and came back with a glass of water and a towel. “ Drink this”, she said. I didn’t hesitate to obey her. I downed the water without thinking twice. My stomach twisted after a few minutes of emptying the glass. I rushed into the bathroom, and everything I had drunk that night came out of me into the toilet. She was standing there, watching me, holding out the towel and handing it to me. No judgment on her face, just concern and care. “ Do you feel better now ?” She asked. I nodded weakly as I took the towel from her. “ Good “. She said as she smiled faintly. “You’ll be okay, I’ll get you some juice, but before that, you need to take a quick shower to freshen up, there’s a hoodie here and some sweatpants, you can change into them when you are done, okay ?” She said while staring deep into my eyes.