The Princess Who Wasn't

Chapter 4: Better Left For Dead?

Slowly, Merilla took one step after the other, walking toward the church. Her only hope was that someone there at the church would give her some food. They had before, after she was kicked out, the pastor would give her a little piece of bread or a couple crackers. One time specifically she was given a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Granted, it was only because the pastor had just thrown it in the trash as the bread was found to have a spot of mold after the sandwich was already made. But it was so sweet and nutty. Now, she hoped for the same kindness.

Each step felt as if fire was coursing through her muscles. Cramps contracted her muscles every step until not only was she fighting dizziness and gravity to take the next step and the one after, but she was fighting her own body. Making it out to the sidewalk Merilla noticed that the bank across the street flashed the date as Saturday. This made Merilla start to panic. She had originally woken up to find food on Monday morning. She had been behind the dumpster for over five full days. She hadn’t eaten in eight days and hadn’t had clean water in almost ten days. Panic rose in Merilla’s chest as she realized she had no idea how long her body was sustainable. She tried to hurry to the church but as she made it to the end of the first block, her legs buckled and her vision went dark. Her last thought as she felt her head c***k against the sidewalk was a prayer to never open her eyes again.

Either luck was completely with her or completely against her because three days later Merilla opened her eyes to a blinding bright white. A sharp pain stabbed behind her left eye and the light made it all the worse. Feeling trapped Marilla started thrashing, struggling against her restraints until she realized it was a blanket that was covering her. It was tucked in around her and she also realized she could see the edge of white gauze across the top of her vision.

Inching her head from one side to the other Merilla realized that instead of ending up in the church like she had intended she was in a hospital room. This was not good, not good at all. That meant people had seen her, they had to touch her, mover, care for her while she was unconscious. The people in town had helped her and that meant she was in a world of trouble- or rather her world was in trouble. Merilla’s heart started racing so fast it was like her heart knew to try to speed out of there and get to safety and yet her feet could not follow and so her entire being stayed still. All except for her heart that continued to fight for its escape.

The faster Merilla’s heart pounded at her chest the more frantic the beeping on the machine monitoring her vitals became. It got so loud it was as if it was yelling, “patient trying to escape, patient trying to escape” just to ruthlessly make sure she was found out. A nurse came sauntering in, seemingly unbothered by the agitated machine. As the nurse looked at Merilla her nose scrunched up and her lips puckered as if she had just smelled something sour. Although, to be fair, the nurse probably had smelled something sour. Merilla couldn’t recall the last time she had a shower.

“Oh, goody, you’re awake.” The nurse sneered at Merilla, “I’ll go let the doctor know.” Then the nurse turned around and walked to the information desk where Merilla saw her sit down in what looked like a very plush rolling chair and start talking to the nurse next to her.

This didn’t surprise Merilla. Nobody actually cared if she lived or died. Well, they probably did care with the hopes that she would just die. Merilla took deep breathes in order to calm down and wondered how long it would actually be until the doctor decided to come in. It was her hopes that he would come in and unhook her from the machines and tubes then just tell her to leave. She wasn’t sure what all was attached to her but she felt something in her nose and multiple i.v.’s. There were also the cords monitoring her heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen. Merilla would have just took her chance with unplugging everything but she didn’t want to risk injuring herself further when she is sure that she is going to need her strength for what the town was planning next.

There was no way they were going to let her just roam freely after she used up more of their supplies and time. Merilla was sure they would go back to her being locked in the church and she would probably have to stay there for the rest of her life. Except this time, they wouldn’t be as kind as to make sure she stayed fed and had clean clothes. The terror she was in for was more than she could bear to think about so she just laid her head to the side and forced herself to sleep.