Rescued By Fire

Easton – I had no idea what all these damn papers meant, they were funding this and paying taxes on that.                 Why, why did she leave now! I was now in charge of trying to manage the finances while my accountant, Leslie, was out of town. I know she can’t control that her grandmother decided now was the optimal time to die, but a heads up would have been nice. I was no math whiz, and I certainly could not fill the ominous roll put before me.                 How did I even run this business before?                 When is she coming home again? I shifted my attention to the small square calendar hanging next to her computer. She left a long list on how to organize the paperwork sent to the office, yet some how I even managed to mess that up. I saw a little picture frame tucked next to her computer. It was the picture of us when we went on the vacation 'get away' to the beach. She had claimed to have never seen the beach, so I rented a private island for us to vacation on. She was so happy in the picture; I still remember that day. She had a blue dress on and kept a red hibiscus in her hair the entire trip. A smile crept on my face, but quickly faded as I remembered why we left early. She wanted to go to the populated islands, but I told her no because my makeup artist wasn’t on the trip, and I refused to go out without my scars covered. She whined and cried for a whole day straight and we finally decided to pack up early. I was in a fire as a young boy, my father had tried to murder our family and I was the only survivor. I had a large knife scar stretching from my temple to my jawline near my chin. I also had burn scaring on my chest running up my neck. I began sinking into the memory, letting myself drown in that fire again. I shook those painful memories from my head and continued to just stare at the mountain of paperwork in front of me. Just then a maid burst through the office doors. “Mr. Easton! I’m sorry to disturb you this way! A woman has fallen from a bus outside the house’s gates. We saw the whole thing from the kitchen windows.” She was panting and soaking wet from the rain, she had obviously already gone out and invited this strange woman into my home. “You say a woman has fallen…out of a bus. Outside my house. She is now in my house?” I could feel the discontent pasted to my face. “Well yes Mr. Easton, but please come take a look at her. We can’t get her to move past the stairs. She says she’s from Mars.” “Oh yay” I replied sarcastically. How wonderful, its nearing midnight and I’m already stressed from my finances and now I have a crazy woman from Mars in my house. She was probably part of some decoy with whoever is in the bus, getting the inside scoop about my house so they can try to rob it tonight. I walked slowly down the hallways as my maid danced tiny circles around me trying to speed me up. I’ve seen these charity cases before, some woman comes to the house breasts busting out of her well-padded bra and a short skirt barely covering her ass. She acts like she’s just been robbed and then tries to seduce me, if I show up with makeup on; if I have no makeup on, they usually just stop talking and stare at me until they back up out of the house. I have no makeup on tonight so chances are she’ll scream and run. Just what I need more mental anguish to deal with. I turned the corner and saw her sitting on the steps, she was no con-artist. She was a very small woman, possibly 5’3 and 70 pounds soaking wet. I could see every individual bone in her body. She had bruises all over her skin, a busted lip that was currently bleeding, a black eye that had swelled her right eye completely shut, all these wounds were not caused by falling out of a bus. As I approached closer I realized she was also bleeding from the head, the blood was getting caught in her thick matted brown hair, hair that probably hasn’t seen a brush in years. I noticed a rotten scent coming from her, it was feces and what smelled like rotted meat. I gaged a little and had to back away.   “Shelia, please draw her a bath in the maids’ quarters. I will instruct Jill to get Marissa’s old bedroom ready.” I turned to go find Jill as Shelia helped the small woman walk towards the bathroom. My maids’ quarters where in the basement of the house. The basement was the entire footprint of the house above, so that gives the three maids 3,500 square feet to live in. They have 3 master bedrooms with attached bathrooms, a full kitchen, a living room, a dining room, plus an auxiliary room they can do what they please with. I recently had a maid leave to pursue a family life outside the house so that freed up a bedroom for our unexpected guest. “Jill, we have a guest – “ “Oh I know, I have already set the bedroom up for her to stay in as Shelia instructed me.” She said with a nod in my direction. “Oh very well, please tell Sheila I will be in your kitchen calling the doctor and meet me there when she is in bed.” Jill nodded and got back to work. Jill was a great maid; she was an orphan and legally an adult at 16. After her run in with some drugs I offered a job to her out of the rehabilitation center she was staying at, that was 5 years ago now. She has come a long way and often must reassure me that she is happy to stay working for me. Sheila on the other hand was a grouchy old lady, always there to smack me and get me back on track. I have no doubt that as soon as she saw the woman, she was already in here telling Jill to get the room ready. To be completely honest I will be surprised if the doctor isn’t already on they way when I call. The staff I have working in my house is the only family I have left, and I refuse to treat them any less than what they deserve. My life would not run without them helping me every second of the day, I treat them like the family they are. I had just hung up the phone when Shelia came and leaned against the door frame of the kitchen. “You called the doctor right; she’s bleeding pretty bad” she said. “Yeah, he’s on the way.” I rubbed my neck awkwardly. It’s really not like me to take someone in. “You’re doing the right thing Easton. She’s in bad shape. When I undressed her for the bath I saw she has open wounds from cigarettes all over stomach, badly infected. It’s horrible, its like she was someone’s ash tray” Sheila’s voice cracked saying the last part. I looked up to see her wiping a tear from her eye. “I’ll do what I can to help her, I promise.” I moved closer so I could give her a hug and comfort my friend. Sheila and I stood and talked for a little while, discussing the young woman’s mental state. We concluded that the traumatic events that have unfolded tonight have probably messed with her head a little. Jill came through the house being followed by Dr. Murphy. Dr. Murphy has been in my trust ever sense I took over my family’s business and helped rescue me the night of the fire. I waited outside the door as Dr. Murphy examined her, when he finally exited, he had a sorrowed look on his face. “So, how’s she look Doc” I asked. “Not good Mr. Easton. Your nurse said you found her outside fallen from a passing bus?” I nodded my head, he took his glasses off and began cleaning them. “Between you and me Mr. Easton you need to keep her here and hidden till you find out where she came from, no normal human tortures someone like that.” I gulped and ran my hands through my hair, I looked passed Dr. Murphy and into the open room the woman was sleeping in. “Mr. Easton I’m going to call a prescription for you to pick up for her to take to ease the pain and heal that nasty infection. Right now she is in a state of shock, not unreasonable for a person with that much mental trauma to be in. When she comes to though, she will be terrified and confused. Try your hardest to stay nice to her, remember how you felt when you finally woke up.” Dr. Murphy just gazed at me with his eyebrows raised, he knew my temper too well. I rolled my eyes and nodded in agreeance. “Call me in the morning if she lives.” My eyes widened.                 If she lives…theres an if! Before I could ask about the “if” word Dr. Murphy was already gone. I walked to the room and peered in as Sheila wet the washcloth on her forehead. She then proceeded to lower the blanket and raise the shirt that must have come from Jill's closet. I could see her bare stomach; the top portion was riddled with small burns and as you go lower on the stomach, they combined into what was a massive burn. Dr. Murphy had done his best to peel off the layer of infected skin leaving just the red flesh of her stomach showing.                 Who did this to you? “Sheila, how is she?” I questioned. Shelia looked up at me “I know Dr. Murphy is keeping his hopes down, but I know she will make it. Her fever is making her hallucinate, but once it breaks we should be in the clear” she said. As she looked back up at me I could see the hope in her eyes. “Try to get some rest Mrs. Sheila” I reminded her. She simply nodded and went to re-wet the washcloth on the woman’s forehead. I made my way into my room and began to put my pajamas on, I stopped and stared into the mirror at the burn scars of my very own. All I could hope was that the woman was not left as disfigured and ugly as me. I quickly buttoned up my night shirt before I pondered to much more on what I could look like. I sank peacefully into bed and quickly faded into sleep. A large booming sound jolted me from my sleep. I sat straight up in bed confused. I looked at the clock.                 What's going on at 5 AM. Just then I heard a long high-pitched shriek, and I knew.                 The woman…she’s awake.