Nightmare Scenario

The time read 2:02. Blinding lights filled the room as my eyes attempted to adjust. Beeps sounded out from all around. An older lady dressed in what seemed to be a bright polka dotted pink outfit came into the room, smiling from ear to ear.

"How'd you sleep?" Her voice sounded just as soothing as her smiled looked. She seemed.. homely. There was just something about her that made me feel somewhat.. safe.. like I could get through anything.

"Where am I?" I asked her. My eyes scanned over the brightly lit room once more. "Am I-" I turned to her once again, to notice her nurse-like appearance more clearly now that my eyes had fully adjusted itself, "Am I in a hospital?"

"Do you remember why?" She placed down the tray that had been in her head, grabbing a small pen before leaning over to feel my cheeks.

"Why am I at the hospital?" I scooted my body up so that I'd be sitting upright in the uncomfortable bed, "Oh my god. What happened? Am I going to be okay? Where's Claudia? Claudia should be here. Where is-"

"Calm down sweetpea." She brushed her palm against my hair before putting the pen back down, "Slow breaths, honey. Slow breathes."

Taking one, slow and steady breath, I asked once more, "Where's Claudia? Is she here? Is she- Did we-?"

She stood upright, cradling her clipboard in her arms against her chest before making eye contact with me once again, "Who is Claudia?"

"My baby sister. We'll all we- She's all that I have. Where is she, miss? Is she okay? Oh God, please don't tell me that-"

"Sweetpea, everything's fine. Claudia is most likely fine. You came in last night all alone. My colleagues actually thought you were a runaway teen when you came in last night; some even thought you were in danger, the way you stormed into the ER."

I was a runaway teen, miss. My sister and I both are. You see, we ran away from home in order to get away from our stepfather. Our mother refused to believe our pleas for help; she was just so happy she finally found a rich man to bag. One night, I packed up all of mine and my sister's most precious belongings and we took off, never looking back. My eyes scanned the, what I know to be a, hospital room once more before I looked back at the nice lady standing in front of me. "Do you happen to know why I came here last night? It's just.. I'm sure my sister is wondering where I went and I-" I went to get up out of the bed but the woman placed her palm upward to face me, gesturing for me to lay back down.

"Honey, you can't leave. Not right now, at least. If you want to give me your sisters phone number, I can call her and inform her about where your whereabouts are; if that's what you're worried about."

She's six, ma'am. She doesn't have a phone number. "She doesn't have-"

"Oh," She kept a smile imprinted across her face, although her soft, comforting voice did sound as if she had a little bit of sadness trying to creep itself in, "That's fine. What about your parents? They have to have a phone number that I can call."

"No." I answered rather quickly, before calming my voice back down and answering once more, "The phone that they usually use ran out of minutes for the month." A small fib. Not even that small of a lie, if you think about it. My parents did have phones with minutes that would get used up quite quickly.. this nurse doesn't need to know that they got rid of those phones about five years ago. God. My sister and I haven't even been gone for three months and we've already found ourselves in trouble. "Do you-" I asked her once again, "Do you know why I came in last night?"

"We were hoping you'd tell us." She said to me, "We had an assumption based off the injuries you had, but we wanted to confirm them with you before we ever said anything."

"What injuries?" Oh God. Injuries? Was I injured last night? What if Claudia got injured too? What if Claudia was in trouble and I came here to try and tell them, but they only saw my own injuries? What if she's the one I came here and they just threw me into a hospital bed without even questioning the reason why I was here? "I have to go. I have to get back to Cl-"

"I'm sure Claudia is fine." She said to me in her soft, comforting voice, "You can't go anywhere, honey."

"Please. Just call me Tabitha." I told her. Something about the nickname Honey was kept reminding me of my stepfather and I was becoming a little uneasy. "Why can't I go anywhere?" I found myself asking her.

"Do you have any memory of what happened last night?" She asked me.

I shook my head. "All I remember is that I was with my sister all night. She was having trouble sleeping so I went out to the grocery store to find something that may have been able to help her."

"Anything else, Tabitha?" She was noting onto her clipboard once again as I spoke.

"I just went across the street to some small corner store that we lived near. It was open for twenty four hours, so we went there for everything that we could think of. Drinks.. snacks.. even for medicine. I'm sure that's what I was going to get. Medicine. Sleep pills to help her to get back to sleep." As I reimagined the previous night, I began to picture him once more. "Oh God." I accidently said out loud.

"What is it?" She asked me, "Are you in pain? Is it-"

I reopened my eyes and looked back at her, "Was anyone else with me when I came here last night?"

"No." She answered, "It was just you. You came running up into the ER in tears, Tabitha. Screaming about how you needed help."

"But was there anyone outside with me?" I asked her.

"I don't think- I mean, another one of my colleagues had gone out to check but she didn't say anything about anyone when she came back inside. Why, Tabitha? Did you remember anyone else being with you when you came in last night?"

I shook my head. No. He wouldn't had been with me. "What were my injuries?" I asked her, trying to steer the conversation into another direction to help my thoughts gather the information it was trying to recieve, "Did I- Were my injuries bad? Did I hurt myself on something? I've always been clumsy my whole life, miss. Maybe I fell on something. Oh God.. Did I need immediate surgery?"

"No. You didn't need surgery. Tabitha, are you sure you can't picture anything else in your memory? No other person is coming to mind?"

"Why?"

"Tabitha," Her soft, comforting soothing voice was back in a stronger nature as she looked at me once more, brushing her hand through my hair as she processed her next sentence in her head before speaking out again, "You were sexually assaulted last night. Raped."

"What?"

"Are you sure that was all you could remember from last night?"

I went to shake my head once more when one more memory came to view. "I do remember some guy." I told her, "He was also at the corner store. He worked there. My sister and I have grown to know him well. He's one of the good ones.. letting my sister take at least one candy free of charge anytime we went over to grab something. I always-" Oh my god. "You don't think he would-" I asked her, my eyes widening at the thought of him getting ahold of me in that way. He seemed so nice. My sister adored him. She always called him the 'free candy' guy. I memorized the shifts he worked so that my sister could always get her free candy whenever we went. Oh God. "Do you think he had evil intentions?" I asked the woman, sounding more freaked the more I thought about it.

"Not necessarily, sweetpea." She told me, "He could've just-"

Oh God. Claudia and I lived right across the street. What if he-? I have to get to my sister. Without even thinking, I jumped out of bed and began digging through the pile of clothes that had been left on the nightstand next to the bed. My jeans were smudged with dirt and my shirt had been torn at the collarbone, but I didn't care. I had to get back to Claudia in someway or another, and I couldn't do so in a paper hospital gown that revealed my bare ass from the back.

"Where are you going?" She asked me, "You can't leave this place, Tabitha. We haven't-"

"I'm sorry but I have to go." I told her, brushing past her towards the door, "Thank you miss. I do appreciate how much help you've been for me, but I really do need to go back home." I ran out the room and down the hall, exiting through the big, sliding glass doors before almost running down the street towards the abandoned motel I set up camp for the two of us.

Oh God. What if he found Claudia before I even came back to life this morning? What if Claudia was in trouble the entire time I was laying in that hospital bed? Millions of thoughts ran through my mind as I found my running speed up faster and faster, until I made it to the parking lot of the abandoned motel.

Without thinking of anything else, I went straight to the room we made house in. The door had been left slightly ajar, and all those thoughts came back into my mind. What if he- I can't continue on if anything was to happen to her. With my hand on the doorknob, I turned it and pushed open the door.

There, laying on the bed, was Claudia; finally sleeping soundly under the covers.

And sitting in a ratty old chair in the corner of the room sat him. The guy from the corner store across the street. The guy who separated us. The one who hurt me just the night before.

"Figured you want me to keep her company," He turned to me, a smile imprinted across his face, "You were unable to do so last night." His shirt had been torn at the collar and the buttons seemed as if they had been ripped off. His jeans were smudged with dirt at the knees, as if he had been kneeling over something in a pile of mud. "You didn't tell anyone, did you?" He asked me, standing up and stepping closer to me, "Nobody at that hospital ever found out it was me who's done it, did they?"

"Fuck you." I told him.

"Is that anyway to talk to the person who helped get you some medical help? I just figured you could use the help."

"You did this." I told him, "Why the hell did you do this? We trusted you- I trusted you. She was your biggest fan." My eyes gestured over to my baby sister, who was still sleeping soundly in our bed, "What the hell do you think she's going to think when she finds out what you did?"

"She never will."

"Excuse me?"

He was standing over me now. "The way I see it.. you owed me. I helped you get the items she wanted most.. all free of charge. You couldn't get her all those treats all on your own.. especially living in this rathole that you two call home. Hell, I even came back here after dropping you off to give her the sleep pills you were originally coming into the store for last night."

"You did what?" My eyes scanned the room, past Claudia, and towards the empty pill bottle laying on the bathroom counter next to the sink. "What the hell did you do!" I yelled out, running towards Claudia and scooping her in my arms.

He grabbed ahold of my arm, "You owed me, Tabitha Jennings. I kept your little secret and you never even thanked me for not reporting your ass to the cops for thievery when my boss asked me about the missing inventory."

"I don't owe you nothing." I told him.

He pulled a small metal object out from the back of jeans before shoving me on the bed, "You should have never come back here alone, Tabitha. Not after what you've been through last night. You should have never come back here, thinking all would've been well."

He seemed so nice. Kind. Friendly. Claudia adored him. Obsessed over him. She would always call him the 'free candy' guy. I even had gone as far as to memorize which shifts and days he worked so that she was always able to get herself some free candy every time we went to the corner store. I memorized the shifts he worked. Each shift. Each day. Never nights. He never worked the night shift. It's why I always came over during the day; I never wanted to leave my sister alone and he always worked during the day. My eyes glossed over to the small, metal object he held tight in his hands; pointing it towards the two of us. He seemed so nice. So attentive.

"You planned for this." I said out loud.

"Excuse me?"

"You waited for me to arrive at the store during the night." I told him, "You weren't working last night. Someone else worked the store at night. You were a customer last night."

"But I helped you find what you needed."

"You planned for me to leave Claudia here by herself." I spoke out loud once again, "Claudia was alone. You hurt me. You hurt me and, to make sure that my younger sister remained alone, you sent your friend to take me to the hospital just so you can come over here where you knew she'd be by herself." My eyes looked down at my younger sister's body. They scanned down to her pajama pants that were laying on the floor next to the bed. Oh my god.

"To be fair, I let her take the pills before I did anything." He said to me.

"You motherfucker." Placing my sister back on the bed, I lunged at him, "You fucking assho-"

Bang.

"You should have never come back here by yourself, Tabitha. The first rule of danger; never go back into the danger zone without backup. Especially after you would've found out the hell you've been through just the night before." He had laid my body down on the bed, placing my sisters body next to me so that her head would be resting on my chest, "You should have never come back here, Tabitha."

"Hel- Help me." I pleaded out.

He walked towards the door, looking back at me once more, "At least the two of you could still be together."