Short story, part three

The Shadow Seekers
by Fiona Gibson


Part Three

Aaron opened his eyes and blinked several times. He scrunched up his face and tried to refocus. He was lying down. Wherever he was, it was hot and there was a harsh beeping sound over his right shoulder. When he opened his eyes again he could see bright lights. Was he in a hospital? He closed his eyes and made as if to pinch the bridge of his nose and realised a tube was going into the back of his right hand. He was definitely in hospital.

Pulling all of his focus up to his brain, he reopened his eyes again. He looked down at the hand with the cannula in it then followed the tube up to a drip. Underneath the IV bag a monitor showed his blood pressure and heartbeat. He twisted to see what it said and felt a sharp pain in his left side. Owwwwww! What the--?

He turned gently to find where the pain had come from and saw an attractive woman sitting asleep in an armchair beside him. She was resting her head on her hand and curly black hair was falling down a long thin arm. Her eyebrows were dark and well-groomed, but she had mascara smeared all around her eyes and there was only a faint trace of lipstick on the edges of her lips. He recognised her face but couldn't quite place her. Weirdly, he also recognised her clothes, as though he'd seen the outfit before.

He tried to sit up but the pain in his side came back. F---! He used his free hand to shift his pillows and become more upright. Gingerly he touched his side where it hurt. He realised then that he was topless, if not naked, and that there was a large dressing on his side. He lifted the bedcover and saw paper underpants. Great, he thought, dress to impress. He turned his head to look back at the woman beside him. A twinge of familiarity was burning through the haziness of whatever medication they must have given him. Was her name Clare?

Something clicked into place and everything came flooding to the front of mind at once. Clare! He'd met her at Glenthorn Woods. And Michelle had... Owwww. He touched his side again. That explained it. How long had he been here? Was Clare here the whole time? That was dedication to a relative stranger, he mused.

He looked at her again and a kind of awe began to fill his chest. She had phoned the ambulance. She'd held his hand, stroked his hair... And she was sitting by his hospital bed. Having just met him. How long ago? He glanced around for any sign of what day it was. He lifted his hand to push back his hair then he felt his chin. Stubble. And quite a lot of it. He'd been here for a couple of days! Goddammit, he thought suddenly, she'll have seen the ginger hair in my beard! Aaron kicked himself mentally for feeling vain at a time like this, but this woman had really made an impression already. And his contribution had been getting stabbed and growing a ginger beard.

He rubbed his nose between his fingers and closed his eyes. Movement from the armchair made him open them again.

"Hello sleepy head," Clare smiled. "I was wondering when you'd wake up."

"I could say the same about you." He croaked as he spoke. Wow, he mused, a few days unconscious wrecks your voice. "How long have we been here?"

Clare looked at her watch. "Umm... Two days and... Thirteen hours. You lasted pretty well but you passed out in the ambulance and didn't come round again."

"What happened? Am I alright?" That sounded crazy in the circumstances.

"The knife missed your kidney by half an inch, but... - although, because it stayed in you it wasn't too bad - you lost some blood. I think they said two litres, but there was a lot to take in so I'm not sure. You had a blood transfusion, anyway, but they were pretty confident you'd be alright. I signed the consent forms while they were operating and everything, since I didn't know your next of kin and you didn't seem to have a mobile phone on you for me to call anyone..." Clare trailed off. Aaron thought she looked flushed - was she embarrassed?

"Oh, it's okay... I left my phone in the car when I came to meet you." There'll be one or two missed calls by now, he assumed. "I appreciate everything you've done for me. Hey, you hardly know me. Why should you have done any of this?"

"I'd hardly leave a man dying, stranger or no. And I felt a bit responsible, since your girlfriend seemed to object to you seeing me." She was definitely blushing now.

"That was not my girlfriend. Whoa, have you been sitting here for two and some-odd days thinking I used Shadow Seekers to cheat?" The red went all the way to her hairline now. "No, Clare, I was hiding from that psychopath! I didn't get a chance to explain..."

He trailed off and closed his eyes to think about where to begin. He tried to turn to face her but flames of pain went up his side again. "Goddammit! Sorry. It really f- ... It really hurts. Clare, that woman has made my life a misery for six months now. I had to move home, I almost lost my job, eventually I got them to let me switch offices... She even attacked my pet rabbit!"

While Clare had been listening intently, her face changed at the last word. Her eyes popped open and she clasped a hand to her mouth. She buried her face in her jumper for a few seconds before she looked back at him sincerely. He realised she'd wanted to laugh. A grin started to take over his mouth and a wicked glint filled his eyes. He'd just heard it back in his head and couldn't resist a chuckle. "I'm serious though, Clare, she's a stalker. She broke into my flat and shaved my pet! I only dated her for about two weeks. It was awful..."

The seriousness of where he was and what had happened was finally sinking in. Unbidden, tears welled up in his eyes. Before he could stop them, great heaving sobs were coming from his gut. The pain in his side fired inside him but he couldn't stop it now it had come. Clare moved onto the bed beside him and pulled him into an embrace. She laid his head on her chest and smoothed his hair. It was intimate but not sexual. He needed comfort and she was giving it, without question. He hardly knew this woman but he could already feel a deep ache in the centre of his chest just thinking about the kindness of her soul.

He'd stopped crying within a minute or so but they sat like that for several more minutes. Eventually Clare pulled him away and looked down at him. She smoothed the hair off his face and said, "I've been so worried. I didn't know if you were going to come round any day soon and I have to go back to work on Saturday."

"Wait, what day is it?"

"Wednesday. No, wait... Thursday." She looked at her watch again. "Yeah, Thursday."

Aaron hesitated. "What time is it, exactly?"

She read straight from her watch this time. "One-thirty-five a.m."

He sat staring at her, silently and gaping-mouthed. "What are you doing here at 1:30 in the morning?"

Immediately Clare looked embarrassed. "Well... You- I mean, I couldn't... If you woke up and there was no one here..." She stopped talking without finishing the thought. They both knew that he understood her, but they also clearly knew that the strangeness of it all was overwhelming.

She's been here continuously since Monday afternoon, Aaron realised. Lacking his phone or any personal details, she knew nobody to contact on his behalf. So rather than leave him alone, to wake up in a horrible condition, she'd sat for two and a half days with a man she'd only spent half an hour with - in person, at least; there had been the online chat all day on Sunday. Despite everything that had been happening with Michelle, this didn't feel "stalker-esque" or weird. It seemed sweet and kind and astonishingly generous. He suddenly remembered her saying she had a few days off work to decorate her flat.

"Did you use your annual leave to sit with me in hospital?"

"Yes."

"Oh m- Wow." He sat in stunned silence for a moment. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." She put her hand on his, then flushed again and stood up. "I suppose I should really let someone know you're awake." She left and as the door closed Aaron saw her glance back into the room before setting off to the nurses' station.

He looked around the room properly for the first time. He was in a single room. The curtains were drawn, so he couldn't work out where he was. He assumed they'd brought him to Westthorn hospital but he actually didn't know the closest hospital to the Woods. He'd arranged to meet Clare out of the city so he wouldn't be spotted by anyone who knew Michelle. She seemed to have eyes everywhere. How had she known where he'd be on Monday?

He'd only told Heidi that he was popping out for an appointment. He had no friends in the new office yet. Come to think of it, he'd lost all his friends at the old office too. Gary hadn't taken kindly to the abuse he'd been sent by Michelle and Brian seemed to think Aaron was being melodramatic about the whole thing. Aaron getting taken off the product launch because of the number of days he'd missed while avoiding Michelle had been the last straw for Brian, who'd been left to do the work of both of them for the final days of the project.

The new office was nice but, as the sales team, they hadn't been involved in the project and didn't seem terribly enamoured with the new product's changed features. He'd tried to enthuse them on the benefits of multi-layered therapeutic programming for them to explain to customers, but they hadn't bothered taking it on board.

Shit! The office... Work! If Clare hadn't been able to contact anyone, no one knew what had happened, no one knew where he'd been since Monday lunchtime. Crap! This wouldn't go down well. Bad enough having to move offices to avoid a stalker, but disappearing because you'd been stabbed didn't exactly scream, "Nothing to worry about here, guys!"

And Mum! God almighty, what would Mum be thinking? When had he last spoken to her... Sunday! And this is Thursday morning. She'll be in bits. He'd need to ask Clare to contact her as soon as possible, despite the time. If she was worried, she'd be up, and if she wasn't worried yet... Should he disturb her? Yes, she'd want to know as soon as he could get in touch. Work could wait, the damage had been done. He'd phone them during office hours and try to explain as much as he could without sounding lunatic.

As his mind was wandering, he heard an extra beep over the others - funny how he'd tuned them out already - and then a buzzing sound came from the IV stand. A wave of colour washed over him and he felt the heat in his side disappearing. It must be some sort of pain relief. Whatever it was it felt lo-o-ovely. He sank back into the bed and closed his eyes.

When Clare came back into the room with the nurse he snapped up, sent a bolt of pain up his side and realised he'd dozed off. The nurse walked straight over to his right side, asked him how he was feeling and started writing down details from the monitors. Clare was hovering at the door and he reached his left hand out for her to come over. His hand felt tingly, which he hadn't expected. He took her hand anyway and said, woozily, "I'm so sorry to ask this, but can you please phone my Mum just now? She's not heard from me since Sunday and she might be worried. I really am sorry, it's a lot to ask when you don't know me..."

The nurse glanced at the two of them when she heard this, then she left the room saying she'd fetch a consultant.

"Of course I'll phone her. I've been desperate to get in touch with someone for you, but I didn't know where to start! And I've no way of getting back to your car - at least, not easily, because mine is still at the Woods."

"Ohhhhh Clare, I didn't even think! You came in the ambulance with me! I'm sorry."

"Stop apologising. You were stabbed! I could have phoned for a taxi if it was a problem, but I didn't want to leave you. Do you want me to phone her now? It's two in the morning."

"Yes, honestly, she'll want to know. I'll give you her name and her number and you can just explain the best you can. I'm so grateful."

"Is there anyone else who needs to know straight away? Is your Dad with her? Do you have siblings?"

"No, my father left when I was a teenager and I'm an only child. Mum's all I've got. I mean - I have friends! God. That sounded pathetic. I only mean that no one else is urgent. Although, maybe in the morning - the proper morning - you could phone my mate Postb- sorry, Tom - to go and check on my pet?"

"Yes of course. What's it called? The pet, not Tom."

It was Aaron's turn to flush now. He ruffled his hair and mumbled, "Mr Snuffles."

"Sorry?"

"Mr Snuffles," he repeated, too firmly. They both laughed.

"Okay, I'll make sure Mr Snuffles is looked after. But at some point we need to talk about that name!"

Clare wrote down his mother's details and left to find somewhere she could use her phone. A few moments later the nurse returned with a tall, soft-featured older man. The man stepped past the nurse and came to Aaron's side. He looked down kindly at him and said quietly, "Pleased to meet you. I'm Jim Monroe, I tended to you when you arrived and I've been part of your care team since then. How do you feel, Mr Flynn?"

"A little woozy, right now, doctor. My side hurts like f- ... A lot."

Mr Monroe chuckled. "That's understandable. The morphine should keep that in check for you, but you'll be quite tender for a while yet. There was some damage to your small intestine and you lost a fair drop of blood, but the tip stopped short of your kidney, so the prognosis isn't too bad, all round. Your girlfriend consented to a blood transfusion on your behalf, Mr Flynn, I hope that was okay. It's always better to have an immediate family member but in an emergency we do what we can."

Aaron took everything in. It sounded like he'd avoided anything serious, but it was quite shocking to hear all at once. Strangely, the least shocking thing had been hearing Clare described as his girlfriend. He hadn't even wanted to correct that.

"Thank you so much, doctor. This whole thing is just awful. I can't believe my life has come to this. Have the police been involved at all?"

The consultant frowned and sucked in air. "Yes... Now don't get excited. Two detectives came by on Monday evening after we'd alerted them. We gave them your name and your girlfriend went through the circumstances. They seemed to know of you already. They simply thanked us for assisting in their enquiries and asked us to phone again when you woke up. Miss Cameron didn't understand, either... She's been wonderful, though."

"Who?"

"Miss Cameron? Your girlfriend."

Aaron felt the heat fill his cheeks instantly. Of course! Clare. He'd known her surname, of course, but it was too much to take in all of this and remember a detail like that. He felt ridiculous.

"Sorry, yes, Clare. Miss Cameron. Clare Cameron." Too much, Aaron. "Sorry, yes, I was working with the police before all of this happened. Clare maybe just didn't connect it all. That's fine." He tripped over the words as he tried to close the subject.

At that moment, Clare came back into the room. The consultant turned to greet her fondly. "Ah! Miss Cameron. I was just telling Mr Flynn about the police visit. And about your wonderful attendance over your boyfriend here these past few days. It's been good to know he'd have a loved one to wake up to. I'll leave you for now. Carol is on the other end of your buzzer if you need anything. Both of you should try to rest. Goodnight."

Clare and Aaron stared at each other as the nurse closed the door. Clearly, neither of them knew what to say and they both felt the tension in the room. Finally Clare broke the silence when she remembered her purpose in leaving. "Your Mum answered straight away. She'd brought the phone to bed with her. She hadn't wanted to harass you during the week but she was getting quite upset that you hadn't texted her. I could hear the worry down the phone. I just said that I was a friend and I'd been with you when someone attacked you. I told her where we were and I gave her my number so she could keep in touch. She's going to drive up tomorrow and I checked with an auxiliary that she can come see you any time."

Aaron found himself gazing at Clare again. The ache in his chest came back and his heart thudded. This would have been alright, except that the beeping from the monitor beside him began to grow louder and faster too. He took a few breaths to calm down then gestured for her to come over. She sat down beside him on the bed and he whispered, "Thank you, Clare. You've been amazing. You're a really special person."

"I don't think I've done anything anyone else wouldn't do, but thank you." She hesitated, as if deciding what to say next. There was a lot to be said but Aaron thought most of it could wait. Clare smiled and spoke at last. "So... How would you rate our first date?"

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Aaron and Clare will return in Part Four in a few days' time. Please continue to leave me feedback here or via Facebook, as I'm still learning as I go.

Peace and love.

FG x