ACHE (Naked, Book 5)

WARNING: THIS BOOK CONTAINS SEXUAL CONTENT

ACHE (NAKED, BOOK 5)

by Kelly Favor

©
ACHE. 2013, all rights reserved.

For a long time it was simply dark. The deepest, darkest blackness Caelyn could ever have imagined—and yet it was darker even than that. Caelyn knew she’d been in a terrible accident. That much, she knew for sure. Everything else was kind of a mystery.

Fading in, the darkness lifted slightly, like a curtain rising, but she was still in some kind of fog.

“Hurry up, Jake. Hurry up.” A familiar voice, but Caelyn couldn’t speak. She couldn’t really even see. For some reason, though, she could still hear.

A somewhat panicked voice. “They’re hurt bad.”

“Just grab the bag, and the gun. Anything else that could get him or us in trouble.”

“What about Elijah?”

“The cops and EMTs are on their way, Jake. Can’t you hear the sirens?”

“Fuck, I can’t believe you—“

“Just give me the damn bag, Jake, and shut up.”

And then the curtain of darkness lowered once more, blocking out the world.

Fading in.

There wasn’t as much fear as there might have been. It was all too confusing.

Everything was different—there was nothing to really do or even feel. It was all just happening, as if she was being allowed to hear certain clips of tape, and then other parts of the tape were turned down so she couldn’t listen.

It was impossible to make sense of it all, and Caelyn wasn’t really trying to.

Please let Elijah be okay.

There were sirens now, loud in her ears, and voices, too. Commotion.

“Christ, look at this. We’re going to need to get the chopper out here.”

“You think?”

“She’s in bad shape.”

“And him?”

“He’s shot, but it’s her head I’m worried about. Brain trauma.”

Time passed, not quickly or slowly—she was simply aware that it was passing.

Eventually she became conscious of the sound of a very loud engine, of movement, of hushed, low tones. Things were getting more muddled.

She once again thought of Elijah. The thought of him brought about a sense of loss, a sense that this was wrong, and she should be with him right now.

I don’t want to go through this alone, Elijah.

Fade out.

***

When she faded in again, she could see.

It was hazy and far away, as if she was watching the world through a backwards telescope. She could see a ceiling overhead, whooshing past her. And there were people carrying her or…no, rolling her on some kind of contraption.

I’m lying on a hospital bed
, she thought.
They’re pushing me down a hallway.

The faces above her looked down with a lot of concern.

One of them grew surprised. “Hey, I think she’s awake. She’s looking at me.”

Another face turned down and studied her as well. “Probably just a reflex. Her eyes aren’t focused. Caelyn, can you speak? Can you hear us?”

She wanted to respond
. Of course I can hear you—I’m not deaf.

But the words wouldn’t come out. It was like someone had frozen her lips into position, given her Novocain until she couldn’t even feel herself enough to respond.

“See, she’s totally gone. Typical brain trauma. We need to get her in the CAT

scan, fast.”

And then she was gone once more.

***

Caitlyn was alone in the darkness again. She was waiting for something, not quite sure who or what she even was. There were no words, no thoughts, no feelings, no sensations whatsoever.

But she was still there. It was peaceful.

And then, slowly, she had her first thought.

I miss him so much.

But who did she miss?

She couldn’t quite remember that part.

There was a longing, a deep, deep hole. A loss.

Please don’t leave me…

Elijah.

That name brought her back to herself. Elijah. Where was he? How could she find him in the darkness?

And then, the darkness began to dissipate, like the night slowly turning into morning, the rays of the sun warming and lighting the world. A loud ringing buzzed her entire head, as she slowly forced her eyes open once more.

The effort of opening her eyes was immense. Lifting a boulder seemed like it would have been easier than opening her eyes at that moment.

She was in a hospital room, but it took a little while to register it. Something was broken.

White room, tubes, cold white sheets, and a terrible, fierce pain vibrated throughout her entire body. The pain was so fierce, actually, that at first she didn’t even recognize it as pain. It was just like static from a radio station, blaring, until she realized there was no noise.

And that’s when she realized she was in terrible, horrible agony.

She tried to moan but there wasn’t much coming from her numb, curiously lifeless lips.

Her eyeballs rolled towards the doorway to her room.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

She heard the steady beeping sound, and another separate whooshing sound, like a pump.

She was staring at the doorway for some reason, although it was empty in the hallway. Occasionally, she saw someone walk by—a nurse, a doctor—nobody looked in on her.

And then, after what seemed like hours, someone started to enter her room.

It wasn’t a doctor or a nurse. It was a patient.

She knew that because the patient was wearing a hospital gown, and dragging an IV as they came into the room.

The person’s face was so familiar, and yet it was strangely bruised and cut and swollen.

I know him, she thought. I know him.

The pain in her body was receding slightly, as she stared uncomprehendingly at the beaten and bruised person that limped towards her bed.

His eyes stared with horror at her.

Hey, you don’t look so great yourself
, she thought.

“Caelyn…” he whispered through swollen lips. “Caelyn, no. No.”

And then she realized it was
him.

The name was on the tip of her tongue. She knew he was her love. She knew he was her angel, her savior.

She tried to smile for him.

ELIJAH.

That’s right, she thought. It’s Elijah. Who else was there? Who else could there be?

Caelyn wasn’t even sure how she knew him, or what their history was. She simply knew they were meant to be together.

In the darkness, they’d been separated, but he’d come for her and now things would be okay.

His face was deeply pained as he walked closer to her bedside. The IV bag swung on its stand as he nearly lost his balance. And then he righted himself, grimacing, and reached out his hand to take hers.

She could feel his warmth and his love through the soft touch of his skin. Her pain went away completely in that moment as he held her hand, and her heart swelled with gratitude.

“I know you can hear me, Caelyn. You’re looking at me, aren’t you kid? You see me? Just nod. Or blink twice. Give me a sign.”

She tried to give a sign, but nothing was working. Even her eyes weren’t under her control. They rolled in her head, first one way and then the next. She moaned a little in frustration. But then she kept moaning, rhythmically, and it wasn’t up to her—the moans just kept coming.

“What’s wrong, Caelyn? Are you hurting?” he asked, bending down to try and listen to her more closely. “Tell me what’s wrong,” he said.

She could hear the agony in his voice, and she knew he was walking only out of sheer will and determination. His breathing was ragged and shallow.

Meanwhile, Caelyn could hear herself moaning as if from a great distance, the sounds coming from deep within her chest, like waves that built and built with sound and then faded out again.

Elijah shook his head.

“Excuse me, what are you doing?” someone called out from behind him.

Elijah turned slowly. “This is my girlfriend,” he said.

“You’re not supposed to be in here. What floor did you come from?” the woman asked, her voice full of suspicion.

“Listen to her moan. She’s in a lot of pain. She needs medicine.”

“Aren’t you the gunshot victim? You’re supposed to be upstairs in bed.”

“I don’t give a shit about myself. Just get her some damn medicine,” he growled.

Now Caelyn could see the nurse as she approached and glared at Elijah. “You shouldn’t even be standing up right now. I’ve heard all about your case—you’re the gunshot wound, and you crashed your car.”

Elijah’s attention was turned fully on Caelyn. He licked his cracked lips. His face was shades of purple and blue and black from the bruising and swelling.

She tried to give him a sign, to try and tell him she knew what he was doing on her behalf, but it was impossible. Her eyes wandered, totally out of her control. Finally, her eyes rolled back in her head and everything went black once more.

She could still hear, though.

“Look at her,” Elijah said.

“You need to leave, Sir. Right now.”

“Look at her eyes. She needs help! She needs help!”

Do I?

Maybe she did need help. Her own inner voice was beginning to fade, fade, fade.

And she was starting to move further away from Elijah, although she resisted the pull. It seemed as if an invisible current was pulling her through the darkness, and Elijah was fading away along with everything else.

The other stuff she didn’t care about. Only him. Only…only…

Don’t go…

Don’t…

Elijah.

***

She had begun to dream. The strange thing was, she knew she was dreaming.

And unlike normal dreams she’d had most of her life, these dreams made total and utter sense.

They pooled into the darkness, swirls of color that sprouted into existence. The swirls of color started to form shapes and then the shapes began to form images. Trees.

Beautiful trees, with different colored fall leaves, as bright as any trees she’d ever seen.

Caelyn couldn’t believe the vividness of those colors. And the smells. She could smell the leaves, and the grass, and even the air, as a gust of wind blew.

She was looking at her parents’ house.

Her mother and father and Deena were hurrying into her dad’s car. The three of them looked pained, with puffy, tear-streaked faces.

Deena, however, seemed to be milking it for all it was worth. She sobbed into her mother’s coat, as they made their way to the car. “It’s okay Dee Dee,” her mother said.

“It’s going to be okay.”

“No,” Deena wailed. “She’s going to die, I know it.” More sobbing.

“She’s going to live. She’ll fight—Caelyn’s always been a fighter, God knows.”

They got in the car.

And then, as if she’d changed the channel, Caelyn was watching a new scene altogether.

A doctor was talking to her parents in a hospital waiting area. The doctor was a tall, thin woman with grayish blond hair and brittle hands. “Caelyn came in with a very serious head injury from her car accident, but we thought we had the swelling under control,” the doctor explained.

“And then what happened? Why was she in surgery?” Caelyn’s mother asked.

“She suddenly spiked a fever, and when we gave her another scan, we found that her brain had begun swelling and there was a blood clot that had formed. We had to go in and take out the clot, which we did.”

“So she’s okay,” her dad said, his voice shaking.

The doctor sighed. “She’s in stable but critical condition. We’ve had to place her in a medically induced coma while we wait for her temperature and swelling to subside.”

“So is she going to live?” her father asked. “What are her chances?”

“I’m not going to give you a definitive answer, Mr. Murphy. I simply don’t know. What I do know is that we’ve given Caelyn a great chance. We removed the clot, we addressed the swelling, and now we’re hoping she’ll do the rest and recover. We have to wait and see, I’m afraid.”

Her father shook his head.

The scene appeared to break apart, and the colors swirled for a long time. When the colors reformed shapes, they showed Caelyn a different hospital room.

Elijah was lying in bed, a curtain around him. There was a short police officer talking to him, while Elijah drank Ginger Ale from a straw.

“So you didn’t see the person that shot you, Mr. Daniels?”

Elijah shook his head. “Nope.”

“And you have no idea why someone would even want to shoot you,” the cop said sarcastically, as if knowing that Elijah wouldn’t give him a proper answer.

“Well, I might not be the most popular guy in my neighborhood.”

The cop cocked his head. “Why’s that? You seem like such a nice guy.”

“Because I like to play Celine Dion at the highest volume my stereo system can go. But not everyone likes Celine as much as I do.”

“Not sure she’s my cup of tea, either.”

“Well, then, you’re more like my neighbors.”

“You’re telling me you think someone tracked you down and shot you in a Boston alleyway because you listen to Celine Dion too loudly in your apartment.”

“It’s as good a guess as any,” Elijah shrugged. Then he put the straw in his mouth and sipped.

“Listen, I understand you have this dumb code,” the cop said.

“Code?”

“Yeah, you don’t want to rat someone out. You don’t want to come off like a snitch. But whoever shot you deserves to go to jail.”

“I agree. And I hope you can find them, somehow. Maybe they’ll realize I was right about Celine Dion’s awesomeness and turn themselves in.”

The cop smiled. “Well, if you won’t work with me, I suppose there’s nothing else to say, Mr. Daniels.”

“Am I in trouble with my parole board?”

“I don’t see how. You didn’t have anything illegal in your possession at the time of the accident, and there’s no crime in being shot.”

“Could have fooled me, with the way you’re interrogating me about it.”

The cop made a face. “You just better hope we don’t find something. Or if your girlfriend wakes up and tells us a different story…”