NightTide: The Girl With Red Eyes

I felt something cold on my face, when I opened my eyes I found out it was a can of soda.

I heard a yelp when I tried to move. “R-Red don’t move, that hurts!”

That’s when I noticed my back was warm, I was leaning on someone? I was pretty low so I looked up, I saw Elizabeth’s face…

I was confused. “What’s going on?”

After she stopped wincing she answered. “We’re in the hospital, I shouldn’t be in your bed, but I wanted to lay with you.” We were both in hospital gowns… I’m getting tired of these!

I was worried about her though. “Are you ok?”

She smiled. “I’m fine, thanks to you! They got the bullet out but my stomachs pretty tender, try to avoid moving please.” She started running her fingers through my hair, it felt nice.

We were there for a while, it was really nice. I had a cast on my right arm but it wasn’t causing me any issues…

I guess I could ask Elizabeth some questions… “Elizabeth, how old are you? I was also wondering about your father, I heard Nigel mention it multiple times.” Thinking about him made my stomach churn…

She had a nervous chuckle. “I’m twenty-eight, and yes I do have a dad. I’m a second generation NightTide.” NightTides can have kids?

Wait she’s twenty-eight? “You’re twenty-eight? Wait that means you went after a younger girl!”

She covered my mouth. “Shush you! It doesn’t matter, I stopped ageing at twenty-one.” Then she hugged me…

I looked at her again, I gave her a disappointed stare. “I stopped at sixteen…”

Her face was red, it was funny. “Red! Stop please, let’s not talk about this! It’s embarrassing!”

I thought this was funny, I leaned forward and turned around. Then I leaned into her, making sure not to touch her stomach. “This worries me a little, do you only like me because of how young I am?”

She looked to the side. “N-No that’s not it at all!” I decided to stop, and then I kissed her. I was happy she’s ok.

I was worried about her hurting herself though. “Maybe we should swap places, you can lean on me.” She didn’t argue. She struggled to push herself forward and I climbed behind her, then she leaned back… She’s warm, I like that. “So, who’s your dad?”

She wiggled a little, was she uncomfortable? “An angry old man… I’d rather not talk about him.”

Maybe Nigel then, I hated him but I want to know why he was obsessed with me. “What about Nigel. What was his deal?”

She seemed to relax a little. “He was with me when we first found you. I don’t mean you, you, I mean the little girl.” Oh, she’s going to answer that? I’ve been wanting to know but didn’t ask! “I probably should have told you this when you weren’t drunk, but I said I found you, I should have said we found you… We found a little girl being tortured by raiders, she was practically dead by the time we found her, but there was a city nearby. We thought that they might be able to help her, or at least give her a proper burial. They were small then, but now they’ve grown quite a bit… They didn’t allow NightTides in the city so we had to sneak in. We put her in an alley way when some guards came by, they took her to medical area there. I came around every once in a while, I visited you when you woke up and could support yourself… Sorry about that way I acted, I was pretty arrogant then. From what I know Nigel was watching you since you were brought here… He was always attracted to Jessica but he wouldn’t reveal himself to anyone at the bases except me… I guess he couldn’t help himself when a girl that looked like Jessica came around that he thought he would be able to overpower… Didn’t end to well for him, did it?” She snickered when she said that…

I was curious how she felt about him. “Why were you two working together?”

She sighed. “I wouldn’t call it working, he followed me around. He was essentially my father’s dog, he would follow his orders and when he was ordered to keep an eye on me, he did.”

I wonder how she met Jessica… “So, he just stuck around? Was he a special? I’m also curious about how you met Jessica.”

She sighed. “Yes, he was… He was almost as strong as Jessica, I’m glad you’re alive… I was watching you two fight, and I kept seeing him hurt you, I couldn’t move but I kept panicking thinking he was going to kill you… He was also able to manipulate the mood of an individual, he could only do it to specific people so I guess you were one of them… That’s the reason I brought you outside to scream at him, I wasn’t expecting things to go the way they did though… As for how I met Jessica, that is an exciting story… I met her when she was fourteen, she was a violent child… I found her around a bunch of raider corpses, I guess they tried to attack her… She was on edge, understandably, but I managed to calm her down… we’ve been stuck together ever since. Nigel went his own way for a while after we joined these guys. They said their goal was to restore America to its former glory, I don’t know what it used to be like but I’m all for a world where humans and NightTides can live together… Without having to deal with raiders… Jessica is a great leader, she acts friendly near you but she’s pretty stern around others… It’s the reason she runs base one, when the resources came around for another expansion she was put in charge of base one in the new sector…”

They’ve been through a lot then… “You two have been through quite a lot then… I guess I’m lucky to be here.”

She squeezed my ankle. “More then you realize.”

She eventually opened that can of soda and started drinking it. “Is it okay for you to drink that? Didn’t you get shot in the stomach?”

She sighed. “The bullet didn’t puncture my stomach, it got lodged in my abdomen… Hurt like hell but I can eat and drink whatever. You on the other hand, can’t, your stomach and kidneys are bruised, no sweets for you.”

That was horrible news! “Awwwwwwwwwww!”

She laughed but stopped quickly enough, I guess it hurt… For some reason I decided to run my fingers through her hair, she would do it to me and I found it pleasant; maybe she did? She kept drinking her soda, I don’t know if she liked it or not but at least she didn’t mind.

She rested the soda next to her. “When we get out of here, you’re coming with me to base four…”

Why? “Why are we heading there?”

I think she was smiling. “Base four has the best stores, I need to get you ANOTHER collar.”

Oh… “You like me wearing those collars, don’t you?”

She snickered a little. “You’re cute with them on, they suit you… A little too well.”

We laid there for a while, it was comfortable… We both ended up falling asleep since neither of us felt like going anywhere. I wasn’t keeping track of the time, I ended up opening my eyes, there wasn’t sunlight coming in through the window… I guess it was dark out now, Elizabeth was still resting on me. I could hear her breathing, it was soft and, cute…

Jessica came in for some reason, she was whispering. “Stay quiet. You need to come with me right now.”

What? “Why?”

She shushed me and I had to slowly get up, once I was up I made sure the string on the hospital gown was pulled tight and we walked outside of the room.

Jessica hugged me right after. “It’s good to see you’re ok!”

I’m still confused. “Why did you want me out of the room?” then she smacked me… “OW! What was that for!”

She looked angry. “What the hell was that about last night!? Jesus Red, I saw that body! What the fuck was that!?” While she was yelling she hit my stomach, I ended hunched over trying to catch my breath. “We don’t do that! You hear me! You might have gotten a free pass because he kidnapped you and shot Elizabeth, but WE DON’T DO THAT!”

My stomach hurt, she hit me pretty hard… I guess it was bruised. “I’m sorry! I won’t do it again! I don’t really know what happened to push me that far anyways!”

Jessica pulled me back up by my hair. “I heard from Elizabeth what happened. I would have been all for it if you slit his throat, but not THAT! Go back to your room!” She let go and I slowly walked into the room, I was holding my stomach, that hurt…

I slowly closed the door, Elizabeth was still asleep… I wasn’t going to be able to get back into the bed, it’s only meant for one person anyways. There were two beds in here so I guess we shared a room. I went and laid on the other one, I had to lay face down because it hurt otherwise. I woke up again later that night having to use the bathroom… I didn’t want to get up but I eventually did and went. It was down the hall, instead of being in the room so that took longer than I would have hoped. I walked out and was greeted by the creepy stare of some girl, she watched me walk down the hall… I checked the string once I was in the room, it was tied but that made me uncomfortable.

The next morning was, different. I woke up to the sound of Elizabeth yawning, she was sitting up stretching. “I feel surprisingly good right now!” She went to stand up and regretted the decision, she hunched over and had to lean on the bed. I got up quickly and went to help her. “I guess I’m not ready to walk around on my own yet, can you help me to the bathroom?”

I nodded. She leaned on me and I helped her down the hall… It was awkward having to help her sit on the toilet… Once she was done we went back to the room. When I opened the door, we were greeted by Emilia, Chuck, and Jessica standing in the room.

I was confused. “Hi guys?” Elizabeth looked confused as well. I helped her to the bed she sat on it, I stayed standing.

Chuck was scratching his chin for a minute. “How’s your arm feel?”

It didn’t hurt, but I couldn’t move it with the cast on. “Fine, I guess. It doesn’t hurt at least.”

He nodded, Jessica had her arms crossed. Was she angry? “We need to have a talk…”

About what? “What are we going to be talking about?”

Emilia wasn’t paying much attention, she was looking at something on a clip board.

Jessica was very stern when she said this. “You’re being suspended until further notice.”

Why? “Why?”

Chuck sighed. “We will not fault you for defending yourself, but you took things too far. I do not know the identity of that man, but once he was on the ground you should have stopped… I don’t care what the reason was that made you feel like continuing. We don’t want to detain you… The three of us feel it would be best for you seek psychiatric treatment.”

Chuck stopped talking and Jessica took over. “You’ll be getting sent over to base four, they tend to handle these kind of things… Elizabeth can visit you once she’s out. Emilia thinks you might be suffering from PTSD given what you’ve been through, it’s the only thing that would make that response even remotely justifiable.”

Emilia finished looking at the clipboard. “When you were brought here, your brain was a chemical cocktail of Adrenaline, testosterone, serotonin, dopamine, phenylethylamine, and the left hemisphere was firing off on all cylinders… I’m afraid to ask the details of what happened; but from that alone I can say you were stressed out of your mind. I don’t think anyone would be able to process rational thought given the sheer amount of what was there.”

Emilia and Chuck walked out of the room, Jessica stayed. “You’ll be sent to base four later today. You might want to spend that time with Elizabeth.”

The rest of the time I was there was spent with Elizabeth. Jessica came by later with a change of clothes and took me to a truck… I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.