Chapter Text
“Goodnight, Proctor! I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning.” I called from the front of the bar. I leaned against the wiped down bar, the smell of spilled liquor invading my senses. “Goodnight, dear! Are you sure you don’t need a ride tonight?” Proctor’s tender voice returned my calling, his head poking out. I smile and shake my head in response to my boss’ worry. “I’ll be fine, mister. I’m supposed to get my car from the shop tomorrow, walking home one night won’t hurt.”
I watch as he approaches the bar from the other side, cleaning a glass with a clean rag.
“Are you sure? I’m closing up tonight anyway, no one’s here. I can take you home.” He murmurs. I once again shake my head with a deep sigh. “No, it’s totally fine, I promise! I don’t need you leaving the bar unattended.” I respond, tracing patterns in the wood of the bar with my pinkie. “Technically, it would not be unattended. Isaac is here to guard it,” Proctor says cheekily, a smug look on his lips. “Yeah, but does he know how to make a good cocktail like you or I?” I quip back quickly. I watch his smug expression fade into a bratty one which drags a giggle out of me. I stand up straight and tug my hoodie sleeves down. “Exactly. Have a good night, Proctor.”
I push my way out of the french style front doors after saying my goodbyes to Isaac, our security man and the bar cat, Penny. She’s a calico with only one ear. Street kitties make the best customers come around.
I look up around myself, noticing the pitch black sky. I take a deep breath to rid my senses of alcohol and borderline stale peanuts that we offer at the bar. I step out of the way from the sidewalk to check my phone; it’s only about 8:30 pm, I should be fine. The city is still bustling with life, a walk home shouldn’t be too creepy… I’ll walk home with no music, though. I begin to walk down the sidewalk east, keeping my eyes on the cracks of the decade old sidewalk. I sneer to myself as I nearly twist my ankle; this city is constantly funding new, useless projects yet they claim they don’t have the funds to fix the damn public sidewalks and roads?? I reckon they just don’t care about us city folk who have to walk or drive on the same roads consistently.
About the ten minute mark, I begin to get the heebeegeebees. I begin to look over my shoulder here and there, expecting to see a creep following me or watching me. Somethin’ of that sort. As much as I love this city, walking on the outskirts of Valentine isn’t too ideal. It’s terrifying at night, especially as a woman. This city doesn't have too good of a history with treating women right. Oh, what am I saying? Barely any town or city in this god forsaken state- no, COUNTRY, is innocent. I clutch the pepper spray in my hoodie pocket. Constant mistreatment to women, people of color, LGBT folk.. absolutely horrid.
I would love to say something positive about this city, this state, but it’s hard. New Hanover ain’t exactly the best to live in. Beats living in Lemoyne, though. I used to live there as a kid.
In the midst of the thoughts, I don’t notice me crossing a street. I don’t remember much of what happened, but I remember tires screeching and something hitting my right side hard. I remember skidding across the ground before my head hit the curb.. I think it was the curb. I blacked out after an intense, sharp pain that strikes like lightning through my spine.
———
You know, there’s some things I would love to consider miracles, such as waking up from being hit by a car as a pedestrian (which almost always means certain death), but I ain’t so sure now after I woke up in the middle of goddamn nowhere.
It’s dark, and I found myself not in the middle of a street, but more of a trail of some kind. It has recent (and old) hoof prints from what looks like horses.
“Who uses horses as transportation anymore besides.. Mormons??” I mutter to myself. I haven’t attempted to stand up yet, as I found myself laying next to a tree. It’s almost as if I didn’t hit a curb, but instead this big and wide tree. After a few moments, I’m hit with the worst pain of my life. It was first a bit of discomfort in the back of my skull, but now it’s like raging fire that’s spreading across the forest; the trees being the rest of my body. I cry out quietly as I feel the pain come in waves. My hand touches the back of my head and I look at it; and I’m not surprised by the blood I see, but that doesn’t mean I ain’t alright with it, neither.
As I raised my arm, intense pain shot through it as well which made me rip it back down and cradle it with my other arm. “Goddamn..” I seethe, closing my eyelids harshly to try to block out the pain somehow.
“Are you alright, miss?” A gruff man’s voice asks me.
I immediately shoot open my eyes as my heart skips a beat because, well, it’s a man. I find myself unable to focus my eyes, but from what I can make out, I can see a man on a… horse? Did a mormon come up to me??
“I..” I try to speak, but only a confused gurgle of incoherent words come through. I watch as the blob of a man gets off his horse and bends down to my level, which immediately sends my hand into my hoodie pocket. “Woah, there!” He calls out as I clumsily go for my pocket. “I ain’t here to hurt ya, miss. Just saw you lyin’ here. Looked like you needed help- and it appears my suspicions were right.”
I trembled as I slowly removed my hand from my pocket. “I got hit by a car.” I manage to spit out. “A what now?- Oh, I’ve heard of them things. Are ya sure, miss? Never seen ‘em here.” He responds. I can’t see very well, nor focus due to the increasing pulsing pain, but I hear his shoes crunch the leaves around us as he moves to take a look at my head. “That don’t look too good.. I think you should see a doctor.” He mutters. I can’t help but notice the grit in his low voice and how very.. country he sounds. Don’t get me wrong, everyone around me has an accent but his is absolutely layin’ it on thick.
“I can’t really focus my eyes..”
I hear him sigh and shuffle around for a moment. “If I touch ya, you won’t pull a knife or a gun on me, will you?” He questions. “Why? Are you goin’ to take me?” I retaliate. “Yeah, I guess. At least somewhere safer than the middle of the heartlands.”
I bite my lip which was a bad idea; seems like it was busted and scabbed over, but now I taste blood in my teeth. “Fine, but I’ll have you know I have pepper spray and I know how to use it.”
The man makes a grunt of acknowledgement as he has me raise my arms so he can pick me up. “I don’t even know what that is..”
Before I can say something somewhat witty back, I feel him; and hear him grunt softly as he picks me up and lugs me over his shoulder. As soon as I’m lifted, I can’t help but let out a groan of my own as I’m instantly incredibly dizzy. I don’t even realize that he’s putting me on his horse and that we’re riding somewhere until a minute or two later. I can feel my domino’s pizza from dinner at the bar bubbling up my throat. “I’m going to vomit,” I whine over the sound of the horse hooves hitting the dirt trail. “Try to avoid puking on my horse, alright?” I hear him shout over his shoulder. I gag, nausea filling my senses. “I.. I’ll try not to…!”
Before I can even vomit properly, I black out once again.