The world went red.

No, I realized blearily, it hadn't. That was just my blood trickling along the cracked pavement of the road. It smeared on my hands, under my nails, into my hair...fuck. That was going to take nothing short of a miracle to wash off.

I tried to get up—the sooner I try to wash off blood the easier it'll be—and bit back a scream as agony rippled through me. I whimpered. Everything was on fire.

The world went black.
...
I don't remember much after that. Somehow I dragged myself over to a hospital without dying on the way.

I couldn't stop thinking as I sat on the lumpy chairs of the waiting room, the edges of my vision twisting and turning all around, the floor melting and the air disappearing

from my lungs and ... and ... well ... I guess I ended up here.

Some infernal beeping sends my head reeling in pain, as if someone was hammering nails into my skull with a sledgehammer. Guess that means my heart's still beating. Wonderful.

I twist my head, trying to drink in my surroundings. A shadow materializes from the edge of the room. Tall. Ashy skin. His awful breath of alcohol and urine wafting into my nose from where he stood, I turn, wide-eyed, ready to scream....!

"Ma'am, we need to ask you a few question. Do you think you could answer them for us?"
A nurse smiled at me from the edge of the room.

"I..." I clear my throat and bite back a wince. I remember his hands on my throat, my voice stuck under his fingers, useless, USELESS as I twisted...

"I..."