Excerpt: Forget Forgetting You

I fell hard to the ground. Without any time to brace myself, I ended up hitting the side of my head on the ground. Everything went blurry and I was vaguely aware of Kyle crawling over on top of me, still, no doubt, in pain from my blow. I heard him muttering, but my brain just wouldn’t function at this point. I had practically given up by this point.
When I began to wake up, I was ready to accept the fate. I just prayed that he had left me in one piece. I was actually grateful at one point as I realized that he wasn’t currently raping me. I mean, I just didn’t want the memory of it; I didn’t need to have that trauma replaying over and over in my mind.
I turned my head to the left and tried desperately to focus my eyes. Kyle, and another, taller man, were discussing something intently, though it looked like the taller man had Kyle held against the wall in a similar fashion to the way Kyle had held me there. I wanted to get up and run for help. The last thing I needed was to have two men come for me and the odds were going to be in the favor of rape and murder.
My body just wouldn’t cooperate with my mind at this point. But then I saw Kyle shift away from the other man and get slammed, in a non-friendly way, back up against the wall. My mind was wandering and I attempted to pay attention to my surroundings, willing myself to get up and flee. I just let go. Sleep seemed easiest.
“Miss? Are you alright?”
I opened my eyes once more to see the man approaching me. He was blurry; surrounded by a halo that made me laugh. I had had enough of these false angels for the night. He slightly turned my head gently to the side in a slow, soft, motion. The question was repeated.
“Can you sit up?”
I laughed again. I let out a light giggle this time. He gently inspected my neck and told me to stay still.
“What’s your name?”
He pulled out a cell phone, dialed some numbers. He muttered some things into the phone and snapped it shut. I wondered why his conversation was so quick with the emergency services.
“Miss, can you tell me your name?”
I loved how smooth his voice was. It wasn’t deep, but it wasn’t high-pitched. It simply seemed smooth. Relaxing. It made it hard to think beyond analyzing how calm he sounded and how rattled my brain was.
“Um… Sadie.”
I felt blood on my lips as I spoke. A small amount slipped into my mouth and I could taste the saltiness of the iron.
“Sadie. Do you remember anything?”
“Um. Kyle. Kyle in the club and… I don’t know.”
My head was spinning and this man looked down on me as if I was speaking in a foreign tongue. Maybe I was. Maybe my speech was just as affected as the rest of my bodily functions.
“You’ve just got to hold on a little longer. Help will be here soon, okay?”
I just let my eyelids close slowly, though I was trying to hold them open. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to go into a coma. I didn’t want to be left here in the alley with a strange man that I wasn’t even sure could be trusted.
“Sadie. Can you hear me? Help is coming.”
I moaned out, trying to tell him how tired I was and how unsure I was of what was happening to me. I wanted peace. I felt drugged. I felt tired. I felt sleep.