Recollection

“What am I gonna do?” I thought while trying to stand and hold Hunter close to my chest, trying to keep him warm from the cooling California air.

I half- stood, shaking, shivering, and shocked watching helplessly at the scene playing out directly in front of me. The two bedroom prison I tried to make into a home, was now in a fury of flames.

I watched tired and beaten, along with many onlookers, as firefighters tried to control and kill the flames that now overtook the only home my five month old ever knew.

An EMT interrupted my terrifying reverie by inquiring we lay upon a nearby gurney. While I was being strapped down, my eyes traveled over the faces of the crowd, eventually landing on his - the cause behind this entire charade. The man who I believed I loved, yet desperately feared. The one who may have been there day in and day out, partially assisted me with one of my life’s greatest blessings, but who also damaged me in every way, shape and form possible.

I watched frozen as local officers handcuffed Declan a few feet from where I stood and deposit him into an awaiting cruiser. Hate prominent on his face and in his steel gray eyes.

“Miss…” a voice awoke me from my trance. "We're going to move you to the ambulance now!"
I nodded and held onto Hunter as well as I could as we bumped our way to an awaiting ambulance.

“Wait! Wait!” a female voice yelled through the crowd, it kept getting closer and closer to the closing ambulance doors. “I want to ride along.” The voice was now mere inches from my face.

“Niki?” I mumbled. I opened one eye and glanced over at my neighbor from across the street, Nichole Scott.

"Fuck..what the hell did he do to you?” "Did he touch Punk?"

The questions came rapidly as she was buckled into the adjoining seat and took Hunter from my arms.

I closed my eye and sunk down into the pillow. I didn’t want to answer any questions. I already had enough for one night.

Ten minutes later, we arrived at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the closest hospital to my home or what remained of it. I was wheeled out of the ambulance and whisked through the ER doors, Niki following with my son.

Fluorescent lights hit my eyelids while nurses surrounded my gurney. A blood pressure cuff and stethoscope coldly hit my arm, while words and statements I didn’t understand flowed freely around me.

I entered a cold room and listened as a cloth curtain scraped close. My eyelids were lifted one by one as a bright light shined into each pupil. I groaned out in pain.

I thought I heard the doctor mention something about an IV and quickly ramble off medical terms and names of medications I’ve never heard of.

It was all a whirlwind, but I couldn’t find my voice.

“Hunter, Hunter…” my mind screamed.

Where was my son? Was he okay?

Exhaustion soon overtook my mind and body and everything became black.

Notes