If you missed any previous installments, go back to Words From the Sowul and read from Part 1.

Someone was pounding on the door, hard. Someone was calling her name. “Kristy! Kristy, are you in there? Get up!”

Kristy tried to open her eyes, but for some reason, her lids felt heavy. They were pink on the inside; there was sunlight streaming through the window, much more sunlight than she saw upon waking at her usual hour. It was this strange observation that forced her eyes open.

Blue shag carpet was spread out all around her. She was on the floor. Why was she on the floor? She tried to turn her head, and let out a groan of pain. She could see the couch above her, out of the corner of her eye. Why wasn’t she on the couch? The television was still on. Some old kid’s show was on, Saved by the Bell, or something like that. Her legs were tangled up in the afghan. Maybe she’d tried to get up in the middle of the night, and tripped?

“Kristy, come on! We’re getting scared!” A different voice, this time. Higher, more familiar. Kristy let out another groan, louder this time. The pounding stopped.

“Did you hear that?” one voice said.

Kristy moaned again.

“That was her!” the other voice said.

“I think we need to call the police.”

“And an ambulance.”

Kristy heard four beeps on a cell phone keypad, and then the higher voice saying, “Yes, it’s an emergency. Our friend is locked inside her apartment and we think she’s in trouble.”

Kristy tried to move again, but it felt like all the earth’s gravity was pushing her down. Little flutterings of panic filled her chest. If they came in, if they broke the door down and came in, they’d help her, but they’d also see… they’d see all the empty food containers, the spoons, the paper plates, the crumbs on the couch. She might even have food on her face or smeared on her clothes. She hadn’t changed out of her gym outfit from the day before. Kristy tried again to get up, but it was impossible. The panic spun into a tight ball in her stomach, or was that last night’s binge, aching to get out? She had to get up. She had to get to the gym, it must be late, she had clients waiting and… Kristy squeezed her eyes shut. She’d missed her warm up! How was she going to work off all the food? She had to erase last night, she had to! Kristy started to cry. She still couldn’t move, so the tears leaked out of her eyes and streamed down her face. She was a pathetic mess, and in a few minutes, everyone would know. They would know everything.

She heard cars pull up into the driveway, no sirens though. There was no knock at the front door, so Mr. Grayson must have been standing there, waiting for them. Heavy footsteps raced up the stairs, and there was a hurried conversation between the two original voices and two new ones.

“Kristy?” A loud voice, very masculine. She pictured a tall, well-built cop. “We’re coming in, we’re breaking the door down. Make a noise if you can to tell us if you’re safely away from the door.”

Kristy mewled. She wondered if it was loud enough, but a second later, the door busted off its hinges, and then two uniformed men came into her line of sight. The policeman stood over her, the medic knelt beside her, shining a light into her eyes.

“She’s conscious,” said the medic. He was handsome, tanned and muscular, but he wasn’t the owner of the deep voice. The policeman, who was stocky and balding, answered, “Good,” and Kristy realized she’d pictured him all wrong.

“Kristy, can you move?” the medic asked. She tried to shake her head in any direction, but it wouldn’t go.

The medic looked toward the door. “Tell them to bring a stretcher,” he said.

“Already coming,” said a new voice, and Kristy realized there must be more of them than she’d thought.

“Good,” the medic said, and looked over Kristy’s head. “You can come see her, if you want,” he said, and a minute later, two familiar faces were looking down on her.

Cindy’s eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks splotched with tears. She knelt down beside Kristy and gripped her hand. “It’s okay, Kris, you’re going to be okay,” she said, but she didn’t sound like she believed it.

The other face was Brian’s. He didn’t say anything, just looked down at her, his dark brown eyes serious and sad.

Kristy went under again.

 ________________________

 When she woke again, the pain had subsided. She opened her eyes. She was lying in a hospital bed, her head slightly raised. The room was divided by a thin curtain, and there were voices speaking softly on the other side. A group of machines beeped beside her, and there was a needle taped into the back of her hand. She was glad she hadn’t been awake for that.

“Hey,” a gentle voice said beside her. “You’re up.”

She turned her head- it was much easier, now- and there was Brian.

“What are you doing here?” Her voice came out as a croak.

Brian pulled his chair closer to the bed. He seemed about to put his hand on top of hers, but hesitated, changed direction, and rested it on the rail of the bed instead.

“You missed your first client this morning,” he said.

“Cheryl,” Kristy said.

“Yes,” Brian said. “She was really worried about you. She said you’d never missed a session, and she knew you’d have called if you needed to cancel. She said you hadn’t been looking well lately. She told Holly. Well, you know how Holly is.”

Kristy could imagine. Cheryl, besides being Kristy’s favorite client, was also very wealthy. She gave generously to all of the fund-raisers that Holly sponsored in the gym’s name: walks for cancer, running for Lyme disease, jump rope marathons for autism. Holly would have done anything Cheryl asked. So if Cheryl was worried about Kristy, Holly would have sent someone over right away. Kristy felt disappointed to learn that Brian and Cindy had only come under Holly’s orders.

“So Holly told you to come,” she said.

Brian shook his head. “No, no,” he said. “Cindy and I had already decided to check on you. Maria said you didn’t come in at opening, and when you weren’t in kickboxing, Cindy got worried. She found me in the break room and I told her… I told her about our conversation last night. I’m sorry, I hope you don’t mind. Cindy was on your side, though.” Brian’s lips curled up a little at the ends. “She said I was a jerk for suggesting you had a problem. She said no one should ever put words like that in someone else’s mouth. And she said I was also a jerk for leading you on and then not doing anything about it.”

Then Brian did put his hand on top of Kristy’s. “She was right. I was a jerk, and I’m really sorry.”

Kristy smiled a little. His hand on hers was warm. “That’s ok,” she said.

“No, it’s not,” he said. “Anyway, Cindy and I came to find Holly just as Cheryl was talking to her. We were going to ask if we could duck out later in the morning to check on you. But Holly told us we could go right away. Thanks be to God,” he finished.

“Thanks be to Cheryl,” Kristy said quietly. She adjusted her legs a little under the blanket. They were kind of tingly, and she remembered feeling the same thing last night before she fell asleep.

“Did they say what happened to me?” she asked. “I don’t know how I ended up on the floor. When I fell asleep, I was still on the couch.”

Brian shook his head. “All I heard was that they thought you’d tried to get up and passed out. They said it’s normal that you might not remember it, especially after sleeping.”

Kristy nodded and put her head back against the pillow. It was cool and soft. She closed her eyes.

“Want me to leave so you can rest?” Brian asked.

She opened her eyes again.

“I can come back later,” he said.

“Yes,” Kristy said, without really knowing which question she was answering, and closed her eyes.

 ________________________

 A nurse woke her up a while later. “Time to check your vitals, honey,” a too-cheerful voice rang out, and Kristy faded back in. The nurse was a big-bosomed, curly-haired black woman with a nametag that read ‘Rhonda.’ Rhonda was wearing light blue scrubs with a repeating pattern of red balloons. She noticed Kristy looking at them and smiled.

“I’m usually in pediatrics,” she said. “But they needed me here today.”

Kristy nodded and held out her arm for the blood pressure cuff. “Is this part of the emergency room?”

Rhonda looked puzzled. “Goodness me, you don’t even know where you are? No, child, you were admitted. You’re up on the fourth floor. Don’t worry, you’re not in intensive care or anything.”

“Who admitted me?” Kristy asked.

Rhonda pulled the chart at the end of the bed and flipped over a page. “A woman named Cheryl Hollenback,” she said. “There’s a note here that she’s serving as proxy for your mother.”

Kristy’s eyebrows raised way up. “She was in touch with my mother?”

Rhonda shrugged. “That’s all I know.” She put the chart back and continued with her exam.

Okay, that’s as far as I got. What happens next? You tell me! Comments below, please!