Chapter 2

As soon as she was alone, Annie wished for Matt to come back, but he didn’t. she felt guilty for upsetting him, even though he hadn’t actually seemed that upset. But even as she prayed for his return, she was half hoping that he would decide she wasn’t worth bothering about, and maybe then he would leave her alone.

About ten minutes after Matt left, the door opened. Annie heard it creak and looked hopefully towards it. She wondered if it might be Matt. But it wasn’t. it was just a nurse.

"Hello Annie," the nurse said brightly.

"Hi," Annie mumbled in reply.

"The doctor’s on his way. Your friend said you were having a few problems remembering things, is that right?" she asked as she checked Annie’s chart.

"I guess so," Annie said.

The door opened and a man, who Annie supposed must be the doctor walked in. he looked pretty old, maybe fifty five, fifty six years old. His hair, what was left of it, was white and feathery. His eyes were pale, watery blue behind small, wireless glasses. His chubby face looked kind, a bit like pictures of ‘Grandpa’ in children’s books. He was fat and his belly looked as if it applied a little too much pressure on the waistband of his trousers.

"Hi, uh…" he said, obviously expecting her to supply him with her name.

"Annie," she filled in. after she said it, she wondered if it had been some kind of test, to see whether or not she could remember.

"Right, Annie. Annie what?" he said, confirming Annie’s fear, it was a test.

Annie didn’t answer, she just stared at a spot of the wall a few feet to the right of the doctor’s head.

"you can’t remember? Okay. Well, never mind about that just yet. You’re Annie and I’m Dr Morris, okay?" he said. Annie nodded. "And this is Sister Forrester," he added.

"Right," Annie said.

"I’m just going to ask you a few questions, okay Annie?" Dr Morris said.

"Sure," Annie nodded. But her stomach was doing sumersaults. She knew she wouldn’t be able to give the doctors all the answers he wanted.

"okay, you told me your name was Annie. Did you remember that on your own, or did someone else tell you?"

"Matt told me," Annie admitted. The doctor nodded and tapped his blue biro against his front teeth.

"Who’s Matt?"

"He was here when I woke up," was all Annie could tell him.

"But who is he? Is he your boyfriend?"

"I, I don’t know," Annie said quietly.

"Your brother?"

"I don’t know," Annie said again, a little more impatiently this time.

"Your friend?"

"I guess so," she shrugged.

"But you’re not sure?"

"Not really," Annie admitted.

"That’s okay what about the reason you're here? Do you remember that?"

"No, not at all."

"What about your husband?"

"His names Dave. Matt told me that. Apart from that, nothing."

"Okay, well, I have to go now, but I'll be back soon. In the meantime, Sister Forrester is just going to do some routine checks on you, blood pressure, things like that."

"Sure."

Ten minutes later, Annie was alone again. This time, no part of her wanted Matt to be there, she was too tired. She rolled onto her side and five minutes later, she was asleep.

It wasn't long before the dream started, no more than twenty minutes.

Annie was in a bedroom she didn't recognise, but that somehow felt familiar. She couldn't recognise the woman in the dream either, but she sensed that she should.

A man stormed into the room. He was tall and had brown hair so dark it was almost black, which flopped over his green eyes. His face was twisted into an angry snarl. The woman in the dream seemed terrifies, and so was Annie.

The man (Annie couldn't recognise him) marched across the room towards the woman. Annie's view of it was that of an onlooker standing behind the woman and a little to the right.

He was shouting, but Annie couldn't hear what he was saying. The woman was screaming and crying and begging him not to hurt her, but he ignored her desperate pleas. He picked her up under her arms and shook her hard. The woman's bady went limp, but she was still consious, Annie could see her shocking, pleading eyes. Then he flung her across the room. Her head struck the wall with the most awful sound Annie could have ever imaginined, and her eyes closed, and her whole body shuddered and the went slack and her bladder let go.

Annie woke up screaming. She was all tangled up in the bedsheets and her face was wet with hot tears. A nurse (not Sister Forresta) came running in, looking worried.

"What's the matter?" the nnurse asked with that professional yet compassionate voice that only nurses and kindergarten teachers ever seem to have.

"he killed her!" Annie shrieked. The nurse, of course, had no idea what Annie was talking about.

"Who killed who?" the nurse asked calmly.

"I don’t know!" I should but I don’t!" Annie sobbed.

"What are you talking about?" the nurse asked. She forced Annie to look at her. Annie pulled herself away and threw herself face down onto the bed, sobbing into her pillow.

Realising that she wasn't going to get any sense out of Annie right then, the nurse left the room, but she left the door open in case Annie started screaming again.

After the nurse had gone, Annie stayed awak for over an hour. She couldn't sleep. Everytime she closed her eyes she saw the woman's lifeless face and heard the terrible thud of the woman's head hitting the wall.

When she finally fell asleep it was about four thirty in the morning. Annie slept restlessly, constantly tossing and turning, but thankfully, the dream, or rather the nightmare, did not return.

She woke up early considering her late night, at about a quarter to seven. She'd only had a couple of hours sleep but her body refused to relax enough to allow her to go back to sleep properly. Annie pulled herself up into a sitting position. As she did so, two strong but gentle arms on her waist helped her. The touch made her jump.

"Don't worry, its only me. How come you're up so early?" it was Matt. Annie breathed a sigh of relief.

"How come you're here so early?" Annie responded, without answering his question.

"I couldn't sleep either."

Either. So he had figured out she couldn't sleep. Annie looked at Matt and smiled a little.

"What kept you awake?" she asked.

"You. I just lay there, worrying about you. So how 'bout you?"

"I don't know," Annie lied. Matt heard the lie in her voice and stood up. For a second Annie was afraid that he was going to hit her like the man had hit the woman in her dream. Buit he didn't, he just sat on the edge of her bed and leaned closer to him.

"You might not know yourself so well right now Annie, but you forget that I do. Now, tell me the truth," Matt said firmly but kindly.

"I had a dream," Annie said, not wanting to tell him anymore.

"Like Martin Luther King?" Matt joked.

"No, it was more of a nightmare really," Annie admitted.

"You wanna talk about it?" Matt asked gently.

"No," Annie insisted.

"Sure?" Matt asked simply.

"no," Annie said in a much less firm voice.

"Is that no, you're not sure, or no, you don't want to talk about it?"

"The first one. Oh Matt, it was awfull!" Annie said, bursting into tears.

"Shh," was all he said as he hugged her tightly. She burried her face in his chest and sobbed into his shirt. "Its okay baby, shh," Matt murmered into Annie's hair. "You wanna tell me?" Annie pulled back, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and nodded.

"I was in a room, a bedroom I think. And there was a man and a woman there as well. He was angry and violent. She was scared of him," Annie said. Tears trickled down her face and she wiped them away as she spoke.

"Are you okay?" Matt asked, concerned.

"not really. Don't worry though. He was shaking her and she was crying and begging him not to hurt her. Then he threw her against the wall and…" Annie sobbed loudly and burried her face in her hands. Matt hugged her again.

"Its okay honey, you don't have to tell me anymore. Its okay," Matt murmered. Annie cried onto his shoulder and let him rock her back and forth as if she was a small child that had fallen down and hurt its knee.

"You wanna sleep for a while?" he asked kindly.

"I'll try, I guess," Annie agreed.

"Good girl," Matt said approvingly. He kissed her forhead and helped her lie down. "Bye," he said, starting to stand up ready to leave.

"Matt, will you do me a favour?" Annie asked hesitantly. He turned to face her.

"OF course, anything," Matt promised.

"Will you stay here with me?" she asked nervously. "I mean, if you have to be someplace else, I'll understand. Or if you just don't wanna be here, I'll understand that too…"

"Annie, I do want to be here," Matt intterrupted.

"Really?" Annie asked hopefully.

"Of course. Well, the hospital wouldn't have been my ideal choice of a setting, but if you're here, that’s where I wana be," Matt said. He was grinning do Annie wasn't quite sure if he was joking or not.

"That sounds like some trashy romance novel," Annie said with a half hearted chuckle.

"I prefer to thing of it as old fashioned love song material myself," Matt joked, still grinning.

"Yeah, well either way, its crap," Annie told him. For a second she thought she saw him grimace, but then it was gone and he was all smiles again.

"But its true, even if it is crap," Matt said. "But whatever it is, you need your sleep. Don't worry, I'll be right here until you wake up," Matt promised.

"I don't want you to go, even when I wake up," Annie declared childishly.

"Then I'll stay," Matt promised easily. "now lay down again and go to sleep," he commanded. Giggling, annie did as she was told. "now, now, none of that," he said with mock serverity. "'night" he whispered, pulling the light covers upto her shoulder.

"'night," Annie replied, rolling over onto her side so she was facing Matt. He bent down and kissed her cheek, then sat down in the red plastic chair. He picked a newspaper up off the low table next to him and began to read it.

Soon Annie was asleep and this time she dreamed only of Matt. Her nightmare did not return, thank God.