Eyes open

*introduction; I have written a lot of short stories in Dutch. I'm busy translating them in English. I do hope the translation is correct, if not please send me a message but bear in mind English is not my first language. I do hope you like my stories and I would love for you to leave a comment*

                   OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

With my eyes open I lay on the grass in between the bushes. A light breeze played with my hair and blew it over my face. I felt how the wind touched my naked breast and how my nipples stood upright because of it. I couldn’t move. I wasn’t there anymore; didn’t feel my body. If my nipples hadn’t reacted I would have most certainly thought I was dead but they said something else clearly. I tried to move my lifeless fingers; to blink with my eyes. Clotted blood was sticking on my eyelashes. I could smell it. With every move the pain was going through my skull, although in this case it was simply blinking with my eyelids. There was not a sound to be heard, even the birds didn’t speak a word, well birds words that is. I lay there thinking in agony how I got here and what had happened, but I couldn’t figure it out. I just lay there half naked, for as far as I could see and feel it, in the grass, probably in a forest. I couldn’t turn my head but I could smell the forest, the trees. I could smell, besides the blood, fir needles. Above my head I saw a little bit of blue sky and a lot of green leaves, branches and was that a coat?

But whose coat was that? Mine? It was a green coat, pretty big too. It didn’t seem as my coat. Again I tried turning my head but I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t move a muscle. My whole body seemed numb, paralysed. I could only look straight up; to the sky and the branches. And just lay there and listen. Slowly but certain I started to panic. What if I laid here and nobody would find me, or worse, the one who had left me here did! Before the panic could take over completely, I tried to calm myself. Take a deep breath, breathe in, and breathe out. And above all listen! Listen to the sounds around you.
Far away I could hear the sound of a cuckoo interchanged with the hammering of a woodpecker. Those sounds made me somewhat calmer somehow. I tried to concentrate on my breathing. That was the only thing I seemed to have some influence upon after all. After that I checked my body. What would possibly still function and what absolutely not?

I started at my toes, concentrated real hard if I could move them and tried to wiggle my big toe. I felt the perspiration on my forehead. Oh nice, that was a good thing! I could feel that at least! I could better start at checking my head first. I did feel pain under my skull, as if someone had given me a huge blow to the head or something. I felt the twitching at my eyebrow and smelled the fragrance of the clotted blood and my conclusion was that there had to be a cut on my forehead that had bled so severely that the blood had run over my eyelashes. When I tried to look up I just could see a little piece of it. Okay, so I knew that.
My hearing was still alright, I could hear things, birds that were far away. I still had hair that blew over my face by the wind, not unimportant.
 

I looked up and sneezed. That hurt. But still that too worked. I was smacking my lips and put my tongue out of my mouth. With my tongue I went over my teeth and touched them. I did have all my teeth as well; Thank God. Head; Check.

But tilting my head to see where I was or what else was left of me, that wasn’t an option. Damn it!
 

I took a deep breath and tried it again; nothing. Not even painful or anything, just nothing.

I sighed and went on with the rest of my body. My shoulders, I felt them pressing down on the ground but as with the rest I just checked, they didn’t move. My arms then; they just lay there. Do something! Nothing, fingers, didn’t move. I couldn’t move them no matter how hard I tried. I thought how strange it was that my mouth, my lips, my tongue, they all moved but the rest didn’t.

My stomach went up and down from respiration but that was it. My nipples seemed to have feeling, I felt the soft breeze blow over them and felt them standing upright but that was it from my upper body. My lower body; I couldn’t look down to see but I didn’t feel it not even if it was dressed or not. I didn’t have any feeling left in it. I sighed again and started to look up again.  There I was; God knew how long I was laying there and God knew how long I had to lay there still.

Suddenly I heard voices; loud arguing men’s voices. And there was the panic again. What did I have to do now? See if my voice worked (and why on earth hadn’t I tried that before?) or shouldn’t I? What if they were responsible for the fact that I was laying here in the first place and why the hell didn’t I remember?

The voices came closer and closer. I couldn’t keep laying here now could I? I could lay here forever then if and when someone would ever miss me.

All of a sudden I heard a rustling noise and panting. My heart was beating louder in my chest so it seemed. I wanted to scream, yell out loud but I couldn’t do a damn thing.

The panting got louder and very abruptly I felt my ear getting wet. Something was licking at my ear. A loud bark made me deaf at one ear temporarily. A dog! There was a dog standing next to me, licking my ear! I turned my eyes to look at him but he immediately ran away barking. Oh no, don’t run away, come back! I wanted to shout but not a damn sound came out of my throat. The men’s voices became silent but the barking continued. I heard the cracking of dead branches and footsteps on dry ones and cursing. Fear came over me but everything seemed better than just laying here. What if it got dark tonight and I got left behind all alone?

‘Oh my God’ I suddenly heard one of the man saying standing above me. I looked up and tried to smile at him and say ‘Hi’, but again, nothing came out of my mouth. I imagined shrugging my shoulders knowing I couldn’t anyway. 

The second man appeared ‘Jesus fucking Christ’ he yelled. They both remained there standing looking at me. Hello! I’m not a fairground attraction! Haven’t you guys ever seen a (half) naked woman before? The dog came walking towards me and started to lick my face again. 

‘Stop that. Down boy’ the first man said with an angry tone in his voice.

‘We have to call the police’ the second man said. The other one nodded I saw and started to take out his mobile phone. He bent over and put his fingers in my neck. Hey, what are you doing? Don’t you dare touch me!

‘I don’t feel anything’ he said grabbing my wrist. Hey, my wrist! I knew it was there somewhere. The man put two fingers on my artery. Oh my, what a lot of blood on my wrist! What is all that blood doing there? And how did it get there?

The man shook his head again ‘No she’s gone, dead. Whoever did that deserves the death penalty as far as I’m concerned, the poor thing’

‘Don’t touch anything anymore then, it’s a crime scene, we have to let the police handle it’ the man nodded at the other man, dialled a number on his phone and started talking but I didn’t even listen anymore.

Crime scene, dead? What on earth is he on about? I’m alive can’t he see that? Hello!? I’m right here! Look at me; I’m sticking my tongue out at you! But what about all that blood? The men were pretty shook up.

I noticed I started to slip away. No, no not that please. The men became blurry and the dog looked at me wagging his tail but he also became very vague to me. Dog, you do see me don’t you? Far away I heard sirens wailing and the two men turned their backs at me so they didn’t have to look at me. Did I look awful? I felt myself slipping further and further away. I saw a paramedic and a cop coming towards me ‘Oh my God’ they too were saying and ‘how dreadful’ and ‘awful’

They examined my body and made the same conclusion as the men: ‘Dead; I think some 24 hours now’ the detective said. ‘But what a horrible way to go’

What were they saying about me? I really didn’t understand it all. The dog looked at me again wagging his tail and licked my face again. I smiled at him; he was so nice to me after all. I heard the cuckoo and the woodpecker in the distance. I was so damn tired and my head ached like hell. I decided to close my eyes; just for a little while and take a nap. That would make me feel better. They were here to save me and everything would be alright.

‘We’re going to close her eyes and take her to the lab’ the detective said. ‘Further forensic research will determine what has happened here and the pathologist will look for the exact cause of death but I can’t imagine the suffering she must have had! Take her back to the lab’

© KH