Night. Part 1

“You know, nothing special. I panicked in vain,” Francesca smiled tightly.

Tammy squinted in disbelief. There was a pause.

“Hmm… I know. Have you got a boyfriend?!” cheering, asked a friend.

“No,” Francesca said lazily.

“But is this clearly related to the guy?”

“No.”

“You’re not lying?”

“No,” the third time, the answer was firmer.

“But I met…”

And Tammy started her regular long story about a new boyfriend. Francesca has long ceased to count these guys because her friend has never been stayed long with them. She charmed them, dated them for a while, and then became interested in someone else. And so, it was repeated endlessly.

In fact, Tammy wasn’t a heart breaker. No one was hurt by her love. She was just very funny, but a flighty person. Francesca loved and valued her as a friend. She was at peace with Tammy, even if she chatted incessantly. Tammy, of course, knew that Francesca was listening to her halfheartedly, but she wasn’t offended: they understood each other well, as if they were sisters. And when her friend looked especially happy, Francesca even tried to pretend that she was listening very carefully, although at this time involuntarily hovered somewhere in clouds.

She didn’t even really understand, why she was so suddenly unwilling to talk about what had happened. This is probably intuition. Francesca felt that she had better say nothing. So, relaxing, she continued to slowly drink the juice and look at carefree shining Tammy.

Suddenly, after some time, Francesca felt the growing pain somewhere in the solar plexus. Her eyes widened involuntarily, as soon as she realized what it threatened.

The pain intensified and became unbearable, as if her organs, all cells and tissues were torn apart. In the eyes darkened. She bent, her head buried in her knees. From afar was coming the troubled voice of Tammy, but her words were muffled by the ringing noise in her ears.

Somewhere in the depths of her body there was a dull crunch, and the first push hit the throat. Francesca slid off the bench and fell on all fours. Nearby, her scared to death girlfriend was shaking her shoulder. And inside, as if a bloody battle unfolded, not for life, but for death. The ribs seemed to be cracked now. Then invisible knives pierced the lower abdomen – it seemed as if the meat grinder was working. Another push and she vomited on the smooth emerald grass near the bench.

The ringing in her ears stopped, and Francesca heard her friend’s exclamation:

“… did you get drunk yesterday?!”

And she felt better again. Francesca saw the same water in front of her, only now with a more pronounced red tinge. Tammy lifted her up, put her arms around her shoulders, and quickly dragged her along. Almost running, the friend pulled Francesca out of the park, still supporting her waist, thinking that she could fall at any moment.

“I’m better. Better!” Francesca slightly raised her voice so that Tammy would let her go. They stopped.

“Sure? Bring you home? How’re you feeling?” Tammy’s voice trembled. She was seriously scared. And there were reasons for this.

“Yes. For sure. I’m fine.”

Francesca didn’t dare to say that this had already happened in school.

“Can you walk?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll take you home after all. And don’t you dare argue!”

She wasn’t going to. Contradict the friend? No, the consequences of this even an enemy doesn’t wish. And in her company, in any case, it was much calmer and better. Tammy threw her arm around and looked at Francesca with a worried look. Girl was taken aback.

“What? I’m alright.”

“Are you sure there’s nothing you want to tell me?”

“Yes, of course. I probably got poisoned in the school cafeteria,” if you lie, then lie to the last.

“But you wanted to talk to me about something this morning. Didn’t you?”

Francesca lost in thought. She didn’t like to deceive, and, in fact, didn’t know how. What would she have to think of so that Tammy would stop worrying?

“I just wanted to ask you to help me with my homework. I began to lag behind a little,” she felt, as on a forehead the inscription in large letters emerges: “I am a liar”.

“Well. If you don’t want to tell me now, don’t tell,” after a short silence Tammy said.

She postponed the sentence for later. But Francesca was grateful even for that.

Francesca was walking to the bus stop this morning, so she didn’t have a chance to walk past the place where she met that psychopath last night. More precisely, he met her. And if more precisely – attacked. But now she and Tammy were walking along this road. Francesca recalled the trajectory of yesterday’s path. Here she turned the corner and ran. Then she stopped to check if anyone was watching her. And she blundered when she decided that she herself was imbued with this fear.

She looked at the brick wall. The same smooth, silent, mute, not giving out their secrets… As if nothing had happened yesterday. There’re so much people don’t know. Although every day can pass by the scene of another crime and not even know it… There was a bitter sense of injustice. She wanted to shout: “Here! Here! It was here that he grabbed me!”. But she was silent. All this seemed ridiculous, implausible and even stupid.

Approaching the door of her apartment, Francesca turned and looked at Tammy. In the eyes clearly read: “Thank you for escorting, then I can handle it myself.” Friend, understanding everything without a word, nodded.

“If anything, call me anytime.”

“Good.”

But Tammy was in no hurry to leave and was still looking at her anxiously.

“Everything is good. True.”

She clearly didn’t believe. But didn’t insist.

“Okay. Get better.”

And Tammy turned and walked down the steps.

Taking a deep breath, Francesca entered the apartment and closed the door behind her. The ringing sound of her friend’s heels reflected from the walls of the entrance, moving farther away. Francesca sat down on the floor in the hallway. She didn’t want to think about anything. Not only that she has heavy heart, soon ached and the body. Her stomach ached again, and, with a tormented expression on her face, the girl went to the toilet.

The rest of the day went terribly. Mostly she did only two things: lay in bed or in a fit of nausea ran to toilet. It tired her not only physically, but also mentally. In the late afternoon, Francesca was lying down flat in bed under the blanket, waiting for the next burst of pain. It was gradually getting dark outside the window, and there was less and less light in the room. It pacified.

She extended the trembling hand to a water carafe on a bedside table. Francesca was already drinking straight from it, ignoring a lone glass. For some reason, she couldn’t connect the two obvious things: the more she drinks, then more often she vomits. But she was thirsty. Unbearable thirsty. And the head had completely refused to work. The whole body was weak. And besides, she couldn’t fall asleep, no matter how much she wanted to.

After another visit to the toilet (she was throwing up just clear liquid), water disgusted. And folding her arms across her chest, Francesca emaciated looked out the window.

Night was slowly falling on the city. Like a predatory beast, it sneaked through streets, shrouding houses in black veil. Sounds faded, lights turned on. In the east the sky has already disappeared into darkness.

About an hour later, as expected, a noisy company of young people passed under the windows. Among them, of course, was a couple who lived in a nearby house – Bunny and Kevin. They often gathered friends and got drunk, after which they were necessarily dragged to some club. It so happened that friends brought them back in an almost insane condition and unloaded directly under the entrance door. It seems that Bunny worked in the supermarket, and her friend was either a porter or someone else. He changed jobs like socks, and because of this they made such scandals that screams rang along the whole street. Every passerby heard them. However, afterwards they still put up and also usually not without emotions… And now they are going to the nightclub again.