ThudThudThud!

I began to stir into consciousness; my eyes fading in and out of focus, as the stiffness reverberated through my bones. I peal myself off the cold cement of my apartment floor; gravity weighed heavily on my aching body, a familiar metallic taste in my mouth.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I can feel the large knot throbbing in the back of my skull, buried behind matted hair. The ringing in my ears was giving me a headache. I attempt to stand, pushing the pain from my mind. I pull myself to the large chair pawing at my cane lying on the floor. I steady myself with my crutch, clutching it tighter, gritting my teeth attempting to ignore the shooting pain in my leg, I stand.

Stumbling with jerky stiff movements I step into the master bathroom, where the harsh florescent light burns my eyes and the throbbing in my brain grows. All my weight is thrown onto the white porcelain sink, in a sad attempt to remove the pressure on my aching limb.

I drown myself in more pills.

When my sight became normal and the room stopped spinning, I eventually get the courage to face myself in the mirror. My busted lip and swollen face, blood dried at the corner of my mouth, and warn faded hazel stare blankly back at me. The bruises on my arms are already yellowing in big nasty splotches, my left eye is almost swollen shut.

I look like hell, and I deserved it.

I clamp my eyes shut, not wanting to pull up those dark images. Even though the memory was hazy, but the incident was not.

The story was written all over my body.

The atheistic had begun to wear off as I was coming too.

"It's broken… More like shattered, that fall really did a number on her. It can be fixed but it's going to be a long recovery time, and will never be to full capacity again. All her other injuries are miner, but some of them are old… not from the fall…and it's really concerning…"

"She is rather accident prone." The short raven haired woman sitting at my bedside stated bluntly. "Thank you doctor, I'm just glad she will be ok."

"Well she is lucky, but not too lucky, the plates will make the leg useable, but she will have to deal with the pain for a long while…"

BANG BANG BANG!

"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR MARCELINE!"

I panic to find something, anything to cover my battered body, attempt to conceal the events of last night. In this I forgot about my injured leg, moving in full force.

I scream like a wounded animal, quickly falling grasping the bathtub rim.

"GOD DAMNIT MARCY!" I can hear the loud thud of my apartment door being slammed against a cinderblock wall.

The strawberry blond storms in with worry written all over her tear streaked face. She spots me on my tile floor falling into me, pulling me into a bone crushing embrace, holding me as if I would vanish if she let go. I just sit there looking at her through half lidded eyes, filled with exhaustion.

"Hey Bon what's the matter?" I say as calmly as possible, choking back my pain. She sobs into my blood stained shirt. I stroke her hair in an attempt to comfort her, cooing softly, show her that there is nothing to cry about.

"I...was...so...scared" she mumbles out between sniffles. "I heard... what happened... and how... angry she was..." She paused, and lifted her head up, finally noticing the condition I was currently in. Even more tears begin well up in her eyes, as her trembling fingers trace over each mark. She mentally counted each burse, felt the knot, felt the crusted blood on the side of my face.

She saw for the first time, what I always concealed from her... from everyone.

The bruised handprint on my throat…

Black and yellow welts on exposed arms…

A puffy beaten face…

She took a long, hard, look. She slowly pulled off the shirt I was wearing, her eyes widening at my obviously broken ribs. I try to hide my yelps.

"Who...who did this...?" Her voice was a barely an audible whisper.

I try to give her my best smile reassure her, "It's nothing just a-"

"No! No! This is not ok!" her voice is stern. "I can see this, there is no hiding this! You don't think I never noticed! I see the make-up to cover bags under your eyes! The bruises and cuts under your sleeves! You don't think I notice! I fucking notice!" her eyes begin to soften. "I thought you would come to me…" She helps pull me off the ground; I wince in pain as we slowly stumble to my bed.

"And that limp Marcy" her words were like stone. "That fucking LIMP!" her sad worried eyes darken and fill with rage. "It was her. Wasn't it! It was always her" she was shaking in anger. "She…She did this to you..."

"You don't understand… it was my… fault. I made her upset… I shouldn't have done that…"

"Your fault?! You wouldn't tolerate this shit from anyone else! You are one of the strongest people I know, and you deal with this shit? And YOU MARCELINE! YOU LET HER…WHY…Why her…"

"she lo-"Now the tears in my own eyes were begging to spill over.

"GODDAMNIT! NO! SOMEONE WHO LOVES YOU WOULDN'T DO THIS!" She gestures to my body's poor condition.

"Bonni I-"

My sentence is cut off when we hear someone burst into the apartment.

"Heeeey baby!"

Shit.

"Whhy is the door open? I got! I got you some flowers!" I hear her drunken slurs, as she stumbles in. "I'm sorrrrrrry love, my temper just got the best of-". There she stood, tendering back and forth, looking around with glazed over eyes, her jet black hair in a messy bun and she still in her cloths from the previous night. I could smell the alcohol on her from across the room.

Shit.

She stopped dead in her tracks. "What. Is she doing here?" She said through a clenched jaw, as she very unceremoniously drops the flowers on the desk, the dark eyes dart to Bonnibel who is still holding me in her arms.

"Oh um, she just came by to um wish me luck…um… the demo comes out today remember?" I shake in my words, not wanting another confrontation.

Not now.

Not today.

Her eyes burned into the blond, pointing to the exit with free hand. Venom dripping in her voice, almost instantly sobering up, as she simply said, "Leave.".

"No." Bonni stood to face her, ignoring my silent plea for her to stay seated. "I am not going to stand by and let you ruin her."

She lets out a low cackle. "Ruin her? You really think that?" She takes a swig of her 11th or 12th beer of the afternoon. "I got her started. I'm doing for her what she could never do for herself. She is weak, and would have never gotten this far without me. So watch your tong you little bitch."

"Maj... Please, no fighting today." I try and plea with her.

"Shut the fuck up Marceline, I wasn't talking to you." She snaps at me and then begins to wonder around the room. Her eyes never leave Bonni's. "Now I am going to ask nicely one more time for you to leave." Maja says softly as she walks over to me, caressing my bruised face.

"No." The blond steps boldly between us, "Get out." This outburst startled dark hair girl. "Get out or I'm calling the cops."

My abuser's fists clench, and unclench; her eyes harden, like I have seen so many times before. I anticipate another blow but, she only chuckles lightly to herself, flashing her sinister grin.

"Stupid girl" with that Maja pivots around, briskly walking out of the room, but not before giving me a chaste kiss, making her point, and her property crystal clear. I can hear a familiar sound of a glass bottle breaking against a wall, and I'm sure the apartment complex shook with her force slamming the door.

"She will be back." I say staring at where the woman stood, in shock she left without a fight.

"I know."

I finally break down into silent sobs, Bonni holding me there until I succumbed to sleep.