Chapter 3: Unusual Expectations
Celeste swallowed the thick lump of fear "Mommy!" Tatiyana cried. She gripped her sister close to her body attempting to hush her. Regaining the composure to continue, Celeste wiped the tears from her face with a free hand and began picking up a fast pace.
Her side hurt and her lungs burned with panic, but Celeste tried not to think the worst of the situation. They were safe now, but what about her mother? Anything could have happened to her. That damn jerk is to blame! No, no! She is safe! She’s safe...She repeated it over and over in her head for reassurance.
Keep running. Keep running. Running meant escape. Escape meant survival. Survival meant no more Frank. No more Frank meant no more mommy either. But if she stopped, she would be dead.
Suddenly she collided with a solid figure; she tripped and went flying. Tatiyana slid from harms way before Celeste hit the ground with her hands outstretched. Pain vibrated through her every muscle; the skin on her knees burned and a dusty sand like substance filled her mouth.
Celeste screamed loudly, causing a burning sensation to rip through her throat despite the grainy substance that filled her mouth.
Justin winced at the clamorous cry that filled his ears when something crashed into him and quickly fell to the ground. He vaguely remembered reaching for the toddler to steady her balance, but clearly registered the screaming of "Mommy come!" as well as the scream that still had his ears ringing. Celeste barely comprehended a hazy image of a shadowed figure hovering above her crying sister before everything went black...She had slipped into a state of unconsciousness.
What the hell! Justin observed what took place before his eyes. He was in complete and utter shock. He stared at the woman passed out at his feet.
"Mommy!"
Justin took his eyes off the woman for a second and crouched down to eye-level with the toddler. She looked to be scared half to death, but why wouldn’t she be, when her mother could most likely be suffering head damage from the fall she just took.
"Hey." Justin shook the woman lightly to see if she would respond, but she was unmoving. Panic filled him. Oh shit this is bad! Really, really bad.
"Yo Jus’!" A masculine voice called from afar. Justin recognized it to by Kyle’s. "I heard someone screaming...what the hell?" He observed what was going on around him.
"Yo what happened?"
"Hell I don’t know. She was running and then she ran right into me, fell, and hit the ground, hard." Justin explained running his hand over his goatee in frustration.
"Well then who’s the little shorty then?" Kyle stooped down to the still crying toddler.
"Her daughter I guess, she kept yelling mommy." Justin rolled the woman onto her back and then he noticed a scar on the right side of her head that trickled with blood.
Tatiyana started crying harder at the sight of her sister not waking up.
"Hey man get her away from here, she doesn’t need to see this!" Justin shouted off orders and when he realized Kyle just sitting their dumbstruck he shouted it again, "Go now and take the girl!"
Kyle jumped to his feet immediately and took off.
"Kyle the girl!"
Kyle turned back around and swooped the toddler into his arms, "Come on shorty we have to help your Mommy."
The only thing Tatiyana understood out of that statement was Mommy, so she just puckered her lips, wiped her swollen eyes, and nodded her head.
Kyle patted her on the back to quiet her and he registered that her cries actually did begin to subside.
Justin turned around to a small dog that he just seemed to notice. It was probably the size of his boot. The rambunctious pup was circling the young woman, nudging her and barking.
Celeste groaned and stirred a bit after what seemed to be an eternity. She lifted her head a little and was immediately faint with dizziness. "Ugh...my head!"
"Don’t move." Justin warned, he knew the effect a hard fall had on the body it made you feel like you just went ten rounds in the ring with that Russian dude from Rocky IV. Not to say that he was ever in this situation, he just heard it on the block from some of his competitors.
Who was that? Celeste wondered curiously, her head hurt too much to open her eyes and look at the face of the speaker. Then she felt something heavy settle around her and she registered that it was a pair of arms when she felt herself rise from the ground. It felt good to no longer be on the ground, but her body still hurt like hell.
Justin looked down at the brown-skinned woman again, the bleeding had stopped, which was a good thing, but he noticed that the pained-look on her face increased with every step he took. To make it more comfortable on her body he lessened the quickness of his steps. Don’t worry.
Celeste relaxed at the soft timber tone in her ear and rested her head against the solid figure. Don’t worry Celeste. The memory of her father’s voice floated in her mind before she drifted back into a slumber.
~*~*~*~*~
"Okay now help me get her in here. I don’t want her to hit her head or anything. Shit I wonder if she’s this heavy when she’s conscious."
"Come on stallion." Kyle joked.
Justin leveled her head on his shoulder while Kyle settled her legs under each armpit. Justin carefully climbed the stairs still making sure to keep her head leveled. When he reached the porch and was sure that the woman was safely cradled in his arms he reached back to turn the knob and enter the building.
As they carefully maneuvered through the building, Justin noticed that Celeste began to stir a bit.
"So where are we going to put her?" Kyle asked.
Justin shrugged, "I don’t know...where do you think we should put her?"
What? Celeste overhead the voices speaking, one sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t exactly distinguish it because her head was in so much pain at is and thinking would just make it hurt worst.
"...I mean if we try to take her to the hospital they will probably just turn us away because we don’t have any insurance, but I can call up my Mom and see what she knows." Kyle explained, his mother would be their last resort if Justin didn’t succeed in his own plan.
Call who? Celeste wondered.
"Oh shit we have to hurry...I left little shorty upstairs by herself." Kyle had just remembered that he left the toddler sitting on the couch and turned on the television.
Justin immediately started to pick up the pace in his footing. It wasn’t safe to leave a youngster like herself around alone, locking the doors didn't help either any fool could sneak into his apartment.
In record time, they made it to apartment, where they saw Tatiana sitting on the couch. She didn’t appear to be scared. Apparently she was enjoying an episode of "Sponge-Bob Square-pants"
"Good. She’s okay."
"Don’t you leave her alone again, you nutsack. Now move her out the way so I can place her mother on the couch.
Kyle followed his instructions then turned to Justin, "Yo’ man I don’t think you supposed to let her sleep, something about keeping her conscious."
"Oh shit...wakeup lady." Justin shook the woman. He just remembered that if someone suffered from a hard fall you should keep her awake to prevent her from slipping into a coma.
Celeste stirred, but did not open her eyes. Who’s voice is that? Was it the same voice from before? She squinted through her blurry vision, but she could barely make out the face.
"She’s waking up. Hey, hey...shit!" Justin noticed that she was falling back asleep.
Tatiyana stepped to the side of Kyle, curiously looking down at her sister. Sadness returned to her previous happy features at what she witnessed. She walked around the two strange men to hover over her sister’s motionless figure.
"Wake up now." Although she was very young, Tatiyana was a very perceptive child. She was able to figure out that something wasn’t right.
She continued to whisper pleas to get her sister to wakeup but she never did. Tears started to gather in her big brown eyes as she stared up at Justin silently asking for his help.
Justin tore his eyes away from the toddler to the woman on the couch. Why can’t you just wakeup lady! The sight of the crumbling toddler before his eyes was reaching out to his vulnerable side; a side that he’d put at rest years ago.
Celeste stirred again for the third time that night, but this time she blinked her eyes slightly. A hazy figure was hovering above her as her head was overcome with a wave of dizziness. "Ow…shit!" She hissed as the pain along with the dizziness dominated her body.
Tatiyana took in the scene before, what was wrong with her sister? She wondered.
Justin and Kyle looked at each other, not having the slightest clue what to do in a situation like this. They had never had an unconscious woman and her child dumped in their care.
So Justin did whatever came to his mind, "Hey stay calm it’s only going to make it hurt worst." Justin cautioned.
That voice again. Celeste eyes immediately opened and settle on the figure before her. It was a man. He had a black and blue bruise on the right side of his face, above his brow, the size of Texas. Suddenly fear crept into her loins at the sight of the stranger. What was he going to do to her? Did he already do something to her? What did he mean by making it hurt worst? Celeste looked at her disheveled attire; the fabric of her shirt was torn in some places as well as her jeans. Clearly the man didn’t have his way with her, he wasn’t that clever, was he?
Then her brain went silent. Where is Tati! She had gotten so carried away thinking about herself that she didn’t even recognize that her sister was not with her. Quickly, Celeste sat up into a sitting position, which proved to be the wrong move to make because the pain rush through entire body causing her to collapse back against the cushion. Her breathing rose to a rapid pace, the pain was almost intolerable to handle. What the hell happened to me?
Celeste took a deep breath and spoke in short breaths, "Where…is- sh-she…Tat-Tati?
Justin realized that she was speaking of her daughter, but when he looked to his left at where she had been standing he noticed that she had disappeared. He had been so entranced in her pain that he hadn’t even noticed that Kevin was gone too. Where the hell had they gone too? He wanted to go search for them, but he didn’t want to leave the woman to suffer alone. But wasn’t that what he was doing right now, leaving her alone to suffer? He couldn’t be considered much of a help since he wasn’t doing much of anything to help her, he was just standing their watching her like a dumb-struck fool.
"Yo’ Justin get the hell in here I don’t know what the fuck is going on in here. Something’s wrong with shorty!" Kyle’s voice ascended in the room, the fear and anxiety was evident in his tone.
What the fuck is going on now!