Nightmares of Caitlin Lockyer
By Demelza Carlton
I approached her slowly, looking deep into her tortured eyes, avoiding looking at the injuries that caused her so much pain. “I’m here. We’re in a hospital, and they’re trying to help you.” I kept my voice calm and steady.
She sagged back against the bed as she took this in, her eyes never leaving mine. The syringe rolled across the floor as it slipped from her fingers.
“So… tired,” she managed to say, “but… scared to sleep. What if… I wake up… you’re gone and I’m still… there… with them?” She didn’t look away, even as her eyes filled with tears. “Please.”
“I’ll be here. When you wake up I’ll be here. Here, in the hospital with you,” I promised recklessly, forcing myself to smile as I reached to touch her hair.
“Thank you,” she murmured, closing her eyes.
I waited until I was sure she was asleep before I said anything else. “You cut her hair off. She won’t like that.” Her long hair was now a short, dark cap that curled slightly around her ears.
“She didn’t,” came the nurse’s voice behind me. “That must have been what woke her up. But we couldn’t leave it – it was matted with blood and sand. We had to clean the wounds on her back. I’ve never seen so many ulcers, especially ones that bad. It’s a good thing she’s unconscious for this because those must hurt…”
She talked as she worked. I tried to keep my eyes firmly fixed on Caitlin’s sleeping face, so I didn’t see the extent of her injuries, but occasionally my eyes would stray to the subject of the nurse’s running commentary. Every time I wanted to close my eyes in horror at the thought of what Caitlin had been through, but I didn’t. Instead, I dragged my eyes back to her face.
When the nurse had finished with her now-cooperative patient, she said, “Now I’m taking her up to her room…”
“And I’m taking you to yours,” an orderly behind me chimed in.
“If you think you’re taking us to separate rooms, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“The police want you under guard…”
“And she won’t feel safe without some sort of protection. We’ll share.”
As they wheeled her bed out, I followed, along with a police officer I hadn’t noticed earlier.
“Can I have a word with you?” he asked abruptly.
I shrugged. My eyes were on Caitlin, asleep on the hospital bed.
Genre: Thriller
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Demelza Carlton
Biography.
USA Today Bestselling Author Demelza Carlton has always loved the ocean, but on her first snorkeling trip, she found she was afraid of fish.
She has since swum with sea lions, sharks, and sea cucumbers and stood on spray-drenched cliffs over a seething sea as a seven-meter cyclonic swell surged in, shattering a shipwreck below.
Sensationalist spin? No – Demelza tends to take a camera with her so she can capture and share the moment later; shipwrecks, sharks, and all.
Demelza now lives in Perth, Western Australia, the shark attack capital of the world.
The Ocean’s Gift series was her first foray into fiction, followed by the Nightmares trilogy. She swears the Mel Goes to Hell series ambushed her on a crowded train and wouldn’t leave her alone.
Demelza Carlton
