The New Me - Ch. 01

Disclaimer:

This is my first story. It is more about love and romance rather than sex. It will be a slow burn, but my plan is for this to go over many chapters. I am hoping to adapt based on feedback from everyone.

This story is fiction and any similarities to real persons are accidental. The first chapters deals with an assault.

Chapter 1 - The new me

I lay there staring up at the sky. The rain hitting my face with no mercy. My eyes becoming drowned and blurry nearly instantly. I try to make sense of what is happening, pain everywhere. In the blackness of my confusion, I feel a dribble of heat on my face it runs from my mouth down my check on then disappears. I groaned, trying to move and sit up. I have no idea where I am it's too black and the rain makes it difficult to hear never mind see. There was a very faint light to the left of me when I managed to move my head. I see a shadow move across it; I attempt to call out for help but all that escapes is a painful moan.

Everything starts going black again, I resign myself to my fate lying helpless on the hard floor in the middle of a rainstorm.

****

'Faggot'

'999... I need an ambulance'

'Blood.... broken ribs.... temperature... BP.... Hospital'

'Gay boy... fudge packer... deserve this...'

'Room 5... badly beaten... needs Xray...'

'He needs rest, you can speak to him when he wakes up.'

****

Beeping. Whispers. A scream. My eyes shot open. I lay staring at a white tiled ceiling still in pain but not as much as before. The rain had gone and my clothes were dry. I looked around to try and work out where I was. A blue curtain seemed to surround me, I had a monitor next to me beeping, an IV bag with a tube trailing down into my arm. I tried not to panic. Deep breaths I reminded myself. Focus on the 5 senses. A few minutes later, I had calmed myself enough to realise I was clearly in hospital it made sense as I heard snippets of conversations when I was unconscious.

I slowly tried to move to at least sit up which elicited more moans and groans from my body, completely involuntarily. I saw the call button and pressed it. I needed to know what was going on and what had happened. It took a few minutes, but the curtain was pulled back carefully and a nurse walked in.

"Ah, glad to see you're awake. You had us scared for a moment." The nurse said as he went around checking the equipment. "I am nurse Simmons. How are you feeling? Do you need any pain killers?"

"Erm... I am not sure. I am in pain my ribs are killing me. What happened? How did I get here?

"No problem. I can increase the dose slightly but not much to help you feel more comfortable," he smiled warmly helping me feel at ease. "As far as your other questions I am unable to the answer them. The police do want to speak to you so they may have more answers." He tried his best to be reassuring but other than his smile nothing helped.

"Thank you anyways." I tried to smile back, but it ended up more of a grimace; most of my body was aching and my face felt like it was throbbing.

"I will get a doctor to come see you straight away so they can explain everything." With that he turned and started walking out. "If you need me press the call button and I will be back in a jiffy." And off he went.

I lay there with no real answers. I knew I had been attacked but by who I had no idea. I couldn't remember much to be honest. Much of the last week seemed blurry. I figured my face had taken a bashing and with the pain in my ribs I figured they were broken; I could vaguely remember hearing something about broken ribs and an Xray.

"Hello there," a deep voice startled me back to the room as I looked up and saw a tall man with a stethoscope around his neck. I had no idea where he came from I had clearly spaced out for a while. "I am glad to see you're awake. My name is Doctor Fisher."

"Hmmm," was all I could muster to say.

"I just have a few questions and then I can answer yours." The doctor was clearly trying to be compassionate, but he had a job to do. "What is your name?"

"Erm," I really had to think. How could this simple question throw me so much? "Luca, Luca Hudson."

"Hello, Luca. How old are you, and do you live locally?" He replied.

"36. Yes, I live in Byker." I was wondering how they did not know this as surely someone would have checked my drivers' license. Oh no! It dawned on me I was clearly robbed when I was beaten. "Oh no! Was I robbed?" I asked scared of the answer.

"I am unsure, but we do have your phone and it looks like your cards are still there. I only asked to ensure this was in fact yours and the details matched." He tried to be reassuring but I was grateful my phone hadn't been taken.

"Thank God!" I looked at him and readied myself for the answer to my question. "What's the damage? I have sore ribs and my face is throbbing, so I guess that's not great but what else?"

He looked at me and tried the reassuring smile again. "You are correct, it looks like a lot of the hits were aimed at your face. You have two black eyes, a broken nose and a busted lip. It would seem you were then punched or kicked in the ribs which has broken two of them. You also sustained damage on your arms, most like from you shielding your face, nothing broken but very bruised and will be sore for some time."

I lay there taking in the information. I mean it could have been worse right? I could have been kicked in the genitals, broke my legs. I tried to stay as positive as I could. "How long do I need to stay here?"

"A few days at the very minimum. I wouldn't be surprised if you have a concussion and since you arrived unconscious, you would need to stay the night at the very least. You will need help when you leave as you are going to struggle with the basics. Is there someone we can call?" He said all this matter-of-factly; I could tell he needed to get on with his rounds. The NHS just isn't funded how it should be.

"No, there isn't anyone. I can manage on my own." I replied with a slight smile. I had always kept myself to myself, not getting close to anyone.

"Well, I will leave you to rest. The police have requested they speak to you about the incident. I have said they can return in an hour to give you some time to recuperate." Then he was gone.

****

The police came in ushered by the nurse who had been in before. He looked somewhat flustered; I figured he was swamped and having to escort police around would not have been his priority.

"We have some questions for you, Luca. Please try and tell us everything that happened in as much detail as possible." The two policemen stood there, the younger of the two writing down my very bare recollection of what happened. The older one was asking the questions. The nurse had kept himself busy checking my meds and glancing at me every so often.

That was when everything seemed to implode. All at once there was a huge commotion. The curtains were flung apart, and there stood my only friend here, Martin. As much as I said I don't trust anyone and had no one to help, that was a lie. I had texted him in the hour before, waiting for the police. I hadn't expected him to appear so quickly. Following behind was Doctor Fisher and then behind him was some random dude I did not know.

I just stared at them all trying to work out what was going on.

"I'm sorry; I tried stopping him but was insistent and pushed past me," the doctor said, looking exasperated.

"Well, my friend needs me! Luca, are you ok? What the hell happened!" Martin exclaimed.

"Excuse me, Sir." The older copper spoke. "Do you mind? We are trying to ascertain that very question. Could you please wait outside? And who are you both?"

"Martin, Luca's friend, don't know who he is, though."

"I am Mo. I am the one who found Luca and called an ambulance. I just wanted to make sure he was ok."

I stared at Mo; he found me and had stayed around to find out how I was. His big brown eyes were staring at me intently and all I could sense was compassion. "I am ok, thank you so much. I didn't know someone found me."

"Now that introductions are done, can we continue the interview?" Police officer Dodds (or so it said on his badge) spoke again, his stern experienced voice cutting though. "If you all wouldn't mind leaving so me and PC Collins can conclude this interview so we can find the people who did this."

The doctor ushered Martin and Mo out, while Nurse Simmons squeezed my arm slightly and asked if I was ok to continue. I nodded yes and he also left me to it. After another half an hour of questions, the police officers left, PC Collins left me his card so I could ring if I recalled anything. They did say they would be back in touch.

When everyone left and I had a moment's peace, a voice spoke from behind the curtain. "Sounds like you've had a worse day than me."

"It sure wasn't a good day," I replied.

How true the voice was, it had been one of the most surreal days of my life. I couldn't remember all of it but lying in a hospital bed surrounded by police, doctors and nurses would not be how I envisioned it ended.

Little did I know that from my worst day ever, better times were coming. The old me had gone, beaten to a pulp and left for dead. The new me needed to make better choices. Connect to people. Try. No more hiding on the sidelines, scared to make connections. I needed to live my life, as after today nothing was certain.

Someone from today was going to change my life in ways I did not expect.

To be continued.