Sometime later, in the Emergency Room.
Slowly, painfully, Charlie opened her eyes. The harsh fluorescent light above her bed seared her vision, and forced her to close them again. Her mind was working sluggishly, and her whole body was numb and heavy. Memories of crawling on all fours in the darkness, while a silent hunter pursued her suddenly appeared in her mind, and Charlie felt a brief surge of panic course through her veins.
She opened her eyes fully again and found she was in a hospital bed, her bandaged leg lay propped up on a stack of pillows and her ruined clothes had been replaced by a thin gown. She no longer smelled of earth and blood, but of soap and antibiotics. Sterile.
Realizing that she was alone and safe, Charlie relaxed back onto the bed, just as her senses began to catch up with her thoughts. The girl blinked groggily, and listened to the sounds of the world outside, hidden from her by a thin, blue curtain.
The girl grinned, feeling slightly giddy from all the pain medication they had given her.
* * *
Not far from where her friend lay, Grace sat in another partitioned section of ER! Her ruined shirt had been replaced with a gown; however, her jeans were in not so bad a condition, so they stayed. This allowed Grace to sit on the edge of the bed without embarrassment as she waited for the nurse to return. Her mauled shoulder had been cleaned and neatly stitched, before being covered with a large bandage!
The girl was staring at a jar of cotton swabs, wondering just what the hell was happening when the curtain opened swiftly, then closed again! In stepped Miss Brenda, an older black woman who had been a nurse at this hospital since as long as anyone could remember. This was not the first time she had tended to either of the girls, and she gave Grace a reproachful look through her rimmed glasses, obviously saying 'what kind of stupid shit have you gone and done, now'.
"I got your blood work back from tox'," the elderly nurse stood in front of Grace, now, one hand on her round hip. ""You're clean, so you don't need to worry about frothin' out the mouth, or anything."
Grace stared down at her shoes, feeling like a little girl who had just been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to.
""I don't even wanna know what was goin' through your mind to make you shoot at a frightened wolf," the older woman shook her head and busied herself with checking Grace's bandages. Brenda was a kindly, patient woman, but she was never known to take any kind of nonsense from anyone, and she had seen plenty of strange things tonight that made her irritable. First, that Natasha girl had come in all bloodied up, trying to tell her she'd been attacked by a mountain lion when she clearly had not. Then, a drunken stranger had burst into the ER, made a mess of one of the medicine cabinets, then shot off into the night screaming about something or other. If she ever saw that boy again, she would slap the skin right off of his face. No, Brenda was not having it, tonight.
""But you certainly faired better than that little friend of yours," Grace's head shot up!
"Charlie? How's she doing?"
""Fine," Brenda 'hmphed', ""You can go talk to her if you want, but she might not be able to say much back," the woman paused, her brow furrowing concern for a moment.
""I had to dope her up before they could take that bear trap off her foot."
"Bear trap?"
""Mmmhmm, seems little miss Charlie thought she could take on an armed, grown man in the middle of the woods all by herself. That girl's always been crazier than a can of cricket juice. She's lucky she's still got a leg, right now." If Brenda was going to say anything more, she was cut off as Grace stood!
"Where is she now?"
""Three sections to the right. But you better be quick, they're sending someone from the sheriff's department to get a statement from her as soon as she's awake."
Grace nodded, before she set off!