Re: warning: violence
She did not know this place, this man, or these injuries. She did not know the girl in the memory either, the one who was dead and decaying somewhere with much sand, and she was not afraid of that memory or the girl's gruesome visage. Perhaps she had moved beyond all the fears of her youth. It came of living with too much terror and death, she thought.
She recognized numbness too; she knew it as loss. It was an old, dear friend to her, and she wanted to tell him (it was surely a him) that it would be better in time. But the message on the phone brought a strange kind of recognition, and she knew.
She did not stop to think whether she wanted the man dead or not. It was not for her to decide, and she was afraid of her own opinion on the matter. She rubbed her arm, where she could still feel the pain from the gash, and she gratefully took water when the nurses offered it to her.