The phone went dead in her hand, and the screen went black. This time, she did drop it. It fell onto Samantha's phone with a sharp crack that rattled through the room. Savannah never heard it: her ears pounded and rushed with blood and her heart seemed to suddenly jump into over-time. In her haste to leave, she accidentally put too much weight on her bad ankle and, with a cry, she tumbled forward onto the floor. She felt the rug bite into and burn her exposed knees as the stitches in her side gave a little from the impact.
Once again, the world swirled about her in a dizzying array of colors and shadows and silence. She was frantic to leave the room, frantic to find someone with whom she could make human contact, desperate to find CJ. The rooms, both of them, felt wrong to her, empty and occupied, and she had never felt so alone. She scrambled to her feet, leaving her hospital blanket behind, and threw open the door to escape into the hallway.
The air here seemed heavier, harder to breathe, and, somehow, she felt pursued, as though unseen eyes were watching her and as though those eyes belonged to something that wanted to claim her for itself. The hallway heaved around her as she half-stumbled, half-dragged herself away. The hospital gown fell open, revealing enticing glances of the firm curve of her ass and the toned flesh of her thighs. Savannah's dark hair fell around her face with each lurch forward, hiding the gash on her forehead but for the occasional flash. Tears fell down her face in a steady steam, their warmth unrecognized and unacknowledged.
Her thoughts were a jumble of fear and pain as she fled, even the image of CJ wavering like a candle's flame in a drafty room.
Somehow, Savannah made it Away, onto an elevator, and from there, God knew where. She was in a hallway, feeling dizzy and faint and sick to her stomach all at once. Her ankle hurt again, no longer the dull throb she had grown accustomed to, and her head was pressed against a wall.
Had she fallen here? There was a sense she had been running, but she could not say what from. But it felt good to kneel here, with her forehead pressed against the wall. Maybe she would stay here for just a minute more...