Yuna blinked slowly awake, the hospital room coming into blurry focus. The pain blanketing her body immediately overwhelmed her. Tears leaked from her swollen eyes as the horrific memories flooded back.
She could hear her mother's shrill voice outside the room, arguing with someone. "I can't take her now - we just got settled after I left my ex. She'll have to stay with her dad."
Yuna's heart clenched. The man who had put her in the hospital was her only option now? Fresh panic rose in her throat. She couldn't go back there - she wouldn't survive.
Storming into the room, her mother glanced briefly at Yuna's battered form with a hint of pity before turning on her heel. Yuna realized then what she had always secretly known - her own mother didn't truly care about her. She was utterly and completely alone.
Soon a nurse arrived to check Yuna's injuries and change bandages. "Your friend is still here - what a nice boy. Let me bring him in quickly before I call lights out," she said gently.
Nick entered, his eyes rimmed with red. "Oh Yuna," he said in a broken whisper, taking her hand. His warm grasp felt like an anchor, the only thing still tethering her to this painful world.
Too overcome with grief to speak, Yuna clung to Nick's hand. He kept vigil by her side until he was ushered out at last. Left alone again, Yuna's roiling emotions spiraled into black despair.
Gingerly, she ripped out her IV line and slipped silently from the room, gripping the walls for support down the empty hall. In the bathroom, she locked herself into the farthest stall from the door.
The pain barely registered as Yuna broke off a sharp fragment from the bottom of the metal toilet paper holder. With eerie calmness she stared down at the makeshift blade, knowing this was her only escape.
She pressed the cool metal to her wrist, feeling a sense of peace for the first time in years. But before she could finish the tragic act, her world faded into blackness from the blood loss.
Later Nick would learn when hospital staff found Yuna unconscious on the cold tile floor, her life was saved only by their rapid response and the doctors' frantic efforts - the second time in two days Nick had come perilously close to losing his dearest friend forever.