All I could see was the knife.
Nothing else, just a knife, floating in the air as it neared me, I tried to scream but there was no sound. I couldn't even move, my feet felt like lead.
Still the knife came closer, and as it made contact with my white security officers shirt I heard laughter, as I looked up, I could see the staff of the nightclub I worked at all watching through the window, helpless to do anything.
No pain, just lots of blood and as I pulled my shirt apart I could see my insides falling out of the rent in my stomach, I tried to hold it all in, only to see the knife coming back again, this time towards my face. Another silent scream, then...
A gentle voice whispering "Frank"
I groaned, wincing as a bright light shone into my face, "What the hell?" was all I could manage.
"You had another nightmare" came the soothing voice.
Gradually my senses began to return, where was I? I looked around the semi-darkness at a small room, one bed, one chair, a drip stand and monitor gently beeping right next to my bed, with leads and tubes leading towards me. Towards my arm, my chest, and as I looked down I saw bandages on my stomach with a tube coming out of the side with what could only be described as mucus slowly seeping out before disappearing down by the side of the bed.
I groaned again, as my faculties returned. I'd been stabbed, at work and I was in hospital after having had surgery, but an infection had kicked in and I had been rushed back to theatre to remove some of my bowel. I knew working the door of a nightclub was dangerous, but until that fateful night I had only been punched, kicked and on one occasion I had been attacked by a woman with her stiletto heel, ironically because I had been holding her 'boyfriend' on the floor because he had been slamming her head against a wall.
"yep, another nightmare" I sighed.
"Everything ok?" another voice, this time from the door, and I saw another nurse approaching.
"yes, just a nightmare" the first nurse replied, I knew her name to be Preeti. She was from the Philippine's and the other nurse? Chloe? Charlotte? No it was Christina, a raven haired beauty from Spain, who I had spent about an hour chatting with the previous night when I'd had my last nightmare.
Christina smiled at me and with a questioning glance "coffee, white no sugar?
"Please, I doubt I will sleep much more tonight"
As I settled back in my bed my mind wondered to the night I'd been stabbed. It had been a normal Friday night at the Point club in Milton Keynes and I had noticed someone who had been kicked out the previous week for bringing drugs in to the club.
I radioed through to get back up and went to approach the man in question. He was clearly there for revenge because as soon as I neared him his hand came out of his coat, and all I felt was a blow to my stomach.
Being punched that hard wasnt to bad and despite the pain, I somehow managed to grab hold of the bloke as Richard and Mike arrived, and we were able to subdue him. It was then one of the other club goers pointed at my stomach saying "You're bleeding".
As I looked down I noticed my shirt was ripped and was covered in blood.
"Whats happened?" Richard asked, his face going pale.
""Fuck knows, I thought he'd punched me.
As they yanked the bloke up onto his feet, the mystery was solved, as a large kitchen knife clattered onto the floor by his foot. "Jesus" Richard whistled before yelling into the radio "Delta 1 to control, call TVP and ambulance, Delta 3's been stabbed"
"What?" came the incredulous response.
"Stabbed, Frank's been stabbed" Richard's voice sounded distant, and I realised it was probably me as my grip on consciousness began to fade. "Hurry, he's lost..." it was at that point I couldn't hear him anymore, as darkness enveloped me.
When I came round I could hear sirens and felt hands holding my head, and I could hear voices, shouts and then comforting words whispered right into my ear, as my eyes began to focus I saw our control officer, Freja, kneeling by my head, a look of concern on her face.
Freja was Swedish, and had been in England for a couple of years, studying at University, and had taken on the job of control officer for the security at the Point complex to earn some extra money. She was around the same height as me, 5 foot 8, and she had long blonde hair, deep coral eyes, a gorgeous athletic figure, which even in the uniform she wore, showed she took care of herself.
I had met her once out of work when I was shopping, and the sight of her in a pair of tight jeans, and skimpy t-shirt, made my blood course through my veins. God she was hot, but the club had rules regarding the staff having relationships with each other, and whilst it wasn't strictly adhered to by most of the staff, Freja religiously stuck to the rule, and though most of us fancied her, she never reciprocated any of the advances made by most of the men, and by a couple of the women.
Personally, although I absolutely fancied the pants off of her, I had never even tried to chat her up, not even to ask her out for a coffee even though I had imagined doing so on numerous occasions. Now here she was, cradling my head, looking scared with a hint of tears glistening in her eyes.
"Nrow if I had known the way to get you to hold me gently was to get stabbed, I would have done it weeks ago" I said, wincing as more pressure was applied to my stomach to stem the flow of blood.
"just shut up, but stay awake" she snapped, it was later I found out this was through absolute fear and worry over me, but at the time it seemed harsh.
"erm...ok" I hissed, as a paramedic pushed against the wound trying to staunch the bleeding. And with that I passed out again.
I came to in the ambulance and the first thing I saw were Freja's eyes staring back at me. "Will you stop doing that, you scared me"
I think I smiled back before mumbling "sorry, wasn't deliberately done" Then I looked at her quizzically, why are you with me, aren't you supposed to be in the control room?"
"Don't you want me here?" she pouted, smiling at me, before continuing "I spoke to Mehdi, and told him I would come with you in the ambulance"
"I would have preferred it to have been in slightly better circumstances" at that point the ambulance hit a pot hole and the jolt sent a fresh wave of pain through my body.
"Giving you another 5cc of morphine"
said the paramedic, grabbing a vial from a box above his head. "The hospital knows you're incoming and are ready for you"
And for the third time that evening, unconsciousness overtook me.
I awoke some time later with a couple of nurses looking down at me. "Mr Dutton, slowly, you've had surgery, you're in recovery and will be going up to the ward in a while.
"What time is it?" I croaked.
"just gone 3am, you were in surgery for just over 2 hours"
I closed my eyes, Freja must have gone home, hopefully I would see her tomorrow.