Writing sample of a novel, working title: Resonance

Tell me what you think.

It was a little more than a month after Derrick had gotten arrested for the assault against her and the state larceny against Swift Brothers courier services. Thankfully, no broken bones and no re-tearing of healed wrist cartilage. But she’d have to wear the movable brace for another month because of how he initially pulled her into the apartment. Scars still decorated her arms from where he’d swung the pocket knife at her. Fading neck bruises still peaked out from her shrubs from where he choked her, her voice still carried a tinge of raspiness, and she still had soreness in her pelvic area.
Not to mention panic attacks were a new thing.
And worse, Derrick only received six years because he decided to plead guilty in exchange of the courts taking sexual battery charges off the table.
“It’s a stomach-turning result, I know,” said the victim's assistant advocate, who attended the plea hearing so Tonya wouldn’t have to see him.  “Derrick’s lawyer argued that because the cuts were ‘superficial,’ it showed he didn’t intend to use lethal harm. I’m not happy about it either, but it will get him off the streets for a few years.” 
But Derrick could get off for good behavior. That was the reality. Then what?
At work, some people whispered when she walked by. Fran and her friends gave her the cold shoulder. Carmen and Karen allowed her space to process without asking too many questions, and Jonathan kept it professional to help her sanity. 
On this night in mid-to-late October they had no patients for the next several hours, so Tonya sat alone in the control room, peering over DTI and FLAIR images from an earlier patient’s scans. She tried anything to avoid the thought of that horrible night, not wanting to spark another panic attack. 
But Derrick’s threat played in her mind once more.
And his knife-flipping. Click-clack-clink-clank. Ca-ching-click-click. Ca-ching-click. The sounds of those stupid butterfly knife tricks he did grated her mind like scissors on a chalkboard. Metal clanging metal as he twirled the knife relentlessly while pacing her apartment, then towering over her like a predator.
Ca-ching click-click. Schh-click. 
No. Stop. Don’t think about it. Look at the images.
Hmmm. This was an axial view of the patient’s brain. She could make out the white colors surrounding the….six years. Why did they take sexual battery off the table? OK focus. Oh, the sagittal view. Yes, it looked like a tumor in the frontal lobe, possibly just under the coronal suture of the skull…and he only got six years concurrent with the help of the larceny charge. Wasn’t her life worth more than just money? No, focus….yes. She knew this next image here. A chemical shift artifact. A type 1, most likely.
Click-clack-clink-clank. Schhh-click. Schhh-click. 
I’m coming after you when I get out.
She shook her head, sweat beading from her forehead. No, focus!
This was another artifact. The patient must have moved during the scan.
I’m coming after you when I get out! Derrick screamed when they took him in handcuffs. 
Her heart pounded and she suddenly felt hot, almost like she’d spontaneously combust. Oh no, here it comes. Tonya jumped up from the computer monitor, pushing her African braids back, blood roaring in her ears, heart pounding. The balisong knife flipped in her head. Click-clack-clink-clank.  She felt like collapsing, but she studied herself against the wall, closing her eyes. Lord, please. Please help me, let it pass…please let this pass. I can’t. I’m terrified.
He’ll kill me if I stay here.
The roaring in her ears continued, blocking out all sound. She kept praying, eyes closed, breath labored, but in her mind's eyes, focused.
“Please help, Lord,” she muttered, breathing hitched. “Please.” 
A small voice. I’m here. 
And then the roaring began to decrease a little, and her body cooled as she exhaled slowly. She opened the door to the scanner room, now listening to the rhythmic, vomp-vomp-vomp-vomp from the idling 1.5T GE scanner as it drowned out the knife-flipping in her head. Finally, the roaring in her ears ceased altogether. The Lord had calmed her down. Now she listened fully to the scanner.  
Something was different.
The vomp-vomp sound seemed more crisp and rounded. Obviously the pistons and the high-pressured valve worked in unison, drawing heat away from the magnet. That didn’t change. But the sound now resembled more of a thump-thump…thump-thump…thump-thump. Its rhythm kept tempo smoothly, harmonically, and in sync. Almost like….
….like a heartbeat. 
She could hear it. Just like what Jonathan had said before.  Unlike the sounds of Derrick’s grated knife-flipping, this was a metronome. 
Steady. 
Pulsing. 
Soothing. 
Calming.
It really was….a heartbeat. 
She stood there, her eyes still closed, as she listened to it beat. 
Then came another moment of clarity. 
He had said he’d find her. 
Then don’t be here when he gets out. 
She knew what to do. 
“How are those FLAIR image reviews coming?” Tonya opened her eyes and turned to see Jonathan had walked back into the control room with coffee. When she didn’t answer immediately he asked, “What?”
“I hear it,” she said, closing the door. “The rhythm, the heartbeat, what you were talking about.”
Jonathan grinned as he sat the coffee cups down. “See? I told you,” he said. “The scanner has life. More grounded?”
She paused and nodded, sitting down. “Yeah, more grounded.” 
“And?”
“I’m more confident about patient positioning now.” 
“I know, you’ve been passing the exams now that your wrist has mostly mended,” he observed. “I suspect you’ll ace the remaining exams soon enough. You’ll do great here as a tech.”
She smiled and then her shoulders dropped. 
“You won’t be working here?”
“I want to,” she admitted. “And I am so grateful for what you’ve taught me, but…when I finish everything, I’ll have to leave the city for my own safety.” 
Jonathan sat down, scrunching his eyebrows and leaning forward.
“What? You never mentioned that before.”
“I know. But it just came to me, just now, what I need to do.”
He paused and nodded. “Clarity.” He declared softly, looking down.
“Yeah, clarity.”
“That’s too bad,” he looked up. “Where are you going to go?”
“I don’t know, but at least MRI techs are in demand across the country.”
“And you’ll do good. You learn quickly and knowing two modalities will serve you well,” he reached out and shook her hand. “While I understand,  I do hope you reconsider staying.” 
“I wish I could, but as long as he knows I’m here, I’m not safe.”