Stolen

A light shone on my eyelids, making me want to roll over to block it out, stupid sun. When I did roll over, though, I fell to the hardwood floor.

“Ugh, ya gay bed.” I glared up at the four post bed before trying to get myself re-situated on the floor.

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Evie! Happy birthday to you!” Slowly the singing got louder and louder until it was so loud that I had to cup my sweaty palms over my ears and press my face to the cool floor in attempt to drown it out.

“No! Stop it...” I groaned and rolled over onto my back, putting my arms over my face. Today was a gross day.

“Happy birthday Evalyn!” My arms moved slightly, just enough for me to see as I slowly cracked my eyes open to look up at the little girl that had shown up about a week before. Se was a real sweetheart, that one. Her hair fell in short golden ringlets around her pudgy little face, and her celery green eyes shone with the excitement of a fiver year old; which she was going to be not long after today.

“Are you calling me old?” I feigned shock and hurt, getting up and squeezing her in a hug as she squealed.

“No, of course not Evie!” I laughed at her adorable high pitched laugh. After meeting her and a few other little girls that came in, I didn’t hate kids so much anymore. Actually, I wanted one of my own some day.

“Are you alright dear?” The little vision of cuteness nodded at Nicole, rubbing off her concern before squeezing me around the neck.

“You’re not gonna leave me, are ya Evie?” I looked down at the beautiful little girl in my arms and pondered her question. What would I do? Greene left right before Addie showed up, so I had nothing else holding me back. I was free.

“I don’t know yet Sweetheart.” I slowly put little Addie down and kissed the top of her head.

I looked over at the cake Kathryn and Tony were holding. They’d actually grown up, and weren’t so dumb after all.

“Happy birthday Evie.” I smiled at the two girls as they sheepishly returned the gesture. Now that I looked at them, they reminded me of Greene and myself, I think I even heard them making the same pact just a few nights ago. I hope they keep theirs; I thought as I smiled at them.

“Thank you girls.” They just softly nodded, pushing the three-layered, blue cake toward me slightly. I chuckled and leaned up, blowing out one candle at a time; a tradition of mine and Greene’s.

They all screamed one more “Happy birthday”s before all filing out so I could shower. I smiled down at the card that was left in my hand with a big ‘18' on it. Yeah, happy freedom.

As I stared at each and every signature on the inside of the card, a tear actually slipped out of the corner of my eye. Either that, or I banged it a little too hard on the floor when I fell; and that is way more likely.

I’d finished high school with Greene a month or so before, so I had no business in The Home anymore. I was going to leave my home, my family, each and every girl, new and old; the people I grew up with.

“You okay there Evie?” I quickly wiped my eye and covered up with a yawn, smiling quickly afterwards. At Nicole. My mom. “You know, you don’t have to leave right away like Kellie.” My head snapped up and tilted to the side slightly, a habit I formed when I was littler. “You don’t have to up and leave now, you can give it some time.” I nodded and smiled at the woman who raised me.

Filling the gap between us, I embraced her in a hug; the kind of hug I hadn’t given her since I was so little, I could barely remember. At times like these though, I wondered how I could ever think someone like her could ever think of killing me.

Once out of our hug, I shooed her out of my once shared bedroom and headed to the shower. Stripping out of my comfy pajamas, I slid the fogged glass shower door open slowly, being sure not to get my skin caught in it as I’ve done so many times in the past.

In the middle of washing my hair though, a noise rung through my ears. I quickly rinsed my face of all soap suds and looked at the glass door, blocking my view of the room. I couldn’t see through it, but there wasn’t any blurred spots, so that meant there wasn’t anyone in the room. My eyebrows knitted and I continued to rinse the strawberry scented shampoo from my hair. A smile broke my face as the warm water cascaded down my back, making my long hair stick to my sides. I sighed when I realized I was out of body wash.

“Great, stupid Kathryn probably took it!” I smacked my forehead when I realized that I was talking to myself for the tenth time that week.

At that same moment, the glass door made a very loud squeaking noise and then crashed in on me. I squeaked as the back of my head hit the granite wall and nearly cried out when I felt syrupy liquid running down my neck.

“Evalyn?” The glass door screeched again and I nearly sighed when I saw a fuzzy Nicole standing above me. It was her! It had to have been. Just like a week before when the garage door “mysteriously” collapsed when I was walking through it to get to my car and she was right there in a manner of seconds. She’s been trying to kill me since I was six! It’s proof, yet all the other girls just thought I was crazy for it. I knew how it was though, I knew what happened around me.

“Are you alright Dear?” She continued to push the heavy door of off me.

“What are you doing in here?” I groaned, slurring my words. I heard that glass door shatter as it hit the tile floor.

“I was bringing up your laundry when I heard you scream.” I thought about how she’s always the first one up, so she had plenty of time to unscrew the bolts on the shower door.

“How do you get yourself into these messes?” she sighed. You help me do that, you know; I thought wryly.

I felt a warm cloth cover my body before being sat up in the tub. I couldn’t exactly comprehend what was going on or why it was happening, but I could feel things just fine.

I had a feeling that I was bleeding badly...

I heard a shrill scream and then voices...words weren’t even coherent to my ears. I couldn’t really think anything but: Am I going to die?

No, of course I wasn’t dying, but maybe the blood flowing from the back of my head could be bad. I felt tiny limbs wrap around me and heard a small, strangled sob, making my insides constrict in a kind of pain that you can’t get from any object, that can’t cause any pain visible to the naked eye.

Doing my best to see clearly, I looked to my right, where a little girl sat, sobbing into my arm. Black dots danced across my vision, causing me to get dizzy very quickly. All I could see was the light that was luminating those black dots just slightly. Kind of like when you stand up too fast and the black takes over your vision for just a second. That’s what it felt like, only it lasted a lot longer than just a second.

Finally, words made their way to my ears and my brain actually processed them.

“Go call 911 as quickly as you can. Tell them to hurry and that if they don’t get here soon -“ And that’s all I really got before my brain practically shut out all communication again.

All of the sudden, this beautiful woman crossed my vision and there was something about her that got my heart in a bind all over again.

Her hair was a dark chocolate, and her eyes midnight blue; her face traced the very definition of perfect. What caught my attention the most, though were her eyes. They looked very familiar... I tried to look past her face, but all I could see was from her shoulders up. From what I could gather at the look I got, she was a very petite woman. Her plump, pink lips parted and words from her mouth brought the camera of my mind out of zoom.

“If you’re ever bleeding, do not move if you can help it; it just makes the bleeding worse.” There was a little girl on what looked to be a bathroom counter with tears cascading down her face and a giant gash in her leg. The little girl, who looked but the age of four, nodded with a small whimper. Her hair was a soft brown; so soft, it could be mistaken for a dishwater blonde even. Her eyes matched that of the woman’s, and you could tell that with time, so would her body and facial features.

This was her mother.

The woman turned to my camera of a mind and laughed, “I thought you would be the one to fall first.” Her eyes told me that this was meant as a little inside joke and I felt my lips pull into a smile in my mind.

“I’m never riding a bike again without my helper wheels!” The little girl on the counter exclaimed stubbornly as her mother helped her down. The elder woman opened her mouth slightly, but stopped when she saw me advance.

“But LillieBean!” My voice was that of a young child, reminding me a lot of Addie. “You can’t just stop! How am I supposed to keep riding the big girl bike without you?!” I tugged on the girls arm with a frown on my face. This dream was all too real; it was creeping me out.

“Okay EvaBean, I’ll try again.” With that, we hugged and kissed the woman before skipping out of the bathroom and going back out to our “Big Girl Bikes”.

“Evalyn, is that her name?” a soft voice said close to my ear, “Evalyn, Dear, we need you to stay awake for us, okay?” I didn’t dare nod my head, but fluttered my eyelashes in response.

I felt something cold wrap around my arm and I sighed. How do I get myself into these messes?

I heard a bunch of people around me using technological terms that I guessed were about my “condition”. My mind strayed back to the odd dream I had. What was that all about anyways? Was that a memory? It sure didn’t feel like just a dream to me. My heart fluttered slightly at the thought. I could never remember my life before Nicole, why would I start now?

“Evie? Evie!” I heard my “mother” scream for me as my world began to go black again.

“Stay with us Evalyn!” I felt something cold touch the back of my head. “She’s losing a lot of blood.” Before I knew it, I started slipping again. It was just too hard to stay awake...

No. Not this time; I would stay awake, I was going to be strong this time. I was going to...stay...awake....I...

The vehicle suddenly stopped and I was put on one of those gurney doo-hickies and rushed into a world of white and creamy colors.

“Look Miss, I know you’re worried about your daughter, but you need to stay out here,” said that same woman who pointed out my blood loss.

I tried to mumble out that I would be okay, but my jaw shot fire as soon as I opened my mouth. A whimper came out instead. My teeth gritted, causing much more pain before I grunted. I could do this, I was strong.

“I love you,” I choked out, pain evident in my voice. “I’ll be okay.” I groaned and opened my eyes, trying to find my...mom. “We’ve done this many times before.” I did my best to send her a reassuring smile, but I don’t think my lips really did move much.

Suddenly, Nicole’s tear-covered face was in front of me and she pressed her lips to my forehead.

“Okay, we need to go now.” The urgent sounding nurse did little to help the nerves or tension, but my hand was released and I heard a quick, “I love you too” before I was being rolled off.

“Okay, we’re going to have to stitch you up, okay?” I grunted a response and the searing headache I hadn’t noticed before started splitting my skull.

“Alright. We’re going to give you something to put you to sleep, probably -“

“Just do your job,” I croaked, “you don’t need to explain to me what you’re doing.” The man stared at me for a minute, in shock I’m guessing, before putting one of those creepy athletic-cup-looking things over my face.

That’s when I finally allowed my subconscience take me. Only this time, there were no dreams, only darkness.

Lonely, cold, creepy, darkness.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a pale peach room and someone’s face was beside my arm. I refused to move my head to see who it was, though I had a hunch. I could finally hear voices in the side of the room, but my eyes felt too heavy to open, my mouth too dry to speak, and my limbs too stiff to move.

“Evalyn? Evalyn, are you awake?” My eyes landed on a woman. I opened my chapped lips and tried to speak, but all that came out were crackled and slurred mummers.

“Evalyn, Sweetheart, you okay?” Nicole asked, her black hair dirty and stringy, hanging around a sleepy face.

I couldn’t talk and wondered what happened. I thought my head was messed up.

“Good morning Ms. Raynolds, how are you?” I heard a soft, deep voice ask.

“Worried,” Nicole answered in a tired voice.

“Well, she should be alright. We got it all out of her system, so she should be just fine. Just a few minor side-affects of a dry mouth and/or drowziness.” I couldn’t see who it was, all I could do was stare straight ahead at the soft, yellow ceiling.

“Well, she’s awake.” A man’s face came into view and a smile instantly lit his face.

“Well, hello Evalyn, how’re you feeling?”

I groaned in response.

“Yeah, you may feel like that for a little while. Apparently, you had some allergic reactions to the anesthetics we gave you. Thankfully, your anaesthsiologist was very well trained and knew almost immediately what was going on and got to it before any life threatening symptoms could occur. The antihistamines that he gave to you would be what is causing the irritation in your throat, but it should be gone soon.” I stared at the man, taking in his clean appearance and his smiling face, his scruffy hair and 5 o’clock shadow. Something about him reminded me of someone, but I had no idea who it could’ve been.

“Okay,” the doctor trailed off slowly and I detected a sight accent. “I’ll just leave you two alone to talk.”

An eerily awkward silence fell over the overly sterile room as Nicole sat somewhere in the room and I stared at the ceiling.

“Well, what happened?” Nicole asked quietly.

“How would I know?” I retorted, my voice raising a little bit. “I was taking a shower and the freaking door caved in on me!”

It was quiet again for a long moment until I heard a faint, “Well how did that happen?” I didn’t sound sarcastic or snide, it actually sounded genuinely concerned. Then again, she was a very good actress.

“Well, are you going to be staying in the hospital or coming home?” I thought for a while. I didn’t know I had the choice; but I didn’t like hospitals much, let alone this one, but I didn’t want to die at home either...

“I’ll only come home if none of the girls know about it and -“ I thought for a while, wanting it to be a good condition, because I knew she wanted me home. “If I get your room until I’m better.” I grinned to myself at the thought. Oh yeah, this would be good; I thought.

A long, quiet pause filled the air as, what I guessed, her contemplation took place. My mind drifted back to that doctor while she thought. Just who did he remind me of? A face flashed in my mind and startled me. The man looked an awful lot like my new doctor.

“Evie? Did you hear me?” Nicole asked, her face now showing in my line of vision.

“No,” I muttered, still a little shocked from the odd resemblance of the man in my mind and my new doctor.

“I said it’s a deal.”

I raised an eyebrow and wondered why she agreed with me; usually she would find some way out of my terms and find a way to con me into coming home early anyways. I just nodded and she moved out of my vision. I wanted to look at her but the stupid neck-brace holding my head still decided to be a turd and not let me.

“Hey, mom?”

“Evie..” she said at the same time, like she wanted to tell me something that I wouldn’t like.

“Yeah?” She was back in my vision though I really hopped she’d sit down for this.

“Well,” I paused, wondering if she wanted to go first, because I’d be more than happy to let her. “Have you ever met my real parent?” I asked, my eyes shifting to the side and out of her line of sight.

“Well, why would you suddenly ask something like that?”

“I...well, I was just thinking about those people three years ago.”

“Oh Evalyn, I thought you were smarter than to listen to them.”

“I just wanted to know if you’ve ever met my parents.” I’ve never heard her use that tone before.

“Oh, well...” she said, stopping right there. I wanted to see the look on her face, but I could barely keep my eyes open at this point let alone move my head to look at her even a little bit.

“Have you?” I asked firmly. Silence followed yet again. A silence so long that my eyelids finally gave up the fight against the gravity pushing down on them and I fell into a deep sleep full of faces that seemed familiar, yet I couldn’t put not one name to them.