Girl I Know

Melody struggled beneath the pillow trying to fight to get it off of her face, but it was being pushed down so hard against her, it was all she could do to breathe.

When Stormy walked into the room she half expected to see her daughter sitting up in her bed with a smile on her face, not being held down with a pillow over her face.

“What are you doing?” she shouted frantically. “Get off her!” She ran over to the bed screaming and shoved Charlie away from her daughter. Melody gasped and took a huge breath into her lungs when her face was free over the pillow. Charlie was relentless though and punched Stormy in the jaw sending her crashing down to the ground.

After turning her attention back to Melody, Charlie gripped her IV wire and with one hard yank, pulled it right out of her arm.

“NURSE!” Stormy started screaming as loud as she could for help and when two nurses came running into the room they saw Charlie beside Melody’s bed with her hands around her throat while Melody gasped for air. After an unsuccessful attempt to get Charlie’s hands off of Melody a nurse reached for and pushed the red security button behind Melody’s bed.

Blade had been walking down the hall towards Melody’s room when he security ran passed him. He thought nothing of it until he saw them run into Melody’s room. His heart rate sped up and so did his legs as he was now practically running down the hallway.

He’d got to Melody’s room as the police were putting Charlie in handcuffs. Stormy was sitting beside a crying Melody as the nurse was reinserting her IV into her arm.

“What happened?” he asked directing his question at Stormy.

“Charlie tried to kill her” Stormy’s jaw was red and he could see the faint color of bluish purple starting to come up onto the surface of her skin where she was hit.

“What?” He ran his hands through his hair and turned around to watch Charlie being led out of the room by the police. “Are you alright?” he asked Melody, but she was to overcome with sobs to answer.

“She’ll be ok” Stormy nodded. “Just a little shaken up”

“How about you? That’s some bruise”

“Im fine” she faked a smile for her daughter’s benefit. Deep down inside she was a nervous wreck. “Could you do me a favor?”

“Yeah, sure” he nodded.

“Could you go call Brian for me and tell him what happened?”

Blade nodded and secretly dreaded having to give Brian more bad news. When he walked out of the room Stormy turned to face her daughter knowing it was time to tell her what no one else would.

“Mel, I need you to calm down and listen to me ok?”

“Ok” Melody nodded and waited for her mother to continue. Stormy had watched the nurse and waited til she was all the way out of the room before she continued.

“There is something you need to know about Dante”

“What is it?” she asked nervously. “Did they let him go?”

“No, Melody. Dante is dead.”

“What?” She put her hands over her mouth and started to cry harder as Stormy reached for her and hugged her close.

Blade had gone outside just in time to see the squad car pull away with Charlie in the back seat. In a way, he was glad it was Stormy who found her because he knew if it were him, Charlie would be on her way to the morgue instead of the police station.

He dialed Brian’s number and waited for him to answer.

“Blade, I can’t talk now, Matt is about to go before the judge”

“It’s important”

“What is it?” he could hear Brian huff impatiently on the other end of the phone.

“It’s Melody, Stormy asked me to call you”

“What happened?”

“Dante’s sister showed up at the hospital and Stormy got to the room and found her holding a pillow over Mel’s face”

Brian was silent for a few seconds on the other end of the phone. “Is she?”

“NO, she’s fine, Stormy got there in time. Charlie is in police custody now, but Stormy took a nasty hit to the face.”

“Ok, I’ll be there after the judge sets bail for Matt. Thanks for calling”

“Yeah sure”

When Blade hung up he went back up to Stormy’s room and told her what Brian said. Melody lifted her head from her mother’s shoulder and looked at her confused.

“Why is uncle Matt at a bail hearing?”

Stormy and Blade looked at each other and then back at Melody. Neither one had the heart to tell her.

“no” she shook her head. “he didn’t” she cried in disbelief. “This is all my fault”

Nothing Blade or Stormy said could calm Melody down. She cried and cried for hours.

When Brian finally got to the hospital Stormy had already gone home and Blade was sitting quietly in a chair watching Melody sleep. Brian walked right over to the bed to see his daughter. There were visible finger print marks on her neck and when he saw them he closed his eyes and shook his head.

“They had to sedate her so she would go to sleep” Blade spoke causing Brian to turn and look at him. “She’ll be out for the rest of the night”

“Where’s Stormy?”

“She went home, she said she wanted to go clean Melody’s room for when she came home”

Brian nodded and looked back at his sleeping daughter. “Will you tell her I was here if she wakes up?”

“Yeah” Through out their whole conversation, Blade never took his eyes off Melody. He was mad at the world right now and Brian could see it written all over his face.

After leaning over to kiss his daughter, Brian turned to walk out and squeezed Blade’s shoulder before leaving.

Blade wasn’t leaving the hospital he didn’t care if he had to stay in that chair all night long, nothing was going to keep him from Melody ever again.

--

At the mansion

Sydney was so upset with Matt she wouldn’t even speak to him. She stayed in their room with the door locked and refused to come out. The thought of him spending the next 25 years behind bars didn’t sit well with her at all. The judge had set his bail at one million dollars and Brian didn’t think twice about posting it. The trial wouldn’t be for another month and for the time until then; Matt was to be under house arrest.

“Sydney, open the door” he yelled from the other side, but she wasn’t moving off the bed.

Of course, Sydney forgot whom she was dealing with here. Matt pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the bedroom door. He turned the knob and quietly opened the door before walking inside. She was lying on the bed with her back facing the door. He could hear her trying to hide her sobs as he approached the bed.

“Sydney” he said her name, but she never bothered to turn and look at him. “You can’t stay mad at me forever” he said as he climbed onto the bed and lay down. He lie on his back and put his arms behind his head as he looked up at the ceiling. “The silent treatment, huh”

She wiped her eyes with her tissue and he turned his head sideways to look at her, but she still faced the wall not giving him any attention. “Syd” he tried again, but to no avail. After lifting his arms from behind his head, he turned to face her and put his arm around her waist.

“Don’t touch me,” she cried.

“You’re being a baby” he said and left his arm right where he set it on her waist ignoring her.

“I’m not being a baby! You’re being stupid! How could you do this?” She turned and sat up in the bed glaring down at him. “You ruined everything! If you would have just left things alone, we could have got Lyric out of this. All they had was hear say and a picture of him from a video camera, but you went and confessed and now there is no way out of this!”

She punched him in the chest as hard as she could, which wasn’t very hard at all considering. He didn’t even flinch. “You big dumb jerk.”

He smiled at her instead of getting mad. “I love you too, Syd”

“Shut up!” she folded her arms and pouted which made him smile even wider.

“You’re cute when you’re mad” he extended his arms and grabbed hold of her pulling her down onto his chest and completely disregarding her feeble attempt at a struggle. He was much too strong for her to even try and pull away. They stayed like that for the rest of the night without speaking. Eventually, Sydney fell asleep, but Matt continued to stare up at the ceiling knowing that another one of them would be facing a judge in the morning and this was one time he couldn’t do anything about it.