Is This What You Call a Family?

The next time I woke I was in a blinding room. I quickly shut my eyes again, not pleased to be blinded by the most annoying light I had ever seen. A half second later is when the obnoxious beeping and the pulsing at the bend of my arm became apparent. I slowly opened my eyes enough to see an IV needle sticking in my inner elbow. I groaned and shut my eyes as I let my head fall back against the pillow. I could feel my upper body as a slight angle and sighed deeply.

I had watched enough House to know the symptoms of a hospital room.

I let my eyes slowly opened again and let them adjust to the light so I could keep them open. Once that was accomplished I looked down at myself. I had a band on my wrist with my information and a white hospital gown was on me. I had to of been here for at least a couple of hours, it was still dark outside, but the light was struggling to rise on the horizon. Maybe around five in the morning was my guess.

I began to inspect myself, wondering if these hospital guys were just overreacting by putting me in here. I could feel a pulsing around my right eye and my lip was sore. As I tried to lean forward an intense pain shot in my abdomen. As I fell back against the bed, I decided I must have at least one broken rib. I wiggled my toes and felt a slight pain in my left ankle. I have a sprained ankle? How’d that one manage to happen?

Suddenly the door to my room opened, causing my head to shoot up. When I saw it was a man dressed in a white lab coat, I let out a slow sigh. I felt silly worried about who could have been behind that door. Marcus was gone, he had to be. He couldn’t touch me at all. “Hello, Juliet. It’s good to see you awake.”

“Where’s my mother?” I demanded, not giving him any greeting or any kind of small talk. I wanted to know and I wanted to know now. He frowned, looking over his clipboard that probably had my information written down on it.

“Right now we need to worry about you, Juliet. You got a lot of injuries - ”

“Let me make this blunt for you doctor,” I spoke calmly, cutting him off and causing him to look at me surprised. “I couldn’t give two shits about my injuries. I saw my mother get beaten with a baseball bat, her blood everywhere. You can understand why I put her before me. You can either tell me now, or I’ll find out myself.”

“Currently she’s in the ICU. But it’s not in your best interest Julie - ”

I cut him off by tossing the blanket off my body and swiftly yanking the IV and other cords off of my body. My elbow began to bleed a bit and my abdomen protested my moments with sharp pain. He began shouting, trying to push me to lie down but I shrugged off his hands and shoved him aside. As he tumbled to the floor I took that moment to force myself to run from the room. Behind me I could hear him shouting for security and nurses.

I finally reached an elevator and frantically hit the button that had a one on it. As the off yellow light lit up behind the bold number, I noticed the doctor and a few male nurses coming down the hall. I pressed the ‘close doors’ button repeatedly. A few moments before they would have reached me the doors shut and it began its descent down the three floors. I leaned against the elevator door, breathing hard and lifting my foot to take the weight off my throbbing ankle.

As soon as the doors opened on the bottom floor, I all but ran down the halls searching desperately for the directions for the ICU. I didn't have much time; the doctor knew exactly where I was heading. And he worked here so it would be much easier for him to find the room.

I finally saw an arrow pointing to the ICU. I followed the other multiple arrows in the hallway until I came to two swinging doors with the three letters in bold, black ink. I hurried in, seeing multiple areas closed off by privacy curtains. I ran down the row until I saw my mother's last name on a sign hanging from a hook on the pale, blue curtain.

I ripped open the curtain only to see a perfectly made, empty bed.

My blood ran cold and a high pitch buzzing began to fill my ears. My vision began to spin and my legs became wobbly. When I felt a hand on my shoulder I spun around on my heel. A nurse I didn't recognize gave me a sad smile. “What's wrong honey?”

“My mother,” I stuttered out, blinking rapidly to try and focus on her frame. “Where is she?”

The nurse looked over my shoulder at the empty bed and frowned. “Oh. You're Ally's girl?”

“Where is she?” I repeated more firmly. She sighed, shaking her head.

“I'm sorry sweetheart. She...she passed away thirty minutes ago. She told me that she wanted you to know she loved you. She woke up long enough to say that. She had too much internal bleeding and her lungs simply collapsed. There was nothing we could do.”

I felt my legs buckle and felt myself falling. I felt nothing, however, as I hit the ground, but I knew my head would be sore. I could hear the nurse rush from the room, calling for help. I had to concentrate on my breathing. She had to be wrong. Mom couldn't be dead. What kind of sick joke was this?

For the second time in twenty four hours I saw my world go black.