Snowflakes

She normally isn't out of her room and neither does she normally move around, being that she is mostly tied to a bed and spends a great deal of her time asleep. Of course, she was awake that day and she was looking out of the window. It was snowing, if I remember, and she wanted so much to go outside, at least, just to play in it, like she used to. Like a caged bird, she yearned for some sort of freedom and being mostly confined to a hospital room a lot of times is very much a cage. She wanted very much out of that cage and to go play outside to play in the snow. So far, she sated herself to just looking out of the window, at the snow, although that didn't diminish her longing.

In terms of her illness, it had become a little less severe, as she could very much breath sans breathing tubes and she didn't have to be hooked up with as many medicines as she was before, however, she was still tied to her room, though that never did stop her from trying to leave. Of course, she'd never get past the elevator and they would be quick to bring her back to her room, hook her back up to the medicines and heart monitor, before calling our parents. She's made a habit of that, so her escape attempts were nothing new. She's a feisty one and would be quick to try to make things go her way or, in this case, die trying, everything else be damned. How far would she go? I never knew, however, I was to find out.

It was an especially cold night and snowstorm was very much in the forecast when we had gotten a phone call from the hospital. It was urgent and we had to come immediately. Silently, I hoped Ryuuko didn't take a sudden turn for the worst and was dying. It was the opposite but still our worst fears. The staff had informed us that she had somehow got out and they haven't a clue where she is, along with the fact that neither was she in the hospital. Considering how cold it was, she may as well have passed away. My parents were afraid, yet very furious. "How the hell did you let this happen?!" Dad yelled, sounding as though he was a demon out of hell. He so pissed off that he couldn't find anything else to say or do besides walking out of the room, the hospital, and going into the parking lot and smashing windshields in and slashing tires. My mother was just as angry, although she managed to keep a cool head, turning her anger into tranquil fury.

With a cold voice and on one breath, she said, "Our little Ryuuko is sick, as you already know, and I am going to take the assumption that security here is rather lax seeing as a little girl, who is about three and half feet tall and weights in at about fifty-eight pounds, suffering from an illness, and has heart beating at about sixty-four beats per minutes due to said illness, had walked out of here without anyone noticing until now. Well, isn't that funny? Hmm, is it? I don't see it very funny, actually, I'm pissed off because, when we leave our babies here to be treated for their illnesses, we expect for the hospital to take good care of them and that means keeping them in the building and not letting them walk out to their very possible deaths. So, yes, how the hell did you let this happen?! Well, because of this little 'mishap', as I'll call it, Ryuuko may very well be dead of hypothermia or a worsened illness, with it being practically freezing outside. Ryuuko is feisty and rebelious, overall, a rather difficult child, however, that doesn't excuse the fact that our baby was allowed to walk out of here when more attention should have been paid, well, I do hope you intend on making up for it by helping us look for her and hoping for the best."

The rest of us were worried, although Mako tried to ease our fears by saying, "She couldn't have gone far." to which, Nui responded, "Yeah, okay, well, it's cold as a bitch outside, even if she didn't get very far, she could be dead." Nui wasn't lying, as it was very cold outside and, as she spoke, it seemed she had invoked nature, as it was a nasty snowstorm was brewing and showed little signs of letting up. As Mako tried to ease fears and instill hope, I slipped out, into the unforgiving cold, to find Ryuuko.

"Sats, don't you think it'd be nice to go outside in the snow and play forever?"

With the wind blowing hard and harder and the temperature dropping lower and lower, I found myself fighting against nature itself, as I forced my legs to carry my pace faster. My ears were ringing and my asthma made me short of breath, yet I still persisted. I had to find Ryuuko. I just had to. As I was running, I heard her voice in my head counting the snowflakes as she sat bedridden in her room, and watching the snowflakes fall.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, ...."

The more I heard her voice, the faster I had become. However, I was soon snapped out of my thoughts, when I took a snowball too the face. Ryuu! I had found her or, rather, she found me and, miraculously, she didn't freeze to death in the time she had been outside in this cold of weather, despite . Laughing in relief, I said, "I should kick your ass right now, Rylie~! You don't how happy I am to see you!" I threw my arms around her and twirled her around in a tight hug. For a little bit longer, we played together in the snow, as she's wanted to do in the all the time she's been in the hospital. As aforementioned, she would die trying to make things go her way and she risked death just to play in the snow, even if that could have been her last.

"...15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26..."

Sharing a coat, we made our way to the hospital, where we were greeted by paramedics and our worried parents. Ryuuko went back into the hospital and, for the rest of her stay, recovering from her illness, she seemed to be satisfied, counting the snowflakes, making no more escape attempts. She had risked death from illness and cold to do something she loved. In a way, thinking back on that night, she wanted to make what could've been her last moments happy and was even happier that someone shared that happiness with her.

Some time after she had come home, we had played in the snow once again.