Roxie stayed out of sight until she made sure her mom was out of sight. Then she took off into the air, gliding slowly towards the hospital. Her mind was in a hurry, but she knew she had better chances of finding out what was going on if she was there enough later than her mom that she had had time to figure out what was going herself, and then she could tell Roxie. Or she wouldn't she might just be mad. But that was a chance Roxie was going to have to take. On the way she wondered what it could possibly be.
First she thought it was something about Annalise, of course. She was her friend, and she's the one she really cared about. But her mom would've said something, if it had been about Annalise, and she would've taken Roxie with her. Unless it was something bad. Something she wanted to figure out first, before breaking the news to Roxie and her friends. She shivered at the thought and pushed it out of her mind. Mom had said something had happened to one of the patients, and there were so many of them it likely wasn't Annalise. Still, the idea that her mom was hiding something bad having happened to Annalise wasn't impossible, and she couldn't shake the feeling completely off.
Ok, what else could it be, she thought to herself. It could be something something good had happened. Maybe someone woke up. Maybe they could tell, what happened. Maybe it was the girl she saw in the dream. Maybe she was awake. Maybe that's why she wanted Roxie to go find her, because she was waking up. Or maybe it was a coincidence that she had seen an orange-eyed girl in a dream, and then thought it was the girl in the picture..... No, she shook her head. It was the same girl. She was sure of it. That girl had somehow gotten into her dream. But why her dream? Or had it been a coincidence? Maybe the girl had been bouncing around in the dreamworld, and just happened to end up in hers. Or something. Roxie wasn't even convinced there was such thing as a dreamworld, but somehow that girl had gotten into her dream. Maybe she was awake right now and waiting for Roxie to come find her. That her mom wouldn't tell her. Why would she? She didn't know Roxie had any idea who the girl was. Which she didn't.
Or maybe no one had woken up. Roxie's stomach turned. Maybe someone had died. Though she didn't know how you'd know if one of the patients had died, since they were frozen as statues, and didn't have any vitals, no heartbeat, no breath, no nothing. Because how could there be, since they were petrified? Roxie realised with sudden horror that since they didn't know what was wrong, they didn't know any of them were alive any more, if any had been since they froze. That meaning if any of them would come back to life when what ever this was was reversed, instead of going from frozen and lifeless to limp and lifeless. If they ever found a way to unpetrify them, that was.
Roxie didn't like these thoughts running through her head. She tried to push them out, and failed. Luckily she was very nearly to the hospital, and she could stop thinking about all this. And instead find out what had really happened. She wasn't sure she liked that much more though. She landed in front of the hospital and for a moment she considered turning back, going home and sleep and not find out the terrible thing that had happened to someone in there. But no, she sighed, there was no way she could sleep, not knowing. She'd spend the night rolling in her bed, thinking in circles, not sleeping. Knowing was better than that, no matter how bad it would be.
She took a deep breath and stepped in through the hospital doors. It was very light in there, and very quiet. Roxie guessed not much happened even in a hospital in the middle of the night. Except tonight, but not here. She walked to the help desk that she was surprised to see being staffed despite the late hour.
"Hi," Roxie said, smiling as brightly as she could to the fat woman behind the counter.
"Hello," the woman said eyeing her wearily.
"I was looking for the petrified people," Roxie explained.
"And why would you be looking for them?" the weary eyes narrowed and became suspicious, "Only the police and family members are allowed to their department, and doctors of course. And you're none of them. Not with me having never seen you and you being here at this hour of the day."
"Well, actually I'm looking for my mom," Roxie had to admit. She hoped she hadn't had to, that the woman would've just simply told her. She was too tired for this. "She's the officer in charge of the case, and she must've come here about ten minutes before I did, and I really need to talk to her. It's important."
The staff member eyed her for a moment longer, but then sighed and got up from her chair.
"Alright," she said, walking around the counter, "I'm showing you where they are, and where your mom is, but if it turns out she's not your mom..."
Roxie opened her mouth to say something sharp back at her, but then sighed and decided it was better not to annoy this woman any further. She clearly wasn't in her best mood. Or if she was, Roxie didn't want to see her in a bad mood.
And so Roxie followed the woman down a hallway, up some stairs, and along another hallway. She could hear her mom before seeing her.
"...know if anything changes," she was saying to someone as Roxie rounded the corner with the woman. She was talking to some doctors of some other staff, who turned and left after nodding to her. She looked up, noticing the movement. Her face fell immediately. Roxie and the staff member stopped in front of her, and she sighed.
"Roxie, I told you to stay at home and go back to sleep," Roxie crossed her arms and was about to argue, but her mom turned to the woman, "Thank you. I'll take her from here."
The woman nodded, eyed Roxie one more time and turned to go.
"It's not like I could've slept not knowing what had happened here," Roxie objected as the staff member disappeared back behind the corner. "My friend is here, you know."
"I know, I know very well. But this has nothing to do with her," her mother reassured her.
"Well, you could've said that," Roxie said, "Not that I would've believed you. Not that I wouldn't have wanted to know anyway. Because if there is something going on with this case, it does have something to do with my friend, even if nothing happened to her."
Her mother's attention was captured somewhere else as she spoke. Roxie only now noticed they were standing at the door of a room, and what had gotten her mom's attention was a beeping monitor near the bed in the room. Apparently it had just started beeping. Her mom went into the room, without saying a word, and Roxie followed her. She got almost to the bed when she recognised the figure laying on the bed. It was the orange-eyed girl from her dream.
"What happened?" she asked her mom, unsure of why there was a beeping monitor.
"Fine," her mom said, in a tone that clearly meant that Roxie was going to be in trouble for this later, but that she didn't have the time to start arguing now. Roxie didn't care. "The monitor showing anything means this girl has brain activity. None of the other's have shown any signs of life, and this one hadn't before this. But now there is clearly something happening in her head."
"What does that mean?" Roxie asked quietly.
"The doctors aren't sure," her mom said. "But the activity increased when you got here. It's like she recognised your voice."
Roxie looked down at the girl laying in the bed, not knowing what to think about all this.
"Roxie, look at me," her mom said, snapping her fingers. Roxie lifted her eyes. "Do you know this girl?"
Roxie turned back to look at the girl that had only a moment ago been in her dream.
"I don't... know," she whispered.
________________________________________________________________
Side note: I'm assuming we're writing 20 parts? Because that would mean the last one comes out on Monday 16th, and then we can take a couple of weeks before we start a Christmas story. Because apparently that's what we're doing now. It's good, though. I really like it. And I hope other people like our stories too. Or if they don't... Doesn't really matter much.
Ok
Your next topic is I don't even know what we haven't used yet. Crowd.
~matu
No comments:
Post a Comment