Trouble in Tiltown

Out to get me

I tapped my foot while Kat and Jerrick sit next to me in the hallway. Looking down, watching them in my peripheral. Kat held on tightly to Jerrick's hand as she sniffles away tears that strolled down her red cheeks while Jerrick kept his head down, the same as me. Footsteps close in, just stopping in front of us. We all look up to see West standing there with eyes of exhaustion before he sighs heavily.
"She's barely alive. They're not sure if she'll make it or not." He spoke as gruffness was clear in his voice.
"I would stay but I need to get home. Please keep us updated." Kat says before standing up and looking back at Jerrick as he rises up as well.
"I hope the best for you." Jerrick says before walking down the hallway, hand in hand with Kat. West look down at me.
"You staying?" He questions me, almost as if he were slightly surprised.
"Yeah, of course." I replied.
He sits down, groaning, "Your mom ain't gonna worry?"
"No, she's busy with work like always. Besides, I am eighteen now." I assured him. He rubs his hand through his scruffy, thin beard.
"Her birthday is next month. She'll finally be eighteen too." He says with a forced laugh. As he looks to the floor, his smile disappears just as quickly as it came.
"There's been something I've been meaning to ask you." I mumbled, nervous.
"What is it?" He asks. He wasn't intrigued by it, he sounded bothered by it, in fact.
"The day at the lake, you have a scar on your bicep. What happened?" I finally questioned him about it. He stared at the floor momentarily before looking through me, taken aback.
"It's from my childhood." He states simply. His eyes wandered off as if they were trying to avoid me. Perhaps, they weren't trying to avoid me, but rather the truth. He didn't want to spill the truth about it.
"From your childhood?" I asked.
"Before Abraham and I got split up to different families."
"What did he do to you?" He looked down once again, staring at his fists that were interlocked with each other.
"We were given chores to do on the farm. There were a lot of tools. He got angry at me one day while we were out." He explained vaguely.
"You're avoiding the question while still answering. Why don't you tell me the whole thing?" I inquired him for more details. He glared at me with annoyance before he stood up swiftly.
"I have to keep an eye on my sister." He states before going into a room across the hallway. I sat back in my chair, resting my face on my hand as my eyes watched the rain pounce off the parking lot outside. As the thunder continued roaring lowly through the sky and the beeping of monitors sounded throughout the hallways, it had became a lullaby to my ears at this point as my eyes began falling.

"Hey." A whisper spoke out to me, causing me to jump up from my restful sleep. To my shock, it was James. I backed up against the back of my chair.
"What're you doing here?" I asked him. He sat down next to me, cautiously as he did slowly.
"I'm not here to hurt you, or anyone for that matter." He says as he puts his hand up defensively. My eyes glare at me with suspicion but he appeared actually fearful and weak, even.
"You didn't answer my question." I spat at him, angered at the fact he was even here to begin with.
"Abraham. H-he nearly killed me, but I got away." He trembled over his words as his eyes wandered all over the hallway as if he were watching for someone. I looked behind me and then back at him with furrowed eyebrows.
"What're you doing?"
He placed his hand in my arm tightly, "I'm afraid he's going to come after me. I barely got away." He rambled. I swatted his hand off of me as he responded with a hurt expression.
"And what? You want me to keep you safe? After everything you've done?" I asked him with a scoff.
"No! I just needed to run somewhere safe because truth be told, I am going to get killed." He admitted to me in a low whisper.
"Just leave town." I said to him as I regained a casual posture in my seat.
He laughed a cold laugh, "Yeah, that's exactly what the newspapers are going to be saying about me here soon." He said before getting up from his seat. Just as he left, West came towards me with anger.
"What is he doing here?" He asked, huffing.
"He's scared that Abraham is going to kill him now." I admitted to him.
"It's not up to us to help him. It's not up to us to keep him safe. Elouise is the one that needs the most help right now." He spat, before going back to the room that held Elouise in it. However, he was stopped as he looked to the side. Looking around, I rush up to West to see what he was looking at. Abraham standing in the parking lot and as he saw us, he waved his hand slowly at us.
"Why the hell is he here now?" West gritted under his breath.
"Oh no." I breathed.
He looked at me, "What?" I began running down the hallway.
"James!" I answered from down the hall. As I made it outside in the pouring rain, his car was speeding down the slick road already as his tires squealed. West suddenly came up beside me, breathing heavily.
"James can protect himself." He said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I looked at him as drops of rain fell from strands of hair that covered his forehead. As we stood there for a moment, loud beeping came from inside the hospital. We run inside to see that the nurses and doctors were rushing to Elouise's room.