When she came to, like in every other story, the first thing that caught her eye was the electric light, blinding and aching to look at at first. And then it got dimmer and dimmer until she could open eyes fully and store at it. Only, it wasn't an electric light, at least not a bulb, but rather something round and shiny sitting on the table beside her bed. She looked at it closer, and realized that it flashed brightly if you looked at it from a certain angle and dialed down to a dimmer shiny if you looked at it from another. Instantly she knew what it was.
" Leonore, youre awake. " Someone out of her sight said softly. The voice was of a woman, one that Leonore barely recognised when she came into view. She looked on with confusion, further realizing she was lying on her side instead of on her back. She sat up against the propped pillows, feeling a slight tingling under her shoulder blade.
" Remember me?" The placid looking
woman in glasses asked " She had smooth olive skin and wore her black hair in a tight neat bun. Leonore couldn't possibly make her out. The confusion since she woke up was so much it was clouding her thinking. She simply shook her head
" Well it's kind of funny you don't, because when we met it was in this same room, and under quite similar conditions too."
It still didn't click. Last year when …
" Dr. Kate McCalle, from the Anix Foundation for Abused Children. Last year, I think it was February, when I came to you you were in this some spot, and when I asked you to even consider a foster family, you declined. Your mother wouldn't even hear it."
In that instant a lot of things shot back to memory. She remembered last year,when Nick had gotten into an anger fit under the effect of some of the high stuff and took it out on her, she passed out and woke up in this same bed, in this same room.
She was in a hospital.
She remembered her mother had hugged her so tight and cried a lot and reassured her that Nick was in custody and that he'd pay for his crime.
Why wasn't she here?
She remembered this same lady who stood in front of her had looked a bit younger back then, and how she wore her hair in a bob instead of a bun.
Was she here to try to convince her about foster care again?
Then she remembered. How she got here in the first place. The luring flames ... How she'd been stabbed. How Nick had fallen after. How her mother lay, unmoving … the image sent her head pounding.
What had happened to her after she passed out?
Was she okay now?
Was she …
" Where's my mom? " Leonore asked solemnly.
Dr. Kate sighed, and her eyes dropped to her feet before she looked up again.
" Leonore, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but … she didn't make it out of there alive.. "
Leonore was ……. crestfallen. The knot in her chest had never felt more aching, and it was as if she had forgotten how to breathe.
For a few moments, she couldn't bring herself to, and in those brief moments, that thin bridge between a breath held and temporarily dysfunctional lungs, everything, everything was silence.
She couldn't believe she'd lost her mother Just like that. The grief, the anger, the guilt confusion, regret, all these emotions washed down on her. How could she have allowed Nick to set them appart for so long? Why had she somehow resented her mother for choosing to stay with him when all Heather ever truly did was trying to find happiness for the both of
them? Why did it have to be Heather who suffered till the end? Why didn't she just die as well? " Maybe then this feeling wouldn't hurt so much.
