Her Road|Book 2|

Day 39|III

"What happened to him? What's that..?" I asked silently, referring to the lump in the blanket.

"Firefighters on the scene reported that when they pulled him out the car, he had somehow wrapped himself around you. Almost as if to protect you from impact. That lump? It's his arm. He broke it. He's lucky it was the only thing he broke. Actually, scratch that, you both are lucky you didn't break your backs."

I blinked, remembering the strange sensation of weightlessness. We were lucky. Another roll or something hitting the car and we could've been paralyzed. The image of headlights speeding towards us flashed through my mind.

"Yeah... You're right. We really are lucky." I lifted a hand and placed it against the window, somehow trying to close the distance between us.

The door opened and in walked Emily, his little sister. She immediately moved to one seat as if it was her's, deliberately missing what I would assume was her father's/mother's. Her face never once turned to us.

"You don't get it, Alice." Megan interrupted my thoughts, her words pulling my gaze back to her. "It was determined that the car flipped due to a shot tire. While flipping, the car hit a pole that ran a powerline. If the owners of the property hadn't reacted so quickly you both would've been burnt alive. You really, really are lucky, Alice."

Warm orange light fluttering through... I understood how close to death we both found ourselves.

I looked back into the room. Sometime, while I wasn't looking, Harry's father Johnathan had entered and was seated next to Emily. Both looked to be in complete silence, just watching Harry.

I couldn't imagine what they were going through. Having just panicked and wondered if he would be okay, they found themselves back in the same position. He only left the hospital that day and somehow, in the next few hours, ended up back in it.

Footsteps came from my left. A man in familiar clothing walked by, eying us both. He seemed to nod towards Megan before rounding the corner. It took a minute to realize why he looked familiar: He was in a police uniform, belt and all.

"Aren't there rules against weapons in a hospital? What are the police doing here anyways?" I asked, for the first time recalling seeing an officer relatively close to my room too. "Is this because of what happened?"

Megan nodded, carefully watching what was happening inside the room. "The guess is that this was retaliation. Perhaps the gang itself wanted retribution or someone asked them too, unhappy with the legal route."

"Retribution? Neither Harry nor I-"

"Didn't a woman come to school a while back and cause a disturbance?" Megan interrupted. "As I understand, she was the mother of those boys who were killed. Maybe she asked the gang to step in or maybe the gang wanted to show the town that it was still strong even though they lost members. A hit on Harry's head is rather drastic so that's the only thing I could come up with. Naomi stationed cops all around this place because she figured that once it got out that Harry was still kicking, they might come back. "

"They might come back? B-but it's supposed to be over, right? I mean they left us. In that field. They had to have known. It can't happen again..."

"Alice. Gangs in small towns are all from gangs in big cities. New York, LA, Chicago. All big gangs trickle down into smaller ones in small towns. Around here the stakes are higher. One hit and the gang looks weak. They have to respond and this is how. Except they didn't complete the job so now they look even worse. They could come back to finish the job.

"There are reasons why I'm telling you all this. One, to see if you actually have amnesia or if it's just your mind suppressing the trauma you've experienced. It's understandable, happens all the time. Another reason is because Harry is always gonna have this danger lingering near him. You should have all the facts, know what's next and everything."

Megan returned her eyes to the boy in question. As I watched, there was a strange softness as her gaze lingered.

"Do you...know Harry?" I finally put my finger on it. There was slight emotion behind every Harry she worded.

She smiled softly, the first time I'd seen it. It was beautiful. "I do. He was just in school when I started my final year."

My head whipped towards her, my cheeks stinging from drying tears. "Wait, how old are you?"

"Twenty three." She laughed as I looked her up and down. "I'm a year behind my peers so to speak. But anyways, he was just starting at Moirai when we met. He was... Cute. Scruffy. It was only later on, maybe before Jessica, he showed an interest in me. It was still cute but now he was confident and... Well you know, obviously."

A familiar burning filled my stomach and judging by Megan's laugh, she could see it too.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to make you jealous or anything." She apologized but I shook my head.

"It feels nice to feel something normal for a change. Even if it is jealousy." I reassured her with a smile of my own. It felt good to smile. "So what happened?"

"Well, me. I just got uncomfortable with the possibility of dating someone so young. It apparently hurt him but he started dating Jessica soon after so yeah." She finished, the smile disappearing. "When he came in here, that day, he was so different. That smile of his gone, the radiance and warmth turned into the fire. He was different but the same as if that part of him had been buried."

"Yeah, I know." I looked back at the room, back to watching the Malakai's. "I know."