Some Kind of Evil; 𝒆𝒅𝒅𝒊𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒏

chapter eleven

゜✧*̣̩☽⋆゜

[ chapter eleven ]
"Oh, I'm going to fight."

゜✧*̣̩☽⋆゜

     Liv never knew she could feel so numb without taking any drugs. She knew this feeling wouldn't last. Then again, it never did with drugs anyways.

All around her, doctors and nurses passed by as they did their job. To them, it was just another day at work but to Liv, it was the worst day of her life. And yet she couldn't manage to shed a single tear.

In one of the hospital rooms not far from where she was sitting, a machine was making a horrible sound. Flatlining. Somebody's flatlining, she thought. And she prayed a very selfish prayer as she wished for it to not be her father. She'd lost her mother, now she lost Chrissy. She wondered how much more she had to lose and hoped she'd never find out. "Liv?"

Chief Powell stood under the fluorescent lights about ten feet away. It felt like he towered over her, the Big Bearer of Bad News. Liv shifted in her seat, feeling a lump in her throat. "Please don't tell me he's dead—"

"No, kiddo. I came to tell you the opposite." For the first time in what felt like forever, she felt a wave of relief through her mourning. She sighed and it caught on the lump. Before she could gain control of herself or run to somewhere private, a sob broke free from her chest and the tears began to spill down her cheeks, warm and uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry," she choked out. Though she wasn't sure why she was apologizing.

Chief Powell moved to sit in the chair beside her. "Your pops is in rough shape, but he's still here." His voice was comforting, like a father's.

She swiped at her tears with the back of her hand. He took out a white handkerchief from his pocket and gave it to her. "Thank you. When can I...when can I see him?" Liv asked as she dabbed at her eyes.

Chief Powell swallowed. "Well, he had a heart attack. His...his heart stopped. Luckily, they were able to restart it," he looked Liv in the eyes then. "But because of the lack of blood flow to his brain, the doctors think there might be damage."

All the relief she'd felt vanished, stripped away from her too soon and leaving her with only grief and emptiness yet again. "Damage? What do you mean 'damage'?"

He looked heartbroken to be giving this young girl even more bad news. "They don't know when he will wake up."

Liv huffed out a breath of air, closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. Then she straightened up. "Do they have any guesses?"

He looked somber. "At the moment, it's hard to tell. It could be days, months..."

Liv looked him dead in the eye then. "Or never, right? You just can't bring yourself to tell me that my dad might not wake up again."

The chief took off his hat, placing it in his lap. "I'm sorry, kiddo. I really am."

Her heart felt like it was being trampled on. "Why are you telling me this?" She asked abruptly, so abruptly it took him by surprise.

"I...I just thought you have a right to know."

She shook her head. "No, I mean, why are you telling me this? There was just a..." The word was too hard to say, too hard to make real. Liv felt like she was choking on it. "Murder. Shouldn't the chief of police be busy taking care of that? There are people here at the hospital who can tell me that my dad might not wake up. Shouldn't you be out there, trying to find the monster that did this to Chrissy?"