It was dark again. Maggie was in the dark. She couldn't see anything. The darkness swirled around her and she could hear noises but she couldn't tell what they were.
Maggie couldn't figure out where she was. She wasn't in the scary room anymore. But where she was was still scary.
She tried calling out for Mama and Papa, but they couldn't hear her. Maggie didn't know how she knew that, but she just knew that no matter how loud she was, no one could hear her.
Maggie walked around in the dark until she saw some lights and went toward them to see what they were.
The monsters were there, waiting for her. Maggie stopped and felt her thumb find its way into her mouth.
"Hey stupid," one of the monsters said. He was leaning on one of the lights. It looked a little like a box, but one side was shorter than the other. He was leaning on the shorter side.
Maggie stopped walking.
"What? Don't you want to see what's here?" The monster asked, indicating the base of the box.
Maggie shook her head.
"Yeah you do," another voice said. The second monster grabbed Maggie's arm and pulled her towards the box. Maggie was scared.
The creature pulled her over to the side and Maggie saw there was a hole in the ground under the box. There was someone in the hole. Maggie looked. It was her!
Maggie was confused. How could she be in the hole and still be standing beside it.
"This is where you belong, you stupid, useless waste of space. This is where we wanted you to be. This is where you're supposed to be."
Maggie tried backing away from the hole, shaking her head.
"I belong with Papa Josh and Mama Debby and Jim."
"No you don't. You don't deserve them. You know eventually they'll realize you're stupid and useless and even they'll get rid of you. It's just a matter of time before they get as annoyed with you as we did."
"No!" Maggie shouted. "Mama and Papa love me! And I love them!"
"That's what you think. Because you're here. Where are they? Why aren't they here with you? Why don't they come 'save' you? Huh? Because they don't care. They don't love you. They pretend to but they don't. No one does."
"Mama and Papa love me," Maggie said, frowning. "They make sure I know they love me."
"Pfft. They're good actors then if they've convinced you they love you. Then again, you're pretty stupid, so it's not surprising you think they love you."
"They do!" Maggie insisted.
"Think what you want," the creature said. "But you're here and they aren't."
Maggie frowned, looking around. She tried to call her mama and papa, but they didn't answer.
The creatures laughed.
"See? Now it's time for you to go where you belong," the creature said, and pushed Maggie into the hole. Maggie fell. And kept falling. Where was the bottom?
"Maggie!" She heard Mama Debby. Then she heard nothing. She felt nothing. She just felt like she was floating. Not even falling.
In the real world, Josh and Debby held each other as they watched their daughter's body convulsing on the bed. Nurses and doctors came into the room at the sound of the alarms. Josh and Debby were pushed out of the room while the medical team tried to help Maggie.
"What's happening?" Debby asked Josh. He shook his head, tears flowing down his face.
They'd been here for two days already, Maggie showing no signs of life. Machines were breathing for her. Tubes and wires came out of everywhere. She looked tinier than when Josh found her in that trash bag.
Suddenly, tonight, Maggie's body started convulsing, alarms were blaring, people were rushing in and out of her room. They were losing her. Again.
Josh lost track of time. He had no idea how long those alarms blared in Maggie's room. But suddenly it was silent. Josh looked at Debby. Debby looked at Josh. The alarms had stopped, but they didn't hear any other sounds. No steady beeping. No steady alarm. Nothing. What did that mean?
The door to Maggie's room opened and the doctor stepped out, closing the door behind him. He sighed. Josh tightened his hold on Debby.
"I have no idea what is happening with Maggie. I can't explain this coma or the seizure, if that's what that was. I'd like to do an EEG tomorrow to check on her brain activity. It just doesn't make sense to me. We are doing everything we can to figure this out. I'd also like to do an MRI again."
Josh nodded. If they wanted to do tests, Maggie was still alive, despite the convulsions.
The doctor let them go back to Maggie's bedside. Her tiny body, dwarfed by all the machinery keeping her alive, was lying flat on her back, her arms splayed. The nurse still tending to Maggie pulled the covers back up over Maggie's supine body, and very gently placed her arms over the blankets, making it look more like Maggie was sleeping. Except for the tube coming out of her mouth forcing air into her lungs and the wires and tubes monitoring and taking over bodily functions for her.
They still had no answers. Why was Maggie in a coma? Why had she suddenly stopped breathing? What happened?
Through the night, these questions plagued her parents. Though neither of them spoke, they were thinking the same things.
In the morning, Tyler came in with coffee and breakfast for the two exhausted parents, neither of whom dared leave Maggie's bedside for longer than a bathroom break.
"Jenna's going to pop by your house and get you guys some toiletries and changes of clothes. She's going to come by later. We don't want to bring Rosie. I hope you understand."
Josh nodded.
"We can't explain it to ourselves. The doctors have no answers. I can't imagine trying to explain to Rosie why Maggie's here. But when she wakes up, will you bring her?"
Tyler wasn't sure how to answer that. No one was sure Maggie would wake up. No one knew why Maggie wasn't awake as it was.
YOU ARE READING
Magnolia Blooms
FanfictionMagnolia (known to family and friends as Maggie) is seven years old. Two years ago, her life was changed when she was tossed out of her parents car, in a garbage bag. She was found by none other than Josh Dun of the band twentyone pilots. She was a...
