The doctor came to the waiting room where Josh and Debby were waiting, terrified of what they might hear.
"Your daughter," the doctor said, shaking his head. Josh and Debby were worried he'd say she was gone.
"Is she...?" Josh couldn't finish the sentence.
"She is one strong little girl. Whatever is causing this... well, it's not a coma, exactly. But whatever this is, it's strong. But she's a fighter."
"She's. She's okay?"
"She's still unconscious, and we still can't get any response from her, but she's breathing on her own again."
Josh and Debby ran back to Maggie's bedside. There was an oxygen mask on Maggie's face but otherwise, she lay still, eyes closed, monitors beeping a steady heart rhythm.
"Where are you, Bug?" Debby wondered aloud. "Where are you and how do we help you back?"
Josh held his daughter's hand and cried silently, his head on Maggie's blankets.
Days passed and Maggie did not regain consciousness and her body still contorted into painful looking spasms.
"Unghhhhhh," Maggie vocalized one day. "Ungamama!"
"Did she just call Mama?" Debby asked Josh, who had also looked up at the sound.
"Unnnnnpapa!" Maggie said, and then her body contorted painfully again and she screamed.
Both parents jumped and were sitting on Maggie's bed.
Maggie's eyes flew open.
"Maggie? Bug?" Debby asked. "Are you awake? Are you okay?"
"Unnnnnnnnngh," Maggie groaned.
"Maggie? Can you hear me? Can you look at Papa?"
"Unnnnnnnnnnngh," Maggie groaned again.
"Is she responding or is this a coincidence?"
Maggie sat up straight and screamed again, staring straight ahead. She fell back on her pillow, her eyes closed again.
Debby held Maggie's hand and cried. Maggie was in pain and they couldn't help her. Maggie was somewhere that was causing her pain and they couldn't help her.
Both parents lay beside their tiny daughter on the bed, holding her.
Both of them, exhausted from the long days and nights in the hospital, fell asleep, each holding one of Maggie's tiny hands.
Debby opened her eyes and was in a room she didn't recognize. She was lying on a floor, holding Maggie's hand. Maggie was covered in slithering black... ropes?
"Maggie? Maggie!" Debby tried to pull the things off her. That was when Josh sat up and saw her.
"What the?" He said. "Where are we?"
"Josh, help me get these things off Maggie," Debby said.
He looked down and saw his daughter lying on the floor, covered in black - snakes?
"Maggie!" He said, pulling at the black things. They moved in his hand. They pulsated. They felt horrible.
"Unnnnngh," Maggie said. Her eyes opened.
"Mama? Papa?" She said quietly, looking at Josh and Debby.
"Hi Bug," Debby said, stroking Maggie's hair.
"Help," Maggie's quiet voice said. She sounded so low. So sad. So, defeated. "Pleathe help me."
"What do you need, Bug? How do we get you out of here?"
"I dunno," Maggie said, not looking at her mama and papa.
"Get her out? You can't. She's ours," terrifying voices came from the darkness surrounding them.
It had to be the 'monsters' from Maggie's nightmares. The monsters who were, in fact, her parents. Her birth parents. The people who'd abandoned her. Who had thrown her from a moving car tied in a trash bag. But did that mean they were in Maggie's nightmare? How was that even possible?
"You gave her up. You dumped her out of a moving car!" Josh shouted at the darkness.
"You weren't supposed to find her! And you certainly weren't supposed to adopt her."
"But we did. And we love her. You didn't even want her. What are you doing now?"
"Finishing what we started. We shouldn't have left her where she could be found. That was our fault. But you don't know what she's capable of."
"She's seven. She's hardly capable of tying her shoes!" Josh said.
"You have no idea," the voice said.
"They call me Diana," Maggie muttered.
"Because that's your name!" One of the voices shrieked. A cattle prod came out of the dark and touched Maggie. She whimpered at the pain. Her body contorted as it had been in the hospital.
"Stop it!" Debby said. "You're killing her!"
"You're just as stupid as her. That's the plan!"
Debby was stunned. What was happening? What kind of dream was this?
"What are you doing here anyway?" The other monster said. "How did you get here?"
"Papa?" Maggie said weakly. Josh looked at Maggie. She was pale. More pale than her body in the hospital.
"Yeah, Bug?"
"Can you thing the Blurryfathe thong?"
"The Blurryface song? Which one?"
"You know. The one that goeth 'my name ith Blurryfathe and I care what you think'."
"Of course," Josh said, laying down beside Maggie, and stroking her hair.
He started singing the song. Maggie smiled and closed her eyes.
"Maggie, Maggie, open your eyes, Bug," Debby said.
"I'm tho tired, Mama," Maggie breathed.
"You have to keep fighting, Bug. Mama and Papa need you. Please, Maggie. Please keep fighting."
"I'm tired," Maggie whined.
"I know, Bug. But you've been so strong. You've fought so hard. Please, please keep fighting. Papa and I love you so, so much. We need you. Jim needs you."
"I'm tho tired," Maggie whined. Debby's eyes filled with tears. Maggie was giving up.
"Maggie, Bug," Debby said, her voice a serious tone. "Don't let them win. Don't give them the satisfaction. You're our daughter now. Papa and I love you so much. I know you've still got enough in you to fight."
"I athked Thanta to help. He didn't help. He didn't thtop them."
"I bet he tried real hard to help you fight them,"
"Mama?" Maggie said.
"Yeah, Bug?" Debby asked, cuddling up to her daughter and stroking her hair, her cheek, her head.
"The rope thingth hurt. I can't breathe," Maggie's voice was weaker than before.
Debby started singing 'the Blurryface song' with Josh. She noticed the light around them growing. The circle expanded and the light grew brighter.
Maggie smiled, and closed her eyes.
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...
