Invisible

Marie - 17

I walked out the grey brassy school gates. Alone. Carlotta had disappeared somewhere. I left swiftly, making sure the least amount of people saw me. I scuttled over to the primary school down the road, where I saw our shiny car, my mum standing outside it and was scrolling through her phone. I hurried over.

"Hey mum," I breathed.

"Hi!" she said, not looking up from her phone. I saw a wide gleaming smile appear on her face. I jumped into the car, shoving my backPack in the boot behind me.

"Hi Marie!" Alex smiled, looking up from his thumbs. I ruffled his unwieldy hair and sighed a gasp of relief. I don't know why, but I did.

I strapped my seat belt in and helped my brother with his. After a couple of seconds, my mum finally got in. She turned her neck around and looked at us, a hopeful smile shining on her face.

"Kids, I've got a surprise!"

We drove off. I swear to god, her driving was like a hectic rollercoaster ride. It only took me five minutes to work out that we weren't driving back to the hotel, or back to our place for that matter. We were driving on the road along the sea, past Carlotta's close. Where were we going that could make mum this happy?

Oh my god!

Alex was now happy as well, I don't think he realised that we weren't going home since he's so short, he can't see out the window. He was clutching onto my mum's hand. We must've looked like a family of serial killers with white (and yellowish) smirking smiles strewn across our faces.

"Room 456," the receptionist muttered, "Just up the stairs..." his voice was trailing off and the three of us were dashing up those stairs again, just like last night.

Except this was a much happier occasion. Mum hadn't told us but she need not to. I'd already guessed. Our worn out feet halted at the same door we had spent a couple hours in front last night. The door handle turned and we saw a man in a suit walk out with a blue clipboard clenched in his hands.

He looked up and said, "Hello, are you Mrs. Mayers?" My mum nodded energetically.

"He's awake," the man smiled. My mum bursted through the door with me and Alex following close behind. My dad was sitting upright in a bed that was adjusted to his posture. White wires were connected to parts on his scratched left arm. He was dressed in a light blue robe and was sipping water from a glass. He put down his glass and peered up at us. His face went from an ill hospital patient to a proud young man. My mum placed a soft kiss on his lips and hugged him tight.

"Ow, ow, ow," he groans, shuffling himself out of the hug.

A look of worry flushed my mum's face, "Oh god, sorry, you alright?"

"Yeah, my back hurts," he smirked awkwardly and turned his head face to me and my brother. I lifted my hand to form a sort of half wave.

"Dad!" my brother shrieked, leaping onto my dad's limp body. He grimaced slightly, with my mum pulling him off.

"You're hurting him!" she said sharply.

"It's alright, love." my dad commented, "Hello darling, how are you?" he looked at me, so I guessed it was aimed at me.

"Good." Apparently, when we lie, our eyes look to the left because that side of our brain is associated with lying, or something like that. At least that's what Carlotta told me. Anyways, my eyes must have soared to the left then. I wasn't 'good'. Not 'fine'. Nothing. I don't know what I felt. I was happy that I was seeing my dad and all, but I felt sort of, well, empty. Something feels off. Okay, yes we were in a hospital because my dad was stabbed whilst making our dinner and all but other than that, something feels off. None of it was right, how was he okay? I shook out all the confusing thoughts out of my head, once again.

"How are you?" I questioned.

He shuffled a bit in the bed, re adjusting his fluffy blonde hair. He glanced at my mum, who was stroking my little brother's hair, "I'm good. It's all fine."

Stupid.

Lying.

Fake.

That's what he was doing. Pretending that it's all alright. Well it's not. At that exact moment, he had a large stitched up stab wound in his back, my mum was pushing all her problems away, pushing them like an unwanted meal. My brother was too young to realise the severity of all this and I was stuck bang right in the middle, having to do the exact same thing I was criticising my dad for. Be stupid, lie and fake everything.

My mum clapped her hands together and motioned for me and my brother away. She shoved a 2 pound coin in my hands and the car keys on the other.

"Maybe get your homework out of the car or a book or something and get yourself a snack from the shop. I'm just going to talk to your dad for a bit. Thanks Marie, sweetie."

I nodded and waved bye to my dad. I quietly closed the door behind me, and in the corner of my eye, I saw my mum kneel down next to my dad, who was smiling his head off. Internal vomiting. I crouched down a little, to reach the same height as Alex (which honestly, there isn't much of a difference. I'm short and Alex is surprisingly tall for an eight year old).

"You want M & M's or something?" He nodded enthusiastically. Maybe too enthusiastically to the point that his face looked flushed. I grabbed his arm and ran over to the lift. Why hadn't we been using this instead of lugging our bodies up the millions of stairs? A woman holding a small child walked in and looked at us. She had the expression a kid has when they are trying to remember the answer to a hard exam question - like she was trying to figure out where she saw us. Wow, I'm a celebrity! I glared at her until she turned away to wipe her kid's drool away. Eugh.

We exited the hospital and walked through the car park to get to the car. I pressed the button and the lights flashed a lipstick red colour. I heaved out Alex's backpack and mine as well. I shoved my mum's handbag under a coat left on the floor to hide it away from any prying eyes. It was dark by now, a surprisingly early sunset for April. A couple lonely street lights lit the car park and people were walking around and leaving in their cars.

As I slammed the door shut and placed both bags on each shoulder, a small voice from my brother piped up.

"Marie, it's that scary van again." His eyes were glued onto a black mist covered van parked in the corner of the car park, slightly illuminated by a weak street light. I tightened the bag around my shoulder and undid my top button - my shirt was literally strangling me.

"Okay," my grip on my brother's hand tightened, "On the count of three we run as fast as we can to the entrance. 'Kay? One, two, three!"

The engine revved up and lights grew brighter and brighter.

They were coming.

Okay, 'they' meaning whoever the hell that person that almost got me at school and came to our house last night.

I felt Alex falling behind, so I tugged at his arm harder. Mum had parked, inconveniently, the furthest place possible because it was so busy earlier. We stopped and started as cars went in and out of parking spaces. The van neared us, and I turned my head to see the van near us, on the road opposite. I'd have to time it perfectly;if we were to slow the vehicle would block all chances of getting to the entrance. Honestly, what was my mother thinking of sending out two vulnerable kids alone in the dark, let alone when you know their father has just been stabbed by some maniac person who first acted on a kidnapping of your daughter and son...? Woah, that's a handful.

My breath was fast, and I could see the condensation or whatever it is. It was coming and turning around the corner.

The term of cross country we did in year 6 really was for nothing - I swear to god, I was going the speed of a decapitated snail. I pulled my brother harder and pushed him in front of me and he almost tripped on the stairs to the top of the building.

"RUN!" I screamed, "RUN INTO THE -gasp- HOSPITAL!" he zoomed off, just dodging a deadly hit from the rampaging nightmarish truck.

A door slid open and a long black covered arm grabbed my head and pulled me in.

It all stopped.

And I was gone.