Sweet Dangers

All That Came After

“D-Daddy,” I heard a whisper in my ear. I opened my eyes, seeing Andy’s face come into focus.

“Yes, sweetie?” I asked groggily, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

“I can hear sissy crying again,” he whispers, his large brown eyes widening in the dark. “Can you tell her to stop?”

I nod, my heart sinking. Again? “Don’t worry pumpkin, I’ll go in there and talk to her. Now, get back to bed,” I told him and he nodded. I kissed the top of his fuzzy head and watched his small body scurry down the hall, back to his bedroom.

I rolled over and shook Harry awake. “Harry….” I whispered.

“What?” he groaned, pulling the cover up around his shoulders.

“Something is wrong with Darcy.”

He opened his eyes, pushing himself from the bed. He put his head in his hands for a moment, and then nodded. “Let’s go,” he tells me and I nod, slipping from the warm covers.

It had been nearly ten years since the night I died.

I don’t remember most, but I do remember waking up in a hospital room. It was pure white. I remember the doctor telling me Harry had run to the nearest store, and asked them to call a police. That I was dead. The doctor said when the ambulance arrived, Harry refused to be put on a stretcher. He had ridden in the same ambulance as me, and they had cleaned him up as he sat there next to me, holding my hand and silently crying. The doctor had said Harry had been muttering my name the entire ride to the hospital, crying out that it was all his fault. Once they got to the hospital, they had to lock Harry out of the room I was staying in, and he slept outside the door all night, until finally they agreed that if they could fix his nose, and get him well again, he could stay in the same room as me. They said that I had been dead, but somehow revived on the ambulance. They had to give me so much new blood because of all I had lost.

They said I was a miracle.

After I left the hospital, Harry and I went to stay with his mum and stepdad. To this day, I still loved them like they were my own parents, whom I still haven’t spoken to though I still see my sisters quiet often. Harry had to go into rehab for a couple months, and I didn’t get to see him that much which drove me practically out of my mind.

Soon after we got married, and adopted Darcy when she was five, now she was thirteen. We had adopted Andy when he was one, and now he was turning three in a few weeks. It all seemed like a lovely blur.

We never did find Buddy and John. I shivered at the thought that they were still out there. I always lived in fear they would return and try to hurt me or my family. It was living nightmare.

Harry and I padded down the hall to Darcy’s closed door. I knocked lightly, there was no answer. I turned the handle slowly, pushing it open.

“Darcy?” I whispered into the dark room. I heard a soft sniffle from the direction of her bed. I fumbled around the wall for the light switch, and I felt Harry’s arm curl around my shoulder and flip it for me.

“Thanks,” I whispered.

“Anytime,” he said with a dazzling sleepy grin. His smile still drove me insane.

Darcy was curled up on her side. She still had on her clothes from the day, a pair of jeans and a hoodie zipped up so his it covered her face up to her nose. She pulled it up as we approached, curling into herself.

“Go away,” she said, tears in her voice. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

I glanced up at Harry who just shrugged. “What’s wrong?” I asked her, lowering myself onto her bed. I stroked her back for a moment, waiting for her to respond. “Please, sweetie, you can tell us anything.”