𝑩𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝑺𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒔 | ᵀᵂᴰ

2: Shots Fired

I was eating lunch when I heard loud thuds coming from upstairs. Dad was upstairs and is probably drunk stumbling around. I washed, dried, and put away my dishes and went to my room.

"Isabela!" I heard him call out. I was reluctant but went. He was in the master bedroom. No one slept in there. Not even him. "Come here." He said, looking over his shoulder. He turned around and pointed a gun at me. "I'm getting tired of you and your disrespect!" He slurred his words. I didn't know how to respond. "Everything will be okay after this."

"No." I said, my voice shaking. In the blink of any eye, a loud bang of a gunshot went off, and a sharp pain hit the side of my head, making me fall to the ground. I saw my bloody and beaten reflection in a broken mirror to my right. I heard another gunshot and a thud. He did it. He shot himself. He was dead. I closed my eyes for what felt like a second. When I opened my eyes a slowly I heard people everywhere. My eyes got heavy and closed. In the blink of an eye, I was in the back of an ambulance. A small bright light shined in my eyes, and they closed once again.

"Just let us see her!" A heard a familiar voice yell.

"You can't see her if you're not a relative or she doesn't know you." Another voice responded.

"Come on, doc. She knows us!" I opened my eyes slowly and saw Daryl and Merle in front of the door.

"Daryl?" I said, looking at him. He shoves the doctor out of the way and walks over to me. "Hey, ya alright?" He asked, cupping my cheek. "Didn't know you cared so much, little brother." Merle spoke. "Shut up." Daryl replied. I laughed a little. "So, your old man took gun to your head, huh, Izzy?" Merle said. "Yeah." I said, looking around the room. I saw my reflection in a mirror that was on my right. I got scared. I was bloody and almost dying. Now I'm patched up and alive.

"Luckily, Isabela, the bullet grazed the right side of your head. Might leave a scar, but with the proper care, it won't be noticeable." The doctor said, flipping and looking through papers. I nodded.

I was in the hospital for a week.

Merle would disappear a lot to go do drugs in the bathroom and screw nurses in supply closets.

Daryl never left my side. Merle made fun of him the whole time but ignored him or made fun of him right back.

Merle's idea of school work was for me to count drugs, then add them all together and estimate how high he'd get.

It was funny at first but the fun was cut short when a doctor came in and saw Merle doing lines of drugs on the little table attached to the hospital bed as I wrote down the numbers I got.

Merle wasn't allowed back into my room, let alone the hospital again, but still managed to show up at random times in the day. Daryl and I would watch TV and talk. Neither of us really did much.

The news talked about this virus doing around, making people act crazy, and for other people to stay alert. It was weird.

I had two more days in the hospital. Once I was out, I'd most likely end up in the foster system. I had a couple of months till eighteen. I asked Daryl if he could take me in. He didn't give me an answer. I hope he's at least thinking about it.