Angela

Chapter ten

First off, stop chucking stuff at me, this isn't an author's note cos I don't break promises- I'm cool like that. Just wanted to say that this chapter is dedicated to you guys for being epic enough to read this story, I really hope you enjoy it and I know that this was all a bit fast and that the build up wasn't long enough and that THE INCIDENT happened way too soon but guys! This is one of my first stories on Wattpad. Have mercy on little Soph!

BTW, guys, just so that you know that before you read this chapter MAKE SURE YOU HAVE READ CHAPTER EIGHT AND NINE or this will make no sense whatsoever and you will lose interest in this book which I really do not want.

Oh my pineapples, this has been the longest author's note ever NOT THAT IT IS ONE okay I'll just shut up and get on with the story

¡Adiós!

Soph

XXX

Whatever was shot into my arm offers sedation, not sleep.  I struggle to break out of the misty, drugged haze it had brought to me as behind my eyes Elise and Bianca dash away from me as I fight to untangle myself from the nest of thorns that pierce my skin and my eyes.  Elise did this to me...
The thought brings a spike of anger and with it, a new dream.  Elise, just laughing, laughing at me.  Never speaking a word; her cold, chilling cackle is enough to wake me.  My head breaks the surface of the murky ocean of unconsciousness that drowned me for what seemed like forever, and I emerge, gasping for breath and with a cold sweat trickling down my forehead and onto the bandage covering my eyes. 

The sedation was meant as a distraction, it was supposed to steer me away from the grief of becoming blind and the mental aftermath the incident was sure to bring to me in my sleep and waking hours.  But all it did was secure the memory of the grisly, slow torture Elise brought to me and doom and misery of the blindness that I will have to live with for the rest of my days.  I still can't believe it's real, there's still a seed of hope in my mind that I will wake up in my bed, panting, having had a terrible nightmare.  Then a sober dad will come in, his arms around Hazell and mum, and all three of them will come and hug me and kiss my forehead softly and tell me that it's all okay and I'll go to sleep, happy and content in their arms...

But no, mum is dead, Hazell is probably at home worried sick about me as a hung over dad lies moaning in bed puking in a bowl.  And I'm here, blinded and disoriented and depressed, listening to the steady beeping of the monitors and the sounds of human misery around me.  My restraints are gone, they probably expected me to sleep a lot longer but now I'm just awake, trying to block out the stabs of pins-and-needles that sear through my hands and feet. 

It's about an hour before a nurse comes for me. 
When someone comes to ease my pain
A whole, miserable
Hour.

The rattling of the metal trolleys that rocket around the hospital full- time is music to my ears.  I lie still as the nurse bustles around me, changing my sheets and arranging something next to me.  But then curiosity takes the better of me and I bolt upright, causing the nurse to step backwards- and give her a welcoming smile,  opening my mouth to speak.  But no sound comes out, a dull pain throbs in my head, great.  I think, now you're blind AND mute.  Fuck my life. 
My smile turns upside down and my bottom lip quivers as I assess the mess my life is in.  The nurse sees, she takes a step forward and caresses my torn hair, I barely know her but I want her to keep treating me this way.  It feels nice, her hands in my hair, it feels nice having such closeness.  It's almost like she cares about me, like my mum would've done, I imagine this kind nurse's face untilt he image I have created morphs into mum's.  But then I have to stop when I start crying with happiness at having my pretend mum caress me so tenderly.  Luckily the nurse understands, she talks to me as if I'm a human, a real person.  She tries to reassure me and as much as I know it's purely out of pity, it works, my monitor's being slows down.  I slow down. 

"I'm Kúrrina," She says in a soothing tone, pulling her hand away from my hair and instead clutching my hand so tenderly I squeeze hers back. 
"It's a weird name, I know.  You'll think back on that though if you ever meet my sister, her name's Ghertha!" She attempts a light laugh which is as fake as her liking to me, she probably treats all her patients the same.  But she means well.
"Anyway, you don't want to hear about my parents' weird taste in children's names.  You must have a million questions,"
Trust me, I do.

I concentrate on her words, listening to every individual syllable that tumbles out of her mouth, making the most of one of the few senses I have left.  It seems that I am blind permanently, for the rest of my life, as Kùrrina tells me in the most gentle way possible, and that I am a mental rather than physical mute.  In hope that I will one day be able to talk again and share my feelings, I have been issued a psychiatrist who is to help my with my troubles as well as a tutor who will hopefully guide me on how to live my life blind.  Tears prick at my eyes at this part, there's been so much effort put into to keep me alive yet all I want to do is die, to join my mother. The thought makes me feel like I am internally imploding, with dull pain racking my body with everything new I am told about.  Why wasn't this said to me sooner?

I try to swallow the information but with every word I find myself slipping in and out of concentrating and into a world of my own that is inhabited by despair and dark thoughts. I try to nod in the right places. Kúrrina is kind, giving my hand an occasional squeeze when required, but she's not kind enough to keep my distress away. Soon she senses this and walks away, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

As soon as I hear the door slam shut behind her my worries begin buzzing around in my head again. Exhausting my poor, shattered body even more than it is already. Yet every time I shut my yes and try to block everything out the thought resurfaces that somewhere Bianca and Elise are holding hands, gossiping about me and whispering secrets in each other's ears...
I know I have been abandoned before.
But not this badly.

Elise

Her scream... Her silence.
What if she was dead? I was too young to spend the rest of my life in jail. Although maybe I deserve it.

No, that's crazy, it was an accident. Accidents happen. My fingers trace the edges of the silver locket my mother gave me before she died, the only piece of my family I have. Except Uncle David, he doesn't count, as if on cue, he calls me downstairs. His voice laced with aggression, I brace myself, just when my last bruises were starting to heal...