Etched

Part II

CHAPTER TWO

Repercussions

Jeanie left me alone for a few minutes, after getting me water, a blanket, a magazine and being assured half a dozen times that I was perfectly alright. However, when she left, closing the door behind her, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed with what I had seen, what had happened around me, and the fact that I was barely hurt at all in comparison to David and Leo. I felt like there was something thick lodged in my throat, I couldn't breathe properly. I stood up, holding the blanket around my shoulders and letting it drag on the faux marble tiled floor. I walked to the window. I could easily imagine that from here, the drop would be deadly.

I had considered it more than once in my very short life. It's not because I'm depressed or overly suicidal, I just sometimes dreamed of escaping what I could never forget. If I had a bad experience at school, and believe me I have, then I would remember every feeling that washed through me, and every expression on every face that I bothered to see. I would hear every harsh laugh, every thoughtless chuckle, and every piece of gossip that slid through the lips of the heartless, the cruel and the forgetting. The regular human populace was lucky. I wanted to spit on life, on the supposed sanctity and light of it. My life seemed perpetually shrouded in darkness and crime, I could remember every part of it.

Probably the biggest slap in the face was my own mother. Everyone had talked after she had been taken in, I was never left alone. Boys at school would always catch me at the end of class, asking me if I had a bag of pot in my backpack, or if I had a pack of it taped under one of the tables in the cafeteria. I cried myself to sleep every night, thinking about my terrible, terrible life. Jeanie and David were the only ones who didn't think crap about me, and they were my salvation. They still are. I turned from the window then, away from the dark and depressing thoughts of death. I wanted to go see David, I wanted to be certain that he was alright. My own condition mattered little to me at this moment.

I drained the rest of the water in the cup Jeanie had given me, I wrapped the blanket more securely around me so that it was no longer dragging on the floor, and I walked out. It didn't take me long to find David's room. When I walked in, he was hooked up to all of these machines and monitors. I knew enough about hospital equipment to know that the soft, rhythmic beeping in the background meant that he was alive. He was not awake, but at least he wasn't in pain. I walked up to him and gently took one of his hands. Though it was limp, and interlaced with plastic tubes, I felt better touching him. I felt calmer.

I had always felt safe with David. I was elated to discover that that hadn't changed. The door opened then and I immediately released him. There was a group of hospital personnel, preparing to wheel him in for another set of X-rays, and... "Miss Dione correct?" It was Agent Bynes, and she didn't appear the least bit happy to see me. "Why aren't you resting?" She continued when I didn't answer. I was too busy watching the nurses wheel David away. "I had to see him, I knew he was in rough shape." I said. I realized that this was the first halfway humane comment that I had ever spoken to her. I secretly felt guilty about that.

As she turned to leave I approached her. "I'm sorry about earlier, I was freaking out and angry and worried, and I didn't mean to come across the way I did." She seemed surprised, but at the same time, relieved. "I was hoping to speak with you again, so I'm very grateful that that's not your natural state of being." I smiled a little at her joke. "You won't mind?" She asked, as I stared down the hallway where David disappeared. "No, I have a few minutes." I agreed. She pulled me to a small room with a table and chairs, this was more of a conference room. She sat down and I sat across from her.

"Look, I know that you would hate to do this, but we're worried about your safety after you leave this hospital, and we're worried about the two other victims as well. We're going to be moving you into protective custody, we'll be sending you to Denver." It took my brain a minute to process that. "I'm not going anywhere without Jeanie!" I blurted out without thinking. I then controlled myself. "It's going to be hard for me to be away from her, she's the closest thing I have to a mom." I said honestly, reigning in my anger and fear. "It would be best for you and for us if we relocated as few people as possible. I promise that you can contact her as often as you need, but I'm afraid that you will not be living with her, at least for a couple weeks, just so that we can be assured that you're out of danger."

I sensed there was more to it than that. "Is that really all it is?" I asked. It was another impulsive question, one I should really think twice about. Usually I did, but this time, I didn't. "What do you mean?" She said. Immediately, a cool smile, a mask, settled onto her face. Innocence, phony, fake, almost over-the-tope innocence, filled her expression as I watched. "Is this really just about my safety? If that's all it is, then why am I being taken into another state?" She seemed even more surprised than before. "I'm afraid I can't disclose anything to you until we are in a more secure location, I don't meant any disrespect..." She began to rise, grabbing her bag.

My intuition flickered and I watched her with suspicious, mistrusting eyes. "You want me to help you don't you? You want me to help you find the responsible party." Her face paled. She had obviously not expected me to jump that far. I could also see by her face that I was dead right. "I will escort you home so you can pack your possessions. You and David Clemens will be traveling together." She said, closing the door behind her. I was right. They wanted my help. I just...I hoped that I would be able to help.