Lost In Time

Secrets In Plain Sight

I was staring blankly at the heart monitor, Jane's lifeline going up and down steadily. I should have prevented this. It had been a few hours since we all arrived at the hospital. I was the only one outside of the room, staring through the blinds as everyone was crowded inside. Even Dimitri, his entire face bandaged save for his mouth and his eyes, was in there, giving emotional support to a distraught Alarik. I hadn't gone in, didn't feel welcome, only guilty. I could have prevented this. Somehow. I kept telling myself this, heart dripping in guilt as my eyes swept over Kade, sitting in his sister's lap, band aids placed tenderly on his little scrapes and bumps. He hadn't said a word against me or for me, or any words at all, even when pressed by the investigators. It had been hours, and no word on Jane. Her condition is stable, but she's in a coma. That was all we knew. Dimitri remembered nothing, his head trauma causing him to lose memory of the entire day. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep last night.

Nurses and doctors milled around, tired of asking me to either go in or leave. I stayed still, leaning against the wall, head slowly pounding. By the time they had gotten to me, my hands had healed, nosebleed and headache reduced to little sniffles and a dull ache, so I shooed the concerned nurses away. The administrative staff of Greenvale had come and gone, drawing me aside to yell and scream at me, saying words like 'property damage' and 'consequences'. Then they realized I was just seventeen, and glared as they couldn't do anything else to me. The last words they had said to me was they were going to be in contact with 'my guardians'. I had been waiting for my phone to ding with a phone call from Simon, but nothing came. He usually turned it off at night. I hadn't said a word about the demons.

I knew no one would believe me. They thought I did this, because I was a 'addled teen who was distraught with grief and possessed gifts she didn't understand'. Those were the words of the psychiatrist that had tried to speak with me. The first words out of her mouth were "So your Ari's daughter. I can see what she was talking about." After that, any hope that I might have had for my story, as crazy as it sounds, to be believed went out the window. Demons, while part of our culture, just weren't common, and they didn't target people that often. The common folk chose not to believe in them, so it was only GOMA who monitored their existence. But here, in the heart of GOMA, no one would believe me. So I kept my mouth shut. I wasn't particularly worried, only a small portion of the field was burned really, and I knew Jane would be okay. It was clear that whatever had harmed her wasn't human. I didn't have anything on me (they checked) that could've done that damage, and most of the kids reluctantly said I was with them all night, up until Dimitri and I walked into the maze together, alone. After that, the suspicion fell on me. I wasn't that hurt by their accusing stares, or so I told myself. But what really burned was that Dimitri, that Dim, thought I did it as well. I wasn't stupid, I saw how he looked at me while they were explaining the situation. The unspoken accusations in his stormy eyes. Even after he woke up, and I was right there, worried for his wellbeing.

So that was how I was out here, instead of in there. It had been hours, early Sunday morning, and none of the parents had shown up yet. Didn't they care? Surely they knew, right? And yet they weren't here. No phone calls, and judging by how everyone was checking their phones, no texts. Just where in the world were they? My eyes found Jane's heart monitor again. I was comforted a little, just a little, by the steady rise and fall. I was terrified that it would soon stutter, and end. She had so much blood...I had been angry when they had told us there was nothing they could do, but wait. That they had done everything they could. That anger had dissolved into cold numbness. Because that was the true rub about the system, we all had magic. This entire hospital wing, ICU, was crawling with Healers, capable of healing anything, except for the most extreme of cases, with a single touch. They could do it for free. But, in the end, we are all greedy humans. We want money, and more money. We don't care if someone gets hurt, or sits in a coma, to get it. All they saw was dollar signs lying in a bed, and I saw a twelve year old girl who may never get to play outside again. It sickened me.