Nature of the Beast - boy X boy -

Six - Clarity

The whiteness of the hospital burned his eyes as much as the chlorine bleach stung his nose. Nurses buzzed from the nurse station and around the ward like bees to a hive. Danny only dared to crack his eyes open for a second; he hoped to avoid conversation.

“How are you feeling now Mr Smith?” A curvy blonde nurse hovered above him.

“Still tired, I want to go home.” Danny said as he stifled a yawn.

“Your parents are talking to the doctor right now.” She ran her finger down his file. “Then you should be able to go home.”

Brian and April smith were sat in a small room cradling mugs of tea as the Doctor explained Danny’s condition. The doctor was tall, willowy and a skin-tone that suggested Indian decent. She spoke intelligently and with authority.

“We cannot be one hundred per cent certain at this time what happened. Your son has what is known as post traumatic amnesia.” She looked at April’s confused face. “The trauma of the attack has caused him to lose the memory of the attack and subsequent information linked to it.”

“Will the memory come back?” Brian enquired with a serious look.

“That is impossible to predict, sometimes the memories never come back and the person is able to move on.” She angled herself to face Brian. “People struggle if the memories come back in stages or parts; they are usually out of sync and are hard to process rationally. He will need his family to support him either way.”

“Was it really a wolf attack?” April stuttered, her mind still unable to process the conversation.

“As I said before, we cannot be certain of all the circumstances.” The doctor smiled sympathetically. “The other man involved was indeed attacked by a large animal; we are awaiting the DNA results to see if it was any relation to the other attacks. Your son only has scratches, they look worse than they are and should heal with minimal scaring as long as he takes care of himself.”

“Who was this other man?” April was getting agitated.

“The police have that information, I am a medical doctor.” She stood up and walked to the door. “You should probably go up to the ward to collect him. He is adamant that he wants to go home to sleep.”

Detective Collins walked onto the ward with a face like thunder, he drummed his fingers on the nurse station desk as he waited. With every passing nurse uniform, his mood worsened. He took out his frustration on the short plump training nurse who finally came to his aid.

“He’s in D bay the one closest to the door on the left.” She said fearfully.

“Thank you.” He turned and followed the direction of her pointing finger.

Danny was dozing in and out of sleep when he spotted the familiar face of D.I. Collins. He cursed under his breath and decided that feigning sleep was not in his best interests.

“You know who I am, and I would hope you have the intelligence to know the reason why I am here today.” Collins said as he took up the seat next to the bed. “I have lots of other work to do so can we make this quick?”

“I don’t want to be here longer than I have to either.” Danny retorted.

“How do you know Stuart Desmonde?” Collins pulled out his notebook.

“He offered me a lift, I was walking home and he was heading to Southampton it was going to take at least a few hours off of my journey time.” Danny pulled himself into a sitting position on the bed. He pulled the glass of water to his mouth and took a large mouthful.