Seeking The Truth

Pieces Together

Chapter 8

Maddie's POV

"Y-you wh-what?" my mom sputtered and stood up slowly. "I love you guys, but if you love me you'll understand that I've got to meet my parents! There's so many things I need to discover about myself!" I smiled, expecting her to understand. The whole house fell silent, making me squirm uncomfortably and tap my toes to keep myself from flipping out at the lack of sound. 

"Well why can't you do that here? Why do you need to find your parents to do so?" my dad spoke up quickly. I furrowed my brow in confusion. "I thought you guys of all people would understand!" I crossed my arms and turned away stubbornly. "Maddie please!" my mother begged from behind me. "That's Maddie to you! Or is that even my real name? Can you assure me you haven't been lying to me about my name too?" I rolled my eyes and reached for the handle. 

Before I could pull open the door Kale burst through and entered the awkward family situation. "Maddie," he whined. "You said you wouldn't hold grudges." he began to reprimand me. 

Why was the whole world on their side?

"Well maybe, just maybe I lied about that. What could you expect? It runs in the family doesn't it?" I began in a sickly sweet voice tone. "Oh wait! That's right. They are not even my family, so why on earth would-" I continued bitterly. "Enough!" Jessica shouted, making the house fall silent once again. Nobody spoke, not even Jessica. I began to take deep and slow breaths to fill the silence, but they too made no sound. Kale stared me in the eye and realized why I was so suddenly uncomfortable. I couldn't force my foot to tap this time. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Nothing could fill the unsettling silence.

In and out.

I told myself, as it became harder to breath. Minutes passed, but nobody spoke. It was as if it was physically impossible for anybody to make a sound. 

In and out.

What's happening?

I stumbled back and slammed against the door and everybody was now in quick motion, but I heard no sounds.

Had I gone deaf?

In and out.

In and out.

But soon, I couldn't breathe in and out anymore and black lining seeped through my eyesight and overcame my vision and I fell to the ground in a deep black hole of silence.

   *******************

"She is waking up now, no one worry she will be good as new in just a few hours. For now, family only." an unfamiliar voice advised the crowd before me once my eyes were fully opened.

"Maddie are you ok?"

"Oh Madison what happened?" 

"Maddie!"

My family all swarmed to the hospital bed I sat in as quickly as the bees swarm to their queen. With a sudden lovely feeling of importance, I pushed myself into a sitting stance and looked at the owner of the unfamiliar voice to see a doctor looking at me intently. "How do you feel Ms.Seymour ?" the doctor asked, earning worried glances from my family. "Please don't call me that, it's Ms.-" I paused. My mother had signed it with a simple Z, what was my last name? 

"Call me Maddie." I finished my sentence with uncertainty. I looked over at Jake, who was frowning at me for dismissing my previous last name. "And my head hurts, but I feel fine." I scanned the room for Kale, but he wasn't there. A frown settled on my face and I looked back towards the doctor. "That's good. Maddie, I need you to be very careful. You just experienced a panic attack and we are not a hundred percent sure what exactly caused it." he sighed.

"Usually when someone experiences a panic attack, it's because they can't control their fear and their body goes into a shut down mode where your brain can't function. Unless your mind can figure out a way to control the panic attack, you'll faint. The only issue with your panic attack is there's nothing you could've feared that would lock you down." he babbled on with all of his knowledge-sciency-ness. 

If he were really all that smart he'd know I was afraid of silence. Gosh that makes me sound like a freak.Somebody who's afraid of silence, gee that is kind of weird.

"I'll give you some time with your family while I get the paperwork." The doctor turned and left without another word. 

"Can you please just help me find my family?" I begged once the doctor had left completely. "Why though?' my dad asked his question again and I felt the same conversation coming on us again. "Last year, in Mrs.Jones' Science class we learned that all our traits are inherited from our parents and I need to find my parents to understand about myself." I replied logically and began picking at the IV in my arm. 

"That's not true," my dad began before Jake cut him off "Yeah, we didn't learn anything in that class!" he laughed, earning himself a glare from my direction. "Jake." Jessica reminded him to shut up. "What your father means is, we can help you find out about yourself." my mom spoke up and then added. "Without finding them." 

"Why are you so scared?" I dared her to respond, but she remained silent.

I pulled the IV from my arm and drew back the bed covers. "Maddie you can't do that!" Jessica gaped at my sudden change in personality. "Watch me!" I spat hopping off the beds. "Maddie how do we find her if we don't even know her last name?" my dad groaned, referring to my birthmom. "You didn't even bother remembering her last name?!" 

If I wasn't upset before, I was pissed now. "Maddie I tried to hide the papers from you and I lost them, ok?" my mother groaned, like my father, and paced back and forth. I opened my mouth to yell when it hit me.

"I just- I just don't like it ok?" I frowned as Kale realized he had upset me further.

"Hey wait a second, what's all this eraser mark by her name?" he pointed at her signature. Just seeing her name made my heart throb. "Kaaaaalllleeee!" I whined and ripped the note from his grasp. I tossed the letter back towards my desk and fell face forward into my comforting bed.

"That's it!" I cried out in happiness. "What's what?" Jake stepped towards me but I was already a foot out the door. There I found Kale sitting against the wall. "Kale you are a genius!" I smiled. "What did I do?" he laughed and stood up to face me. "You're helping me find my parents."