The Great Awakening

Chapter 8

            “Ow!”

            “S-sorry…” the nurse replied nervously. “We’re low on anesthetics so you’re going to have to endure the pain…”

            “Whatever just fix them already!”

            One of Melissa’s broken fingers had already been snapped back into place. On the bed adjacent to her, Jayden sat down, tissues plugged into his nose. Troy sat in the chair at the foot of their beds, scratching the intersections of his scars after his bruises were treated. “So how do you two know each other?” Jayden asked, looking in Troy’s direction. It would be natural that he wanted to know who this stranger was and how he was affiliated with his mother. They only wanted the best for each other after all.

            “Oh… Im just some guy she met years ago… A friend.” Troy shrugged.

            “Bullshit!”

            “Jayd-AH!” Melissa screamed as the nurse snapped her middle finger back into place.

            “S-sorry!” The nurse replied again. “If it’s any consolation, it’s all over now…”

            It wasn’t over. She only meant the hard part.

            “Thanks,” Melissa replied, yawning as the nurse left.

            Jayden watched as she left before turning back to Troy. “I don’t believe you…”

            “What don’t you believe?”

            “I don’t believe that you are just some guy. I’m not stupid, okay?” His voice was rising in volume, and Melissa did nothing to hush him. All that was on her mind right now was sleep. “So how do you know her?” Jayden continued.

            Troy looked over to Melissa, who moments before was in a battle against pain, but fatigue won her over and found sleep. He smiled shortly before turning back to Jayden. “It was years ago…

            “She was an orphan… put out for adoption, because her parents opted for a different destiny. Very much like me, but the difference is this: no one had accepted her. The orphanage was forced to let her go as a result of low funding. The age limit used to be eighteen, but it was lowered to sixteen then, and now, possibly even lower…

            “That’s where we met: The Orphanage. She was only six and I was nine then… we didn’t know each other then…”

            He had to admit, though his life as a young child was better than his life at the orphanage, his life there wasn’t so bad either. He felt right at home at times. “Anyway,” he continued. “When I was adopted, I didn’t see your mother for nine years. When I ran away from home, I came back to the orphanage, hoping that they would take me back… but instead, they called the police after hearing the report and I ran to hide in a nearby alley. They didn’t see me, but your mother did. She was hiding there as well, because she had no where else to go.

            “For a while, we talked. We lived a life of crime… nothing too major: just stealing food. But as you know, stealing is an offense punishable by death. We were caught a few times, but we helped each other out. Every day, we stole food and ate it, jumped from rooftop to rooftop and hopped fences. Every night, we’d share a cardboard box or sleep underneath a community building. We were nobodies then… and in a sense, we still are.”

            “So you guys lived on a day to day basis?” He asked.

            “Yes.”