Luke

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"Where's aunt Karrie?" Skye asked me.

Then my phone started buzzing.

"Hello? Is this Luke Mayine? I'm calling on behalf of Karrina Mayine. You were her only emergency contact we can get hold of" a calm woman with a strong new accent spoke to me.

"This is Luke, what's wrong with Aunt Karrie? Why can't she speak to me? Has something happened?"

"I'm afraid I can't answer most of these questions over the phone due to patient confidentiality. But your aunt has been in an accident and were going to need you at Riverview Medical centre as soon as you can sir. We will be waiting for you there"

"Ok..."

My phone dropped to the floor.

"What's going on?" Skye asked

"I'll tell you on the way there, but right now we need to get into a cab and get on our way to Riverview medical centre."

We called a cab and told the driver to go as fast as he could. I explained the phone call to Skye. What happened to her? Maybe she had an accident at work, or maybe she fell down when coming back?

There were endless possibilities and I'm sure it's not that bad whatever it is.

The cab pulled up and I gave him the money before I ran into the hospital up to the front desk.

"I'm Luke Mayine; I got a call to come here about my aunt Karrie?" I told the woman at reception.

"Oh yes, Nurse Samthig will take you to her in a second, while your waiting would you like to take a seat?" the receptionist told me

"No, I want you to tell me what happened to my aunt"

"I'm sorry... I can't tell you that right now, please take a seat sir"

"I don't give a damn about patient confidentiality right now, tell me what has happened with Aunt Karrie and I might take a seat" I yelled at her

"Sir if you don't calm down I will revoke your pass to see your aunt, now go sit down with your sister and wait your turn"

"Fine, but you call people things that they're not, I'm going to take a seat with my girlfriend now"

"My mistake..."

Skye practically dragged me to the seating area with a look on her face that looked like she wanted to kill me.

"Did you want to get us kicked out?" she whispered to me. People were looking at us.

"No I... I'm just worried 'bout Karrie"

"I know you are... but you can't just flip out like that, you could have never seen her if you'd have carried on"

"I know but-"

"Luke Mayine? Please follow me" a nurse emerged from the near corridor

I squeezed Skye's hand as we got up and followed the nurse.

She wouldn't say anything on the way to aunt Karrie's ward, no matter how many times I asked her. she just kept repeating that she would tell us everything when we got to Aunt Karrie.

I kept looking at the signs above; the twisting corridors seemed to go on forever. This was until we arrived at the intensive care ward.

The nurse led us through the doors and showed us to aunt Karrie. She was laid on the bed hooked up to a life support machine, her face was drained of color and her body lay limp and lifeless.

"You two might need to sit down for a moment..." she said. "You see, we found your aunt around midday today. She had passed out and was potentially left for dead; we don't know who left her. We have done tests on her blood and it seems like she was taking different types of hallucination for a while... this has caused her body to shut down slowly, right now we are doing everything to keep her alive but there isn't a lot of chance that she'll survive but there is hope. But I have to ask you a few questions, are you ok with that? The shock can hit most people and we don't want to force anything onto you"

"I... I'm fine... go ahead with the questions" I said. I can't believe she's been a drug addict and my family never helped her, they must have known right? They can't just hide something like that from me it's not fair.

"Right... so has your aunt ever been admitted to a hospital for drugs? We can't find any medical records with her name on it and its suspicious, it's like all information on her has been wiped off of the internet"

"I remember that she was sent to a hospital a few years ago because she was classed as mental, that's the last we heard from her for a year, then she never really bothered with our family after that..."

"Ok. Do you remember which hospital it was?"

"No... sorry I'm not much help my mom never told me anything really, tried to hide me from the truth for too long"

"Did you know she was taking drugs?"

"No, I didn't. But can we do this another time, I need some time alone"

"Of course"

I stroke Karrie's hair and look at her lifeless body. Poor Karrie, her family never helped her and drove her to drug to try and make her life better.

"Are you ok babe?" Skye asked touching my shoulder

"I'm fine; I just gotta make a phone call. My mom needs to know about this"

"You can't, the only reason moving here is so you can get away from your family. I'm your family now Luke, the only person you got"

"No Skye. I moved here for you. I love you but I also love my real family and right now I need to be with them right now, I have to get my priorities straight and care about my aunt because if you didn't know she's dying. She needs her family"

"But they will find us, you'll just be forced to go back to work for your family again, you don't want that do you?"

"SKYE! Get a reality check. It's not all about you. You should be here wiping my tears and helping me AND my family through it. All they've been is nice to you. THEY were the ones that gave me the money THEY knew I was following my dreams so THEY let me go"

"What? They knew? How could you? We said no secrets and this is a massive secret that you can't just keep from me."

"You would've just reacted the same, maybe I regret moving here with you because I've done everything for you and you've done absolutely nothing for me. Just go. I don't want you here"

Skye looked shocked and as tears fell onto her face she ran out of the ward.

What have I done?

I called my mom and she picked up.

"Luke? Are you ok?" she answered in a panicked voice

"I'm fine... aunt Karrie is in hospital, she's on a life support machine and... and..." I broke down in tears "just bring the whole family as quick as you can were at Riverview medical centre in New York"

"don't worry Luke were on our way"

That was when I broke down crying on the floor. Am I about to lose everything I ever worked for?

Kidnapped by the Wind |Wattys 2017|Where stories live. Discover now