Monsters

Chapter 16

Phoenix's P.O.V

"Phoenix..." My eye twitches as I hear my voice being called at a distance. "Phoenix." I groan slightly as the voice comes closer, a lot closer, trying to gain may attention. "Phoenix?" I crack my eyes open finally at John's voice, tilting my head up to look at him since I'm sprawled out over his chest, causing a searing pain to split in the back of my head. "Ah!" I grunt through gritted teeth, a hand coming up to hold the sore spot, but I find my wrist caught. "Don't touch it. You're bleeding. Don't move." I groan slightly in response to John's words, laying my head back down onto his chest while his other arm comes up to wrap around my waist.

"We need to get out of the car, the fuel might blow..." I vaguely register Jinx's voice, but I don't really pay that much attention to it until I feel John shifting. I grunt in protest, my head splitting with pain as he manoeuvres my body, hearing glass shards crackling with John every so often inhaling sharply through his teeth at some form of pain. "Is she alright?!" I hear Milo's voice calling out, hearing the worry in his words while I feel a bitter wind hitting my face, John straightening up as he holds me close to his chest, one arm behind my back while the other is under my legs. "What do you think?" John practically growls out as I let go of a groan in pain, my head still spinning as I try to curl up towards the man as much as possible.

"Where's the driver?" Denis asks, but I still keep my eyes tightly closed, unwilling to open them for anything. "He's still in the car." That was Eric, I think. "Eh, bad news guys..." Yeah, it was, because that was Grey there, I'm sure of it. "What? Is he alright?" Jinx asks, an undertone of worry in her voice. "No. He's not breathing." Grey answers, so great, the drivers dead. "Where are we?" Denis asks while I allow my eyes to crack open just a little bit. I have no idea where we are, we're standing in a field by the wall the car hit and flipped over not too far away, quite a bit beyond that is the road we came off of, but I don't see anyone who could have been shooting at us. In fact, I don't see anyone.

"Eh, guys..." Grey's voice sounds, his tone nervous while I hear the group beginning to shift forward. "Are you alright!?" Milo's voice calls out a second later along with a groan of pain. Someone else is here, a girl, I think. "What happened...?" A girls voice that I do not recognise sounds, but things are becoming faded now. "You were hit by the car." John said, his voice rumbling in his chest which I curl up into even more, which I didn't think was possible. "I-I want to go home." If I could, I would have rolled my eyes at that response. "We need to get to a hospital, you may have only been knocked down but it's still worth them giving you a check over. We'll all need to go as well, who has reception?" Jinx's voice comes next, and with a silent moment before everyone denying signal I guess they're all checking their phones. "Of course you won't get any here. I need to go home, they can help me there. They can help you too, help you hide, like they're helping me." That sounds dodgy, this whole thing sounds dodgy, it all gives me a bad vibe, but I can't do anything about it as my consciousness slips away and I'm delved into the darkness of sweet, blissful sleep.

~

"Mum...?" I call softly, seeing my mother sitting by her desk, paperwork everywhere, coffee cups strewed around the place, rubbish dotted every which way. She has a pen behind her ear, her hair falling messily out of her ponytail, dark bags under her eyes, another pen under her finger, ink stains across her hands, she looks so skinny, like she's not eaten in weeks. "Mum!" I call, my voice assertive now, trying to get her attention as the dull lighting keeps us bathed in shadows. She looks up, her tired eyes take a moment to find me, before she smiles, a frail, weak smile, much like she looks all over at the moment. My eyes fill with tears as I stare at her, looking like she'd drop to the floor at any second, and then I see it.

Out of the darkness, just behind her, I see my father stepping forward, a knowing power in his eyes which I have never seen before as I glare back at him, just behind my mother. Rodger looks away from me, looking to my mother who is busy at work yet again, not seeming to notice that he's there, he takes a hand and slips it round her throat, squeezing as I call out to her. My mum looks up at me again, her eyes bright and full of life like they used to be, my mothers eyes, but then they flood with fear as she opens her mouth to let out a deafening scream.