The Jewels; Mother of Pearl (#ABA2017)

Chapter Twenty

Lola didn't dream.

She didn't have any happy dreams which didn't surprised her.

She didn't have any nightmares which shocked her.

And she didn't wake up with a painful jolt which amazed her.

She looked around where she was, half expecting to see the wooden ceiling beams in the attic, but saw a white, painted ceiling. Lola looked around and saw the familiar room of a hospital. She felt a bandage on her head and a needle in her arm. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears as she felt a panic rise in her.

"If you keep coming back here, you may as well call this home," someone said.

Lola turned her head to the other side of her bed and saw Dr Jones sitting on a chair beside it, he looked somewhat tired, but he smiled. Lola's first reaction was to move away from him, he stretched out his hand and calmed her down, "Don't worry, don't worry! You're okay," he assured. Lola relaxed slightly, and she went wide eyed, why could she relax?

She rolled her usually tight shoulders, they moved easily and pain free, she took in a deep breath and went wide eyed at how much air she breathed in. She blinked several times with surprise at how much she seemed to be able to relax, how free her mind felt, how calm she felt.

Dr Jones reached for something on her head; she felt the bandage peel off her head and Dr Jones prodded it a little before leaving it alone. "That's seems to have healed really well," he explained as she covered it back up. Lola pressed her own fingers through the bandage, but felt no pain.

"How long have I been here for?" Lola asked.

"About a day and a half," he explained pointing out the window, "its day time now."

Lola looked at Dr Jones, "why am I here?" Lola asked.

"Umm..." he looked at the ground and sighed, "Your house burnt down and your lungs had great exposure from smoke. You're okay, but nothing seemed to survive from your house however," he explained.

Lola gulped.

"Lola, you must know what happened last night. The firemen found evidence of two other people in there, we know one was your mother, but an autopsy shows she had been killed by being choked to death from some sort of chord or rope before the fire... I think you know about that though," he said looking at Lola's grim face, "And the second person is unidentified and seemed to have suffered severe burns that killed them during the fire... Lola, who was the other person in that house? Their burns made them almost unrecognisable," he explained.

Lola remembered seeing her Mum hanging from the ceiling in the attic by a rope, the memory didn't seem to distress her as much as it had before... but the memory of that Angel sent chills down her spine. Had her Mum let an Angel in and it killed her?

Was that why Lola hadn't heard from her Mum all that day?

"Umm... there was a Dark Angel in our house and umm..." Lola hugged her knees, "I ran into the attic and lit a match and found my Mum hanging from one of the ceiling support beams, she seemed to be hanged," she explained, "And then the Angel attacked me and got shot." Lola was surprised by how easily she was able to talk about it, when she was younger she found it hard to tell the teachers that her pet guinea pig had died and that's why she was crying. And her Mum was dead and her house burnt down, and she was able to talk about it without so much as a croaky or crying voice.

Dr Jones went wide eyed, "shot?"

Lola nodded, and then she went wide eyed, "Where's Annika?" she asked fearfully.

Dr Jones stared at her with a puzzled expression, then everything seemed to click, "Lola, you don't have to worry about that Angel, it's not going to hurt you anymore," he explained.