The Frozen Heart

Chapter 8: Part 2

Jacks POV

I've been walking for a few hours.

My feet hurt, really bad actually.

I've never had this problem when ever I was a Guardian.

I ran myself out, tired and exhausted, poisoned with the sorrowful howls of the wind.

My eyes are raw from crying. I just feel so hopeless.  I hate being a human to be honest.  These mortal wounds are definitely not my thing.

The sun is going down, and it gets colder by the second.  I can see my breath at this point.  I've forgotten what is feels like to be cold until now.  My feet are frozen solid, I think.

By this time, the sun has submerged beneath the horizon and the shroud of darkness envelopes me along with my surroundings.  This was incredibly ignorant of me, wandering into the woods, far from civilization.  From Maysie.

I'm still not used to this human thing.  It's only been a day, and I'm already on the brink of death.

Am I exaggerating? Probably.

My breath becomes staggered and raspy.  I cough a few times, burning my throat.  My mouth is dry and my tongue feels fuzzy.  My head is pounding and my eyes hurt and are sore. So this is what feeling sick feels like, I really miss my perfect immune system.

My walk slows dramatically, and there, darkness swallows me whole.

A bright light welcomes me.  It forces my eyes to blink a few times, allowing my sight to adjust.  I hear a steady beep beside me.  I move my arm to hold my head to find I have plastic tubes attached to me.  My eyes widen at the needle stuck in the back of my hand.  I frantically look around to see my clothes have been replaced with a hospital gown and that the curtains around my bed are drawn shut.

'No, no, no!' I think to myself. 'This can't be happening.'  One of the biggest things I've wanted to avoid was being put into the system, have some kind of record under my name to haunt me forever, no matter how small it is.

I rip out the needle, giving a slight jolt of pain but I shrug it off.  I'm still a little dizzy and nauseous.  Actually, now that I think about it, why am I here?

I pull back the curtain to see two doctors talking in the corner of the large room, laughing and sipping coffee.  I just need to sneak by them. 

I time it, and shuffle carefully to the door on my toes.  Successful, I go through and follow the signs to the exit.  I find that I'm on the 8th floor of the hospital tower, and I sigh in frustration.  I skip past the elevator to avoid being caught in a situation I don't want to be in.  I open the staircase door and start jumping down the stairs, holding the back of my gown.

I reach floor 3 whenever I hear over the intercom in the stairwell, "Attention hospital staff and faculty, calling a Code Walker." (in case you aren't aware, that just means there's a missing patient that's not necessarily a child/infant) 

My eyes widen and beads of sweat gather on my forehead.  I speed faster down the stairs, careful of not underestimating my footing.  I finally reach to ground floor, and I run out the door at the bottom that leads to the parking garage.  I find that it's early morning now.  It's probably incredibly unsafe for me to be outside, but I can't risk my being in the hospital.  That's like the number one thing that I should definitely NOT do is get myself known.  I just want to turn back to normal.

I need different clothes, desperately. 

One thing I do know, is that I'm back to the town to which I've started.  I still don't know the name, but I recognize the large chapel in the middle of town a few blocks away, which I failed to mention earlier.  I start in a brisk walk to a full on sprint towards the only place I know where to go- Maysie's restaurant.

Luckily, not many people are on the streets at this time of morning.  A few elderly couples have given me weird looks though, and a few murmurs and whispers.

I make it to the corner, and look through the window.  The lights are out, and I don't see anyone in sight.  I pound my fist on the window.  I have no clue on what to do now, this was my last and only resort.  I turn to walk back up the street, not knowing where my next destination is.

"Jack!" I hear a voice call out from behind me.  I turn and look to see a blue jeep pull up beside me and Maysie comes out from the passenger seat.  Her dad looks down at me from the inside.  I shudder.

"Jack, are you okay?" She runs and throws her arms around my neck, taking me by surprise. 

"Uh, yeah sure. Why?" What a dumb question.

"Uh because you ran away from the hospital?" she yells, scolding me like a child. "You didn't come back for hours, and we called the police to go find you because you ran into the woods and never came back out."

Tears brim her eyes, "I just thought the worst, Jack."  Compassion fills me, and guilt seeps its way in as well.  I didn't realize how inconsiderate I've been.

"Come, lad, let's get you out of that horrid gown." I hear her father say as he rolls down the window.  She smiles and motions to the backseat.  We hop in and he drives us around to the back of the building and into a garage. 

"Wait here." He says bluntly.  I nod.  She follows him in, grumpily whispering something about 'not inviting him in' and how 'that's incredibly rude'.  I mentally shrug, I just want out of here.

A few minutes fly by and they finally return.  He has a stack of clothes neatly folded in his arms, and Maysie trails behind him with two mugs.

He hands me the clothes without saying a word. I hold up the blue T-shirt, noticing it's too large to be Maysie's but too small to be her fathers.

Apparently observing my puzzled look, Maysie speaks up, "These are my brother, Grant's, clothes.  He's overseas at the moment," she looks down really fast but back up at me. "But I'm sure he wouldn't mind." She gives me a small smile.  Her father has retreated back inside the house, leaving us two alone.

"I-I brought you some hot chocolate." She says.  I chuckle, because I'm still standing here with a pile of clothes in my arms.  I mean, I don't mind changing, but I'm sure she would.  Understanding, her eyes widen and her face turns red.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry, I completely forgot, uhm, I'll just go back inside." She flusters and hurries inside the door.  I rush into the blue shirt and the dark jeans.  He's even given me a pair of white Nike sneakers and socks.

Strange that they won't let me inside their house, but I shrug it off.

She appears at the door, and beckons me in, for the sound of sirens are in the distance.

"They wouldn't actually be after me, right?" I thought. "Right?"

A/N

this chapter kind of got weird but it was because I must obviously have uploading issues because the reason it hasn't been up for so long is because I thought it uploaded..heh heh.. sorry.  I mean, I should've checked whenever I would type the next chapter.  I'm a mess. But hope you enjoyed it a little bit atleast?

If you did, please vote and comment if you'd like

Any grammer/spelling errors that are reported (please do if you see any), then I'll go back and fix them