The Fallen Goddess

The Freaking Hospital

"Blake Strogan, age 22, sustaining multiple third degree burns and seems to have received several fatal electric shocks."

"So how is he alive?"

"Honestly? No clue."

"Is he going to keep living?"

"It appears so."

"And this is the kid from the news, right? Kidnapped and clearly tortured?"

"Yes."

"What about the girl?"

"A suspect. The police think it was her who answered the young man's girlfriend's call the day he disappeared."

"But she's as injured as him. Surely she can't be the kidnapper?"

"I quite agree, but the police do not."

I listen to the two anonymous nurses or doctors or whoever they are as I pretend to sleep. I don't want to wake, but once I hear what the police think, I know I have to help Koreena.

I open my eyes.

I see two female doctors standing over me, watching the monitors and talking with her each other. One of the two notices me open my eyes.

"Hello, Blake. It's good to see that you're awake," says the more formal doctor, the one that kept answering the other's questions.

"Where is s-she?" I manage to sputter, but it's almost incomprehensible.

"Where is she? You man the girl you were with?" Asked the second doctor incredulously. "You mean your kidnapper."

"She... not... kidnapper," I say, and I'm frustrated at how hard it is to talk. I don't even understand why it's hard to talk.

"You hear that? The police are wrong!" The less formal one says.

"We don't know that. I want to believe they're wrong, but they'll just chalk his word to be a result of the injury; they're desperate for someone to blame, and they certainly won't take no for an answer."

"But-"

"And one witness who called the police in Canada gave a description of the girl, and sketch artists have a picture that looks exactly like the woman in the next room. The witness says she saw the girl abusing Blake."

They're talking about me like I'm not even here and it pisses me off.

"Misunderstanding," I say to this. "I can tell you... who... did t-this."

The less formal doctor's eyes widen, but the formal one looks angry.

"Penelope? Could you go check on the girl?" The formal doctor asks the other.

"Of course," the doctor named Penelope answers, and bustles from the room.

The doctor still in the room leans in, and suddenly, I see Koreena's sister's face looming down at me from above.

"Oh, don't worry Blake, I'll make sure the police know exactly who did this to you..."

Somewhere in the back of my head, I know that this is just a hallucination, but I panic nonetheless. I don't hear what the doctor is actually saying, but she also seems panicky.

All I hear is something about Penelope and a seizure but before long, I'm out cold once more.

"You're certainly lucky, son. Not many people could have survived a seizure in your condition," another voice says, this time a man's.

I try to open my eyes, and I find this is harder to do now than it was last time. But I manage it.

I am in a different room than last time, and the two previous doctors are no where to be found.

"Where is she?" I ask, and though my voice is scratchy, I am surprised to find that I can now talk normally. "Where is Koreena?"

"So that's her name, huh?" He says, chuckling. "We couldn't find anybody whose DNA matches hers, it is the darnedest thing. Koreena, you said? What an odd name."

"Where is she? Do the police still suspect her?"

"Oh, big time. They're saying that once she's all done and well, they're gonna bring h r in for questioning. Dangerous girl you're running around with."

"She's not dangerous. She's not my kidnapper!" I say, though I realize this isn't quite true. She's not the one who hurt me, but she did make me help her find the River.

"Oh yeah? Probably just the medication. You should get some sleep, son, maybe when you wake you'll feel better and remember the truth."

I want to argue and put up a fight, but it seems that all the doctors here are dismal, so I nod and pretend to drop off into sleep. As soon as I do, I hear the man exit the room.

I don't know how much time we have left until Koreena's sister is able to move again, or if she has already, and so I need to act now.

Without hesitation, and surprisingly without pain, I stand up from my bed. I'm in a hospital gown, and there are bandages around my torso.

It takes only a moment to find my clothes, which I hastily throw on, taking off the gown.  I sigh, and exit the room, going into the hallway. It's surprisingly empty; only a few doctors here and there, none of which seem to recognize me, which is good.

Okay, I just need to find Koreena, I say to myself, looking in every door as I pass through the hallway. Not her, not her, not her.

I go down another hallway. Not her, not her, not her.

Down another and another, never being recognized or stopped, but never finding Koreena. Finally, out of a kind of frenzied desperation, I go up to the only doctor populating the hallway in which I stand, and ask, "Do you know where Blake Strogan and the girl happen to be? I'm Blake's brother, and I haven't been able to find either of them, so-"

Without so much as a glance at me, the doctor says, "The girl was taken in for questioning about your brother's disappearance, and Blake was moved from his original room; go back down this hallway, take a right, and a left, and he'll be in one of those rooms."

I don't say thanks, and I rush back down the way I came. I look for an exit signs, and, finally finding one, I leave the hospital.

I move as fast as my heavily bandaged body will let me as I leave the hospital parking lot, into the sidewalk, down the sidewalk, past houses, one street another another.

Soon, I can't even see the hospital anymore, and I decide that it's safe to stop and think for a second.

I begin to to wonder where the police station is, when I see someone walking down the sidewalk behind me. I turn around.

"Excuse me," I say to the woman, who is walking a couple of dogs. "Do you happen to know where the police station is?"

"Uh, yeah. It's down a little ways," she points in the direction of the hospital, "past the hospital. Just keep going and it's a straight shot."

I mumble my thanks and, sighing internally, set out back the way I just came.

By the time I reach the police station, I'm out of breath. However, I don't let this hold me back as I enter the station.

Barely taking in what's around me, a hurtle to the nearest person and ask "Where is Koreena?" for the thousandth time today.

"Who?" The person I asked questions.

"A young woman, just came from the hospital, suspected of kidnapping me?"

The policeman's eyes widen and he says, "Oh, her. You're Blake Strogan then? Yes well, follow me."