Monique

Who? Me?

She groans as her eyes adjust to the sunlight. She slowly sits up and looks around. She's at a meadow. A small apple tree rests behind her. She can do nothing but blink when she sees him in front of her with his arms crossed. "I don't see why you're looking for me, Monique. You can never find me." Monique's throat constricts. Her mouth runs dry. "You have to forget about me. It's not safe."

Monique's voice quivers slightly as she makes the confession, "But I need you."

John gives her a half smile and shakes his head. "No. You don't need me." He vanishes before she can say another word.

The sound of beeping machines brings her back to reality. The smell of bleach and disinfectant hits her like a blow to the senses. White walls and machines surround her, and her body is wrapped in wires.

She begins to hyperventilate.

"Monique calm down." She looks up to see her father staring down at her with a scowl on his face. Monique cowers away. She feels numb. Drained. Lifeless. She touches her abdomen. It's covered in bandages. She doesn't remember how it got there. "You tried to kill your mother," He says. He's borderline of being pissed and murderous. Monique hopes he's just pissed. He could snap her neck if he wanted to. Not here though. Back home.

"I don't remember." She sounds like E.T. She sounds like a dying woman.

"Of course you won't remember. You didn't take your pills." Monique stares at him blankly. She's not going to tell him she flushed the pills down the toilet, or that she remembers stabbing her mum.

She isn't going to tell him anything.

A doctor walks in and stands beside her bed. Monique's eyes fall straight to the nametag clipped onto her blue overalls. Her name is Lisa Curry. That's funny. She isn't Indian.

"Hello, Monique. How are you feeling?" Monique wants to give a sarcastic response but doesn't. Her dad's in the room.

"Numb," She replies. "I feel very numb." Curry nods her head. Monique wants to say, 'I feel like shit. What have you put in my system? I'm not going to an asylum so don't even think of putting me in a bloody mental hospital, else I'll slit your throat.'

Curry takes some notes before looking at her with stern eyes, "Why haven't you been taking your pills?"

Bitch.

Monique looks at her innocently. "Please clarify which ones. I take six every day. No, actually I think it's eight or nine-"

"Just answer the damn question!" Her dad roars.

"Mum gave me some new ones so I thought they were a replacement for my old ones," Monique hastily answers.

Curry gives her a sympathetic smile. "Monique, next time just take all your pills, even if your mum gives you additional ones." Monique wants to tell her mixing drugs can be lethal, but she shuts her mouth. Curry gives her a final nod before walking out.

Her mum later enters the room and begins gushing at Monique. Monique can't remove her eyes from the bandages wrapped around her mum's arm. The doctors say as long as she takes her pills, she'll be fine.

Monique knows she'll not be fine. She can still hear the boy's shrieks in her head.